Vasa by RobZorba - Billing Boats - 1:75

[RobZorba]

And finally some other images from the museum that may help with building fixtures and fittings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2015 by RobZorba

[md1400cs]

Rob,

 

Here are a few more source inks. You may already have these available, if not these are of great help. Your project is off to a good start.

 

http://www.modelships.de/Museums_and_replicas/Vasa-Museet-Stockholm/Photos-Vasa-ship.htm

 

http://www.wasadream.com/modeles/Clayton/wasaclaytonenglish.html

 

http://www.wasadream.com/Index/indexenglish.html

 

this last one is of a scratch built example. Photos can be enlarged to offer super close-up details. After researching my build for a couple of years, and along with today's latest info - this builder got almost everything spot-on-right

 

http://www.modelships.de/Vasa_II_Janssen/VASA_II_ship-model.htm

 

 

Cheers,

 

michael

[RobZorba]

Finished the port side cladding planks, and marked the gun port openings.  I cut the first opening as a test.

 

Edited October 30, 2015 by RobZorba

[RobZorba]

My "ultra quick" Gun Port modification (sorry for some repetition from an earlier post) ... I glued a small square of 3 mm acrylic (safety "glass") to the rear of each plastic gun port frame.  I drilled the center of the acrylic to fit the dowel on the rear of the stub cannon. 

 

I will paint an area of the acrylic matt black to simulate the gun carriage.  The window frame will be painted red with gold trim.  I will paint the canon with an unevenly stirred mixture of Humbrol antique bronze and gunmetal paint.  I will stick the completed assembly using Cyano into the gun port openings, using the canon as a "handle" with which to position the frame accurately into position before "kicking" the Cyano with accelerator. 

 

I will cut the remaining openings one at a time, because I want to insert and glue one gun assembly and then cut the next one. This will minimise any risk of hull planking moving out of position.

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2015 by RobZorba

[RobZorba]

Here's my method for bending planks.  It's dead easy and requires no special tools apart from a robust triangular file.  I lay the plank on a piece of 2mm cork matting below which is my flat and level worktable.  I press the vee of the file into the strip, rolling the file slightly from left to right as I do it.  The strip curls beautifully and there is never a break.  I don't have to soak the planks or do anything else.

 

 

[RobZorba]

I found a great way to make the "window bars" to simulate leading in the captain's cabin windows.  I used a small piece of black mosquito net, the sort that is fitted to double glazing fly-screens.  I glued the mosquito net using Cyano (without accelerator) to the front of the perspex, making sure the glued area would not be visible.  Then I stuck the perspex windows in place, again using Cyano, making sure the "bars" were vertical.

 

The 3M LED lighting strips I fitted are a bit too bright, especially in the area of the captain's cabin.  It was a dead easy and prewired lighting solution ... but I need to dim the lights quite a bit ... they even shine through the timber of the hull and that's not right!  Before I finish the model I will fit a resistor in series with the 12v power supply to limit the current to the 3M lights.

 

Anyway, now the "window bar" solution is in place I can proceed with the rest of the work on the stern.  The paints I ordered will arrive next week, and I'm looking forward to doing some decorating!

 

 

Edited October 30, 2015 by RobZorba

[RobZorba]

@Mark / marktiedens@ and @Michael / md1400cs@

 

Thank you both for reading my newbie build log, and for the helpful links you sent me.  I have looked through your own build logs and the quality and skill shown in your work is outstanding.  I hope to improve my own skills to be able to produce higher quality models, and for me that goal is as a hobbyist and perfectionist. 

 

But I also have a conflicting motive.  I am "training" a couple of Albanian craftsmen who wish to produce model ships (built from kits) commercially.  There is tradeoff between quality and cost, and they will be doing this to earn a living.  What I am trying to find are ways to improve the "quality" of models bult from standard kits such as those from Billing Boats without adding hugely to the time taken to build each model.  Each model must be built to an acceptable standard with a "cost" budget of no more than 400 hours work, plus the cost of the kit and materials used.  I believe there is a market for such models in Europe - especially Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Belgium etc, but the selling price needs to be 2000 Euros or less including display cabinet. Here in Albania, craftsmen consider they are doing very well if they earn 3 Euros per hour.  The typcal wage for craftsmen is 10 Euros per day.

