BLACK VIKING

Hi everyone, thanks for all the likes. I haven't disappeared just busy with some big decisions hahaha 
 
Yes Messis the two upper gunport lids are painted with the St George cross (the flag of England) the lower port lids which are all red will have carved lion heads similar to that of the vasa once I get round to producing them. The st George cross on the upper lids are depicted in Van der Velde's and eppings sketches of her. The lion heads are a bit of artistic license however are shown on the painting presented to King Charles.

Hi Mates,
 
I had mentioned that I slightly tweak Chuck’s (Syren) already super excellent blocks. This how I do it. The changes are very subtle, but for me make it worth it.
 
1) enlarge the pre-drilled holes (I’m sure most of you already do this anyway)
 
2) using the same drill bit I now angle it to “round out” and deepen the pulley look further.

 
Using a file I add grooves to the upper and lower edges

 
Using a small sanding block I sand the four side edges a bit inward.

 
Last bit I just started “now” after going to Chuck’s site to order more rope I saw his new blocks that included the four pins that attach the two block sides together. Hmmm – that looked so great.
 
Granted his blocks are larger but nonetheless wanted to add that look as well.
 
Using a tiny drill bit just drilled eight holes.

 
Here are some comparisons. AGAIN absolutely NOT implying anything at all missing regarding Chuck’s super perfect blocks down to the smallest scale.

 
 
This pic is a perfect example of how amazing his super small blocks actually are without any of my obsessive tweaks (;-)

 
PS: whatever these are called I have to pull them all off. Again a novice with rigging when I made those it did not occur to me to be sure that ropes will be able to loop through – well they can’t – did not leave enough space grrrr.
 

 
Cheers,

@Edwin: thx and as you say, I have all the time in the world. I want to be busy with this ship for at least several years
 
And a small update:
Put some peaces on the decks. For the colour, I used walnut wood stain and Artesania oil. Till now everything fits pretty well. I tried with round timber if the holes for the bowsprit and the masts were in the right place and they did
 
 

Music to my ears. Mamoli kits have been my favorite ever since I started ship Modeling.  Well done 

After a large glass of wine tried some tree nailing lightly drilling holes into planks and marking with a pencil an absolute disaster. Ripped existing planking on part of the quarter deck using flexicut detail knife and relaying planks, including a couple of others on port side. Phew, got away with it. Ship's cat now hides the only remaining evidence of trenailing attempts. A rather large cat about the height of a polar bear according to the scaling of this kit. Assembled ladders, but not glued in position. I mean they're identical to those on the Corel Half Moon which is 1/50 scale. This build is 1/90 scale so they can't both be correct. Getting a bit fed up with Occre so many parts are not right including the massive cannons for the main deck and all the metal parts. Bought some canons from my usual supplier, 30mm long wooden carriages.
 

 

Thanks for that Michael! That is almost too simple, I don't think I ever would have thought to do that! Yet another reason I love this site as often we get tunnel vision that having another persons perspective adds a great solution that we would never have seen. Well, I have now achieved my daily goal and learned something new.

Been hard at work but I feel like it has mostly just been chasing my tail. I finished framing all the starboard gun ports Friday night but something had been bothering me. I got up, left the room and played with the dogs for a while and when I came back in I realized that the bottom two rows of gun ports were shorter than the top row. Width was great but they were all squatting. I measured them and they are in fact shorter. I could not figure out how that happened as I have measured them time and time again what happened?!?! and why were the top ports all the correct size? Then I realized what I did. I did not oversize the height on those port opening for the framing. Still don't know how I missed that but I caught it. So now I get to go back through and re-frame the ports in order to make them all the correct size.
 
On the bright side, while I still have rework to do on the port side gun ports, I should just be able to transfer over the dimensions from the starboard side and rework them once instead of the 4 times I have reworked them on this side..... I wish I could say that simply pulling the dimensions off the prints would work, and the would normally but, with the interior modeling I am doing there is no way to make the kit plan layout align with the actual decks.
 
So, here I go. Already fixed a few in this picture and got in a couple more since it was taken. The repair work is going fairly fast so hopefully in a few days I will have some forward progress to show. Then I get to fix wood filler and finish sanding the hull and repeat on the other side.

Stunning work on the rigging  Michael just wondered if you know that there are a set of sails for the Vasa . If you look on the Cornwall model ship site they sell them. I have fitted them to mine and they don't look to bad .
 
BV

Thanks EJ hopefully will post pictures at the weekend. I love these ships of the 17c . It's good to bounce ideas of some one who is building the same ship 
 
BV aka Martyn 

Thanks EJ hopefully will post pictures at the weekend. I love these ships of the 17c . It's good to bounce ideas of some one who is building the same ship 
 
BV aka Martyn 

I am following with interest on this one as I have the full kit from Deag which I have just started planking with the first layer hoping to post a build log in the next few days 

I am following with interest on this one as I have the full kit from Deag which I have just started planking with the first layer hoping to post a build log in the next few days 

Stunning work on the rigging  Michael just wondered if you know that there are a set of sails for the Vasa . If you look on the Cornwall model ship site they sell them. I have fitted them to mine and they don't look to bad .
 
BV

Wow absolutely stunning 
 
BV 

Thanks E J
Hello all this evening I begun the first of many ideas to upgrade this little boat from the fifties
step one the deck planking
first thing was to create a border for the planking I traced the shape and made this on the drum sander
 

 
I rip some mahogany and thickness plane to 5.5mm I can then run it threw my little proxon saw a 1mm
 
it was important to me to keep a line parallel with the middle cabin which I did achieve my next concern is when I start the starboard side can I keep them symmetrical
 
for any of you that follow my other build the bounty im still awaiting parts from cornwall and I hope they arrive soon before this little boat steals my attention completely as im finding myself really beginning to enjoy this build
 
thanks for viewing
 
steve

I'm building the Wasa by Corel 1/75.im planning to use black lines for the standing rigging.Does anyone know what guage lines to use that would be in scale?

