NAZGÛL

Cheers mobbsie! Thanks for the heads up Ulises!
 
I'll build the fake shrouds and start experimenting now.
 
 
/Matti

Recently the microscopic traces of paint remaining on the Vasa were analyzed. The results are interesting and at least to my eye unexpected. Lots and lots of bright colors for sure. These pics represent the museum's current best guess.

The only other "real" chunk of carving from the 17th century is the coat fo arms from the Royal Charles of 1655. She was captured by the Dutch in 1667 and broken up in the 1670's. The coat of arms from her stern now hangs in the Rijks museum. It is multi-colored but faded And I cannot tell how bright the colors once may have been

I did a little test on the fake shrouds just to see if I could get any controle of the curve. I felt at home with the CA on toothpick method so I will probably go with that. It also turned out to have the advantage that the ratlines when glued end up close to the color my painted shrouds have.
 

 
Next I did some templates by scaling pictures of the real ship. That way I hope to get the same curves as she has, and also how to space them.
 

 
Gulp, this means I'm going to have a go at the model now...
 
 
/Matti

I did a little test on the fake shrouds just to see if I could get any controle of the curve. I felt at home with the CA on toothpick method so I will probably go with that. It also turned out to have the advantage that the ratlines when glued end up close to the color my painted shrouds have.
 

 
Next I did some templates by scaling pictures of the real ship. That way I hope to get the same curves as she has, and also how to space them.
 

 
Gulp, this means I'm going to have a go at the model now...
 
 
/Matti

I'm not a quick builder - I'm catching up posting stuff that I did a few weeks ago.  I'm almost done with the backlog, then it'll slow down.
 
mark

Hi Matti,
 
Ratlines can be a problem at times, clove hitches are the way to go and with practice are very quick and you will most likely get the result your looking for.
 
I like the look of the one's you've done so far, for a first time their bl__dy remarkable mate.
 
I have never got it right yet, mostly tight which is how I like it ( not accurate I know ) with a droop every now and again. Maybe I'll get it right next time.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

Our aesthetics are still dominated by the 18th century classicistic scholars and the re-discovery of medieval and earlier art in the early 19th century. At that time much of the original paint on buildings and other artefacts had crumbled away and faded. Hence, we tend to expect either the 'pure' material (wood, marble, other stone), rather than a colourful paint-scheme. Modern archeological techniques, however, have revealed many traces of paint that allow us to reconstruct paint-schemes and painting techniques. As a result, one must assume that many ships and buildings over history were painted in rather garish colours.
 
There is no comprehensive study on colours and paints used in decorating and preserving ships. It is quite certain, however, that the dominant pigments were mineral ones because they were cheap and stable. Many plant-derived pigments, particularly reds, are not permanent, i.e. they will fade when exposed to sunlight. Yellows, brick-reds and browns are all iron(hydr)oxides that are derived from natural ochre that has been heated to varying degrees and they are relatively cheap. Blues and greens can be derived from cobalt- or copper-containing minerals or synthesised from salts of these metals. They are more expensive. White, being derived from chalk or lime is cheap too. This gives you the main palette and other colours can be produced by mixing pigments.
 
As we all know, due to the long-wave light absorption by the water vapour in the air, colours appear to become more blue and paler the more distant you are from the painted object. In order to sufficiently impress across the typical viewing distance of several hundred meters you have to use a more garish paint scheme. Of course, if you reproduce this on a model that is being viewed from a short distance, it may not be very pleasing aesthetically to the modern beholder. Even modern replicas, such as the UTRECHT statenjacht or the frigate HERMIONE are not really pleasing to the eye that has been trained by museum models and old paintings.
 
Old paintings are another problem. Often the varnish on them tones down the original colour scheme. I have been shocked, when I discovered the original bright colouring in some paintings that I have known before their varnish was stripped off and they were cleaned.

