fnick

Hi Nils
 
Exquisite bench! Just like your build
 
Nick

Hi Nils
 
Exquisite bench! Just like your build
 
Nick

Hi Nils
 
Exquisite bench! Just like your build
 
Nick

Hi Nils
 
Exquisite bench! Just like your build
 
Nick

Hi Mike
 
That does look like a very nice kit. I'll pull up a comfy chair and join you on this one! I'm sure you'll do a good job job of it.
 
Nick

Hi Mike
 
That does look like a very nice kit. I'll pull up a comfy chair and join you on this one! I'm sure you'll do a good job job of it.
 
Nick

Hi Mike
 
That does look like a very nice kit. I'll pull up a comfy chair and join you on this one! I'm sure you'll do a good job job of it.
 
Nick

Hi all - a little more progress has been made. The roughtree (hand) rails are now done. All 114 stanchions were cut,pinned & glued in place. The kit provided 2x5mm walnut strips for the railing,but it seemed a little too wide. So I narrowed them down to 2x4mm & made the curved ends with my old Aeropiccola plank bender. That company is no longer in business,so I am wondering why no one has tried to make one like it - it really works well.Then I made all the timberheads on the forecastle railing & pinned & glued them in place. Lastly,I made the sheaves that are at the fore & aft ends of the railings. The pulleys in the sheaves are small deadeyes filed flat to fit in the slots. A coat of poly was then applied to finish them off. I may work on the deck furniture next.
 

 

 

 

 
Thanks for looking in
 
Mark

Evening all
 
First of all thanks for all the comments and the likes.
 
Finally got round to taking a couple of shots with the SLR. I've sanded down one side and sorted out all the gun ports so hopefully they are all the same size (more or less  )
 
First of all here's the non sanded side for comparison.
 

 
And then the sanded side. Sanding and gun port sorting out probably took around 8 hours ish.
 

 
Thanks for looking.
 
Nick

Turning out to be a real beauty Nick.  Very nice job!

Evening all
 
First of all thanks for all the comments and the likes.
 
Finally got round to taking a couple of shots with the SLR. I've sanded down one side and sorted out all the gun ports so hopefully they are all the same size (more or less  )
 
First of all here's the non sanded side for comparison.
 

 
And then the sanded side. Sanding and gun port sorting out probably took around 8 hours ish.
 

 
Thanks for looking.
 
Nick

Evening all
 
First of all thanks for all the comments and the likes.
 
Finally got round to taking a couple of shots with the SLR. I've sanded down one side and sorted out all the gun ports so hopefully they are all the same size (more or less  )
 
First of all here's the non sanded side for comparison.
 

 
And then the sanded side. Sanding and gun port sorting out probably took around 8 hours ish.
 

 
Thanks for looking.
 
Nick

Mark want to see what's under those clamps so here they are Mark.
 
It's the frame and all the rest of the gallery's.
I have make a few pictures of that so you can see how it goes step by step ( 3 steps then )
All painted ( both sides ) and ready for the decoration......
But first something else.
I have place the front deck and find out that the deck is to small on both sides.
The middle deck has the same problem and I know for sure that the stern deck has the same.
I'm not the only one because I've seen it by a few other builders of the SotS from deagostini.
As you know, problems are there to get solved by us.
So I have glue a few pieces of wood between the deck and the hull, use a little filler and painted all of that.
Now it looks if there is no gap   
I will do the same thing with the middle deck.
 
Sjors
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Mates,
 
Thanks for all of the kind words, very much appreciated.
 
Mizzenmast continued;
 
Getting used to the Proxxon – used it to open a slot within the mast for the single needed sheave
 

 
Added some lateral wood bits to shape the platform braces.
 

 
Now time for the pulley, glued together two pieces of wood. Rounded the wood by spinning it on a rotary tool, and using a Dremel sanding drum in counter rotation. Neat trick that I learned from another builder (though he was using this to make carriage wheels).
 
Lastly used a routing bit to add the groove, as the now rounded wood was spinning. The routing bit needs to be held very stiffly because it wants to wander sideways, which would destroy the groove edge. Took two attempts to get this one right. 

 
Put the mast aside for now, and working on the platform base. First photo is of the three lower mast platforms, along with their relative size differences. 
 
The foremast platform is not configured quite right, but I built it before I discovered the reference that I used for the main, and now for the mizen platform. These also take a bit of time, as they end up with many tiny parts that need to be fashioned.
 

 
There must be an easier way of making the rings? If anyone has an easier procedure I’m up for it ---
 

 
 
Cheers,
 
 
 

Thanks again for the kind remarks and all the "likes".
 
After a few weeks of absence from the shipyard due to work and other commitments, planking is at last complete! The remainder of the deck was completed in much the same way as the fore deck, with the hatch being left in place and planked together with the rear deck. The hatch was cut free on completion, the hatch openings and rear cockpit opening cleaned up, and the transom was then planked in much the same way as the sides of the hull. The transom was trimmed flush with the deck, sides and bottom of the boat, and then the decks were given an initial sanding with 80 grit sandpaper. The aim of the initial sanding is to bring the white caulking strips down level with the deck planks. While it was not difficult to do, it did require a little more elbow grease than I’d anticipated. Anyway, here she is as she sits today. The “spare” hatch is in the foreground (in case my two-part hatch doesn’t work out). There’s still quite a bit more sanding to be done before she will be ready for staining and fibre-glassing.
 