Thanks guys, an enjoyable side project of their own  
 
Added in seat slats, interior gunwale and floor boards and gratings. Still a bit to go but started to paint it also now. The only painting which shows the sovereign with any boats is a modern painting of a model built in the 30's with a large longboat that has a black hull and golden filigree work. The filigree on the boats upper strake is scribed into the plank itself. I've taken my colour pallet from the early 18th century with reds and blues leaving the hull wood and White below the waterline as I think the black hull would be too much.  I've again used my oak wash over the hull planks which give it the darker wood colour of typical ships boats of the 17th century while still having decorations being from a royal warship. The final pic shows Van de Velde sitting comfortably forward making his sketch of the Sovereign:)

Baskerbosse – thanks for your insights as well as taking the time to post- Very interesting. Your Vasa knowledge is appreciated.
 
Karl – may I ask for your assistance? I’m at the point where I need to decide on the sails. I want to try making some, and then decide if they will (in my case) improve on this build.
 
I have been looking at yours and Frank’s logs for ideas and help.
 
May I ask how you added that great detail? – see your photo. -Thanks in advance Karl -you are always so helpful.
 
Mates, as always thanks for your likes and visits.
 
Cheers,

The rigging is looking great.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but could make sense when researching rigging details; The Vasa was rigged by a scotsman. Looking at the bone model of Norske Løve in Rosenborg castle Copenhagen which was also rigged by a scotsman, you can spot some striking similarities.
 
Regarding gun recoil;
Indeed older guns would have been less powerful than later ones,
both in terms of the effectiveness of the gunpowder, bit also in terms of metal strength of the barrel.
As pointed out above, a longer gun barrel helps here, the reason for this is that the projectile accelerates for a longer time (acceleration ceases the moment the projectile leaves the barrel)
These (weatherdeck)cannons have way less recoil than the main guns, they are also lighter and can be maneouvred easier, which could explain the need for less deckspace for these guns (-still, Corel has too little deckspace and oversize guns here. They also have bulkier deck gratings. On the Vasa, the deck grating is flush with the deck with only the coaming portruding)
As to the point that the weatherdeck guns also could be loaded from the outside, it may be worth noting that the channels are located just below these guns.
 
There is an interesting mix of new and old in the armament, even seen in the complement of 24 pounders;
Gustav II Adolf drove a modernisation and standardisation of artillery in the army as well as the navy.
A ship didn't have 'its own' guns in earlier days, it was equipped ad hoc with what was necessary and available, leading to a mix of all sorts of calibers that needed to be carried and also supplied to the right guns for battle.
All 24 pounders were new and of standardized modern lighter style, except for two.
It is interesting to compare these two variants: the old 24 pounders are about 37% longer and twice the weight of the new ones.
Weatherdeck was armed with a mix of older cannons of weights nearly all the way down to 100kg.
 
The weatherdeck represents the older armament style while the main gun decks represents new and modern. Lots of space here, including an unusual amount of headroom compared to other ships of the day, which in hindsight might not gave been such a good idea..

The windlass was glued

Time for a small update. Don't have much time at this moment to work on my SotS.
Its nice to see how we all build our own SotS, with our own colours and modificattions
 
Sme pictures...
 
 
 

Ulises, Zoltan – thanks - always nice when you drop in. Your kind posts are also very encouraging indeed.
 
EJ, Anton, Denis – Agreed will re-lash sprit mast with tarred ropes. Waiting for a new shipment from Chuck (his ropes and blocks are so perfect)
 
Mates – yes the cannon/deck dimensions are in fact a bit odd indeed. Woodo if you discover more info that would be interesting.
 
Duff Thanks for sharing the historical info that you posted - !!
 
Thanks also EJ, Anton for the added discussion on this topic.
 
Coxswain Thanks so much for all of the likes  super appreciated (:-) 
 
Regarding Vasa weather deck canon long lengths I found this as a possible answer – maybe the canon builders had done some
physical testing to determine what the link just below answers.
 
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/cannon-length-why-does-it-matter.195217/   
 
The higher caliber cannons below did not need such long barrels - so it seems
=========================
 
Always thankful for all of your visits, likes, and comments
 
Cheers,
 
 

Hi Mates,
 
Continuing by installing the bowsprit mast. While deciding what size rope to use noticed my novice lack of rigging planning ahead. Easy fix (;-)
 
Also needed to decide if I should use tarred rope or not. There seems to not be a right answer with this.
The 1/10th installed tarred, and the 1:1 not. Clayton’s also did not use tarred. That said; the rope that I installed has a “shiny” tinge to it – not too comfortable with its look.  Here are some preliminary shots of the work so far.
 
PS: It would seem that these mast lashings, given the amount of moisture they receive, should be tarred?
 
Cheers,
 

The capstan is still in progress

What he said. India inks work great and will give you the blackest black that ever blacked a totally black thing. It builds a slight film, thinner than paint, is almost unnoticeable with one coat.
 
Alcohol-soluble aniline dyes can be bought at Woodcraft or any luthier supply place. I've been somewhat disappointed in the blacks as so far they have a purplish tint to me, but all other colors are great, they dry instantly, and they don't raise grain so you can wipe on your stain and then spray a clear finish one minute later. Best of all to me, since they're molecular color and NOT pigment, they in no way obscure the underlying grain. This is how guitar makers create bright green curly maple guitars:

 
Permanent black markers are usually a form of lacquer and work fine too. I haven't seen anything about how permanent those permanent colors are though.