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Post by kevmusic on Jul 1, 2006 10:44:03 GMT
Hi All, Nice to be here! I'm having a crack at the Airfix 'Wasa' and as I'm not a dedicated ship modeller I need a word or two of advice. I'm not intending to do a full rigging turnout but enough to get a good impression; however I'd like to get the rigging colour right. I imagine the colour for hemp to be a kind of greyish off-white but some ropes will be tarred will they not? Particularly the heavy fore-and-aft stays? Also, what thickness thread would be best? TIA Kev.
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Post by kevmusic on Jul 1, 2006 10:48:49 GMT
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Post by Biggles on Jul 1, 2006 17:03:48 GMT
Not my field (or pond) of expertise at all, but as a long-time devotee of Forrester & O'Brian, my understanding is that the standing rigging - i.e. that which does not move, but acts as supports and stays for the masts (forestays, backstays, shrouds and ratlines) would be tarred, and that the running rigging - i.e. that concerned with working the sails (braces, sheets, halliards, brails) would be hemp. In the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries, great pride was taken in the 'whiteness' of the running rigging. I daresay the Swedes were no different.
Hope this helps,
Ian
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Post by kevmusic on Jul 2, 2006 14:49:34 GMT
Hi Biggles,
Thanks for your reply - yes, that certainly does help. Like you, I love the stories of the authors you mention but my real interest is in the skies. Ship models look good though, and the wife certainly thinks so!
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Post by sanguin on Jul 12, 2006 13:08:14 GMT
Serendipity....thanks for the tip about hemp for running rigging. It's made a huge difference to rigging our 'Black Pig' conversion from a broken wheelie bin for our annual pub wheelie bin race! With brown ratlines and stays but white halliards and sheets it is enough to bring tears of joy to the Pugwash eyes. Not as elegant as the Wasa but somewhat faster..... Sanguin
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Post by tunnan on Jul 19, 2006 22:09:33 GMT
Hi all
This is my first post/ reply to something - so here goes.
Airfix Wasa is a good, reasonably accurate kit. However the kit was based on an early set of drawings, made after it was raised and does contain some inaccuracies. As a bare minimum remove the statues that stick up from the sterncastle railings.
If you do this and paint it up (in red not blue) you get a good replica.
If you want a better replica then things get a bit busy - Where do I start? At the bow the figures are not mounted on a back board but are separate hand carved figures - and the two hulls are not identical if you try and drill them out! The deck above this is not the waffle effect the kit gives but timbers running from side to side. There are also a couple of bracing pieces between the beak and hull. Fill in the doors at the wall between the beak and main deck. There should also be a post and rail at the very front of the main deck. At the stern the mouldings are actually really quite good. On the side galleries the roof figures are a wee bit too far back and the domed roofs are 'round' not eliptoid. There is also a window to be added and a gun port. The deck itself has two channels moulded which need to be filled.
Regards colours I think we need to go with Fred here. He told me that Arctic red is a good match.
I would suggest that you google WASA and also VASA. The museum website (but annoyingly the shop does not have its own site) has some good photos and there are some other sites with good photos including the statue reproductions which will help with the painting.
If you have not been to Stockholm I thoroughly recommend it and especially the WASA museum.
My interest in this is that I went to Stockholm twice last year the second time specifically to go to the museum for photos and info. I have two models the first is the ship as she is now and the second as she was. Unfortunatly work commitments are such that I have had to put the kits in the cupboard for the last 6 months or so. I got as far as re roofing the gallaries and moving figures around. Hopefully if I remember to take some notes I had thought of doing an article for the mag.
I hope this is of some use and not put you off.
One last point: the Wasa is currently rigged as she would be if laid up for ther winter
Cheers
Ken
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Post by kevmusic on Dec 31, 2007 14:49:57 GMT
Well it's the Christmas hols and time for me to do some work on this! I've painted the relevant bits on the hull matt red with a small quantity of black added. I took this as the basis of Fred's 'deep red' or 'Arctic red'. (A google for 'Arctic Red' yielded next to nothing.) The result looks a bit too much like red oxide primer for my liking! Can this be right? A Happy New Year!
