Vasa by mar3kl - Billing Boats - scale 1:75

[mar3kl]

With the quarter gallery supports in, it was time to go back to the hull and sand and fill it.  This was a tedious, long process of using gradually finer grades of sandpaper until everything was flush and smooth.  It generated epic amounts of wood dust, and since my "workshop" is the guest bedroom, I needed to vacuum a lot so that the guests in question could sleep without coughing all night.  I tried to be careful during planking not to have any depressions - gaps are easy to fill with small amounts of color-coordinated filler, but depressions need more filler and are more visible.  Luckily I didn't need much filler at all, except with the spiled planks at the front.  Those were all hand curved and didn't match each other perfectly.

 

 

Here you can see the area where the spiled planks begin.  

 

 

Here you can see filler that's been applied but not yet sanded down.  It's a nice water-based filler whose color matched the wood fairly closely.

 

 

 

 

Next up was staining the hull and scribing plank butts...

 

[NAZGÛL]

Nice work, she will look gorgeous!

 

 

/Matti

[mar3kl]

Thanks Matti!  I'm pleased with how the hull came out - the single planking design felt a bit like a tightrope without a net - any mistakes would be very visible.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the hull after it was sanded, filled, and stained.  I had to use a darker mahogany stain to cover the different shades of wood I used - the strip stock and the wide stock for spiled planks.

 

I ended up scribing a butt pattern on the strip wood.  It matches with the actual butts between the spiled and strip planks.  Just use an X-acto knife once or twice to make a cut, then use the back of it to enlarge the cut slightly.  Do it before staining, and the stain fills the scribed mark with a slightly darker cast.  The effect is pretty good.  I realize the real ship used scarf joints for all the hull planks and didn't really have a pattern to them, but I wanted a pattern and I didn't want to make hundreds of scarf joints.

 

 

Here you can see the area where the spiled planks meet the strip planks.  The two shades are pretty well merged; another coat or two of stain on the front and it should be fine.  Much of the area just below the lower row of gun ports will be covered with the four wales, so the planks in that area didn't need to be shifted like the ones below the lowest wale.

 

 

[Karleop]

Mar3kl:

 

Really nice planking and the butt pattern on the strips is very convincing.

 

Saludos, Karl

[mar3kl]

Thanks Karl - I like how it came out.  Here are some pictures of the clinker-style planking above the main deck line.  Fairly easy to do once you have the top wale in place.  The wale was easy to install because my scratched bulwarks followed the deck line, so the hull planking did as well, and to install the wale I just followed the hull planking.  Everything following everything else :-).  I did have to replace the wale because I made it too wide and the spacing for the wales below it wasn't quite right.

 

 

The only real issue was being very careful about opening the round gun ports because the veneer had a bad tendency to split.  

 

 

I added scratched pieces of very narrow (1mm) veneer painted white at the top.  Note the rearmost gun port - it is a half-port and I think I'm going to mess with it some and make it fully round, but lower.  The kit supplies an odd looking carriage for that gun - looks like an artillery carriage.  Since I want to replace it with something correct, I can make sure at the same time that the gun is in line with the port at its new location.

 

 

[mar3kl]

Here are some photos of the wales.  Most of the job was straightforward, particularly since the sweep of the hull planks was correct, so the wales just needed to follow the planking.  Another good reason to have scratched the bulwarks.  

 

 

The compound curves at the front meant spiling planks for the wales, just as for the hull planks.  I used scarf joints for the wales though, and then scribed joints at regular intervals along the rest of each wale.

 

 

The rear of the wales as they hit the quarter gallery framing.

 

 

Next up was the quarter galleries, which were...difficult.

Edited September 17, 2014 by mar3kl

[mar3kl]

The quarter galleries were the most challenging part of the build at that point.  Lots of curves meeting each other, requiring earlier framing to be aligned very carefully.  If the early parts are off, I suspect it would be almost impossible to make the galleries look right.  I started by planking the curved parts of the stern out to where they meet the lower parts of each quarter gallery.  In order to get the edges mitred properly I needed to make balsa support blocks at each corner and very carefully shape them to the desired curved corner profile.  Then I used 3mm veneer as the planking, starting at the base and working upward.  The topmost piece of each level is curved to match the lip of the gallery.

