Vasa 1628 by EJ_L - Scale 1:24 - Fully Scratch Built and Large!

[EJ_L]

Hello all! After a very long absence I am back. The last few years had a lot of unexpected twists and turns that took me away from ship modeling. Life has calmed back down and set me to follow one of my long-time dreams of building a very large, scratch built model ship. I debated for a while about what ship it would be and what scale I would use. I wanted the opportunity for lots of details both outside and inside the ship, however, the model also had to fit within the confines of my garage and be able to pass through the overhead door. I decided upon the Vasa for a few reasons. The first was that I wanted to stay within the 17th century as I love the look of those ships. Second, I have not built a model of the Vasa, and the third, and most important, is the vast wealth of knowledge available about her. While I do not claim that every component will be 100% accurate, I intend to get close. 

 

With the ship selected, scale came next. I wanted it to be as large as possible, but still able to pass through the overhead door. This restricted me to 7'-2" of clearance. 1:24 is the largest scale that I can use to allow for the ship's masts to be fully rigged as the top of the flagstaff on the mainmast will be right at 7'. (I may make this part removable to give myself a little extra room for the day I have to move it.) Finished, the model will be about 9' in length, 7' in height, and a little over 2' in width. 

 

My next challenge was drawing up plans for the main components, keel, frames, transom, etc. Using several sources, including the Vasa museum, books by Fred Hocker, and a brilliant dissertation on Vasa's architecture by Kelby James Rose at Texas A&M, I was able to get accurate dimensions, angles and curves on the main components, as well as pictures and explanations on what the internal structure looks like, details on construction joints, and functions of many elements that are not always shown on typical models. One of the major issues that I've run into is that Vasa was not built along the typical guidelines of the later 17th century. Many deviations in the Dutch building practice along with changes that both builders, first Henrik Hybertsson then after his death, Hein Jakobsson, made to the structure mean that some of my usual resources that I use for 17th century ships, will have to be dismissed as they are not applicable. Fortunately, while I strive for accuracy, this project is most importantly about fun! 

 

I used large graphing paper to draw up 1:24 sale drawings. This is allowing me to test fit elements and see how they interact before cutting them on wood. I can then trace out the individual pieces that I need onto parchment paper to use as a stencil to transfer the shape onto wood. This is especially helpful on the curved parts. It also allows me to try to make my mistakes on cheap paper rather than expensive wood. 

 

I started this project technically in May with the drawings, then I cut my first pieces of lumber on September 7th. This is likely to be a very long build, but I really don't know of any other kind!  I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do. There are still lots of things I've yet to figure out such as how I will make the cannons and all the carvings, plus how much of the interior I plan to show. I have a rough plan, so we shall see. In any event, it should be entertaining.  

[EJ_L]

Construction started with laying out a build board with marks for the keel sections. This gives me something to map the build to as well as provide support while building. I chose to model the keel in four separate pieces as the actual one is. Each piece is a different length and here we run into of the first major deviance from generally accepted practice. The main mast is stepped above a scarf joint at section 2 & 3. Typical keels of the time would have been made in three sections to avoid this by stepping the mainmast in the middle of the 2nd section. The accepted reason for this deviance is the Dutch shipbuilding practice that attempted to have minimal waste by using as much of the available wood as possible. Therefore it is believed that at the time of sourcing the wood for the ship, along with the other ships under contract at the time, this was the best they could do with minimal waste. We do not know if this would have truly mattered or not, as the ship was never able to truly put any strain on the joint. 

Once the sections were cut to length, the scarfs were cut out and the rabbet was grooved onto the sides. The pieces were glued together and left to dry. 

 

The overall length of the keel alone is 5'-4". Next up will be stem and stern posts. 

[Dziadeczek]

Awesome and exciting project!
Make sure though that you have enough room in your house to display the model! Just because your garage is big enough doesn't necessarily mean that there is enough place in your living room to house this monster!

I made a similar error deciding to build a French 74 gunner 1780 after J. Boudriot, in the scale 1:48. Just enough room in my workshop, but after nearly 20 years of fiddling with it (I am a v. slow builder!) I found out that my living room is barely big enough to display this monstrosity!

