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Post by tunnan on Apr 23, 2012 22:10:53 GMT
Hi
I am trying to tie up the rigging without going too overboard (lots of puns there). I am doing a basic rigging as I dont have months, or to be honest, the modelling skills to do the whole hog. Lots of conpromises. Lost count of the number of repairs due to bumping it.
I will take it to Perth (no idea how at present, might be on the back seat of the car surrounded by fleeces. I am tempted to enter it and the one I did a number of years ago into the cometition. It will not place but will serve to fill up the tables.
Nick you will find me at the Swedish sig table when I am not fondling and drooling over kits for sale. Ditto anyone that would like to say hello.
I will take some photos when finished and ask one of my colleagues at work who knows more about computers about shrinking them so I can post them here.
Cheers
ken
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Post by NoelSmith on May 1, 2012 17:32:47 GMT
Hi Ken I have read your latest posts with interest. Since my last posting I have got hold of a Revell Vasa kit at last. Doing a straight comparison out of the boxes, I am inclined to agree that the Revell kit is the much better of the two overall, and it will take a lot less work to sort out the gammoning as opposed to the numerous jobs required to correct the Airfix one. The carved figures are better (surprisingly) on the old Airfix kit as I suspected. I toyed with the idea of using as many of the Airfix carvings as possible on the Revell kit. However, a long time ago I bought a fine Pyrograph tool for working on plastic 54mm figures, so this might be the answer to improving the Revell kit carvings. I will have to practice on some bits of scrap plastic beforehand though. As you pointed out Ken, the plank lines are very deep on the deck. maybe a little bit of fine filler in them and rubbing down the faux wood grain may be the answer to this. with a more gentle rescribe of the lines. I'm in the throes of building a car model at present so this project will probably be on the back burner until later on in the year, so I am getting as much research done as possible in the meantime. It will be a bit of a challenge to look forward to, what with all the painting and rigging etc.
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Post by NoelSmith on Jun 22, 2013 18:50:25 GMT
I have obtained an example of the Revell kit and done some out of the box comparisons with the Airfix one. It has to be said that the Revell kit is the more accurate of the two. The scale of 1/150th is slightly smaller than the Airfix one at 1/144th scale. Revell have simplified some things such as moulding the ratlines in solid plastic. It can be made straight from the box into a nice model, but enthusiast sailing ship modellers will look at the kit as 'raw material' to super detail. One thing I did notice though was that the rendition of all the carved work on the Airfix kit was a lot sharper than that on the Revell kit, which I found quite surprising considering that Revell have a 30 year advantage over the old Airfix kit. Having said that, either kit will build into a good model. The Airfix one will need quite a bit of corrective work to be made more accurate however. Both kits have the upper mast parrals moulded in the upper position when all sails are set. I wish that sailing ship kits had parrals moulded as separate items so that the upper yards could be set in the lowered position.
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Post by NoelSmith on Jan 22, 2015 17:39:31 GMT
At last I have started the Revell Vasa. Going through the cleaning up of parts stage at the moment, like removing sink marks etc. Managed to remove the molded in gammoning successfully. Had to carefully cut out the carved detail under the beak head along with the gammoning from each hull half. Once each side was out of the hull the gammoning had to be removed very carefully from each remaining half of the carved detail.The two halves of the carvings were cemented together with a smear of Revell Contacta and left to set and dry. Some further work with Swiss files and craft blades to clean up and restore the detailing was done afterwards. The carving was set to one side awaiting the time for the hull halves to be fitted later on. Slivers of plastic card were fitted to the beak head area of the hull sides so that the carved work could be refitted snugly later. Still toying with the idea of using other carvings from the Airfix Vasa to replace as many of the Revell ones as possible. Will see how many as I go along.
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Post by frankaplin on Jan 23, 2015 0:29:14 GMT
Hi Noel.
Glad I read some of the posts as I have the Revell Vasa kit, also have the Airfix old one. Seems matching is the way around some of the problems.
On another project at the mo, but may for a break have a go at the Vasa.
Frank
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Post by NoelSmith on Jul 30, 2015 17:43:30 GMT
The Stolt Drawings from the Vasa museum show that the lower gun ports are larger than the upper ones. They are all the same size on the Revell kit. Have enlarged the lower lids on the Revell kit to correct their appearance and am using the full set of gun port lids from the Airfix kit to replace all the Revell ones ones. The lion faces are better defined on the Airfix ones anyway.
