WASA 1628 by Cpt_Haddock - Billing Boats BB490 – 1:75

[Cpt_Haddock]

I am very happy to have found MSW and to get the energy and inspiration to build this ship. Thanks to fmodajr and md1400cs.

 

The WASA ship section below (unknown fabricator - prob. Billing boats) - was built in the early 90s and I mostly remember the tedious work cutting all pieces by hand (not laser cut) from wood panels. It took two years to build the main part and then another 4-5 years until the rigging was finished. Most of the time the build was put away waiting for me building up confidence to finish the model. 

This time I had the opportunity to have a dedicated work space, were the model could rest when no work was being done, and laser cut pieces.  I though replaced the keel with a solid wood bit due to poor quality plywood.

I had read that the foundation was a key to get the hull planking go easy. I tried to follow the instructions but later I found the book by Björn Landström "The Royal Warship VASA" from 1980 (ISBN 91-86448-12-9) and I ended up with some "creative" planking pattern compared with the images in this book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was very close to mix two of the mid pieces before cluing them on the keel.

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Some pictures, quite straight forward in the beginning.

 

 

 

Bending the stern piece.

 

 

 

 

The BB490 has the Blue color theme unlike the Stockholm museum ship model that has the red theme. I went along with the blue. It is blue in the book but with red fancy pansy "curtains"

From "The Royal Warship VASA"

 

 

From the model at the WASA museum

 

I also decided to go with the gold instead of painting the small statues though not historically correct.

[Cpt_Haddock]

As I mentioned before, preparing for the planking was essential, but I had a hard time getting it right.

 

I had to pay for this later on. An extra layer of planking was one way to "solve" the problem. I bought extra wood (walnut) for a second layer. The first layer is Pine wood (BB490 kit).

[Cpt_Haddock]

I did not like the pre-cut loading gratings (on the right) and it did not either match the drawings - I made some ribs out of tooth sticks.

 

The actual ship.

[Cpt_Haddock]

Two more pictures of the gratings:

[Cpt_Haddock]

Bending the top planking pre-cut pieces to the right shape:

 

Without a second planking layer this piece would have look strange.

[Jörgen]

Welcome. Looking really good. 

Fråga, är du från sverige?

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

I put all the metal stuff in a bowl and mixed with vinegar to get the oxides.

 

I notices that the canon holes on the lower level was "fake". I saw someone who made "real" holes and tried that. I made a mistake choosing some hard wood (beech) as building material. Later when i tried to drill though the planking the drill got stuck in this wood pieces. Some of these fell inside the ship.

 

I then began the planking, starting from the top.

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Hi, yes I am Swedish. (Avslöjad av Biltema-tvingarna 🙂)

[fmodajr]

Welcome!

I look forward to watching your progress with the Billings kit!

Have you been to the Vasa Museum?

It is definitely on my list of places to visit in the future.

 

Good luck,

Frank

[J11]

Look forward to future posts, she's my next major build coming up. Looking good so far, like that vinegar oxide trick.

 

[mtaylor]

The blue/gold version was what earlier research thought was the colors.  Later research showed it to be the more colorful with the red and colored figures.  My guess is that either you have an older kit or Billings never updated it.  At one time they were updating the kit as new information from the wreck became known and thus, was the only kit sold by the museum.

[Jörgen]

I have both the BB Vasa and the DeAgostini on the building table (on hold at the moment). I should say, if you want to do the old painting (blue and gold, then go for the BB Vasa but if you want to do the new colorful red painting, definitely go for the DeAgostini one. This because the quality of the ornamnets are so much better and it can then be painted properly.

 

[md1400cs]

Cpt H.

 

Nice start to your project - will follow along - glad that my Corel example gave you some inspiration to build this ship. Your kit is by far more accurate than Corel's very dated example. 

PS: Have you seen Tintin anywhere around?  lol

[Cpt_Haddock]

Thanks for your comments, yes I have been to the Museum and seen the amount of work they put in all the figures. The ship itself is kept in twilight (to protect the wood)  and quite creepy - more like an old pirate ship. It is a sad story - building a ship with all that timber and then to sink on its first try on water.

 

Figuring out the position of the ports:

 

and making the "wagons" for the cannons.

 

then continue planking:

 

Among all the tools . I used this 1 1/2 inch Stanley (single) razer blade put in between a couple pieces of wood and found it very useful:

 

And then cutting the holes:

 

[Baker]

Billings's Vasa was my first wooden ship. 

I really enjoyed building this model

[Cpt_Haddock]

Some more pictures from planking the first layer:

The lower part of the front got really tricky:

 

One side done but one extra hole..

The non-symmetric placement of the cannon port can be seen here from the wreck:

 

And then the same on the other side.

 

The windows were soldered and the result was not perfect, maybe I should have gone with the kit plastic, below picture from the model at the museum:

 

 

 

And the final board before sanding - I still have not attached the top sides.

 

Some parts of the lower front came really thin after sanding it even.

 

Progress bar (calendar time elapsed, roughly hours put in):

 

 

[Baker]

Looks great 👍

[fmodajr]

Congrats on finishing the first planking layer!

 

Frank

[Cpt_Haddock]

I had to use some filler and then dark stain.

All "cannons" were mounted and making sure the holes for the cannons were pointing correctly.

 

Then I had an idea of a deck with different nuances/gradations of oak stain on the wood.