 

 

I then painted the planked areas - you can see the result in the following two pictures.  It turned out reasonably well -- once all the sculptures are mounted there, you won't see much of the base.  Again the color for some reason looks pinkish.  The actual color is a dull red.

 

 

 

Once the stern planking was finished, I needed to plank the lower half of each quarter gallery and get it to meet at the back with nice mitered curve.  The balsa support block really helped here; the only other tricky part was that the gallery curves slightly, so various planks needed a little edge bending to line up properly.  I figured this would happen so I started at the top where the joints are visible, and worked my way down.  By the time I got to the bottom I needed an oddly shaped plank but it's basically hidden at the very bottom of the gallery.

 

 

 

Finally I needed to make the front nose of the quarter gallery bottoms.  The kit supplied balsa, and I couldn't think of a better solution so I used it.  I glued a block into place and then shaped it in situ until it looked reasonable.  The texture's different from the strip wood but it's not that noticeable.  The joint will be covered with a sculpture

 

 

 

And with that I moved to the turrets, something I was not looking forward to, but which turned out quite well in the end.

 

 

 

 

[mar3kl]

And on to the gallery towers.  I assumed that the lower rear one would be the most difficult and I was right.  I don't know why that caused me to tackle it first.

 

The towers start as cylindrical turnings, and need angled cuts in three dimensions to fit them to the galleries.  The kit supplies dimensions, but I found them to be pretty useless.  I needed to roughly shape the towers and then keep testing the fit until I liked it.  Here are pictures of the lower rear tower before and after I used the kit-defined measurements to shape it.

 

 

Alas, this tower just didn't fit properly.   The relationship between the upper and lower galleries forced the tower to be canted to the outside and with its base swelling over the edge of its gallery in order to clear the gallery above.  This was either to a greater or lesser extent depending on whether I added the finial and wanted it too to clear the upper gallery.  I think the kit design just doesn't have quite the right setup for the galleries, since the kit photos also show a poorly fitting lower rear tower.

 

You can see what it looks like here, when you make the cuts in each dimension but do no other reshaping:

 

 

I ended up doing a bunch of reshaping such that the tower was able to clear the upper gallery while keeping its sides still vertical.  It was a little tricky to do this and at the same time prevent a gap between the tower and the side of the hull.  And I needed to truncate the finial - no amount of reworking would make it clear the upper gallery.  All in all a thankless task, but the result was reasonably good.

 

[mar3kl]

My next problem was figuring out how to put overlapping shingles on the towers like on the real ship.  The kit makes no provision for this - all they expect you do to is scribe some lines on the towers.  I thought shingles would look better.

 

The kit-supplied towers are continuously curved, but the real ship's towers are more complex.  As far as I can tell they are octagonal, with eight panels, each curved to form a dome together.  The kit's contour for the dome was basically correct, so I started by marking the points of an octagon at the base, and then making lines from each point to the top of the tower.  

 

The next problem was attaching the shingles.  I didn't want to mess with the towers too much (the rear lower ones were a notable exception) since the curve profile looked pretty good out of the box.  So I ended up flattening the cylindrical lower part of each tower only.  Then I constructed a set of triangular pieces similar to the photo below, composed of shingles laid over one another:

 

 

Eight triangular pieces comprised the shingling for a single tower.  The shingles were thin veneer, so it was pretty easy to bend them to follow the curve of the dome.  Getting the edges to meet up was tricky, and there were a few gaps, but they will be covered with sculptures, so no problem there.

 

 

Here's a photo of one of the towers once it was shingled.  I then needed to drill a small hole in the top for the finial, which is a turned piece of brass.  The real ship had different shaped finials for each tower, since as far as I can tell they had an unlimited supply of labor to do that sort of thing.  The kit's finials are all the same, so I'll differentiate them with paint.

