BLACK VIKING

One last bit of similar “detailing”-- added some small verticals to the bowsprit framing.
Pics before update
 

 
And such luck!! Those left over necklace bits just sort of perfectly fit between the white trim pieces. Now that was a pleasant experience.
 

 
PS: I know that the cathead braces (anchors) are not even an approximation of what they should look like – but done here – moving forward. – I think?
 
Onto installing and attaching the lower main and its shrouds.
 
 

Don't know about the value but it looks like a nice kit.  If the wood has been stored in a heated space all this time the wood has probably dried out to the point of being brittle.  This may cause you some trouble when it comes time to cut and fit the pieces.  You could try re-hydrating it with warm water or using dilute white glue to soak the wood.  The glue will help to strengthen the wood and make it less likely to split.

Hi Mates,
 
Thanks for your likes. I also appreciate your comments, and thoughts regarding my comment about all of the colorful details on the 1/10th. You are all certainly correct.  Jan, Patrick, Peter, thanks for your perspectives.
 
It was wishful thinking on my part – having so missed – even coming close to how the galleries should look.
 
Though the stern is much closer, but Corel’s entire weather deck is too narrow which squeezes stern detailing tighter than it should be.
 
Peter also thanks for you very interesting links. Kind of you to take the time.
 
And EJ_L, B.E., Joe, and Capt. Steve thanks for preferring the “look” of my efforts –cheers ! that is really nice of you to mention this.
 
What I am working on now (not doing fixes)  masts, platforms, carriages and other bits are coming out ok - so far - hmmm. So moving forward will be easier.
 
Again mates, thanks for your always, kind support, thoughts and visits.
 
Cheers

Very nicely done with the decorations on the gallery Michael. Looking at the 1/10 model gallery I am definitely getting worried as their are carvings every where.
 
BV

Bowsprit Continued...
 
More views about the Bowsprit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Dave R

I'm trying to show some more of the in between steps and not just the finished product. Here is one of the port quarter galley towers being test fitted together. I still have some final sanding to do to close out gaps and smooth it up.
 
I am glad I decided to build these myself. You can see the hexagonal blocks that came with the kit. The instructions call for the window frames to be glued to the surface and the roofs were supposed to be those smooth cones. By building my own walls, cutting out the windows and opening up all the window panes, you can now shine a light into the windows and see inside if you wished. Granted there is nothing to see but you can still do it. The best part of those blocks was using them as a template and support while I glued the new walls together. Helped to hold the correct angles.
 
I m hoping to make some good progress over the weekend. Would love to get the port side done but that may be too much to hope for. We shall see.

It does not seem unreasonable to me to think bright colours were used.
We do have accounts of what pigments were used, they are on display in the museum:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Vasa_color_pigments.jpg/500px-Vasa_color_pigments.jpg
Unfortunately, some of these pigments fade or darken with age, so tones on surviving sculptures and paintings found elsewhere tend to be duller and/or darker than they would have been originally.

It can be interesting to compare with church carvings.
For example, see Övertorneå church:
http://norrbottensmuseum.se/imagegen.ashx?image=/media/375284/nbovertornea1.jpg

Where incidentally the upper half of a church organ with a facade carved by Mårten Redtmer (who also carved Vasa´s sculptures) survives;
http://www.overtornea.se/Global/Bilder/Kultur%20och%20fritid/Kyrkan%20Orgeln2%20liten.jpg
This organ was located in St Gertrude in Stockholm for 150 years before moved. (Possibly some of the original painting has been gilded over during this time, as gilding became more fashionable than natural colours)
The lower part, also by Redtmer, is located in Hietaniemi church:
http://www.allakartor.se/venue_images_475/58674_37884117.jpg
Perhaps some of the original colours have been restored since the 1770s, when a copy was built and installed in St Gertrude (Tyska Kyrkan).
To me this "new" one looks more golden: 
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Tyska_kyrkan_Orgel_(1).jpg

Cheers,
Peter

Inventive use of  'bling' MIchael to dress up your Wasa, but I too prefer the look of your model to the 'disneyesque'  1/10th version. still go with what suits your eye.
 
B.E.

Good luck with the show Dave and looking forward to seeing the pics. By the way the SotS is looking brilliant
 
BV

Very nicely done with the decorations on the gallery Michael. Looking at the 1/10 model gallery I am definitely getting worried as their are carvings every where.
 
