Vasa build of Corel kit [COMPLETED BUILD]

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Introduction.
I have read various SOS postings on the merits of various Vasa kits: Billing, Corel, d'Agostini, Mantua.
I have settled on the Corel version even though it is not the most highly favoured.
The kit is about half the price of d'Agostini and the negative comparisons (accuracy etc.) are not issues that I am too bothered about.
It is unlikely that I will visit the Stockholm Museum with my model under my arm and feel mortified by discrepencies.
Aside. Many 'classic' ship models (eg Golden Hind, Revenge, Santa Maria, Mayflower) are based on conjecture but we accept the inherent inaccuracy.
Old ships for which the original exists are few. Victory, Cutty Sark, Vasa, bits of Mary Rose are some exceptions .
I am content for my Vasa model to be somewhere between these categories.
The 1:75 scale is more appealing than 1:60 - I am fast running out of display sites and I don't think SWMBO would take kindly to having her books jettisoned.
I will post some pictures of the box contents later. For the moment I will comment on the paperwork.
There are several large sheets of detailed, helpful-looking assembly diagrams. The instructions are not quite so good.
The 'Official' looking leaflet (stapled and folded as a booklet) is in Italian. Fair enough for an Italian kit.
This is supplemented by loose leaf sheets of photocopied translations of instructions in English, French and German.
The accompanying parts lists remain in Italian - apart from the German version which has been translated
With the aid of Google Translate I shall soon become trilingual in the names of ship parts and the types of wood.
Prua = bow; poppa = stern; buche = beech etc.
Had this been the subject of school French lessons (rather than what Jean has for breakfast) I might have been more intrersted.

The kit
Vasa kit.jpg Vasa Sheet 1.jpg Vasa sheet 2.jpg

The kit comes in a good, stout, cardboard box. There are two plastic trays divided into compartments.
One primarily contains rigging componrents: blocks, dead-eyes, cord and sundry other small items.
The other contains the decorative bits. Both can be put aside unopened for a while.
A long, removable inner box (useful) contains the planking and dowels nicely bundled.
Remaining parts are grouped into plastic bags. apart from the keel and bulkheads ( =ordinata or spants) most components seem to be
cut from solid, rather than plywood.
I like the fact that all the sheet components have been fully cut and (where viable) stamped with numbers.
Other kits I have made (OcCre, Caldercraft) retained all components within a sheet by leaving small, uncut segments. (sprues?)
I found cutting hundreds of these and smoothing off the residual stumps very tedious.
I have photographed a couple of the instruction sheets to give a flavour of their quality.
They are very large (!) and very clear. There are twelve in all.
Time to start building.
The Frame
In previous builds the assembly of bulkheads and keel has taken only a few minutes after extracting the components from a cut sheet
and trimming off the blips.
Not so with this kit! All the slots in the bulwarks were too narrow to accommodate the keel; most of the slots in the keel
were too narrow to accommodate the bulkheads. It took hours with blade and file to make them wider.
There are slits in the edges of the bulkheads to act as guides for the first layer of planking. The first picture below shows the results
of an initial, dry assembly with a thin strip of material temporarily inserted into one row of slits.
vasa build 1.jpg
Rather than forming a smooth curve, the inserted strip was very wavy: it looked like the design of a roller coaster for the timid.
The depth of selected bulkhead slots were extended to improve the algnment. After further work with file and chisel to modify the
channels for the longerons I finally manged to get a reasonable assembly with a few small compromises on the vertical displacements.
The main deck (after widening a few edge slots too narrow to take a bulkhead) seem to touch (or almost touch) most of the bulkhead tops.
The following photo shows the glued up assembly.
Vasa Build 2.jpg
I'm not sure what the longerons are for. Given that the bulkeads are held square to the keel by the slots alnog
the edges of the deck the logerons don't seem to add anything. Perhaps I shall find their function later.
I hope the remaining thousands of components fit together more easily! Perhaps laser cutting has its merits.
Bow blocks
This kit uses bow blocks to fill the quadrants between the keel and the first bulkhead.
The intention seems to be that these will be covered by both layers of planking.
However, if the bow blocks are extended 1.5mm beyond the bulkhead then the first layer of planking could be stopped there.
This would save tapering, soaking, bending and retaining the first layer planks round a fairly tight curve.
The forward edge of the blocks where they meet the stem would also need extending.
Unfortunately, the bow blocks provided in the kit are not quite big enought to deploy this idea.
I have therefore packed them out with offcuts of plywood: one cut to the profile of the chamfered first bulkhead (+1.5mm)
and one to the profile where the planks would have met the keel (+1.5mm)
The extended, raw bow blocks were then carved to the final shape of the bow.
In this process the plywood attachments served as a useful guide when removing waste wood.
The following photo shows the two plywood profiles and the raw bow block from the kit for the port
side yet to be processed. Also, the completed starboard bow block.
I must take care to assemble the second bow block as a PORT version!
When the first layer of planks is installed the interface of the plank ends with the bow blocks can be smoothed
as necessary. Final shaping of the bow blocks can be done if indicated by dry fitting of some scond layer planks.
Aside: Is it just me or something about this site that enhances the number of typographical errors I make?
Bow blocks.jpg vasa build 3.jpg
Deck fittings
I have fitted the extended bow blocks. The second picture above has a first layer plank temporarily pinned in place to illustrate
the intention of the extension. The intersection will be smothed when the first layer planks are finally placed.
The Corel instructions emphasise that the components of the kit should be fitted in numerical order. The next items listed are various deck items.
These precede both the deck planking and hull planking which seems a bit odd but I will do as instructed.
At this point the man who stamped useful numbers on the keel, decks and bulkhead components appears to have run out of ink.
The next items need to be identified from an instruction sheet. I have sprinkled a few at random on said heet pictured below.
Vasa build 4.jpg
Cladding
The build requires most deck structures and exposed bulkheads to be clad with 2 x 3 mm walnut strips.
Hundreds are needed; some as short as 6mm. After cutting and applying a few individually it became clear
that this would be a task to rival ratlining in a tedium contest. I have adopted the following shortcut.
A number of walnut strips (currently 8) are laid together on a strip of masking tape. Eight pieces of identical length
can then be made in a single sawcut. The eight pieces, still attached to the tape, can be glued in place.
When the glue has set the tape can be removed. A few individual pieces need to be processed on the tighter curves.
The following photo shows a variety of pieces at various stages of the process.
Vasa Build 5.jpg
The bottom left item is the remaing part of an original 20cm set of 8 strips from which cladding pieces have been cut.
I might consider a variation on this process later on when the decks are being planked.
First stage planking.
This is partially complete. The picture below shows my crude method of holding newly added planks with thin strips of plywood screwed at the top and pegged at the bottom. When the time comes I guess they can be turned upwards to assist planking the gunwales
The pegging is made more complicated because the pre-cut bulwarks were not from the same sheet of ply: some are 5mm thick; some 5.5mm.
The protusions at bow and stern pass right though the hull and provide 'legs' which, combined with the keel stand, provide a stable support for the model when lying on its side but clear of the bench. With a suitable cradle (yet to be made) they will support the model when inverted. They will be removed when planking is complete and the gaps they leave made good.