 

 

And here is a tower dry-fitted in place.  The shingles extended the size of the tower slightly, so I needed to cut away the clinker planking on the hull where it met the tower.  I think the result turned out pretty well - the bottom part is nicely octagonal, and the top part curves nicely.

 

 

Repeat five more times for the remaining towers...

 

 

[maltbyguy]

Looking very good I shall use your build as an inspiration for mine

I especialy like the way you have done the bulwalks I was wondering how to get away from the plywood look it seems a shame to spoil such an eligant model by seeing plywood edges

Did you break off the top part of the frames when you had planked the bulwalks ?

Andy

[mar3kl]

I had to break off the bulkhead tops before I started the scratched bulwarks.  I had already thinned them down when I tried using the kit's precut bulwarks, and the result was too fragile to provide adequate support as the scratched bulwarks were built up.  Instead, I built some temporary thick balsa support frames across the width of the deck, rising to the height of the bulwarks.  I curved the outside of the supports to match the bulwark profile, and then removed the supports once I was done.  If I had thought it through earlier, I would just have used the frame tops as supports.

[mar3kl]

The three towers in place, together with their finials.  The hapless lower rear tower needed its finial truncated in order to fit underneath the upper gallery.  The gaps in the shingling panels occur because the curved tower profile is not quite regular, but the gaps will be covered by sculptures, so it won't matter.

 

The very front of the upper gallery is a little tricky.  The kit provides balsa as it does for the front of the gallery bottom, but it doesn't match well with the clinker planking.  I ended up creating three shingled panels to go over the balsa, and they looked pretty good.

 

 

A view from the stern.  Bad lighting, but you can see the sides of the tower bases are fairly vertical, which was surprisingly hard to get right.  There are lots of angles conspiring against you here.

 

 

The towers all primed and ready to paint.  What you don't see is that the sides facing the hull also need shingling, and you can't really do that until the towers are in place, making the job quite fiddly.

 

 

Beginning to paint the towers.  The horizontal plank is a test fit.  Note the window below it - there will be a corresponding square cut into the gallery planking.

 

 

 

 

[md1400cs]

M,

 

Very nice work articulating your towers, also took me a while how to get this done.Yours Look very good. Nice build progress

 

Michael

Edited September 22, 2014 by md1400cs

[Karleop]

Hola Mar3kl:

 

Your towers look fantastic, only a little comment: as I know they must be parallel and it seems your upper one is slightly out of line (or is the angle of the picture?)

 

Saludos, Karl

[mar3kl]

Hola Karl - I think it's the angle and the lighting.  There are a lot of optical illusions at the stern because of all the angles.  I was very happy to be done with this part of the project.  The towers are such an important part of the ship, so I tried hard to get them right, but it was very challenging.  I'm hoping the sculptures will hide any imperfections.

 

mark

[mar3kl]

With the towers in place, it was time to plank the upper parts of each gallery.  Each plank needed to be cut slightly differently because of the tower curves.  I pre-painted the pieces to preserve a nice clean line with the yellow below.  Note the clinker planking around the gallery window.  I have no idea what that part of the real ship looks like, but I figured you should see something reasonably finished if you looked through the gallery opening.

 

 

Here the upper and lower galleries have been planked, and the opening for the window cut into the lower gallery.  You can also see what I did with the front of the upper gallery.  There are three vaguely triangular panels of shingles that together round the curve of the front.  A little wood filler here and there to clean things up, and it looks pretty good.  The front tower overhangs the gallery base, which is because of the shingling.  I'm going to add an extension around the base so it's flush with the tower.

 

 

One side almost finished, with a little more wood filler for some small gaps between the towers and the gallery planking.

 

 

And a look at the finished gallery.  The borders at the front of the galleries will be covered with sculptures.  This is from later in the build when I had started adding some sculptures, so you can see bits of them in the background.  You can also see how I've extended the base of the gallery floor so it's flush with the tower, rather than the tower overhanging.  I was very happy to have finished this part of the project!

 

 

Now on to the beak area...

