Vasa 1627 by baskerbosse - Scale 1/75 - ex Corel now scratch using museum plans

[baskerbosse]

Hi all,
 

This is my build of the Vasa, started as kit, but quickly changed to scratch using wood from the kit.


Current side view.

 

I will post some pictures on how it got to this stage.

 

 

thanks,

Peter

[baskerbosse]

This is in there somewhere:


The hull is about 1.5 cm too tall and 1 cm too narrow. The masts are in the wrong places and the deck is too short.
The main mast is too thin, the sternpost angle is too great and the main deck is too short.
But that's not the worst.

The worst became apparent when I got the museum plans and started checking the shape of the hull:


The reason I ordered them in the first place was that the kit frames looked quite odd and not really reasonable, unless you are a Dr Seuss illustrator..


Before receiving the museum plans, I tried to assess how it could be fixed using the sketch on the left, based on photos and drawings from litterature:


The outline on the right is surprisingly a carefully made tracing of the frame as provided in the kit.
No, it's not symmetrical.

Analysis for what needs to be done on the hull

(essentially a complete change of shape:
 

Extend the main deck forward by 2 cm

Move the fore mast 2.5 cm forward

Move the main mast 1.5 cm aft.

 

Reduce the rake of the sternpost, (extend aft by 7mm at the bottom tapering to zero at the top)

Take 5mm off the keel and about a cm off the bulkhead tops. (reducing distance keel-deck by 15 mm)

Widen main deck by approx 5mm each side. (i.e. 10mm wider)

Plus make new frames.

Cheers,
Peter

[Omega1234]

Hi Peter

 

It certainly looks like you've had your work cut out for you adjusting the hull to match the Museum's plans, however, as is shown by the first post, it was a challenge which you've conquered successfully.

 

Nice job!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[baskerbosse]

Lowering the deck and creating new frames:
The new frames are part frames, part "shape guides used to pad out the existing frames so that the hull matches the proper shape.
Paper station cutouts are used to check from the outside that the resulting shape is correct..

 

Continuing adjusting the shape.
The lower hull in the stern according to the kit has no volume at all.
Just a giant wooden blade.


Here you can see numerous problems with the fore deck.
It's too narrow (waterways fit outside of bulkheads)
It's too short.
The fore mast is too far aft.

 

Planking progressing. The planks don't touch the original Corel bulkheads much.

 

Nearly done.
What is pretty neat is that with the proper shape to the hull, the planks run really well from end to end without need for stealers or dropped planks.


Next to follow, Second layer planking.
 

Cheers!

Peter

[marktiedens]

Nice work - makes you wonder how the kit makers could get the shape so far off when they had the actual ship to measure from.

 

Mark

[BLACK VIKING]

Lovely work on the hull Peter . I have this kit on order but certainly didn't realise how far off the bulkheads are as Corel are meant to have used the plans from the Vasa museum? Will be following your build

 

BV

[puckotred]

Wow, that was some heavy rebuilding! More scratch than kit 

 

Wonder if she would have stayed afloat if the hull was shaped the "Corel-way"? 

[baskerbosse]

I suspect that if she'd been shaped the Corel way, she would have keeled over as she went from the slip to the water.

The Corel hull is even narrower and even taller than the original by quite a bit..

[md1400cs]

Peter,

 

Excellent re-work indeed. Welcome to the Corel Wasa - but you knew this before you started. Nice that you also noted that the weather deck width was too narrow. 

 

As you know I have gone through some frustrating after re-works on mine as well. Your up-front knowledge will be very helpful. 

PS: the stern is also too narrow, but given the sizes of the gilded parts - I don't think that it will be easy to widden ?

 

PS:2  Corel is very very good about sending parts that you might request. They have sent me several extra gilded bits that have come in very useful. I will also follow along (:-)

 

Good luck

 

Cheers

[puckotred]

I suspect that if she'd been shaped the Corel way, she would have keeled over as she went from the slip to the water.

The Corel hull is even narrower and even taller than the original by quite a bit..

 

Ok, so the bad got worse.... but you made it good again 

[baskerbosse]

Thanks everyone for your comments!

Mark, I don't know how they used the museum plans. Pretty clear they didn't loft the frames from them.

B.V. -If you don't mind the errors, I'd suggest to ignore them and build as is.
If you want to start fixing them, I recommend selling the kit and build from scratch.
Fixing it is a huge job.

Michael, I don't think I will be using the sculptures either. I have already started making gunport lions out of Super Sculpey.
From memory, I think one of the masts were too thin as well, either the fore or the main, so I ordered a replacement from the right diameter.
Also, the thick walnut planks for the wales were not wide enough, so I ordered replacement for these, plus enough thin walnut to continue to the keel with walnut instead of the supplied mahogany.

Mr Pucko, I think you have made the wise choice in using a kit that is truly made in cooperation with the museum.

So, this is the hull after first planking:

Marking out run of wales with pencil:


Bow view:

First runs of second planking:

Transom planking:


More to follow, sorry for the delay. (Please bear with me, I'm collecting images from multiple websites and image folders up to ten years old .. :-o ) 

In the meantime, here's a picture of more current work; -The rudder (Corel version below for comparision):


Cheers,

Peter

Edited August 17, 2016 by Peter Jenssen

[puckotred]

The Corel rudder is the same shape as on the Amphion!    It's just longer on the Vasa. Yours is (from what I can recall) just like the real thing. Very nice!

[md1400cs]

Peter,

 

Nice update.

 

You do have Clayton's build log in your Fav's ?

 

Just in case here are some useful links (I bet you know all of these)

 

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

 

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

 

Belaying positions pdf is excellent (scroll mid page)

 

http://www.jans-sajt.se/contents/Navigation/Modelling/R_Wasa.htm

 

The link below for a beautiful scratch built commercial Vasa is excellent. I have referred to his photos a lot. Also they blow up with incredible details

 

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

 

Hope that some of this is helpful

 

Cheers,

[baskerbosse]

More pictures from the second planking:

 

Beakhead bulkhead as per museum plans.

 

I had started mahogany planking from the keel upwards with the view to paint over it with white.
When I decided against that approach, I purchased more walnut and proceeded with walnut planking all the way to the keel.
I also cut the plywood keel off and replaced with walnut.

 

 

 

Cabin windows:

Pictures of the laying of deck planks to follow.

Cheers,

Peter
 

[baskerbosse]

I know this is not strictly in chronological order.
In actuality, the deck was planked at the same time as the hull, but here i'm showing it afterwards:

First waterways:


Both sides:


The planking might look random, but it is an exact copy from the museum plans.
The deck planks are of highly different lengths and widths:




Main deck planking finished. King planks and waterways are basswood.






Next, the problem of fixing the gratings. Corel has them just glued on top of the deck.
(In actuality, they sit between the king planks, flush with the deck)

Cheers,

Peter

[baskerbosse]

Sorry for the lack of updates, things have been a bit busy.

Here's a current picture:


sculpting gunport lions.
The clay is Super Sculpey, oven bake polymer clay.


Cheers,

Peter