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Post by NoelSmith on Oct 24, 2015 15:32:08 GMT
At last the hull is finished and painted. Been a bit of a long haul already, but it's beginning to look like a ship now rather than a load of part painted, part finished bits. It is mounted on brass finials on a temporary base so that I could get the waterline marked on it correctly and simulate the build up of weed/algae etc below it. Used a combination of Acrylic Paints, Revell, Floquil Polly S, Citadel, Games Workshop and Artists Tube Acrylics. Below the waterline was done with AK Interactive's Slimy Light and Dark Green Enamel Washes. Anything in Gold such as the lion figurehead was painted using 3 different shades of gold pigment powder that I have had for over 20 years from Rose Figures. Next challenge on the model will be the masts, yards and rigging. I am building the model to look like the ship when she went down as best I can from the research I have been doing. Existing records show that the ship was minus 8 of her main armament when she set sail. 4 of the stern chasers were not mounted and 4 cannon from the main gun deck. I could not find out what positions the main deck cannons were missing from. I made an educated guess that to maintain symmetry the extreme front and rear gun ports on each deck may have been the ones. Also, I learnt that one of the one pounder 'Falkon' cannon barrels was not on its carriage and was laid on deck. It was also interesting to learn that the ship was not fully masted at the time either. The fore and main top gallant masts had not been fitted. The Vasa set sail with an incomplete set of only 4 sails bent into the yards, the Fore Topsail, Foresail, Main Topsail and Mizzen Sail. So it will be an odd looking model but interesting when finished.
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Post by NoelSmith on Feb 18, 2016 16:04:11 GMT
Have done a little more work on the Vasa. Deck armament is rigged. (What a fiddly job that turned out to be). Started some work on the masts and bowsprit. Have removed the moulded on gammoning from the bowsprit, and placed a spiral of thin plastic card to simulate metal strip to bind parts of the bowsprit timbers together. Also a bit of work on the main and fore masts to put on some detail that was omitted in the kit. Using some plastic card to make up the cheeks that the halliards to hoist the fore and main sail yards run through. I utilised some of the parrals from the Airfix kit masts for all the yards that would have been lowered as no sails were bent into them. That is all I have done in a while as my workshop in the garsge has been a tad cold of late!
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Post by NoelSmith on May 30, 2016 19:17:13 GMT
Bought a display case for the Vasa model from Just Bases and mounted the completed hull on brass finials on the internal plinth to go inside the case. It is starting to come together now, bur still a long way to go. Have started to do some painting and detailing work on the masts and yards. Shroud/stay collar tie details have been made, seized and now fitted to each mast. Plastic sailing ship kits always seem to omit this detail. I have started to detail and paint the Model Warship photo etched ratlines on the frets ready to fit to the model after the masts are fitted. Now trying to get my head around how to fully rig the ship with all the relevant blocks etc. Any one got a technique for making tiny rigging blocks?.......Please let me know!
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Post by NoelSmith on Jun 4, 2016 20:19:37 GMT
Whilst preparing and painting the Model Warship Vasa photo etched ratlines I had what could be described as a bit of a disaster! Whilst handling them during the making up and painting, some of the dead eyes and lanyards broke away completely from a main ratline section, rendering the part and thus unfortunately the whole PE set useless. Disappointing to say the least! These PE parts look beautifully to scale but are extremely thin and very fragile. Personally, I think that the parts would have been lot stronger if etched from brass twice as thick without losing out on overall appearance, or alternatively etched from stainless steel that would be much tougher as well. Anyway, I cannot afford to lash out another 30 quid to replace them, so I'll have to think of another way of either improving on the ratlines that Revell supplied in the box, resort to using the thread rigging jig from the Airfix Vasa kit, or making the ratlines from scratch. Whatever way is not going to be quick so watch this space !!!!!
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Post by NoelSmith on Jun 6, 2016 19:10:13 GMT
I used an inch micrometer to measure the fret thickness of the photo etched parts I cocked up. The fret measured 6 thou thick if any body is interested. I'm not exactly ham fisted but 12 thou would have been a lot more robust in my opinion. Had a go at improving the Revell kit Shrouds/Ratlines today by removing all the horizontal foot ropes with a flush cutting tool, apart from the bottom one to retain the overall shape. Some masking tape was used top and bottom to hold each shroud down onto a piece of MDF. I used thread to replace the foothold ropes and simply used Revell Contacta placing a dot in front of each vertical where the original foot ropes were cut away, and cementing runs of thread across the front of each piece. Once these were set the bottom foot rope was removed on each and replaced with thread. I used a small medical suture cutter to trim off all the overlapping foot rope ends when the cement had set. Alternatively they could have been laid face down on a piece of glass or melamine and the ends trimmed of with a razor blade or craft knife. The locations at the bottom of each shroud support were not very positive when test fitted to the channel board on the hull. I wanted a more positive fit, so I trimmed off the location pip moulded to the bottom one of each set of the kit lanyards on each shroud vertical. I then marked a centre spot on the little flat area where cut with a very sharp scriber point and then very carefully drilled a 0.5mm hole about 6mm deep into the bottom of each. The Revell plastic on this kit is fairly soft so I was able to push fit a piece of 0.5mm brass wire into each, leaving about 10mm sticking out. This will give me a bit more leeway when fitting to the masts and hull, and I can trim off any excess after fitting from under the channel boards. I was a bit miffed at messing up 30 quids worth of PE but thought rather than bin all of it I may be able to salvage the fronts and backs of the Deadeyes and Lanyards and simply glue them straight onto the Revell ones. A bit of a cop out and a real compromise on accuracy, but when painted up and what with the shrouds being re threaded may not look too bad after all! Be interesting to see what they look like when painted.