BV

Small update. The two Cross Trees just kept taunting me every time I looked at them so over the last several weeks I bit the bullet and remade everything with three Cross Trees. Right or wrong, short of an act of god, drinking fit or space alien invasion they are done and I am pleased with how they turned out. Next build though I really need to look into a mill, I made every part at least twice not counting the finished set with two cross trees. Chopping those half lap joints correctly was....interesting.  It did give me a chance to use my new Dockyard Micro Carving chisels. The Deep Plow worked well as a micro mortising chisel. The Skew worked well for scraping away the coat of shellac I applied to the masts to keep finger prints off. When it came time to glue the battens on I was able to scrape the finish off without gouging the wood.
 
I finished off the mast heads with card instead of soldered and blackened brass. I kept questioning my ability to make evenly spaced, close fitting brass straps. This was my first attempt at modeling with a paper product, they came out pretty good. Next time though I will choose a card stock closer to the finial color. As I was painting the white bands gray black it was quite a challenge to not get paint on the mast head. The end result looks fine from normal viewing distance, under macro or magnifying headset there is a distinct white band. Like I said though you cant really see it from normal viewing distance so I am ok with it.
 
Pictures below.

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Decided i am going to give both of these builds to my grandson. Now they are finished i don't particularly want to keep one, mainly because the fun is in the build for me and once built i lose interest in some builds, and this is one of them
For some reason the grandson doesn't want me to fit the hammock nets on the outer edge, he reckons the builds look better without them, and i don't totally disagree with him so they have been left off as per his instruction
So we will now call these builds finished

Thanks, Keith.  I'm reminded of being back in school, learning a new subject, and not even knowing enough to ask an intelligent question.  So any feedback, complimentary or critical, is appreciated.  It's good to know you're on the right track but it's even better to know when you're going astray.
 

First thing I did this morning was lay another row.  I've got to do better than a couple of rows a day if I want to finish this in my lifetime. 
 

I'm not quite dead center on the cut.  The larger gap in the planks is most likely due to dried glue I missed scraping off. 
 
Before laying the next row I have been checking to make sure there is no glue slop that might keep the planks from butting up tight.  But the bevel would have helped.  This tells me I need to take more time on the final planking or I will not be a happy camper.
 

The bottom planks have had some fairing done to them but the top ones have not.  Again, putting on a bevel to the edge would have made this job look much nicer.
 

For some reason, seeing the bow form gets the sailing juices flowing.  I've been planing off the excess every couple of rows to see how it's shaping up.  This keeps me going.
 
When I started sailing back in the early 70s, I first learned about the J-Boats.  That pointed bow slicing through the waves had me right there, on one of those gorgeous boats, sailing a behemoth.  If anyone was ever foolish enough to let me step aboard a J-Boat, they would have to pry me off with a very large oar.

Agree

Very nicely done with the decorations on the gallery Michael. Looking at the 1/10 model gallery I am definitely getting worried as their are carvings every where.
 
BV

Michael, personally I like the look of yours better than the 1/10 model. Hard to say which is more accurate, but to me the 1/10 paint job would have been too much for the ships crew to maintain and therefore unlikely that they would gone to that extreme. Even considering the fact that that time period was know for lavish decorations it seems too much for a ship. Plus it is almost too "Santa's Workshop" with the color scheme. I would yhink that the simpler paint scheme, (simpler in comparisson to the 1/10 not simple in terms of detail and wow factor) that yours presents would have been more practical.
 
This is all my opinion as I have no basis for fact only guess work. The only facts are that the 1/10 model is awesome and your model could sit with pride right next to it.

Very nicely done with the decorations on the gallery Michael. Looking at the 1/10 model gallery I am definitely getting worried as their are carvings every where.
 
BV

Hi Mates,
 
A lateral update – my usual posts - ha ha..
 
So, I decided to add some detailing to the galleries. The Vasa (based the on super detailed 1/10th) is certainly hard to grasp from a Corel kit.
 
PS: just a thought – Who really knows if the Vasa was as colorful and as highly detailed (art work) as is represented on the museum’s beautiful model.
The actual resurrection galleries, as an example, are very plain by comparison to the model (they appear to be rebuilt as well). So it appears that the goal of many kit/scratch builders is to try to emulate the model’s look. I, then added some detail bits as well.
 
My completed galleries before added details
 

 
Used some extra painted wood bits from the just completed railings. Purchased a necklace, and used the bits for the bobbinets (glue added so that beads would not fall off string when cut)

 
Received from Corel two new weather deck cannon opening trim rings

 
Here are some finished up shots. 