Vasa Build 6.jpg
First stage planking continued.
The Corel instructions say to start the planking with two pairs of planks placed just above and below the two rows of gun ports. Notches on the bulkheads mark the positions. Blocks that will later receive the dummy gun barrels are placed behind these initial planks. The instructions refer to these as a 'new patented system' which seems to be nothing more then a length of wood with a channel ploughed out of it. See illustration later. These wold be drilled later to receive the dummy barrels but I was not impressed by the amount of glued contact between the blocks and planks so I drilled them before fitting. If they should become detached while drilling later in the build it would be nigh impossible to retrieve them.
Placing and retaining these blocks while the glue set was fiddly - especially reaching up behind the lower planks to upper row of gun ports. I resolved this by insering a screw (finger tight) into the drilled holes. This had the added advantage of identifying the position and angle that the gun barrels would later take. The picture below shows various aspects of this process.
When doing the other side I simplified the process by completing the upper row of gun ports before applying planks and blocks for the lower.
DummyGunBlocks.jpg
When completing the planking for the port side I measured round the curve of the largest ("hals"?) bulhead to be 21 plank widths. Measuring at other points (particularly the stem and transom) established a profile to taper the planks so that all would reach the keel simultaneously. This was not a great idea: the planks required forcing into progressively upward sweeps as the stern was approached.
For the starboardt side I tapered the bow end of the planks but left the aft end untapered. The planks attached to the transom met the keel with four still required further forward. The last four planks were tapered to points at their aft ends.
This appeared to be the better and quicker option. This lesson might be of value when planning the strategy for the scond layer planking.
I found that the accuracy to which the bulkheads were cut leaves much to be desired. Occasional ones were a bit 'small'. Forcing the planks to contact them would create shallow depressions in the profile. I compromised by allowing the planks to float across the offending bulkeads. I did not spot this in the dry fit of keel and bulkheads but if I had I doubt I wuld have tried to reshape the majority to conform with the rogues. Perhaps laser cut cut sheets are worth the extra effort of trimming off the sprues.
 
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This is great news, Edmund! Many thanks for starting the build log. I will be watching your project as it will advance to the model.
 
Very good - I have my seat fixed in the first row - so I am ready, that you start showing your work - looking forward
 
