Wasa by md1400cs - FINISHED - Corel - 1:75

[flyer]

Hi Michael

 

I really love the way your Vasa is growing into not only a beautiful ship but also a outstanding model which transports some of the feelings you have when visiting the awe inspiring original ship.

 

I strongly support Grant’s and your comments on the unique experience a visit to the Vasa museum provides. I once took my family along and the Admiralty suddenly understood my fascination with old ships while the daughters still remember the sights, years after being there. The family had to endure other ships and museums but none created such a lasting impression.

 

Cheers

Peter

[md1400cs]

Hi Michael

 

I really love the way your Vasa is growing into not only a beautiful ship but also a outstanding model which transports some of the feelings you have when visiting the awe inspiring original ship.

 

I strongly support Grant’s and your comments on the unique experience a visit to the Vasa museum provides. I once took my family along and the Admiralty suddenly understood my fascination with old ships while the daughters still remember the sights, years after being there. The family had to endure other ships and museums but none created such a lasting impression.

 

Cheers

Peter

Peter,

 

Thanks for dropping by, along with your very much appreciated comments.

 

Yes the Vasa Museum is a sight that stays in one's mind. I'm happy that this was also a place your children will remember. I would like to return there as it has been many years since my first visit. I'm sure that the museum has added many new displays. Again thanks for your nice words.

 

Regards

 

MIchael

[md1400cs]

Hi Michael

 

Just checking out the progress you have made to your build log since I have returned home from our vacation in Nova Scotia. Your Vasa is turning into a thing of beauty, you must be very proud of her.I love the way that you are adding your personal touches to your build and enjoy watching her grow day by day, Enjoy.

 

Regards   Lawrence

Lawrence,

 

Thanks, your words are so nice. My next update will be, for me, a real step forward as far as "fixing" issues that were not accurate in my original attempts. I'm honored that you are following this build. I have also been watching you work. Your detail quality is really so excellent. The copper plating on your Victory, for example, is superb, especially the rudder. Beautiful craftsmanship.

 

Again thanks for following along much appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Michael

[md1400cs]

Hi everyone,

 

Here is the first part of my continued obsession with fixes grrrrrr. (:-) On the plus side there is almost nothing else that I can fix.

 

The 1:1 does not have a break at the poop deck side railings, as I posted earlier. Mine did, so this needed to be re-done correctly. Here are the first pics of how the repairs are going so far. As always thanks so much for looking at this build. So appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Michael

[md1400cs]

Hi everyone,

 

Here is part 2 of my poop deck railing fixes. Due to errors in the Corel framing, the new cannon openings will "sit" too high. But I wanted to add the stern most cannon port decorative pieces. So you and I will know of this error but it will escape everyone else's attention.

 

Ironically enough even if I had understood this before installing the weather deck, and made height adjustments, it would have thrown off the entire stern and galleries. As it is, the upper galleries sit too high along the hull. But had I incorporated the adjustments then the stern windows as well as the window stranding soldiers would have not had the proper space in which to stand. Corel hello??? Moving on....

 

I also needed to add filler pieces to the upper weather deck stern decorative piece (piece where the flag pole will mount) in order to have it properly align with the deck edges after removing those hull trim pieces from my previous post. These fillers will visually mostly disappear as I add more details during the third and final update of this repair.

 

I also decided to remove all of the wood trim along the entire upper hull railings, and replace them with stained white trim. It will look much more detailed as well as adding a sense of "paint" that the Vasa wore so well for an hour or so.

 

The upper rails will also have this white trim added when the poop deck work is completed as well as the very last third railings. These wont be installed until the very end of this build.

 

Though in the interim I need to drill all of the holes for the vertical uprights. These holes need to be square (no idea how to do this without damaging the already fragile rails). Thanks, as usual, for stopping by.

