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

[Cpt_Haddock]

20 minutes ago, clearway said:

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

Thanks, interesting, I have seen that ship in Stockholm. I think they use it at hostel nowadays. Haven been on board though.

_ Cumbria seem a nice place to live

[md1400cs]

1 hour ago, Cpt_Haddock said:

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.

My understanding is that it has to do with each refurbishment throughout its active life. At one point she was burned to the waterline and again refurbished.  Other much more knowledgeable members may have more detailed information.

[Cpt_Haddock]

Bow paintings and gold:

It is supposed to be a Polish man (when I was in Poland a few years back - they told me a history of some country men foolish the Swedish army in the forests back in the days) on his knees i the blue area. I simplified that part.

Instead added a sword to the upper figure and put some left-over parts in the are (in red).

 

One side of the boat finished with wax mixture.

 

Mounting the rudder and stern.

 

I used plastic spares (brown) as rivets melted in each end using a soldering iron for the mountings of the rudder.

 

I had at this point in the build spend a little more than half of the total building time (calendar time). Starting in Mars 2015 and at this state of the build in February of 2018.

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Closeup on the nails and wooden plugs, some nails came without the head - so I used them for the joints:

 

 

The work on the hull done. Time to move on to work on the cannons.

 

This is how the cannon barrels looks like after oxidation.

 

All These also have to be darker to match the hull.

 

 

 

Quite monotonous work building all these cannons.

 

These museum cannons have wooden wheels though:

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Did look forward to start with the rigging but at the same time not. It turned out to be more tricky than expected. I though more and more about people building those small ships in bottles.

 

I started with the masts and the capstan. I also fixed the cannons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I prepared all the mast and boom parts and decided to start the rigging from the front of the ship.

 

I wanted to rig with sails but "folded". I used wallpaper glue for fixing the fabric so to simulate gravity. I also used wallpaper glue on the wires for gravity-effect. First I used glue then sugar/water but that did not work.

 

 

At the start I used the wiring from the Billing boat kit but soon bought some better wires that didn't  "fuzz" that much.

 

 

I had three major issues with the bow:

 

1) the rope connecting the lower blocks - to the other side without a joint - I made a joint at the underside of the bowsprit:

 

2) The next problem was that the whole mast at the bow bent backwards when attaching all the wires to the front mast. I remade the whole bowsprit due to this later.

 

3) Finally I did not want to drill in the mast (afraid it would brake) but fixed the bow yard using two wires "on the outside" one on each side -

[Cpt_Haddock]

This is how I made the front mast shrouds:

 

 

 

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

The fixation of the front mast shrouds:

 

 

And placing the sail from the top and downwards.

 

 

Here is fabric drained in wallpaper glue:

 

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Making more templates for the other mast shrouds.

 

 

 

And small loops with rope from a tip here on msw.

 

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Almost the front mast completed.

 

 

 

Just two more mast, and then put on all the cannons with gates. Almost there:

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

I missed working with wood, I noticed that the age (poor vision on close objects) was getting more and more annoying when working with the rig.

 

 

I added some barrels and boxes for the deck.

 

Used metal wire between the blocks instead of wire on the main mast.

 

 

[kirill4]

Good day Cpt_Haddock!

Your Vasa looks very artistic!!!

Good job !

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Thank you Kirill - I wish I could paint like you on the Galleon ship of yours. Like a icon painting in 3D.

[Cpt_Haddock]

I made some mini-blocks that was not included in the kit:

 

 

It was tricky to get tension on all wires even using a template and lots of wall paper glue:

 

 

I hid all remaining wires under the crow´s nest.

 

The mistake I made on the front mast keeping the shrouds connected to the blocks below getting it hard to work on the deck - this was avoided on the main mast and the whole shroud could be loosened to get access on working on the deck details. 

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Decided to skip the lantern at the rear and only have a flagpole (with the big flag):

 

The mizzen mast  with multiple ropes.

 

 

A bit clay for the anchor float ball

 

 

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Mounting the anchor and preparing all the cannon ports in aluminum.

 

 

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Added only the upper rope and skipped the sometime used lower rope (for closing the port). Maybe I should have reduced the thickness (plastic part of the lids). The rope and hinges - to bad they are only seen when the port is closed.

 

Finally all ports done. Time to glue the balcony platforms.

 

 

 

 

All flags mounted and only some small things left

- add some deck fillers - barrels, bags and cannon balls

- redo the whole bowsprit (the mast is leaning backwards)

- add a "Vasa 1628" plate to the stand

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

With the experience from doing all the mast I removed the old bowsprit mast and created a new with a small brass wire to stiffen up the mast to correlate the force pulling it backwards.

New nicer hemp yarn - Amati rigging thread (bought all from Cornwall model boats) instead of Billing boat kits cotton.

 

Made the plaque out of modelling clay.

 

As well as the weapon shield held by the lion figure head together with an extra lion at the very front of the bowsprit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Could not resist making a moose horn to make the main mast more ornate.

 

 

[Cpt_Haddock]

Some final pictures of the build - only acrylic showcase left to build - seem every other facility bought plexiglas for Covid-19 protection nowadays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[michael101]

Wow i love your process !!!!!! 

Beautiful work.

[md1400cs]

Your really captured the look of this ship - excellent work indeed

[jollymillar]

Fabulous work !!! ship looks great jm