Beautiful rigging work.  If you stick with clove hitches for the ratlines, you should be able to avoid twisting - it's a little more challenging to avoid twisting if you use half hitches.  On my first model I had good success with the water/white glue mix mentioned above, plus pushing down slightly on the centers of the lines with a toothpick until they "set", to give a hanging appearance.  I think you'll find CA way too blunt an instrument for this stuff.
 
mark

Matti - it's almost like the towers in your photo above aren't actually level with the waterline, but tilt forward somewhat, making the angle between them and the gallery less extreme.  And the vertical sculptures along the galleries are perpendicular to the waterline, not the gallery, which seems to look OK because the sculptures on the bottom of the gallery seem to be tilted somewhat as well.  All in all very complex.  I'm leaving mine alone and backing away slowly.
 
Here are some photos of the large tritons on the roof of the lower gallery.  Again, the kit sculptures are not bad.  They are flat and rectangular, with the detail of the triton's face, body, and tail raised above the base.  If you paint the base red to match the gallery roof, it looks pretty decent.  I really liked the effect of fish scales that the painters of the 1:10 model achieved, but it's very difficult to do on a small figure, so it ended up looking a little more spotted than I would like.
 

 
Thinning the sculptures is critical because of the bends required, and the neck line had a bad tendency to want to crack .  Luckily the hot water strategy seems to be working well.  The bases of the middle sculptures needed to be shortened to fit properly.
 

 
And the finished lower gallery.  I'm pleased with how it turned out - lots of sculptures, all needing alignment with one another to look right.  I still need to go over them a couple of more times and fix little details once I get to look at the finished result for a bit.
 

 
And on to the upper gallery, which thankfully has fewer sculptures.
   

Cheers mate! Actually I'm enjoying the rigging so far. After all that shaping of the deadeyes and metal parts it feels so quick to just color the ropes and put them on and thats it. I'm sure ratlines will be different as there are so many though.
 
Two questions:
 
When is the best time to make the "ladders" (A) up to the tops? I would guess after the ratlines are on.
 
Is it possible to get the curved sag the real ratlines get ( B )? I'm afraid lose ratlines would curve unrealistically and look wormy (if that's a word haha) as a thin thread has little weight.
 

 
/Matti

Cheers mate! Actually I'm enjoying the rigging so far. After all that shaping of the deadeyes and metal parts it feels so quick to just color the ropes and put them on and thats it. I'm sure ratlines will be different as there are so many though.
 
Two questions:
 
When is the best time to make the "ladders" (A) up to the tops? I would guess after the ratlines are on.
 
Is it possible to get the curved sag the real ratlines get ( B )? I'm afraid lose ratlines would curve unrealistically and look wormy (if that's a word haha) as a thin thread has little weight.
 

 
/Matti

With respect to the last shroud:
For Dutch ships in the 17th century there is no evidence that eyesplices were used (actually, almost no evidence available at all)
After much debate, on the Batavia -reconstruction in Lelystad they followed the practive of using a clove hitch on the last shroud, but taking the loose end backwards and make a small lashing to keep it from unravelling.
 

 
Jan

Sorry to hijack into that log, but I found an interesting post. Wasa museum is building a small section of the hull, historically correct.
It is under construction, and the latest info is here: http://www.vasamuseet.se/sv/Skeppet/Skeppsbloggen/Hakan-Altrock/Nyanser-av-gratt/
Looking forward to see it!

Hey again!
 
I'm finally done with the channels and its details. Also did the collar holding on to the bowsprit.
 
First a pic I took at the museum.
 

 
And how mine turned out:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Time to start planning those ratlines now...
 
 
/Matti

Hey again!
 
I'm finally done with the channels and its details. Also did the collar holding on to the bowsprit.
 
First a pic I took at the museum.
 

 
And how mine turned out:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Time to start planning those ratlines now...
 
 
/Matti

Hey again!
 
I'm finally done with the channels and its details. Also did the collar holding on to the bowsprit.
 
First a pic I took at the museum.
 

