marktiedens

Another picture of the "test fit" of the cladding pieces ... the spacing is correct in this photo ... the 4 mm strip 2 links to the center of the upper gallery.  The 3 mm strip 1 hugs the bottom of the lower deck railings, and just touches the bottom of the first and last cannon opening on the open decks.  Strips 1, 2, and 3 occupy an overall width of 19.5 mm.  The spacing from the bottom of strip 3 to the top of strip 4 is 16 mm, and the area between these strips defines the upper gun deck where I will cut gun port openings later. 
 
Like all the other Billing Vasa kit builders on this forum, I do not like the idea of the frames for gun ports being glued on the surface of the hull.  On the actual ship, the gun ports are openings in the hull with a wooden frame that sits inside the surface of the hull planking, not on the outside.  So I will cut gun port openings also.  But I don't want to go to the trouble of building lots of little boxes and buying replacement "longer" canon.
 
My "idea" for how to "sink" the gun port frames into the hull and still be able to use the stub cannon supplied with the Billing kit is as follows.  I will glue a small square of 3 mm acrylic (safety "glass") to the rear of each plastic frame.  Drill the center of the acrylic to fit the dowel on the rear of the stub cannon.  Paint the rear of the acrylic matt black.  Paint the window frame red with gold trim.  Paint the canon with an unevenly stirred mixture of Humbrol antique bronze and gunmetal paint.  Glue the canon in place.  Then stick the completed assembly using Cyano into the gun port opening that I cut, using the canon as a "handle" with which to position the frame accurately into position before "kicking" the Cyano with acceleratort.  I will cut the openings one at a time, insert and glue one gun assembly and then cut the next one. This will minimise any risk of hull planking moving out of position.
 

And the mizzenmast.  Here's the platform, identical to the fore and main top platforms and the sprit platform.
 

 
And the mast in place.  I've tried to match the rake to the mainmast rake, both slightly less than the jackstaff rake at the stern.  I ended up removing the large lantern - it seemed out of scale and distracting.
 

 
Here's a photo of the sprit top jackstaff in place.  The kit didn't provide dowel stock for them that I could find, so I bought some.  All the jackstaffs are basically the same - slightly tapered toward the top, with a thin slice of wider dowel at the top for a cap, and a small single block for the flag halyard.
 

 
And a photo of the topmasts and topgallant masts.  All mostly the same, and you can see the shaping of the bases so that they fit correctly in the trestles but don't foul the cheek pulleys.
 

 
And finally a photo of the completed platforms.  They were a lot of work but turned out pretty well.  I still need to figure out a good way to make futtock plates and to connect the deadeye strops to the plates.
 

 
Now it's time for some standing rigging!
 
 

Build log part 24
 
Here is a little update....
 
Nils
 
 

 
dry fitting the supporting I-beams for the promenade deck in this area
 
 

 
The 10 stachions per side are small brass tubes where the copper pins go through, the pin-heads are interlocked within the deckstripes above, and are hidden by the (to be glued on) coamings of the deck planking later on
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
the white primered scupper / throughpass in the bulwark is for the mooring cables when the ship is at the kay. There are three of these on each ships side
 
 
 
 
 

No,I certainly don't think it is going to make any difference in the greater scale of things Mark
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Nigel - thanks for your observation. I guess I should have looked at the plans a little closer - my first mistake. I don`t think anyone would ever notice 1mm taper over the length of the stem anyway .
 
Nils - thank you very much.
 
Keith - thanks for the info.
 
Mark

Nigel - thanks for your observation. I guess I should have looked at the plans a little closer - my first mistake. I don`t think anyone would ever notice 1mm taper over the length of the stem anyway .
 
Nils - thank you very much.
 
Keith - thanks for the info.
 
Mark

I agree, Nigel. In my build log, I remarked that Frame F was too low compared to Frame E. I shimmed mine, but later on in the build I realized that it was deliberately stepped to allow for the installation of the front railing decoration. It was no issue for me, since I ended up scratchbuilding my own. But if you plan to use the Euromodel supplied part, you may have an issue. 

A good start Mark,
 
wish you furtheron much fun and success with this lovely model
 
Nils

I am sure someone else will probably chime in Mark.As you know I have the plans and did scratchbuild the stem,keel and a few frames before putting the build on hold until my domestic situation resolves itself.From memory(the parts are in my storage unit)the prow tapers in both directions,downwards and towards the figurehead.I believe the section at the top touching the hull should be 8mm thick,but this tapers working downwards and forwards.This explains why your kit parts didn't match up.From memory (again) this is shown on the bow view on the sheer plan.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Thanks Brian. Having already built one Euromodel kit I kind of know what to expect.
 