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Post by tunnan on Jan 3, 2008 22:31:44 GMT
Kev - see your pm's
(as an aside Has are releasing a 1/48 DRAKEN - loud shouts of YIPPEE!!!!)
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Post by NoelSmith on Sept 4, 2009 12:58:26 GMT
I visited the Vasa last year and it was breathtaking! The Vasa museum shop can supply the Eva Marie Stolt line drawings of the ship which will be invaluable to any modeller of the ship. Ref the stern side galleries, the Airfix kit depicts the window on each side sticking out like a dormer window. This is incorrect as the galleries have a cutout on each side and the window is actually flush to the main hull and is behind the cutout. Airfix may have misenterpreted this from drawings available to them at the time they produced the kit. There is a large model in the Vasa museum showing the colour scheme for the ship.
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Post by sanguin on Sept 4, 2009 15:43:29 GMT
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Post by NoelSmith on Sept 14, 2009 12:58:05 GMT
Go onto Google or whatever search engine you use and try keying in Vasa (and Wasa). This should throw up a number of related sites. As an after thought, if you can get hold of it R.C Andersons book 'Masting and Rigging in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast' is good for rigging of that era. I have seen it listed in the Hobby's (Hobbies?) catalogue.
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Post by NoelSmith on Dec 8, 2010 17:36:11 GMT
Further to my last bit of diatribe! Did anyone see Frank Spahr's fabulous model on the German Gamblers Display at SMW. It depicts the Vasa shortly after launch. Frank's Vasa is a waterline model on a sea base with Vasa's boat alongside. Only the lower masts were fitted to which were hanging long, wide Swedish banner pennants of the yellow cross on blue background. There were scale figures on this model, both on the ship and in the boat. What caught my eye the most was the brilliant paintwork on the multitude of all carvings around the model ship. In light of the latest information about the actual colours that the Vasa was painted, this is the best model of the Vasa that I have ever seen made from the Airfix kit. Actually, I am a bit surprised that Revell have never kitted this ship, or Heller when they were turning out sailing ships galore. Certainly someone like Revell could do this ship justice now that there is enough resource material to hand. Don't get me wrong though. The Airfix kit is a good model considering that when it was first produced sometime back in the 70's (I think?), there was a lot less reference material available about the ship than there is now, so all credit to them. Could someone enlighten me about Arctic Red mentioned in previous posts. When I looked at the model in the Vasa museum all the red parts looked to me like a shade of pink. I think that there is a book entitled 'The Power and the Glory' by Hans Soop about all the carvings on the Vasa. Probably out of print and expensive if anyone can get hold of it. .
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Post by ratch on Dec 8, 2010 23:22:49 GMT
Sure did
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Post by NoelSmith on Dec 11, 2010 18:00:44 GMT
NICE INNIT!
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Post by NoelSmith on Apr 27, 2011 17:29:14 GMT
A brand new kit of the Vasa in 1/150th scale was announced by Revell at the 2011 Nurenberg Toy Fair. Rumour has it that this kit will have full gun decks. It will be a little smaller than the current Airfix kit which is 1/144th scale. Hopefully this new kit will be more accurate than the old Airfix one, which to be fair is quite a good kit considering it was released back in the 70's when the Vasa was still being sprayed with water to preserve the wood. Airfix did not get much wrong with their version so all credit to them. Revell however, have the great advantage over Airfix in that the ship has now been preserved dry due to all the preservative chemicals that had to impregnate the timbers over a number of years. I understand that they have had the assistance of the Vasa museum in creating this new kit. I will be looking out for it to hit the model shops. If you are contemplating building either of these kits the Vasa Museum has a really good set of plans available drawn up by Eva Marie Stolt.
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