Vasa By 72Nova - FINISHED - Airfix - PLASTIC

[72Nova]

The lower mast and mast top is just about complete, I used a 2.5mm single block and will be using .45mm line for the top rope.

Michael D.

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent  work  -   love  the  real wood  weathering.

 

OC.

[72Nova]

I appreciate the compliment O.C

Michael D.

[Hubac's Historian]

Your paint technique and scratch-work are remarkable!

Edited December 11, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[kirill4]

Just Great!!! :)))

Michael,

rigging line color is too bright, looks like sintetic rope... wont to stain them ?

 

[kirill4]

These pictures of Vasa museum model - as a reference , where colors of used ropes looks more natural...

just my suggestion, that rigging need to be stained to the natural hemp color...

if hull ,decks and other wood looks weathered, why not rigging lines...but even new ropes color should be more dark ,as seems to me... or what is your idea?

All the best!

Edited December 11, 2022 by kirill4

[72Nova]

I totally agree with you Kirill, my objective is to have slight variations in tone of the ropes but the wooldings were a little stark and I toned them down a little, need to do a little more. The bowsprit is finally glued in along with gluing of the beakhead.

I made the cut outs for the fish davits, added the steps to the bulkhead and made up the tackle for the main topmast stay, I glued together a 2.5mm and a 1.5mm blocks to make up the fiddle block. Up next I be gluing in the decks one by one in phases, thanks for looking.

Michael D.

 

[fmodajr]

Michael,

 

Very impressive model. Love the weathering look and feel of the ship!

 

Frank

 

[kirill4]

Yes , indeed !!!

[72Nova]

Thanks for compliments and likes, very much appreciated.

I finished the paint touch up for now anyway in the bow area and rigged the gammoning using .45mm rope which equates to around 2-2.5" at scale and looks pretty good. Up next I need to fabricate the two pin rails that span across the beakhead rails and rig the loose lines at the spritsail mast.

 

Michael D.

[72Nova]

At this point I think I'm done with the modifications to the beakhead with the addition of the 2 pin rails using .60"x.60" styrene and 28g wire for the belaying pins, the toilets and the additional steps, overall I think it looks okay.

 

Michael D.

[Hubac's Historian]

I think this looks truly incredible, Michael.  The attention to scale and variation of wood tones really captures the salvaged original!

Edited December 15, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[kirill4]

Good day Michael,

Great!!! Like a real wood!

I missed, what was your idea? Will it( model) be fully 100% rigged ? But not colored...?

Or partial rigged only... like Vasa in museum? ....hm,but You already shown some sail...so ...fully rigged? Correct?

All the best!

[72Nova]

Thank you Marc and trying to achieve my goals at this scale has been fun!. Kirill my plan is fully masted and rigged, furled sails,  no cannons although I will display her with the 3 recovered cannons on the base and no colors. Thank you for the compliment too.

 

Michael D.

[72Nova]

I was finally able to get the main deck glued in and the front portion of the Qtr deck, the toughest challenge modifying the Qtr deck was filling in the open space between the doors with 7 little carvings and I still have to build the ladders. Up front I'm doctoring up the supplied catheads and fabricating the bulkhead/fore castle rail using .60"x.60" styrene for the bottom and .30"x.60" for the top.

 

Michael D.

 

[kirill4]

Great!!!

[Hubac's Historian]

It doesn’t get better than this.  I love the subtle graphite nailing of the decks.

[Old Collingwood]

Loving the  paintwork.

 

OC.

[kirill4]

Michael,  How  "strong" this paint technic? I like results very much, how it looks !

Does it have good adhesive ability to the plastic surface and how good does it resist ( when completely dried after painting) by hand touchings or tools?  
All the best!

 Kirill

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by kirill4

[72Nova]

In response to your question Kirill about the paint, I went ahead and painted the rail before making the knees and the main stay collar rubbing block and with the repeated attempts at checking the fit you can see the piece withstood the handling pretty well with an occasional rub through here and there, on sharp corners sometimes and that is to be expected considering how thin the paint film is.  

 

Michael D.

[kirill4]

Thanks Michael,

 The paint seems to be held quite well at place!  

Today I reread your build log, and saw there was discussion about how to secure main stay... strange that nobody mentioned/consider variant to secure it just strait to the fore mast ?   There are many graphics evidences for that ...
It was very often used in that period... I would say, looking at pictures that I have/but I have them in "many " :))) /it used even more often , this way of securing main stay to the fore mast than any others... I/m talking of 16 th beginning of 17th centuries ...

[72Nova]

I've also seen drawings of the collar after going through the deck, passing through the bulkhead before going around the bowsprit and this was actually the route I was going to go with but there's just no evidence of this in their findings, so I just moved forward with how they rigged the real ship and I'm fine with that. Meanwhile the rail is complete and installed and working on the ladders leading up to the Qtr deck. Thanks for looking.

 

Michael D.

 

[Hubac's Historian]

The rail and buttressing knees look fantastic! It is amazing to me that the kit leaves out such basic things as the stairways between decks. Yours really capture the reverse-curve Dutch style.

[kirill4]

Michael,

Fully agree with Marc

Looks really nice!

[shipman]

Coming along nicely; love you ladder.

 

It must be remembered, Airfix sell their kits as 'toys'.

All their sailing ship kits are very old, yet in many respects they have remarkable definition.

[72Nova]

Thank you gentlemen, Shipman I did not know or rather wasn't paying attention to their advertising slogan but does make sense, since every build I've seen of this model does look more like a toy, except for one and that's  Rex Stewart's fantastic build!!. Actually It's probably a blessing they omitted some details as they would more then likely be scratch built anyways.

 

Michael D.

[shipman]

Yes Michael, Rex builds some fine examples of the Airfix sailing ships.

Don't know why, but he seems to have taken offense at another place mid-way through his St Louis build.

Hopefully he isn't having some kind health issue; I've always admired his work.

He really belongs here.

[72Nova]

I had fabricated the parrels for the main and fore course yards that are glued to the masts and did a trial run of the parrel rope, the fall tackle will be reversed rigged with the end simply tucked in behind the parrel rope. The sheet blocks are about the size of the mid section of the yard with the sheave for the lifts at a right angle. The tie is .45mm line which will the same as the shroud and fall is .30mm which is rigged through a 4 sheave knight head, all of this is in the mock up stage at this point.

 

Michael D.

[72Nova]

I started dressing out the masts and yards, the fore mast is just about complete with the martnet pendants still left to do. I used a 2.5mm block for the top rope, 2mm block for the main topgallant stay and 1.5mm blocks for the lifts. The fore tackle fiddle block is made up of 3mm and 2mm blocks, cut down some to reduce their size and the double block is a 3mm britannia metal block. Both masts are just set in place at the moment for a visual.

 

Michael D.

[kirill4]

Hello!

Looks nice !

Did You left mast- top mast and gallant from plastic? 

Alll The Best!

Kirill