 
Now on to some added detail work for the bowsprit framing.
 
 
This 1/10th pic makes me very insecure Hmmm

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks for the looks and likes everyone, it's much appreciated, sincerely. 
 
 I've got another trip this weekend. So, knowing I wouldn't really get any 'days off' over the weekend, I decided to procrastinate some of my work during the week and head down to the shipyard and get some things done.
 
 Next up, the cheeks, hawse holes and trailboards.  Before I got started I did some fitting and measure, and prepping the figurehead etc.  
The first problem I ran into was paint color.  The rear decorations and etchings of the ship were done is straight "wood" color from Testor's Model Master line.  Although it looked good, it is considerably darker than the natural stained color of the hull, etc.  I liked this very much, as it made the details on the transom really pop.  However, when we get to the bow of the ship and painting those etchings and even the figure head that dark - it just didn't look right.
 

 
  After some experimenting, I was able to come up with a pretty good color with about a 60/40 mixture of "House Cream" and "English Oak".   Of course that meant repainting all the etching and window frames and details on the transom.
 
I was NOT looking forward to this... but necessary is necessary and I spend three days with a size 0 brush while my eyes crossed and my fingers cramped.  ;p
 

 
As a side note - I had to add a good coat of primer to the figurehead to get it to take the paint.  Remember, we swapped out the metal figurehead with the plastic molded one. 
 

 
Next up, the cheeks.  Very light sanding to get rid of the char, then a bit of reshaping to get them to fit to the bow snuggly.
 

 
No alternatives for the photo etched carved strips, so they required some careful painting.  I fitted them first to get an idea of what part of the bow needed to painted black, then did more painting.
 

 
The instructions call for some etching along the cheeks my gauging out lines on the sides, then smoothing them out.  But I found this little tool in my stash and thought it'd look pretty cool.  Overall, I like the way it came out with the etching attached.
 

 
Same process for the upper cheeks.  Some delicate sanding to get everything to look pretty seemless.  And I dry fitted the figure head to make it all work out.  You'll notice here that the gap between the figurehead's foot and the lower cheek extension is a bit too wide, so I redid the lower piece to get it closer.  That took some fiddling with the metal etch carving pieces, etc.
 

 
My next problem occurred when I dry fitted the hawseholes and trailboards.  The directions call for four pieces shaped to fit the bow of the ship.  But, after only three, I was running out of room quickly.  And bear in mind, I BARELY sanded the backsides of the cheeks. Just enough to get rid of the char and adjust the "roundness" to fit the bow ok.  Oy.
This wasn't going to do.  So i stuck with three, and fitted the bolster.  NO CHANCE any of this was going to fit.  
 

 
My first solution was to create and inset in which the bolster would fit.  After a number of different attempts, this failed miserably.
 

 
So, my final solution was to just have ONE layer of the trailboards and fit the bolster and drill out the hawseholes.  Overall, I think it's definitely passable.  All of the basswood is treated the same as the rest of the trip with a layer of wood conditioner, stain in Miniwax "Natural" then I'll add a layer of lacquer.  Ultimately, this as made the etching and wood pretty close to the same color.
 

Good luck with the show Dave and looking forward to seeing the pics. By the way the SotS is looking brilliant
 
BV

So I have attached the bottom panel before I started planking the deck..
 

 

 
Planking from the centerline.. Trying to keep it even from one side to the other.. I am using the Zig Marker to simulate caulking between the planks. It kinda smugged, but I did my best to keep it clean. First try.. rough start.
 

 
Planking completed. Started on the waterways.. 
 
Thanks for viewing!

Good luck with the show Dave and looking forward to seeing the pics. By the way the SotS is looking brilliant
 
BV

Hi All,
 
Another small update. The gunport lids all rigged an the marines walk has been fitted. 

Good luck with the show Dave and looking forward to seeing the pics. By the way the SotS is looking brilliant
 
BV

Here's a few pics to play a little catch up on this build log....
 
The addition and rigging of the bowsprit....

 
The channels and lower dead eyes have been added to both sides....Note the rigging of the bracing tackle for the fore and main masts.  Also, the rigging of the fore and aft shrouds for each channel.
 
 
The fore channels....

 
The main channels....

 
Broad side view....

 
I will now set about adding all of the lower shrouds.
 
I am also currently working on the four lower tops for each mast (counting the bowsprit)
 
Good to be back at the bench.