 

Regards,

 

Michael

Edited October 28, 2013 by md1400cs

[NMBROOK]

Excellent work Michael on your modification.With regard your drilling dilema,it might be helpful to make a drilling guide that slips over the rail.This only needs to be a scrap piece of wood notched to slide over with a predrilled hole in it to guide the drill.Possibly another piece of scrap to wedge under the rail to offer some support and prevent breakout as the drill goes through.This is of course assuming you are drilling down through the rail.

Kind Regards Nigel

[Blue Ensign]

Nice work Michael, the Transom framing looks excellent, I like what I see in your build.

 

B.E.

[md1400cs]

Excellent work Michael on your modification.With regard your drilling dilema,it might be helpful to make a drilling guide that slips over the rail.This only needs to be a scrap piece of wood notched to slide over with a predrilled hole in it to guide the drill.Possibly another piece of scrap to wedge under the rail to offer some support and prevent breakout as the drill goes through.This is of course assuming you are drilling down through the rail.

Kind Regards Nigel

Nigel,

 

Thanks your suggestions will be very helpful, though my issue is how to square the holes per the 1:1 example for the very upper railing verticals. Note pic. I may just drill all of the holes and then insert dowels instead of trying to square the holes after drilling them. In any case this will be well down the road.

 

Regards,

 

Michael

[md1400cs]

Hi Michael

 

Your work on your Wasa is excellent and your eye for detail is also very good. It'f very enjoyable for me to sit back and watch you turn your great ship into a master piece, keep up the great work and Enjoy.

 

Regards   Lawrence

Lawrence,

 

Thanks much appreciated.

 

Michael

[NMBROOK]

Hi Michael

What I was thinking was that the drilling 'guide' incorporated the angle in order that the holes were perpendicular to the waterline.You could take the angle off the model using a piece of card clipped to the railing that is in place now and use a spirit level to draw the vertical line on the card.This would give the angle between dowel and rail,it would just be a case of notching the guide to suit this angle.I have included a sketch,this isn't my finest draughting work,but should give you an idea.

Kind Regards Nigel

Edited October 30, 2013 by NMBROOK

[texxn5]

Hi Michael, the amount of details on this ship the real one and yours continue to blow me away.  This is truly remarkable...very nice work....thanks for the pictures.

[JanV]

your progress looks very good.

you give me some idea's to be checked on my own build within the next months

[marktiedens]

Hello Michael.This is how I made the holes for the upper handrails - I first drilled the holes just slightly smaller than the square posts & then used a very small square file to partially square them until the posts were a snug fit.The holes are not perfectly square but you would need a magnifying glass to see it.Somewhat tedious work but it turned out nicely.

[md1400cs]

Nigel and Mark,

 

Thanks to both of you for your advice. Both ideas are clever. My fear is that the railings are much too fragile for some 80 squared holes. I'm still debating how to achieve this. it would have been, of course, a simpler project doing the holes before installing the railings.

 

I'm thinking of this approach (see pic), labor intensive but it might also work. I will only need to drill round holes. The square vertical pieces, once the tips are rounded, will hide the round railing hole, and the piece will seem to continue uninterrupted just bellow the rail. This will allow the accuracy of the 1:1 to stay seemingly intact.

 

In any case I will drill all of the holes before installing the ratlines. The nature of these very thin square "pegs" will be super fragile and will be the very last bit of the build waaaaaay down the road (:-) Again thanks for your advice.

 

Regards,

 

Michael

 

Edited November 1, 2013 by md1400cs

[md1400cs]

Hi Michael, the amount of details on this ship the real one and yours continue to blow me away.  This is truly remarkable...very nice work....thanks for the pictures.

John,

 

Again a big thanks for your kindness.

 

Michael

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Michael,

 

Instead of trying to round the tips of the square pieces, you could use loose tiny dowels sized to a tiny drill bit. I had really good luck (and it was a lot of fun) turning down birch tooth picks using JPett's Dremel and draw plate method when I made the tiny barrel spigot. The trick would be making a jig to center the drill in the bottom of the square posts. A perfect reason to get yourself a lighted Optivisor if you haven't already!!