 

[mar3kl]

Finally the dreaded quarter galleries are finished!  Now it was on to the beak area.  There are lots of parts here, but most of them are pre-cut and fit nicely.  The only problem I found with the pre-cut parts was that you need to be very careful scribing both the front and the back of the part or it will split - the plywood isn't always well-laminated.

 

I started with the upper and lower braces on each side of the prow, not visible in these photos.  Once those were on, it greatly lessened my persistent low-grade concern about breaking the prow accidentally.

 

Then I had to install the nine frames making up the structure for the beak deck.  Again, pretty straightforward.

 

 

And here they are after staining and the addition of the lateral supports for the decking.

 

 

[mar3kl]

The beak decking was straightforward.  I used mahogany instead of the kit-supplied wood because I wanted it to match the hull.

 

 

Here's a picture where you can see the side supports for the prow in place.  It's nice and stable now.

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2014 by mar3kl

[mar3kl]

Finishing up the beak - the cap molding is done as well as the two transverse pin rails.

 

 

The remaining pin rails and the stairs.  The stairs were tricky for two reasons.  First, each step is differently shaped and the instructions didn't say which went where.  Fortunately test-fitting them made it pretty clear for me.  Second, the lower stairs are hard to access, even with tweezers.  But I attached them eventually and they look pretty good.

 

I also installed the two heads, which are basically small angled boxes that sit almost under the side pin rails.  It must have been pretty uncomfortable for the sailors...

 

 

Close-up of the stairs and the side of the beak.  The curve of the side pieces didn't match the curve of the large sculptures that attach to them, so I needed to reshape the wood.  That was not difficult - just lay the large sculpture on the wood piece and figure out where to cut.  A small piece added in the middle and it matched quite well.

 

 

And a sadly blurry picture of the beak sides.  The lower side was a single pre-cut piece that fit surprisingly well.  Only a little fettling was required where the piece meets the wales on the hull.  I added some scratched molding detail that matches the 1:10 model pretty well.  The gaps in the molding match where the Roman emperor sculptures will go, so they can sit flush with the sides.  The ten emperors come in three sizes - small, medium, and large - and they line up pretty well with the changing height of the beak sides.

 

 

Now a few more hull details, and I started painting sculptures.  The beak was surprisingly straightforward after all the challenges with the quarter galleries, and I like the way it looks.

 

[edmay]

Nice work,what is the name and make of the red color,the beck turned out very good, matching the wood to the hull looks good . Edwin

[mar3kl]

Edwin - the red paint is from a line called Citadel, by Games Workshop.  This specific color is called "Mephiston Red" (lots of odd fantasy role playing-inspired paint names in this line).  It's a good paint line - matte acrylic, very finely ground, evenly dispersed pigment, dries quickly, mixes well, etc.  Your local gaming/hobby shop should have it, or you can order online from www.games-workshop.com.

 

Some more photos of the finished beak area...

 

 

The economy class toilets...

 

 

And a less blurry photo of the side panel, with the notches cut out for the Roman emperor sculptures.

 

 

[NAZGÛL]

Very nice, you have done the most difficult parts now, and it looks great!

 

/Matti

[mar3kl]

Thanks Matti, and thanks everyone for all the "likes" and positive comments.  It's a long build process and all the encouragement helps.

 

Here are a couple of photos of the deck-facing part of the transom.  The kit doesn't document very well what should go here, but there are enough photographs floating around the internet that I think I came reasonably close to what it should look like.  The kit provides two curved pieces at the bottom, but the top pieces had to be scratched.  The wood on the crosspieces is also wider I think than what the kit plans specify.

 

 

There are two tall sculptures at the back corners of the hull, stacked one on top of the other.  I traced the outline of the sculptures and removed bits of clinker planking, leaving a solid base for the sculptures to adhere to.  The real ship also has a mounting base for the sculptures extending above the bulwarks, where the kit doesn't provide one.  I think I more or less got it right.  In any case the sculptures will have something solid to adhere to.  I don't have a photo of this, but I painted the extensions red to match the sides of the hull, leaving only the inner face natural wood.

