New kit from Revell of the Royal Ship Vas***

I am really looking forward to this new release from Revell due late 2011.The test shots on their website look good. I understand that Revell have been working with the Vasa museum in Stockholm Sweden to produce this kit, so hopefully it will be more accurate than the old Airfix kit that was released (I think) in the 70's. At 150th scale it will be marginally smaller than the Airfix offering that is 144th scale. It looks as though Revell will be supplying the ratlines as moulded plastic items. At least that is how they look in the photos of the test shots. The Airfix kit has a ratline jig to make your own from thread. Whether the Revell kit will offer a ratline jig also as an alternative for more skilled modellers, we will have to wait and see.   A couple of years ago I visited the Vasa museum and it was awesome to see an almost complete ship from the 1600's. Needless to say lots of pictures were taken. It is very interesting to see the colours of the ship that have been researched being basically a shade of red rather than blue. The ornate carvings on the ship were painted in a multitude of colours that look actually quite garish.    There is a set of plans drawn up by Eva Marie Stolt that is available from the Vasa museum. I have a set of them and can vouch that they will be ideal for modellers, showing full deck plans, and all the standing and running rigging. If you already have the Airfix kit you will see from these plans what has to be changed to make it more accurate. I bought the Airfix kit some time ago intending to build it, but now I will see what the Revell kit is like for accuracy as hopefully it may save me a lot of work.