 

Best wishes

[NAZGÛL]

Nice upgrades Michael!

 

 

/Matti

[schiffebastler]

Oh wow, great Work! Really interesting to follow your way, optimizing the Corel-based model. Up to now, I have not realised this problem in the Corel-model. I think your result is the best possible and will follow the next steps with great interest.

 

Regards, Joachim

[md1400cs]

Hello everyone,

 

Joachim, Matti, thanks for your comments. Buck I will check this out. I do remember something like that in JPett's log. Thanks

 

Here is the third, and last update regarding this "fix". It is hard to believe that I'm almost totally done with fixes.

 

The first photo was the original look of that part of the ship; before rebuilding the ladders, the gratings, the transom railings, the poop deck, as well as adding those two benches on each side of those doors, and adding white trim all along the outer edges of the railings.

 

The second pic is the same view after all of the repairs. Oh, as you can also see on that second pic, those "rope pulley things" (knightheads?) have been removed. They will also get re-invented to look correct. Those railings that Corel indicated should be added have also been removed.

 

In second photo you can really see the error built into the Corel kit regarding those "center" entry door framings. The housings are much too high. Just the upper rounded tops should rise above the weather deck. AND my lack of shaping them with a rearward slope (MY error) added to the problem. grrrrr (:-) That section of the deck should be just a bit lower. I could have done that as I was installing that first deck layer, but I was ignorant of that issue at that time. I've become a bit more critical since.

 

The rest of the pics are just a look around sort-of speak. I'm comfortable with this repair work and can now move forward.

 

1) Drill all hull cannon door and draw rope holes.

2) Build and install ratline frames

3) Figure out what to do regarding those square hole dilemmas for the railings

4) Cut in half, and paint the remaining gilded figures for the deck railings decorative bits.

 

Thanks for stopping by, always very much appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Michael

[schiffebastler]

Congratulations, Michael, there is no doubt about your decission to rebuild these parts, great result!! It looks also much more realistic, well done, I like it !

 

Regards, Joachim

[NMBROOK]

Great work Michael When you see the before and after pictures,you really notice the improvement.The total sum of all the smaller alterations all add up to a massive difference.

Kind Regards Nigel

[JPett]

Ahoy Michael  

 

Very impressive work. You should be very proud. She is beautiful

[JanV]

This looks very good Michael

I assume that you got your inspiration for these modifications again from the original.

 

I saved a copy of your pictures for my reference as I am planning to start with these details during my X-mas holiday (14 days off)

[marktiedens]

Looking good! I also have the Corel kit - may try something really different like extremely weathered with no paint like the 1:1.

[texxn5]

Really looking nice Michael...your pictures are terrific..

[md1400cs]

JPett Joachim, John, Nigel, JanV, Mark

 

Guys thanks so much for your latest encouraging words. I have, as you might know, been bothered with past mistakes (ship-of course (:-) the other parts of my life have been perfect Hmmmmm..

 

I went back and looked at an error that would be too hard to fix now. Corel, as opposed to Billings, did not properly indicate how the upper deck entry framings should look, nor how high they should be above the deck.

 

So, if this might be of help for Corel Wasa kits under your tables, it could have been an easy adjustment (had I known)

 

I could have installed that middle portion of the weather deck template a bit lower, and added a rearward slope to the housings themselves, then added the cover planks.

 

Moving forward; looking forward to my next steps. Again thanks to all of you who post, click Like or just look in Big Thanks.

 

Regards,

 

Michael

[WackoWolf]

The detail painting is outstanding, Excellent work. Keep the pictures coming.

[Blue Ensign]

Very nice detail work Michael

 

B.E.

[JPett]

Ahoy Michael  

 

Don't sweat it, embrace it

 

Your build is too good. You really have taken this kit to a new level and that is all I see   

[NAZGÛL]

Nice work!

 

/Matti