 

Have either of you produced ship models for sale, and if so, what is the "tradeoff" between quality and cost (hours worked) that you advise?

[marktiedens]

I have not made any ships for sale - I can`t even give them away,let alone sell them. Sorry, I cannot advise you on this.

 

Mark

[Elijah]

Those windows look great! I really like what you've done!

[md1400cs]

Rob,

 

My answer is the same as Mark's...Have no idea about the commercial side of this hobby. 

 

PS: I have seen some "brutal" examples on ebay Hmmmm!!

 

Michael

[RobZorba]

Fitted many of the gallery parts today.  The Billing Boats kit does not show balsa blocks for the junction between the galleries and the stern planking.  But without blocks, it would be a hard job to join the 90 degree corner of the planking properly.  So I made some corner pieces.  The preparation for planking is not quite complete yet, I will chamfer the conical corner towers so the planking will lie flat.

 

The measurements for cutting the conical corner towers in Billing instruction sheets were wrong for the lower gallery.  In fact the rearmost lower gallery corner tower would not fit below the upper gallery with the measurements Billing provided.  And when I studied some of the Billing photographs, I could see they had grafted in an extra ply spacer because they had cut the cones to the wrong shape.  An additional 6 mm needed to be removed from the lower surface compared with the Billing dimensions.  Unfortunately, I'd already cut four of the planking strips to "fit" the parts made with Billing oversized measurements before I realized it was not correct. So I had to "graft" some replacement planking strips.

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2015 by RobZorba

[Elijah]

That looks very nice!

[RobZorba]

Reshaped the conical towers to be octagonal, and commenced gallery and stern planking ..

 

 

When I visited the museum, it seemed that one of the gallery towers has an extra "open window" in it, and I added that "feature" only to discover that it was a "missing plank" on the full ship, and not an "open window" at all!

 

 

 

So I'll plank that bit again tomorrow ...

Edited November 4, 2015 by RobZorba

[RobZorba]

There is a discrepancy in the Billing Boats kit between the model and the full-size.  The discrepancy results in the upper and lower stern galleries being positioned too close together, causing a "collision" between parts in the two galleries.  The discrepancy also occurs in the plan and elevation views of the Billin Boats kit.  Let's look at the stern, where the gallery bases are fitted ...

 

 

 

The upper gallery on the Billing kit should start about 8 mm higher up the stern, in order to be correctly positioned. This will involve a redesign of the Billing Boats stern, plus a number of laser cut pieces attached to the port and starboard sides of the kit.  Because of the design error, the user has to modify the lower gallery conical towers to "point outwards" at a stupid looking angle, to avoid "collision" with other parts of the model.  So far, this is the most serious design error in the Billing Boats kit that I have found.  It is too late for me to correct it without starting again with a new kit.  Unless Billings are persuaded to fix this error,  I will scratch build the stern another time ... using the Vasamuseet digital drawings ...

 

 

At this point I'm feeling pretty depressed to have discovered this serious error in the model I am building ...

Edited November 4, 2015 by RobZorba

[marktiedens]

Don`t feel too bad - the Corel kit has the same problem . You are doing a fine job.

 

Mark

[md1400cs]

Mark is correct.

 

I tore apart my entire stern after realizing the errors as well as the totally incorrect Corel version.

Your Billings is still MUCH closer to what it should look like. Count your luck!

 

MIchael

[RobZorba]

Thanks Mark and Michael

 

I will not tear the BB Vasa model apart this time, but I will get another few BB Vasa kits soon, and make these modifications with some scratch built parts to correct this error, and also build scale upper and lower gun decks with improved canon fixings - perhaps similar to how Euromodels do it with the RW you are building, Mark.  I am very interested to see the Euromodels frame parts and how the canon deck assembly comes together.

 

As you know, one of my goals is to build a team of two or three Albanian "experts" who can deliver high quality ships in display cases for sale in Europe and Eastern Bloc countries at reasonable prices.  I care nothing to make a profit myself, but instead wish to provide a reasonable wage for a few hard working Albanian people who are desperate for jobs.  I have my first "employee" named Turi who is working 4 hours every day, and who is meticulous and passionate about the exact scale details.  Here is a pic with Turi working on the planking of the stern ...

