David's DeAgostini 1/65 scale Wasa

[bird_d00]

Welcome to my build of the DeAgostini 1/65 scale Wasa.

I had already taken a few photos, but Google deleted them (and everything else on my SD card) in retaliation for not giving them permission to store them on their servers. So, until I take some more we'll just start with the 1 picture I have left.

This is the first of the cannons. It seems there are 2 sizes, and this is one of the larger ones. The barrel is made of 4 parts, the barrel itself and 3 smaller castings for the handles. WARNING - the handles are very small castings and easily ping off into the grips of the carpet monster. I lost 2 at one point, thankfully the kids found them. The holes for fitting these were OK for the top handles, but those at the rear were too small and had to be drilled out to 1mm. The black "paint" on the gun carriage is actually Scola indian ink sprayed on with my Badger airbrush - the first time I've had much success with it (I've only had it for about 25 years! ). The official build says to not paint the rims of the wheels, to represent wear, but I'm not sure I like the effect - they look so obviously like they are made of plywood, which of course they are ! The main gun carriage is shown already assembled here from it's 4 component parts - but the instructions tell you now to bag it up and leave it (after painting the barrel bronze). There is no obvious location mechanism for the wheels/axles, and despite downloading the instructions for the next 6 months worth of the model, it doesn't come up again. All the cannons get to this stage and are then put aside. ARGH ! This is what I hated with the Mallard - do something and then put it away for 6 months, by which time you've forgotten all about it.

David Bird

[bird_d00]

OK, it was bright enough this afternoon to take some more pictures, so I can now show the progress on the main hull. This thing is large enough to cause serious problems trying to keep kid's toys, washing etc out of shot in our small house!




The first shows the Wasa next to the Bretagne, to show that it's smaller despite the larger scale (1/65 versus 1/84). The ply used is thinner as well - the keel is 4mm ply, with 3mm bulkheads, where the Bretagne used 5mm ply for everything. The fit of the parts is not too bad, but the ply is fairly obviously not of a constant thickness, requiring some of the slots to be widened. You can maybe see my mistake in the last picture - the third bulkhead has a distinct lean forward. I'm going to have to soak the joints on this and try to pull it vertical so as to correct the matter. Next job will be to get some primer on the metal castings, so they can be painted. Usual bank holiday weather, so it probably won't be rattle cans outside.

David Bird

[bird_d00]

Well progress on the Wasa has now reached pack 3, and it is now getting rather large and heavy. I had real trouble with bending the longitudinal reinforcements P5, where the curve is quite pronounced up against the first bulkhead frame. The instructions recommend you to soak the parts until they become pliable, but I found they didn't become pliable at all, but did start to de-laminate after a couple of days soaking. I gave up on that idea, and tried bending them over a can of tuna with a tealight inside, after only soaking for 5 minutes or so. That worked much better, and the required bend was quickly achieved at the expense of some singeing of the pinkies on the hot can. With the start of pack 3 I have encountered a few more problems - the hull profile over the rear 3 frames appears wrong. Frame 18 needed pulling in to meet the cross reinforcement, and frame 19 needed opening up, and now the hull does not follow a smooth curve. I'll probably end up having to remove the crosswise reinforcements, and adjust something here, but not quite sure where the problem is at the moment. I am also missing some parts - stage 22 is missing the deck planks for the lower deck, and stage 23 is missing the cannon - I will have to get in touch with customer services





David Bird

[bird_d00]

The front section of the lower deck now completed. I didn't follow the instructions which tell you to use full length plank strips with plank ends drawn on in pencil. Not impressed with that at all. I cut the planks into 60mm length sections, clamped them together and blacked the edges with pencil all round before glueing into place individually and drawing in the nails. I think this looks so much better.


David Bird