 

Also, such a scale almost demands to build everything nearly exactly to the original, no simplifications and omissions! The question is, do you have enough time and interest (and appropriate materials) to persevere to the end? It would be almost a tragedy to stop the construction somewhere in the middle due to overwhelming difficulties with obtaining materials and simply due to loosing interest and burning out...

 

I keep my fingers crossed for you!

 

Thomas

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:26 PM by Dziadeczek

[EJ_L]

Thanks Thomas! 

 

I am not planning on displaying this in my home. Already have a few not as large models taking up room as it is. A am actually talking to a friend of mine that manages a library to display it in. They are planning a remodel and expansion in a couple of years and would like to potentially have it as an "attraction". I told them I would donate the ship if they can help with a display case. I also said it will likely take me a couple of years to get it built, so that will work with their schedule. We are still working through some details but hopefully it works out. 

 

This will not be my first long build. I've done a few, though it will be the first 100% scratch build, so a lot more work involved than normal. As for materials, the wood I have in supply, except for a few things that I have a local source for. The cannon are still up in the air for sourcing but I have time. The ropes will be interesting to make, but I've made them before for other ships, I will just need to upscale the process. 

 

I actually love the fact that building in such a large scale ties in closer to actual building practices. This is something that I have been wanting for many years so I'm looking forward to it. 

 

As far as perseverance, that is something that I love about our MSW/NRG community. We help to motivate each other through our passion in these vessels. I have made some good friends on here, and when things fell apart a couple years ago and I stopped posting, I had a couple of them reach out to me just to make sure I was okay. I have actual family who didn't bother. This community is wonderful. I've missed it and am glad to back actively among you all.  

[amateur]

Hi,

I will follow this one for sure.

 

There used tobe a vasa-dedicated forum, interesting as Hocker was avfrequent visitor. It is non-active for a while, but the information is still there.

https://warshipvasa.freeforums.net
 

Jan

Edited Thursday at 06:47 AM by amateur

[EJ_L]

Hi Jan, yes, I am a member of that forum as well. It is a wealth of information, but as you said, mostly inactive. I think most of the members have moved on either to other projects, lots of unfinished logs, or other forums. Here and SOS. It is a shame as it was a good place to get accurate up-to-date information directly from Hocker. I've been told that he will still answer direct messages. 

[amateur]

My own observation: the forum had Clayton's model as main focal point. As soon as he finished his model, the remaining log's were mainly the 'standard' build logs of kit-versions of Vasa. Fred stopped being a regular visitor, because we were for the main part just lurkers, drooling at Clayton's beautiful model. And than it lost momentum as a community of Vasa-enthousiasts. But it still is a wealth of info, although it is sometimes difficult to find the info, as it was quite often just in casual remarks somewhere in a post....  

 

Jan

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

15 hours ago, Dziadeczek said:

Make sure though that you have enough room in your house to display the model!

  I like the warship directly under the wall painting on the right, where just the first mast sections are shown as if the ship is still under construction or otherwise in dry dock for a period of time.  I'm probably going that way with my 1:100 Vasa due to the problems and compromises made in the old Billing kit (ca.1970) - and besides making the hull the focal point, I can wrap up the long-delayed project much sooner and get on with something else.

[EJ_L]

I had actually considered modeling it without the topmasts as it is displayed in the museum. That would have allowed me to build at 1:10 scale even, but, having read through Hocker's Vasa II book which goes into considerable detail on the rigging, and from personal experience with complete rigging and sails on previous projects, I want to try for full rig. I have ambition of going so far as to make the rig semi operable for changing position of the sails, but that may be a dream. Either way, its a long ways out. 

[amateur]

Make sure you can still get the model out of your workshop…. A full rig at that scale will be large

 

Jan

[Hubac's Historian]

Hey EJ - it’s great to see you back on the forums!  I’m excited for the latest project, and I am here for it!

[Baker]

Welcome back and good luck