Wasan 1628 by Nazgul - FINISHED - Billing Boats Vasa 1:75

[md1400cs]

Matti,

 

Nice update. I'm enjoying watching your BB example of the Vasa. Looking v. good. Nice Avatar. Mystery solved (:-)

 

Regards,

 

Michael

[NAZGÛL]

Thanks you Lawrence and Michael, it means alot! Im getting closer to the keel with the planks, and will post an update when Im there. I think Im doing it somewhat backwards compaired to how Ive seen it described, but I cant see me getting the look I want any other way. So to any other new guy/gal dont take my way as the best way. Its quite time consuming as I have to soak and shape many planks after fastening the previous, so I can only do a few planks a day.

 

About Ivar. I dont have such a big beard as him, but my wife warns me that if I keep not shaving Im in the riskzone. Ive been told alot lately that I look more like Adam Savage. I dont mind that really. 

 

 

/Matti

Edited May 20, 2013 by NAZGÛL

[NAZGÛL]

Hey again.

 

Been even more busy at work, but soon it will calm down.

 

Here are some pics of where Im at.

 

Im close to finish the hull planking. The bow will need some paint to look the way I want, but the planks ended up reasonibly close to what I aimed for. As its my first build in wood, I learned as I went along, but no nasty surprises so far, well no big ones anyway.

 

I planked as far down as I could following the curve of the planks before making a keel plank. I dont want there to be two obvious curves meeting in the hull planking, and hopefully this one will feel natural. I made lips on the front end of the planks to get a secure fit to the other planks.

 

I also had to build in the wires for lighting her later. I almost forgot to add them when I was doing some planks being tired after work and when kids had gone to sleep. In the last minute I remembered...

 

In the final pic I placed her half sized sister, a Revell kit I bought earlier. I have it to try out the colors and looks I want. As a kit its very good, but to idealized in my taste. It has been great for proportions and planking ideas none the less and Revell tried hard to get the details right. The sculptures are so well done.

 

 

/Matti

 

 

[NAZGÛL]

Thanks Lawrence, your words means alot!

 

 

/Matti

[NAZGÛL]

And the final planks are in place.

 

Cheers.

 

[Salty Sea Dog]

Yea!! Looks great.

[NAZGÛL]

Thanks Buck!

 

So it seems everyone does double planking on their models. This. however will have single planking only. I have been thinking about this from the start of the build, and this is how I think:

 

Cons:

• The model is designed for single planking, so I would likely mess upp the proportions. It would also look "wrong" with two layers of planks looking straight from the stern.
• I could use thin planks to avoid that, but I cant see that I could get the weird bends I need in the bow area with thinner planks. They must be flexible and sandable to get the shape.
• I allready have the look Im after when it comes to slightly rough planks.  

 

Pros:

• I could follow the original ships plank lines. They should follow the railing line (BBs construction doesnt allow this line), but it would also mean I couldnt follow the lines I allready did.
• I could controle the gaps between every plank.

 

So now its on to the next steps of the build. Yay!

 

 

/Matti

[DesertWolf]

Wow Matti, it is looking great so far. Excellent job with the planking! The Wasa has always fascinated me. Can't wait to see this build progress.

[NAZGÛL]

Thank you Wolf!

 

Before starting with the galleries and lightning the admiral cabin, I decided to start painting the akterspegel. I think its really tough to get the sculptures right when it comes to color tone. The bright fleshy looks doesnt give the look right in the 1/75 scale. Im trying to blend it down with washes and go paler, but its hard to get right. Painting the sculptures take some time, so I will do some wood work, then do a little paint, then wood work again to keep the flow in the build.

 

 

/Matti

[NAZGÛL]

Hi again!

 

Finished akterspegeln. Since BB made the molds for it when everyone thought it was just gould details I was a little worried about the design being to simplified, but Im surprised how well they did it. Some stuff is incorrect here and there, but overall its a fair representation of the real ship. I took a comparison of it with the 1:10 model.

 

 

/Matti

[NAZGÛL]

Thanks for the supporting words Lawrence. Ill start painting the Vasa shield with the cherubs soon.

 

 

/Matti

[Ferit]

Hi Matti,

Your ability to successfully manage the build, makes it worthy. As you mentioned it's a really successfully made and successfully painted copy seeming like the original as closer as possible. Congratulations...

Edited May 30, 2013 by shiponthehorizon

[NAZGÛL]

Thanks buddy! Your Berlin deck details and the weathering of it is truly a great inspiration for me!

 

Warning, detail nerd content following:

I had been wondering why BB made the arch at the top shaped all round and not with edges at the lower ends like the original. I found an interesting pic in one of my Vasa books yesterday showing one of the early scetch from 1965 and it has the same form of the arch. The top details from the original is also missing like on the on the BB kit. Maybe this pic was used for reference?

 

/Matti

Edited May 30, 2013 by NAZGÛL

[Ferit]

Yes Matti. what I see is an one to one copy, this is an important news for you, I can understand, me, as much as the build seems as original I feel relieved. BB has done great job and your painting is really impressive...