 

Edited November 4, 2015 by RobZorba

[md1400cs]

Rob,

 

Very nice. Thanks for sharing your goals. Very touching indeed. 

PS 2: you may want to build a file of your Billings fixes and contact them. They may be interested in connecting with you. The ship has a huge yearly following because of its status in Stockholm (I did visit the museum some years ago - Loved it) and should continue to be a big seller for them.

 

Michael

Edited November 5, 2015 by md1400cs

[RobZorba]

After much investigation of what I initially believed to be a Billing Boats kit design error, I conclude that it is assembly error on my part.  Here is an illustration from the Billing instructions, note that the ply piece forming the railings is above the stern deck by about 4 mm.

 

 

Here's the equivalent picture of my model, the equivalent line on the ply side piece is 3 mm below the stern deck:

 

 

 

So, I think the most likely "error" of 7mm was introduced somehow by me very early on by positioning the ply side pieces 7mm lower than they should have been, and then following this by setting the upper stern ply piece also 7mm lower than it should have been positioned.  I hope that by exposing my "mistakes" in this build log, it will assist other builders to make sure these ply side pieces are placed correctly.  If you get it wrong, then the upper and lower stern galleries will "collide" and cause all sorts of problems later on.

[Elijah]

That's too bad about the error. Don't let it get to you to much. Don't give up, we're all here for you. I might not have any good advice, but I am sure others do.

[RobZorba]

Thanks!  ... too late now to tear the model apart and rectify the errors, so Turi and I are continuing with the build by adjusting parts on the galleries to avoid "collision" as far as possible. The two lower gallery towers are now adjusted to point outwards, looks a bit wrong, but I think it's the best we can do in the circumstances ...  the cladding of the lower part of the upper gallery will merge into the cladding of the upper part of the lower gallery ... will do better next time ...

 

Edited November 5, 2015 by RobZorba

[md1400cs]

Rob,

 

Learning is so much fun (;-)  Again the Billings get's it right. Also the bobinette tips align correctly just below and adjacent to the lower part of the upper galleries. Almost an impossibility with the Corel. This photo is one of their promo pictures. 

 

 

 

[RobZorba]

After much adjustment of angles, managed to make everything fit and now proceeding with planking the galleries and finishing the stern.  I decided to add some "packing pieces" before planking the gallery top and bottom.  Also I "squared off" the conical towers into 45 degree sections because the Vasa's towers were octagonal, not conical per the Billing kit.  I then decided to "plank" the conical towers the same as the full-size.  It's been quite a lot of fiddling around for the last 2 days to progress these details.

 

 

 

 

[Elijah]

Good job!

[RobZorba]

A couple of pics in daylight ... progress so far ...

 

 

We had to angle the octagonal towers to point outwards at an incorrect angle.  This was caused by the earlier "error" causing the two galleries to be 7mm closer together than they should be.

 

 

We made window frames from copper wire, hammered flat ...

 

Edited November 8, 2015 by RobZorba

[Elijah]

Those windows look great! I like the pictures with the water in the background.

[RobZorba]

More progress with the gun ports.  I cut the backs off the plastic "lion's head" gun port covers provided by Billing Boats, because they were hollow and just completely wrong.  Made new gun port cover wooden hatches from lollipop sticks.  Made hinges from a length of copper wire (TV aerial core) hammered flat.  Painted everything before assembly.  About 40 hours work on these so far and not quite finished yet ...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2015 by RobZorba

[RobZorba]

Started painting the hull, needed a break from the pesky gun port parts!  The paint Turi and I decided to use for the Vasa "red" is Humbrol Matt Acrylic Scarlet Red, code number 09.  When dry, it is a good match to the color used for the museum model ship.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2015 by RobZorba

[Elijah]

Great job! Everything looks great!

[mtaylor]

Rob,

I'm just following along.  I built this kit some years ago and ran into many of the same problems.  I later found out that I did the colors wrong (new research) <sigh>.   The tower problem goes back to the early days when they were taking the lines off and sorting things out.  It's one of the few things Billings never corrected and apparently they did try to keep up with the research.  They were the only company to do that which is why they were the "official" kit.

 

I managed to fit the towers in but it was a problem and they are not straight by any means.