New build: Airfix Wasa *Finished 5-20*

thanks!

wow it's been almost a year to date since i finished building the Vasa. how time has sailed by....

to enemeink

        I see by your mesage that you managed to complete the WASA I have recently been given this model as a present although it is many years since Iwas last a modeller any tips would be much appreciated plus does the kit need any preparation prior to painting .

I'm close to this stage with my Wasa. Ready to paint. Did anyone have any problems with those little "viewing domes" on each side of the stern? I even found some of the castings were plain wrong! But I got it together. This is a fine kit, but not for the new kid or faint of heart!

Allan

Enemeink's Airfix Vasa looks superb. A real testament to his modelling skills and it goes to show what you can do with a plastic sailing ship kit of 1970's origin

Bugatti Fan

Enemeink's Airfix Vasa looks superb. A real testament to his modelling skills and it goes to show what you can do with a plastic sailing ship kit of 1970's origin

Yes, it is, looks good. Another one good example:

http://www.modellmarine.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2469:koenigsschiff-wasa-von-1628-airfix-1144-von-frank-spahr-teil-2&catid=98:fspahr

http://www.modellmarine.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2466:koenigsschiff-wasa-von-1628-airfix-1144-von-frank-spahr&catid=98:fspahr

http://www.modellmarine.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2196:kurzvorstellung-schwedisches-koenigsschiff-wasa-airfix-1144-von-frank-spahr&catid=98:fspahr

Thanks for the kind words!

I built this right out of the box and on a budget. the only thing I deviated on was the rigging. I had enlarged a picture of a wood kit and rigged based off the picture. or at least guessed my way though it. i had some good info from the vasamuseet regarding colors, but i winged on the bow because I could find any free reference material at the time. i think if i do build the Revell kit there will be a fair bit of scratch building involved with the bulwarks, and dead eyes. the molded dead eyes have to go. of course this was the big hang up on my Royal Louis. I lost interest after tying some 40 something dead eyes and only being half finished with just that.

I forgot to mention in my last post that Revell Germany are issuing a Vasa kit and it should be available about the end of this year. It is a brand new kit made with the assistance of the Vasa museum, so it should be very accurate. The scale at 1/150th is slightly smaller than the Airfix 1/144th scale offering. Test shots look good on Revell's website. Serious modellers however, will probably ditch the simplified moulded plastic ratlines in favour of rigging their own. A superb set of plans by Eva Marie Stolt is available from the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. I recently got a set (8 sheets in all). Highly detailed showing  hull, standing and running rigging details a modeller could need to build either the Revell or Airfix kits. I paid about 20 pounds sterling for my set approximately 2 years ago. The set comes with a very interesting museum handbook about the ship. At present, I have the Airfix kit unbuilt, but will probably hold back now until I can get a look at the new Revell kit.

Bugatti Fan

I forgot to mention in my last post that Revell Germany are issuing a Vasa kit and it should be available about the end of this year. It is a brand new kit made with the assistance of the Vasa museum, so it should be very accurate. The scale at 1/150th is slightly smaller than the Airfix 1/144th scale offering. Test shots look good on Revell's website. Serious modellers however, will probably ditch the simplified moulded plastic ratlines in favour of rigging their own. A superb set of plans by Eva Marie Stolt is available from the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. I recently got a set (8 sheets in all). Highly detailed showing  hull, standing and running rigging details a modeller could need to build either the Revell or Airfix kits. I paid about 20 pounds sterling for my set approximately 2 years ago. The set comes with a very interesting museum handbook about the ship. At present, I have the Airfix kit unbuilt, but will probably hold back now until I can get a look at the new Revell kit.

Read my last 2 posts on this thread:

/forums/t/135694.aspx?PageIndex=3

Marius,

Thanks for the photos!  The only issue that I have concerns the gundecks.  It looks like RoG used an old Lindberg trick of having the modeler cement a complete row of gun carriages molded into a single strip piece instead of putting in the entire gundeck and gun carriages individually.  Also, the photos show a bulkhead immediately inboard of the carriages.  I'm not sure what that is supposed to represent.

Granted, it is an easy matter to scrap build a gundeck; replacing the gun carriages is a little more difficult.

Otherwise, the level of detail is impressive.  I can't wait to get the kit!

Bill

warshipguy

I can't wait to get the kit!

Bill, there a lot of them new and unopened selling through Germany's and UK's ebay:

http://www.ebay.de/sch/Schiffe-/100017/i.html?_nkw=revell+vasa&_catref=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m1538

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=revell+vasa&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Another Revell's Vasa kit review with macro pictures:

http://www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=36959

Marius,

Thanks, but I've already pre-ordered through my LHS.  It should be here next week.

Bill

Hi Guys

Further to my last posts about the Revell Vasa kit, I have been looking at a British website named Scale Plastic and Rail. The new Vasa kit has been subject to an 'out of the box' review on this site by James Hatch. There are many photos of the kit parts and the instruction sheets in this review, so there is a good chance here to see how the Revell kit compares to the Airfix one. Having a quick look and comparing the pictures with my Airfix kit, I felt that the sculpted figures on the Revell kit did not appear to be as well defined as I would have expected. But maybe it was the just the review photos? I would have to get a look at a kit myself to really compare like with like. The parts look quite good though overall. An earlier poster had some reservations about how the cannons were mounted, but looking at the photos on this site should allay any trepidation. I feel that the overall impression when built will look better than the Airfix method of recessed square gunports where you stick in the forward half of a cannon barrel but can still see the back of the recesses ,even when painted matt black. If I decide to build the Airfix version I will probably close most of the hatches save one or two that I will try to make look more realistic. As yet I do not know how!!  Having visited the Vasa museum to see the ship and also having obtained the Stolt plans from the museum, I guess that the Revell kit will stack up much better against these for overall accuracy. Comparing the Airfix one with these plans shows a few inaccuracies that will need sorting out. There are top railings missing , the rearmost one of the ornate merman carvings will need to be removed on each side of the bulwarks. a gunport needs to be added on each side of one of the rear decks, and the ' dormer window' will need to be removed from the ornate side galleries. There is a window in the same position, but it is flush to the ship's main hull and can be seen through a slot in the same position. The Stolt drawings also show a very small window located near to the mizzen mast shroud locations on the hull. These inaccuracies are what I have seen so far on the Airfix kit when compared to the Stolt drawings.  There is nothing there that cannot be put right however. Generally the Airfix kit is not bad considering it dates back to the Seventies when it was first released, and can be worked into a fine model. It would be nice if Airfix started looking at classic ships again like Revell have done with their new Vasa kit. It would be great if either of these manufacturers could bring out either Brunel's Great Britain or HMS Warrior, as the actual ships are there to do the research on.