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Post by NoelSmith on Jul 7, 2016 18:53:37 GMT
Gave up on the idea of using the Scale Warship PE Dead eyes and lanyards. Did not look right stuck onto the Revell item as the the area between fronts and backs would have been solid. I decided to doctor the kit rat lines after all. Retained the verticals that were wormed and parcelled on the Vasa, cut away moulded foot ropes and replaced them with thread cemented to the verticals. Made up my own dead eyes and lanyards on jig that I made by drilling and counter boring a couple of bits of 1/8th aluminium sheet. The holes were spaced to take small discs that I had already punched out and drilled with 3 x 0.5mm holes in each for the dead eyes. The lanyards were made with double strands of thin beading wire twisted together to look like rope, and small lengths cut and bent to fit into the lanyards. These will be positioned on the ratlines to replace the moulded items. Not too difficult, but tedious work. Having fitted up a couple of ratlines the effort is beginning to be rewarded.
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Post by NoelSmith on Aug 2, 2016 8:42:34 GMT
All the ratlines are completed and painted, ready to fit to the model. The upper ratlines will be fitted to the masts before the masts are stepped onto the hull. With regards to the rigging I will be attempting to fit the bowsprit first. Where I removed the moulded on kit gammoning I will be attempting to tie the gammoning correctly with suitable crocheting thread I found that looks just like the correct diameter rope. Following on from this the masts and main central stays will be fitted, before the lower shrouds go onto the model. The rigging will have to be done in stages (a bit like full size...well sort of!). Apart from the mizzen sail yard the rest of yards will be the last things fitted, a few of which will have sails bent into the yards. Steve Newton of the Birmingham branch explained to me how to use foil to make sails at SMW last year so I will be giving it a go and see how I get on with it. I can see the advantages of this as you can shape the foil and it will stay put, and then paint it with matte paint. Up to then I was considering American ship modeller John Tilley's methods using tissue that flying aircraft modellers use. He mixes acrylic colours with thinned down PVA adhesive on the sheet tissue before cutting the sails from the sheet. This makes the sails both strong and flexible, and when stepped into the yards can be dampened slightly and furled realistically. I made the Vasa flags using John Tilley's method cribbing the design from the Airfix kit flags. I painted them with thinned artists acrylics onto tissue in the flat and when dry went over them with a thin wash of diluted pva whilst still in the flat. When the flags are mounted on the model, dampening them should make them droop in a realistic way.
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Post by NoelSmith on Oct 7, 2016 16:43:34 GMT
I have learnt recently that the 1/100th scale Eva Marie Stolt drawings that were sold by the museum are no longer available. It is understood that they were done back in 1980 and are now out of date due to more recent research. The museum are placing up to date plans in 1/50th scale within a set of 4 books is the last that I heard. The museum has I believe stored the old Stolt plans on a pdf that may be obtainable via Fred Hocker only by request.
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Post by NoelSmith on Nov 26, 2016 17:47:44 GMT
Made a start on the main central stays that run from the bowsprit and from the fore and main masts. Have made the blocks to take the stays themselves and the thinner tension ropes between the blocks. Loops that go around the bottom of fore mast, main mast and bowsprit have also been made and tied to blocks mentioned. The loops will be located around the masts and bowsprit before they are fitted and cemented into place, to enable further ease of assembly. Once the masts and bowsprit are cemented to the hull and set, the first job will be to tie the gammoning into place to hold the bowsprit down. The follow on will be to tie the central stays in position. Having already fitted the upper ratlines to each mast the next step will probably be fitting the lower ratlines into position. The combination of the central stays and the lower ratlines fitted should make a fairly rigid assembly for the yards and rigging wen fitted.
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