NAZGÛL

Thank you so much Frank, Lawrence and mobbsie!

Andy, the gunports location is on the big 1:1 plan. If you like me want to try to make their locations more wonky and irregular, look at reference off the real ship, the official plans and of the 1:10. If I remember correctly the BB has a few gunports missing on their setup.

Will you replace the kits fake gunports with open ones? (Recommended)

/Matti

Thank you very much dragzz and Max for the kind words!

I now painted the ratlines with flat varnish, it gave them a flat rope look again.

/Matti

Cheers Louie and Mark! Yeah, you're right, Mark, as long as they would be "usable for climbing" you should have some degree of freedom. I started out with an estimation, but as soon as I started felt that I needed to just do them by eye to try to control the look and how the lines aligned to eachother.  

Thanks again for the likes, everybody!

/Matti

Thanks for the kind words Brian and Nigel!

And thanks for the likes everyone!

/Matti

Cheers Kevin! I'm not very fast usually,.

/Matti

Thank you very much JP!

/Matti

Hey all! Ok so I made the ratlines for the starboard side of the mainmast. Lots of beginner misstakes, but it was quite enjoyable work. To be honest shaping the dead eyes and metal parts for them was more challenging on the nerves as there where many stages. Once these are on you have a result. I like that as it gives energy to continue. I decided to do not go by a template, but did them freehand, by the eye and tried to look at the reference instead. I did end up with more rows then the original at the museum.

I still need to weather the ratlines and give a light coat of varnish to hide the CA but this is where Ï'm at now.

/Matti

Awesome, as always top notch work!

/Matti

Looking great Max!

/Matti

Thank you Buck, it's been great fun!

/Matti

Cheers mate! I'm bound to get some misstakes as it's new for me, but I hope they will not be crucial.

/Matti

Nice work Frank! The planking looks great, you got the bow perfect!

/Matti

Yeah, it's great Keith. Last time I went to Stockholm I stopped by the museum and took pics of the things that was upcoming in the build.

Here's a bigger version of the picture so you can see better.

/Matti

Keith, To me it looks like a piece of leather or fabric used as a cap yeah. Here is another showing that area, not as upclose, but pretty clear:

/Matti

Yeah, I did Jan. But after testing CA, I felt it worked well for me, as I felt I can shape it pretty well with it. I've used CA for a long time and actually haven't had any problem with it going fragile with time on the older models or stuff I used it on. I even used it when making the strings (basically the same material as this thread) for my sons homemade toy crossbows and bows, and as long as it isn't in a straight bend, it works well, they shoot them alot and the strings still hold up well.

Considering how fragile the model is alltogether, I plan to not let anything on it to be touched.

Thanks for your input though!

/Matti

Steve, sounds like it could work but I'll go with the clove-hitches and CA on a toothpick.

Thanks Tim!

Mark, ah, yeah I get what you mean. They look like this close up on the original:

I agree the twists would not be very obvious at this scale.

/Matti

Thanks for the suggestion Steve! Yeah I found a thread here suggesting that. I'm pretty sure I would mess up the shrouds with that method. And for me its something of an aesthetic decision, like adding nails to the hull or not. Or not adding any chaulking between the weatherdeck planks. 

I don't really agree that you would not see any knots where the ratlines cross the shrouds. I see it even on smaller reference pics.

I do agree that the knots in this scale are slightly to big, but I prefer that to no knots. I hope to get a glose color match between the shrouds and the ratlines and that this would make the knots less prominent.

Cheers!

/Matti

Thanks for the suggestion Mark, I'll keep that in mind! What do you mean with not see the twist of the rope?

Cheers dragzz!

Thanks for the likes also everyone!

/Matti

Thanks man! I eyeball as much as I can. But that would not work if I had no real ship to look at. I suck at interpreting plans though so that way has big downsides also.

Matti

Mark, I use waxed Mantua rigging thread. Very nice quality and looks the part. It's a lot better compaired to the kit supplied thread.

/Matti

Ah, Just me reading your post all wrong Keith! I read ratlines, long day today. I was wondering about the ratline thickness earlier, and I guess thats why I read wrong. The rope is the same (not as the mizzen that I gave thinner shrouds), but unpainted on the plank.

I bought many different thicknesses, and judge the rope thickness by eye compaired to reference or what look I prefer.

/Matti

Yeah Ponto, some shrouds slack a lot on the original. It´s new business for me, but I cant see no other way to get that in this scale without gluing the shrouds with CA, and that would probably not look nice at all. I hope I can catch some of the look with the sagging ratlines.

/Matti

Thanks for the input Keith, its appreciated!

Here is a more high res pic:

You may be right, but to my eye it looks right on the model.

I do tend to like downscaling details pretty often on my models...

/Matti

Cheers mate!

/Matti

The top pictures of Vasa appears brighter compaired to how the model looks imo. Beautiful picture of the coat of arms, just beautiful!

/Matti