[NAZGÛL]

The drawing from 1965 is from when they started to puzzle the stern pieces together after salvaging her. The details are still wrong compaired to the original ship but it could explain why they are.

 

Im not to bothered with the errors, its an old kit. I havent seen any model kit being perfect so far. The japanese company Finemolds have the best reputation in Starwars models, but they have lots of errors to, that become noticeable once you start to look at the details up close. 

 

Looking at the details make me see some stuff that could have been better on the 1:10 as well, and thats the best Vasa replica made in my opinion.

 

 

/Matti

[Salty Sea Dog]

This detail nerd is taking notes! Your paint work looks great!

[NAZGÛL]

Cheers buddy!

[NAZGÛL]

Painted the two putti holding vasan. I decided not to paint the red/white blue shield colour as I dont think it would work well and only look confusing.

 

I just got hold of a copy of the great book by Björn Landström from 1980. The book is filled with beautyful illustrations of Vasa and from what I understand based on the knowledge people had about her back then. Many details on the BB is very close to Landströms pictures and that explains the differences from the original ship like the shield design, arc shape, stern gun ports, the 5 faces around the stern shutters and more.

 

 

/Matti

Edited June 1, 2013 by NAZGÛL

[Ferit]

Hi Matti,

I realized that the color of the background of the two lions below the curtain is blue and the color of the puppies is gold through the book.

Which choice would you prefer as there are many variations about colors according to authors? Following one of them or making a mixed paint work through your taste?

BTW, your paint work is detailed and clean...

[NAZGÛL]

Ferit, according to the 1:10 model that area is red.

 

"Common knowledge" earlier was that Vasa was blue with gilded sculptures and details. This was before the long work of analyzing the colour pigments had been done. If I understood correctly there is a picture of a french ship of the same era having this layout and people draw the conclusion that it would be the same on Vasa. Maybe they thought blue and gold would be typical swedish because of our blue and yellow flag.  

 

Ive tried to understand the knowledge of today and if I got it right:

• The color aestethics (north german) during this period was to paint the figures policolour with strong colors and details.
• The experts can say how she looked after a thorough work analyzing color samples from the ship. 
• Red was the traditional colour for the navy and a royal colour at the time.
• Gilding was very expensive so they had to use yellow color for gould and only use gilding on the most important figures. 
• The colour blue was very expensive to make, and therefore not often used. Swedish was a poor country at this time from all wars.
• The design and colors of the flag was also new at this time so a person at that time would probably not feel that blue and yellow were "swedish colours" at all.

 

The 1:10 model at the museum is often stated to be very correct, so it is a great source for how she looked. In my opinion there should be some degree of freedom as she was under water for 333 years and I doubt they could test every part of 500 figures.

 

I am giving myself artistic freedom, as Im using a darker red than the 1:10. I also dod my yellow details more like the colors of bones. It is for framatic effects (blood and bones gives a natural and dramatic feel). The BB is not perfect in the sculptures anyway, so that also gives room for artistic freedom.

 

Im trying to look at the 1:10 and the painted sculpture replicas from the museum for color reference. I will tone down some nuances to my taste, some to give scale and make them blend well, other for dramatic effects.

 

Sorry for the long post!

 

 

/Matti

[Ferit]

Thank you for the info and

I really like this, Matti;

 

"Im trying to look at the 1:10 and the painted sculpture replicas from the museum for color reference. I will tone down some nuances to my taste, some to give scale and make them blend well, other for dramatic effects."

Edited June 1, 2013 by ashiponthehorizon

[NAZGÛL]

Cheers, Ferit, I usually look at models as a canvas, and thats especially true for a model like Vasa.

 

/Matti

[NAZGÛL]

Hey all!

 

After making five styrene shutters that are below the akterspegel (Billing Boats made windows there wich is incorrect) it was time for the transom contruction in front o the stern. It took some time to plan how to do it and there are few reference pics of this area floating around, but thankfully I found  a detailed plan from Mr Fredrik Hocker and I tried to base my buld it on that plan. The original is quite iregular and asymetrical and I tried to get that look. 

 

Billing Boats made their construction pretty close, but I ended up scratching 7 pieces to get it closer to the original. I also had to reshape and thin down a few kit pieces.

 

Im now done with the stern construction and painting and can move along.

 

 

/Matti

Edited June 6, 2013 by NAZGÛL

[Ferit]

Hi Matti,

She looks really impressive and real, floating through the open dark blue sea...

[NAZGÛL]

Thanks Ferit!

 

/Matti

[NAZGÛL]

Worked on the lightning. I made inner "roof and floor" to make a cell to contain the light. I will fix the leakage when I start to plank around that area. My camera makes the light appear much brighter and bluish in the pics. In real life its grayish with a tone of green (wich makes sense as I tinted the window glass green) and the light is more subtle and not to obvious.

 

Now that thats out of the way I can carry on with the wood work.

 

 

/Matti

Edited June 9, 2013 by NAZGÛL

[mtaylor]

I like that lighting.. very nice.

[NAZGÛL]

Cheers Mark! Much appreciated.

 

 

/Matti

[Salty Sea Dog]

Very cool Matti!

[ZyXuz]

love your lighting!

cool choice of color!!