 
And how mine turned out:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Time to start planning those ratlines now...
 
 
/Matti

Cheers pops!
 
I tried to take dark background images earlier. I don't get why the LED lights look so weird in the image. IRL it is quite dim and have a grey/greenish tone, as the windows are tinted. The camera pick the light up as bright and almost blue.
 

 

 
Now it's back to shaping deadeyes and the metal parts for them so I can continue with the foremast.
 
 
Thanks for the likes everyone!
 
 
Matti

Hey all! Small update. I added the clamps holding the bowsprit ropes. I blended them to match the other wood, so they aren't very obvious. I also made the mainstay collar, trying to get it like the real one at the museum. Paintwise its washes and trying to get everything to blend and look balanced. I'm glad I repainted the lower area of the beakhead.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
/Matti
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hey again!
 
I'm finally done with the channels and its details. Also did the collar holding on to the bowsprit.
 
First a pic I took at the museum.
 

 
And how mine turned out:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Time to start planning those ratlines now...
 
 
/Matti

I tried an experiment here.  On the real ship, the lower gallery is marked by alternating cornices and taller sculptures of men playing instruments.  In between these sculptures are narrow balusters, painted in green and white on the 1:10 model.  The kit models them as unadorned square sections of wood; I thought I'd try something different.  I found a bunch of turned toothpicks, cut them up, painted them, and installed them between the sculptures.  I'm not sure I like the effect, but I'm going to give it some time.  I think they may be slightly too large, and I may end up replacing them with narrower-diameter balusters, even if painting detail on them will be difficult.  Certainly the ones on the upper gallery need to be narrower.
 

 
Here I've added the smaller cornices.  They are of course somewhat different from the real ship - larger, I think - but they look OK.  I've also added some detail around the base of the towers.  The front tower is supposed to have an ornate gun port at the front, but the kit doesn't provide anything and I have so far avoided getting into the custom carving business.
 
You can also see here that the rear tower is missing its finial.  I had to chop it way down to get it to fit under the upper gallery.  It was either that or cant the entire tower outward, which looked odd.  I'm in the middle of looking around for something small and finial-like that I can add to the tower without running into the gallery above.
 

 
Now I just need to add the tritons on the roof of the lower gallery and my first gallery will be complete in all its 50 sculpture glory.  Then three more to go...

I don´t know, consider walking up this in heavy wind...
 

 

 

 
What a hard life. 
 
 
/Matti

Hey again!
 
I've mounted the bowsprit and finished the ropes holding it.
 

 

 

 
It was lots of work as I had to reshape thin down the L shaped timbers holding the bow. Looking back I think it was good to wait with drilling the rope holes until knowing where to put them. That gave me liberty to arrange the beek head "floor planks" the way I wanted and then arrange the rope holes acccording to them, not the other way around. That said, I would have thinned down the L shaped parts slightly pre assembly to make it easier to get room for the holes, and this is a tip for builders of the kit. This way made me nervous about destroying anything...
 
I never was happy with the paint job on the lower beakhead parts, and this gave me an opportunity to make it better.
 
 
/Matti
 
 
 
Edit: I just realized that I didn't explain that the kit construction is with the ropes running "outside" the lower beakhead construction (wrong). Remember that I broke the beakhead earlier and strengthened it when repairing it. This made my beakhead stronger and that's good when doing this mod to the build.

Hey again!
 
I'm finally done with the channels and its details. Also did the collar holding on to the bowsprit.
 
First a pic I took at the museum.
 

 
And how mine turned out:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Time to start planning those ratlines now...
 
 
/Matti

Cheers pops!
 
I tried to take dark background images earlier. I don't get why the LED lights look so weird in the image. IRL it is quite dim and have a grey/greenish tone, as the windows are tinted. The camera pick the light up as bright and almost blue.
 

 

 
Now it's back to shaping deadeyes and the metal parts for them so I can continue with the foremast.
 
 
Thanks for the likes everyone!
 
 
Matti