 

 

I put black threads between.

 

 

 

The openings needed some more details:

 

I was thinking about having lids as seen here on the Wasa wreck. But it would cover the work..

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Moving on with the doors.

I kept the "blue" theme.

 

I had to improvise around the "roof" part of the doors.

 

Compared to the Museum model:

 

Complete deck:

 

And ornaments in gold:

 

I then fixed the long upper rails, fixed small pieces on the inside with tooth picks:

 

 

As can be seen, I have used an soldering iron on the deck to make "nail" markings.

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Planking the final layer with Walnut wood. Starting at the stern.

 

 

 

Picture from the book I mentioned before:

I bought (lots) black nails from Amati to the most hull area. At the stern wood, tooth picks. I also decided to go with the dark oak stain.

To finish the hull I used a own mix of wax, bee wax, turpentine, soap and water.

As can be seen in the picture above - the blue and above is still not fixed. Same as for the rudder.

 

Applying the wax-turpentine mixture. Smelling like nothing else.

 

 

 

That the "easy" part with only straight pieces of wood.

I did not use heat for bending ( I will try heat on my next project) but soaking in water and bending while drying:

 

 

I thought long and hard on were to start with the first stripe of wood.

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Some more pictures from the second layer of planking:

 

 

Here is were it was getting tricky:

 

 

 

Progress:

[Cpt_Haddock]

Planking second layer, last picture was from July.

This picture is from Christmas time ( candle stick in the window)

 

The stern part or rear end was ok but the front/bow was not easy.

 

 

I had to fix wood in opposite direction. Not nice but the curvature was to much in two axles at the same time.

 

And then do the same once more. For a moment I had forgotten about the other side.😬

 

I followed the same procedure using the plastic "fake" ports as templates for the wood. It was tricky to get the right length but then I did not have to fix the openings afterwards.

I started one level up with the first stripe. Just under the ports of the upper cannon deck.

 

So much better finish using walnut than the pine in the first layer.

 

In the following picture I mark the area with most grinding. This area was very thin.

 

I saw this from the book way to joint the ends. Do not know what it is called.

 

I had to do the same fix at the bow as on the other side. Not nice but maybe I should have started from the keel and upward.

 

 

I was also a bit confused how to and the planking towards the keel. It had to match the base/pedestal.

 

 

 

Finally planking done (may to mars) - I decide to fix the front.

With a mix of both tooth picks and nails.

Coming up - the balcony 1, 2, 3 and 4. I did not look forward to this part. I know it would not be easy to hide mistakes.

 

 

I noticed that I had one cannon port were it was not supposed to be one.

 

Here a picture from the Wasa vreck:

 

I decided to to each balcony detachable (and to fixed them later). In this way I could remove them when working on other parts avoiding breaking any details.

I even thought about making a secret opening to hide stuff in but skipped that thought.

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

I "moved" the cannon port. This will be a fake port with the lid closed.

 

I enjoyed drilling and putting in the nails. This has to be done before painting the balcony.

 

 

Here is a picture from the museum model:

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

It is good to have lots of clamps.

 

Deep blue on the boards under the bulwarks.

 

Here is the beginning of the balcony that will be removable.

 

First the upper balcony. On the lower domes I will use split tooth picks instead of the kits plastic pieces.

 

 

The big problem I run into was that the split pieces had to be removed to paint the gold apart from the blue.

 

 

Here the result after painting.

 

Added some bling to the lower balcony.

 

Brass nails of the blue boards.

 

The complete side:

 

With the round window:

 

Adding more nails, I noticed a bit late that the nails "bulged out" on the inside along the deck.

 

And then the same on the other side.

 

 

I planned to do the cannon ports last but tried out the hinges on the fake port.

 

I then spend a few days drilling and fixing nails before starting with the bow.

 

The bow was fun.

 

 

Here is a picture from the museum:

 

I did not want to cover this piece in gold.

 

I had to try that the bow sprit fit.

 

One thing made me confused when comparing Wasa/museum model and BB490: The heavy rope from the bow sprit to the fore mast.

 

I skipped the weapon shield and decided to have a rope trough as in the wreck picture.

 

 

 

[md1400cs]

Cpt.  Very nice work - 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Thanks md, I have also the Sergal Sovereign as my next-next project.

Do you know why there seem to be different stern versions for the Sovereign? I have seen at least three different.  Sergal has two animals around a weapon shield, then there is one with a woman between two riders and also one with an angel between riders.

[clearway]

looking good (as an aside i am from the town that built the sailing ship dunboyne, now a museum ship called the auf chapman in stockholm). Showing Cumbrias norse roots we still say "as fra Whitehaven"😉

 

Keith

[Cpt_Haddock]

This picture is taken a little more than two years after I started the oxidation of the brass parts. As can be seen the green is more strong. I experimented some with boiled egg white and heating (heating and spraying with vinegar and then put metal in a plastic bag with wet paper and egg white). The oxidation took some time (and I even tried electrolysis but after using the opposite process to clean my car brake caliper from rust - the whole basement smelled a mixture of burned transformer and vinegar.. )

 

It was during the drilling around the cannon port that a couple turrets fell inwards. The wood was to hard to drill through.

 

 

I did not see that I could do the carving on the top of the deck pulleys, so I put a round metal ball on top instead: