Wasan 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship) FINISHED

NAZGÛL

NAZGÛL

Sr Member
There is a great documentary named Vasa 1628 -människorna, skeppet, tiden (Vasa 1628 -the people, the ship, the time). If youre interested in the life of that time and/or the ship, this is a must see!

TV-vasa1-430.jpg


Watching it fueled my dream to build a wooden model based on the ship. Ive always loved the ship. Standing before it is like going back in time. Im a sucker for swedish history and Gustavus Adolphus is my fav king.

I decided to go with the 1:75 Billing Boats Vasa kit. The quality is fine, the instructions however leave you alone alot of times and you need to think everything through before starting the steps. The kit is close to the original Vasa, and thats what made me chose it.

There is a great yahoo building group, and one of the members is Fred Hocker, the head of research at the Vasa museum, and he is very helpful. (He is a fellow modeler.)

Working with wood kits is new to me, but Im really enjoying it. Its something very rewarding to just get a box of planks and wood pieces, and then making it come together. It feels alot like scratching, but having everything you need in the box. Painting this will be a challenge, but painting is also what I enjoy most.

Anyway, here are a few pics of where Im at in the project. Ive painted the planks in diferent shades to get the scale and effect Im aiming for:

wasen1.jpg


wasen3.jpg


wasen2.jpg



Cheers!
 
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Re: Wasen 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Excellent. Great build, i did a wooden ship a few years ago. Was great fun. Although the rigging nearly drove me insane. But it was worth it.


Cant wait to see more.

Al
 
Re: Wasen 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

This'll be interesting.

It's awesome that the museum guy is also a modeler. :lol

I saw the Vasa when I was in Sweden last summer. Very impressive.

Are you gonna keep that light wood color, or stain it darker?


-MJ
 
Re: Wasen 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Wow, Nazgul, great start. I didn't know you were keen about ship-building. I've always wanted to build one of those old magnificent ships but the intricacy scares me. But having something like that displayed in the house would be something to be really proud of.
 
Re: Wasen 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Nice work on the decking. I have a few wood model ships in Boxes. Was saving them for my retirement. That's the only way I will have time to build them.
 
Re: Wasen 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Thanks guys! Yeah, Ive been in love with old ships long, and there is so much history to read about this ship, and the time she was built. Sweden was a war nation back then with the best army in Europe, far away from today. Id also like to have a wiking longboat and maybe The Gotheborg and Kalmar Nyckel some day, as they have very interesting swedish stories. The buids does take a while to do.

Al, yeah the rigging seems to be take patience, but Im fokusing on the hull and later painting the figures first.

MJ, I made it pretty bright, based on information about the original, and also by looking at pictures of the Kalmar Nyckel replica (A ship I adore). This was untreated pine if I dont mix up the english words for it. Vasas deck never had the time to become gray as she sunk so early. I went for a slightly grayed tone, to make it feel realistic.
 
Re: Wasen 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

I've always wanted to build a big wooden kit just like that. Just a couple of days ago I took the exact same model off the shelf at my LHS. Despite building models for years, shipbuilding (I hear from guys from shipbuilding forums) takes a bit of a different skill set and talent. They recommended that I start out with a canoe and work my way up.
You're definitely brave for starting up at this level. Is this an advanced kit?

TazMan2000
 
Re: Wasen 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Thanks!

Yeah, its labeled expert level. When I make models for myself, I can only do it with passion, so I only pick what I love. This will take a long time to build and hours of research, so I need the passion for the subject. Thinking back, I never backed away from a kit because of the difficulty level, and the harder ones are the one you learn from. On the other hand, Id buy a snap kit also, if its a subject I love.

I can see the kit being confusing, because the instructions are pretty limited with what to do and Wasa has alot of details. Its not harder compaired from building from scratch though, so I hope Ill be ok.

The make or break for me will be to plank the hull. The kit is also very fragile, so its easy to break it. On the other hand, you can easily make your own stuff and corrections, as its basically just the raw material that you start with. The Vasa is also a good subject as there is a lot of information about her, and like I said the expert is extremely nice and shares his knowledge. When needed I can always get that extra kick from visiting the museum and watch the real ship.

Im trying to get a ILM vibe for the paintjob. It will be tricky to match the new made look, with some dirt.

Edit: The kit is good, but has not open holes for the canons (just fake glue on plates.) I will correct this, and that will be tricky, and make the hull planking harder.
 
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Re: Wasen 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Getting there with the weatherdeck. Ive done the doors. The construction is pretty delicate, and I redid some of the construction.

Mixing the colors took a while to get the blend I want. I wanted the look of really old "faluröd", a very common red colour on traditional wood houses in Sweden that grows darker as it ages. It has a warm feeling to it, almost like blood.

I tried the bright yellow like the original had, but decided that I wanted a more natural look, so I toned down yellow to give it a more boneish feel to it.

wasen4.jpg


I only started to build the door and "altar area". There will be washes blending them together later on.

wasen6.jpg

The last pic is taken with a lot of light, the planking and colors is actually darker.
 
Re: Wasan 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Thanks! :cheers

Ive done 3 of the five door top parts. Also did the "altar" between the big doors. There will be a nine sculptures there and I will add them later on.

wasan7.jpg


wasan5b.jpg



If anyone could point me to good figures in 1:75 that would fit the theme, it would be great.
 
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Re: Wasan 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Brings back memories my mom used to make those clipper ships
would take her a year or more! Inside the box for the hull was just
a block of wood and you had to carve it......crazy stuff!!! BUT SO WORTH
IT WHEN YOUR DONE.....hang in there looking good!
 
Re: Wasan 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Thanks man. I think its cool that your mom was into shipmodelling! :thumbsup

Many of the models at our maritime museum are still made that way.
 
Re: Wasan 1628 (Billing Boats Vasa ship)

Heya all. Ive done most of the deck details. Only a few things left and its on to the next step.

wasan8b.jpg
 
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