 
 

Hi Mates,
 
Thanks for dropping by -always;
 
EJ_L  Yes, my thoughts as well – but needed to make the changes. They would have indeed bugged me J
 
Edwin-  always a pleasure when you drop by and comment –thanks !
 
Buck, see my notes below regarding wheel sizes as well as carriage framing. Thanks so much for your thoughts.
 
Mark, see last pic lol
 
JanV, yes a bit of a headache trying to add arguably a bit too much detail. But I am mostly enjoying the challenges.
 
Dave & Patrick Thanks for your suggestions and photos.  Good idea on the angling. Dave point well taken indeed,,,
 
Some thoughts –strictly for edification, not as complaints.
 
Mentioned before; Vasa was mounted with many diff. size artillery. I chose the two that are circled as my guides for the main weather deck, and the two falconets for the quarterdeck. Chose to replicate the looks of the carriages and their wheel sizes.
 
Even so the actual artilleries are all wrong. (Casting is way above my skill set – forever!!) So after-market examples were good enough; actually very nice indeed. Huge improvement over Corel included examples (as with most kits)
 
Note Clayton Johnson’s amazing work in these two photos.
 

 
In regard to carriage spacing, note the actual carriage length beyond back of cannon. I had originally built all carriages in this correct way, but subsequently realized that I needed to trim the entire overhang away in order to have the carriages fit more properly onto the too narrow weather deck. Again Corel!!.
 

 
Main deck (no forecastle) seems better scaled. Though I still needed to cut carriage overhangs. Also - I know that I need to re-paint my knighthead figures (PS; weak quality castings)

 
For the dummy carriages in the upper and lower gun decks, well that was a gift ha ha.

 
So working on the fix for the quarterdeck falconets. Smaller blocks are the first step, scaling also looks better.

Chuck and his Syren Comp.  We are very good acquaintances. In fact all rigging are also from his company, excellent quality products indeed; well deserved plug Chuck…

 
 
 

Now this looks a lot better than it did.
 
mike 

Thanks Denis and everyone else for their comments and Likes!  Greatly appreciated.
 
Well.....guess what?  All of a sudden, Majellan's all grown-up; having graduated from the building stand, to her final permanent berth.  
 
Yes, folks, I've finally made the display stand for her.  In doing so, I wanted to create the effect of Majellan 'floating in mid-air', unencumbered by any visible signs of support.  This effect was achieved by supporting Majellan on four thin posts of piano wire, which are almost invisible when viewed from afar.
 
I hope you like the floating effect.
  I've also added the two rudders at the rear.  Not long to go now, folks, before Majellan's finished!!! 
 
 
Cheers
 
Patrick
 
 
 

Wow! Just wow!
 
Nick

Work and family has been limiting my time in the shipyard, but I made some progress over the last few weeks.  I started the bulwark planking, and managed to get the waist area completed.  Need a little sanding here and there particularly to help define spirketting from the quickstuff, and to touch up the gun ports and sweep ports.
 

 
 
I did the spirketting as a single piece at about 1.25mm thickness, and the quickwork as three rows of planks at about 0.8mm in thickness.  It's a little simplified from the bulwark planking in TFFM, which includes a scarpf joint somewhere in there, along with top and butt planks I believe.  Given how much of this area is going to be covered up with the cannons, etc., it didn't seem all that worth it to torture myself - I feel like I went though enough on the outer hull planking 
 
The wood I'm using is redheart.  It can be crumbly at times, but for planking, it works really nicely.  Over time it will mellow a bit to a more orange-brown, which I think will be a nice effect along with the other colors in the build.  You can see a bit of this color change in the bulkhead uprights which I replaced a year or two with redheart.  The only thing to watch out for is that the end grain turns almost black if you use an oil finish - i found that using varnish preserves the color much better.  I'll also be using redheart for the gun carriages, bitts, and likely the capstan, as well as a part of the stern decorative area.  I already used it for the upper stripe on the outer upper hull.  In some ways this "painting with wood" idea has been a pain, but I'm really happy with how things are coming together.
 
Thanks for looking in!

Nick,
 
Your #72 pic of the stem is indeed perfect, as is all of your hull planking. A pleasure to follow along.
 
Cheers,

Hi folks
 
Thanks for all your likes and comments!
 
Woohoo!!!!  After a few failed attempts, I've finally managed to pull together two reasonably passable 5-bladed propellors for Majellan.  At the moment, they're temporarily fitted in the hull.
 
Have a squizz at the photos and you'll see that they look the part, albeit maybe not totally accurate in terms of the directions of the blade's pitch, (i.e. I think that the real ship would have left and right handed props to counteract the torque...maybe.. don't quote me on it, because I really have no idea what I'm talking about     ), but at least they look ok from about a metre away.    
 
Cheers and all the best!
 
Patrick

All I can say is WOW, what a beauty and you sure are doing her justice.
 
 
mike

Wait for it....
 

 
YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
Second planking is finally finished*
 

 

 
*well ok apart from two/three planks to reglue, gaps to fill and sanding the entire hull...  
 
Sorry for poor quality pics (from mobile) but I just couldn't wait till tomorrow to get the SLR out and tell you guys and girls 
 
Happy Dance Time! 
 
Nick

Wait for it....
 

 
YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
Second planking is finally finished*
 

 

 
*well ok apart from two/three planks to reglue, gaps to fill and sanding the entire hull...  
 
Sorry for poor quality pics (from mobile) but I just couldn't wait till tomorrow to get the SLR out and tell you guys and girls 
 
Happy Dance Time! 
 
Nick