Hello!
I've been reading this site for six months now, reading tips and tricks and looking at all the great pictures. Why? Simply because I received the Vasa kit (Corel) for Christmas and as I had never built any ship before, I really had to learn everything from scratch.
So, I have started building the Vasa since the middle of January 2014. I can only work on it about one hour every day, so the progress is slow, in particular as I have to learn along the way and I find myself scratching my head and scouting the Internet whenever I hit a new construction phase.
Anyway, I have been documenting the process dutifully by means of pictures from day one. So far, I only shared those pictures with my family and interested friends. I am now opening it to this forum. The pictures are stored on my Google+ account and should be visible from everybody by clicking on this link:
Vasa picture album
Usually, I add a few pictures everyday, if I have been able to make any progress. Feel free to add me to your Google+ circles and I'll make sure to add you to my Vasa circle. Also, you may leave comments here or directly on the album. When you add me, please make sure to tell me that's the Vasa you're interested in.
I have not written any comment so far. Only pictures. But they are very detailed. I have found that pictures were the most valuable asset when looking for a solution.
As I said, I am a beginner, and thus I made many mistakes along the way. Still, I am happy with what I have managed to do so far and I feel that my pictures might help those who will come after me.
Chapter 1: the frames
Chapter 2: Planking the hull, first layer
Chapter 3: Planking the stern
Chapter 4: Planking the hull, second layer
Chapter 5: Covering the door frames
Chapter 6: Planking the decks
Chapter 7: Stern galleries
Chapter 8: The support
Chapter 9: The beakhead and the keel
Chapter 10: The rudder
Chapter 11: The heads and the beakhead
Chapter 12: The handrails
Chapter 13: The davits
Chapter 14: Deck fittings (belaying pins, bits, doors and chains)
Chapter 15: Deck guns
Chapter 16: The boat
Chapter 17: Varnishing
Chapter 18: Port hole doors and false canons
Chapter 19: The decorations
Thanks for the welcome and the kind words. As for your question, here is what I have found: The Vasa kit from Corel was made shortly after the Vasa was extirpated from the muddy bottom of Stockholm harbour. By then, little was known about its colours. They therefore based themselves on artist renditions of the ship, who painted her in various patterns of blue. Later, archaeologists were able to find pigments in the wood of the Vasa and from them were able to deduce her true colours. It appeared that she was actually mainly red, along with a luxuriance of very vivid colours. The best vision of what the Vasa looked like is shown in the Vasa museum (which I was lucky to visit a few years ago) on a large scale model they built. So, when I received this model, I immediately saw that the colours were not right.Still, I chose to keep the original blue colours, for two reasons: 1. I don't see myself painting all these tiny figures 2. I find the real colours too vivid to my taste. The model itself is not totally accurate either. So, what the hell... this ship is going to decorate our dining room for years and I prefer to have a nice-looking (for my 21th century tastes) model than an accurate but offensive-coloured one. Here is a picture of this model
