Need help with Wasa

Just finished reading and vueing the picturs on the link you posted here , I enjoyed it very much.  It's good to see you posting agen.  I will use your link when I get around to dueing mine.

The interior detail of the gun ports doors have great detail and it would be a shame to close the doors up and hide it all. But that’s just me. I’m a firm believer in doing what ever makes you happy when you model. I built this kit about 2 years ago. Here’s a build log that I did. Also in the thread you’ll find a couple of links to the restoration of the Wasa that heavy with pictures and research. Good luck. This is one of my favorite kits and have been thinking about building one to reflect how she currently looks in the museum. Post up a build log of your build and share J

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A slight simplafacation of galleyslave's idea would be to : use a dramell tool to cut away the plastic lieving a squair lower section to paint as the carrage , with just enuf plastic above that to glue the cannon barrole to.

Pavlvs, yet another idea, possibly in conjunction with the gundeck "shelves", is to simply cement the stub cannon barrels to blocks of sprue and position them in the opened-up gun ports- the only portion of the carriages that are seen are the fronts up against the port sills. I am doing a similar thing with my Airfix Victory. I am cementing the stubs to tiny pieces of styrene sheet that re in turn cemented to the port sills. They look much more convincing than  Airfix's original idea, but if you go the open ports/shelf route, you will be able to see the open ports on the opposite side of the ship, including the ones on the deck below!  (oh how I wish I had taken the time to make a middle gundeck and those shelves!) Hope this helps, Galleyslave.

The smallest gun barrels Bluejacket offers are 1/2" long.  I don't remember just how long the guns of the Wasa would be on that scale; you might just be able to get away with using the Bluejacket ones (bearing in mind that only the muzzles will be visible).  But at $1.00 apiece, the bill will be considerable.

Another approach, which might actually work out to be cheaper and more accurate, would be to get hold of a plastic kit that has lots of full-length guns and carriages in it.  The Lindberg "Captain Kidd" (aka Wappen von Hamburg) comes to mind.  It has lots of guns, in several sizes, complete with carriages.

The casting Idea was one I never thought of.  Thanks guys

I especially like doing the deck and actual cannons.  I think Bluejacket Shipcrafters can provide.

Greetings:

Would it be less work to completely open up the gun ports, install a strip of styrene behind them to create a ledge and add some cannons complete with carriages from another kit? Or if suitable cannons are not available then maybe scratch build one and then cast the rest using one of the Alumilite casting kits?  If the kit provides cannons with carriages for the upper deck you could cast the carriage and then use styrene rod for barrels. It may turn out to be the same amount of work but doing it this way you wouldn't lose any surface detail that would be lost by filling with putty and trying to rescribe the planking. Just a thought.

Michael Lacey 

It's been a good many years since I've looked closely at that kit, so any suggestions I offer have to rely on my highly defective memory.  That said, the best I can suggest is to fill the sink marks with a high-quality epoxy putty, like Miliput.  It shrinks considerably less than the garden-variety stuff, and leaves a relatively smooth surface; if you're careful you may be able, with some practice (of which you'll get plenty in the course of fixing all these portlids), to do the trick with an application of putty and a coat of paint.  (You want, if possible, to avoid sanding or filing, which will risk damaging the hinge detail.)

About the only other idea I can think of offhand requires casting equipment (which, given the small size of the parts in question, actually doesn't need to be such a big deal).  You could fix one of the portlids and use it as a master to cast replacements for all the others.

Maybe somebody else can come up with a better idea; those are the only ones I can think of.  Good luck.