 

 

 

[Karleop]

Hola Mar3kl:

 

You are achieving a good job, only a little comment: in your last picture you mention that for the mounting of the back corner sculptures you need a solid piece to adhere them.  I am not sure if I understand correctly your annotation but, in my case I had no problem to adhere them due that they are made with 2 parts making a 3D figures.

 

 

Saludos, Karl

[mar3kl]

Hola Karl - I expressed myself badly.  The sculptures come in two pieces as you say, to make a 3D figure.  The back piece is flatter than the front, presumably so it is easier to attach to the hull.  I wanted a smooth base to mount it on, rather than the clinkered finish, so I removed a little of the clinker planking.  I have a photo of it which I'll post once I catch up to where I am currently in the build.

 

mark

[mar3kl]

And back to the transom area, and the ports for the four swivel guns.  The kit doesn't say anything about these in plans or instructions, but some of the photos seem to show port outlines made from two pieces of wire twisted together and then the result bent in a circle.  I thought open ports would look better.  You can see the process in the first photo - I drilled very small holes in a circular pattern and then used a very sharp knife to connect the holes and remove the center.

 

 

Here you see the result after cleaning up with a round-profile file.  The markings on the wood are where the medieval knight sculptures will go.  I needed to be sure they were spaced correctly around the ports.  As an aside, I found it very helpful to look ahead to where sculptures would go while constructing the stern area.  Just a few millimeters of difference will prevent sculptures from sitting properly.  I didn't do this as dilligently as I should have on the quarter galleries, and made some mistakes.

 

 

And the final result with the port outlines.  They are thin copper wire, bent around a chopstick.  The chopstick in question tapers from one end to the other, so finding the correct diameter was easy.

 

 

I still need to mess with the two lower ports - they are too small.  But I'll wait to do that until the sculptures above them are in place and I can match up the curve of the sculpture with the curve of the port.

 

 

[mar3kl]

And finally it's time to paint sculptures.  There are hundreds of the little guys (and some not so little).  They are all made of plastic, not metal.  That's actually a good thing, since they are easy to bend and easy to thin, and there is going to be a Lot of bending and thinning during this process.

 

The sculptures are molded in brown plastic, which I primed white, using spray enamel so it wouldn't clog any details as brush paint might.  The quality of the molding and the detail on the sculptures is good enough.  Their accuracy is all over the map - some are pretty correct, some are completely different from they should be.  A recurring issue is that the kit re-uses a particular figure in different places, doubtless for cost reasons.  So a Roman emperor on the beak will also appear as a Gideon warrior on the stern.  Not a big deal.  And there are some sculptures that are missing completely, so I may have to take up wood carving or learn 3D modeling and printing.

 

I use gaming miniature matte acrylic paint by Games Workshop and Vallejo.  Easy to mix, dries quickly, very finely dispersed pigment, and no nasty fumes.  I tend to prefer muted colors because they look better at scale.

 

Here's my first attempt at the cherubs on the stern.  It was my first painting of this sort in a good many years, so I ended up going over it a few times to improve things, but as a first cut it wasn't bad.

 

 

[mtaylor]

Nice work on her.  This kit is a pain in many ways but makes a beautiful model.   I double planked using a thin cherry veneer but my colors are all off.  When I was past the paint point for everything, they had just discovered that "not blue but red".    So, while not 100% accurate, it's still a nice model.  Plus there's other bits that research has uncovered and depending on the year of the kit, they may or may not be there.

 

I'm following along as I think the Wasa is one of the nicer "over the top" ships.

[mar3kl]

"Over the top" is a great way to put it, and the main reason I decided to build it.  After my first model 13 years ago, I thought "done that, no need to do any more", but the Vasa made a big impression on me as a kid when I went to the Vasavarvet in the early '70s.  The whole "nothing exceeds like excess" aesthetic was too compelling to pass up.

[NAZGÛL]

Nice start with the painting! You will have use of your experience with figure painting.

 

You don't need to use primer on this plastic if you don't want to. Vallejo and the other acrylics I've tried bites well on it.

 

 

/Matti