Mark

I thought I would dry fit the false keel & stem before gluing the bulkheads & ran into a little problem. First the stem was broke in 2 places which was not a big issue - just glued it back together. The breaks were not in a spot that would be easily visible. Second - the false keel & stern post are 7mm thick but the stem piece is almost 8mm thick . After some work with the disc sander & a sanding block I got it down to the correct thickness.
 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Thanks guys. I have been following the other logs & am aware of some of the issues. I dry fitted the bulkheads to the keel former & found I had to make a few adjustments to the slots in the forward bulkheads like the rest of you. Also frame F is a little short at the top - will need to add a shim across the top. After making those adjustments everything lined up nicely.
 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Thanks Brian. Having already built one Euromodel kit I kind of know what to expect.
 
Mark

Hi all - this will be my attempt at building the Royal William from Euromodel. I say attempt because I consider my skills as just average. Upon opening the very heavy box I took a few pictures of the contents.All the bulkheads & the keel former are nicely laser cut. The keel former is good & straight but some of the bulkheads are warped a little. The contents include the usual fittings & a lot of cast metal pieces - most nicely done. There are 17 sheets of very nicely done 1:1 plans & a lot of strip wood which seems to be good quality.
 

 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Luckily I didn't need to fabricate the rings.  The kit provides them as laser cut plywood pieces.  They are too thick, so I did need to delaminate the plywood layers, but that's all.
 
Here are some photos of the main mast platform.  Again the opening in the base was wrong and needed reshaping.  You can see here how the planking went:
 

 
Then the excess trimmed...
 

 
The rings added - again, one fewer than the kit provides, and all thinned down by a third.
 

 
And finally the completed platform.  The braces were again split in half so I had enough to do 16.  The real ship's platform has more, but I thought this was enough.  You can see the char on the edges from the laser cutting - I couldn't sand it off because the pieces were too delicate, so it'll have to be carefully painted over with a wash.
 

 
 

Mighty fine work,Michael. Just one thing - I believe the Corel plans are incorrect about having the wrappings on the fore mast. According to the experts on the Vasa forum only the main mast had the wrappings.Either way it still looks great.
 
Mark

Mighty fine work,Michael. Just one thing - I believe the Corel plans are incorrect about having the wrappings on the fore mast. According to the experts on the Vasa forum only the main mast had the wrappings.Either way it still looks great.
 
Mark

Thanks guys. I have been following the other logs & am aware of some of the issues. I dry fitted the bulkheads to the keel former & found I had to make a few adjustments to the slots in the forward bulkheads like the rest of you. Also frame F is a little short at the top - will need to add a shim across the top. After making those adjustments everything lined up nicely.
 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Hi all - this will be my attempt at building the Royal William from Euromodel. I say attempt because I consider my skills as just average. Upon opening the very heavy box I took a few pictures of the contents.All the bulkheads & the keel former are nicely laser cut. The keel former is good & straight but some of the bulkheads are warped a little. The contents include the usual fittings & a lot of cast metal pieces - most nicely done. There are 17 sheets of very nicely done 1:1 plans & a lot of strip wood which seems to be good quality.
 

 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Thanks guys. I have been following the other logs & am aware of some of the issues. I dry fitted the bulkheads to the keel former & found I had to make a few adjustments to the slots in the forward bulkheads like the rest of you. Also frame F is a little short at the top - will need to add a shim across the top. After making those adjustments everything lined up nicely.
 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Great to see another RW log starting up. I agree, you really should study the other build logs. You will come across many problems with your build. I'll keep an eye on your log and see if I can help  

Hi Mark
 
Welcome to the RW club.
 
Have a look at Vince P  log also Keith W   log.
 
You will get a lot of help from the logs.
 
Denis

Hi all - this will be my attempt at building the Royal William from Euromodel. I say attempt because I consider my skills as just average. Upon opening the very heavy box I took a few pictures of the contents.All the bulkheads & the keel former are nicely laser cut. The keel former is good & straight but some of the bulkheads are warped a little. The contents include the usual fittings & a lot of cast metal pieces - most nicely done. There are 17 sheets of very nicely done 1:1 plans & a lot of strip wood which seems to be good quality.
 

 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Hi all - this will be my attempt at building the Royal William from Euromodel. I say attempt because I consider my skills as just average. Upon opening the very heavy box I took a few pictures of the contents.All the bulkheads & the keel former are nicely laser cut. The keel former is good & straight but some of the bulkheads are warped a little. The contents include the usual fittings & a lot of cast metal pieces - most nicely done. There are 17 sheets of very nicely done 1:1 plans & a lot of strip wood which seems to be good quality.
 

 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Hi all - this will be my attempt at building the Royal William from Euromodel. I say attempt because I consider my skills as just average. Upon opening the very heavy box I took a few pictures of the contents.All the bulkheads & the keel former are nicely laser cut. The keel former is good & straight but some of the bulkheads are warped a little. The contents include the usual fittings & a lot of cast metal pieces - most nicely done. There are 17 sheets of very nicely done 1:1 plans & a lot of strip wood which seems to be good quality.
 

 

 

 
Mark