Introduction.
I have read various SOS postings on the merits of various Vasa kits: Billing, Corel, d'Agostini, Mantua.
I have settled on the Corel version even though it is not the most highly favoured.
The kit is about half the price of d'Agostini and the negative comparisons (accuracy etc.) are not issues that I am too bothered about.
It is unlikely that I will visit the Stockholm Museum with my model under my arm and feel mortified by discrepencies.
Aside. Many 'classic' ship models (eg Golden Hind, Revenge, Santa Maria, Mayflower) are based on conjecture but we accept the inherent inaccuracy.
Old ships for which the original exists are few. Victory, Cutty Sark, Vasa, bits of Mary Rose are some exceptions .
I am content for my Vasa model to be somewhere between these categories.
The 1:75 scale is more appealing than 1:60 - I am fast running out of display sites and I don't think SWMBO would take kindly to having her books jettisoned.
I will post some pictures of the box contents later. For the moment I will comment on the paperwork.
There are several large sheets of detailed, helpful-looking assembly diagrams. The instructions are not quite so good.
The 'Official' looking leaflet (stapled and folded as a booklet) is in Italian. Fair enough for an Italian kit.
This is supplemented by loose leaf sheets of photocopied translations of instructions in English, French and German.
The accompanying parts lists remain in Italian - apart from the German version which has been translated
With the aid of Google Translate I shall soon become trilingual in the names of ship parts and the types of wood.
Prua = bow; poppa = stern; buche = beech etc.
Had this been the subject of school French lessons (rather than what Jean has for breakfast) I might have been more intrersted.
2B continued.
Hi, That’s a nice introduction for the start of a log, I’ll keep my eye open for your updates, sounds like it might be interesting.
 
I found the Corel drawings on my last model to be very easy to read and detailed, but occasionally you find small errors like belaying pins on the top view drawing not matching their corresponding locations in the side view drawing. Luckily these errors are scarce.
 
Further progress with the VASA
I have completed the first and second stage planking of the hull. No significant issues to report.
The device of extending the bow blocks to substitute for first stage planking at the bow seemed to be successful.
I managed to get most of the way down to the keel by tapering the bow end of the second layer planks where they met the stem.
The last few planks approaching the keel became progressively shorter with the forward ends tapering to a point.
Galleries.
Shaping the components of the stern galleries was a bit fiddly. They then required cladding with 2x1 strips of walnut.
Tapering and curving these around the octant profile at the forward end of the galleries was tedious.
Matching the apparent position of the galleries to those shown on the plans raised a bit of a problem.
The cupolas on the aft end of the lower galleries were too close to the underside of the upper galeries.
With hidnsight I would have sliced a bit off the bottoms of these cupolas but they were already glued to their bases. In practise I skimmed the upper surface of the top gallery undersides to make a bit more space. I hope I can get the finials on the cupolas when the time comes.
Colours.
The kit comes with some pre-tinted azure strips to use round the upper part of the external planking. The instructions say the stern galleries should be blue. I did my best with available shades of Humbrol blues but the match is not good. It may be that the difference in colour would not be too noticeable when the "gingerbread" is applied. However, I discovered today that the Vallejo range of paints includes a promising shade of azure. I have ordered a bottle and will probably repaint (Repaint! The end of the world is nigh!) when it arrives.
Some models seem to use red for the galleries and upper bulwarks. Websites analysing the structure of the actual Vasa suggest red.
The Corel kit effectively commits to blue. The Pintarest website has some splendid paintings of the Vasa; most of them use blue for the upper works. So blue it will be. Compromising with purple seems a bad idea.
Vasa Hull 2.jpg
The device in front of the model is a clamp for holding strips to be tapered.
Simply two lengths of wood and a couple of wing nuts. One, or more strips can be clamped at the top edge.
Some, or all of the strip can be exposed for planing.
 
I like your colour choice of using blue, even though its not historically accurate.
It looks better than the pink/red used by other modellers on their models.
 
Further progress with the VASA
I have completed the first and second stage planking of the hull. No significant issues to report.
The device of extending the bow blocks to substitute for first stage planking at the bow seemed to be successful.
I managed to get most of the way down to the keel by tapering the bow end of the second layer planks where they met the stem.
The last few planks approaching the keel became progressively shorter with the forward ends tapering to a point.
Galleries.
Shaping the components of the stern galleries was a bit fiddly. They then required cladding with 2x1 strips of walnut.
Tapering and curving these around the octant profile at the forward end of the galleries was tedious.
Matching the apparent position of the galleries to those shown on the plans raised a bit of a problem.
The cupolas on the aft end of the lower galleries were too close to the underside of the upper galeries.
With hidnsight I would have sliced a bit off the bottoms of these cupolas but they were already glued to their bases. In practise I skimmed the upper surface of the top gallery undersides to make a bit more space. I hope I can get the finials on the cupolas when the time comes.
Colours.
The kit comes with some pre-tinted azure strips to use round the upper part of the external planking. The instructions say the stern galleries should be blue. I did my best with available shades of Humbrol blues but the match is not good. It may be that the difference in colour would not be too noticeable when the "gingerbread" is applied. However, I discovered today that the Vallejo range of paints includes a promising shade of azure. I have ordered a bottle and will probably repaint (Repaint! The end of the world is nigh!) when it arrives.
Some models seem to use red for the galleries and upper bulwarks. Websites analysing the structure of the actual Vasa suggest red.
The Corel kit effectively commits to blue. The Pintarest website has some splendid paintings of the Vasa; most of them use blue for the upper works. So blue it will be. Compromising with purple seems a bad idea.
View attachment 245419
The device in front of the model is a clamp for holding strips to be tapered.
Simply two lengths of wood and a couple of wing nuts. One, or more strips can be clamped at the top edge.
Some, or all of the strip can be exposed for planing.
Hey Edmund,

The planking looks terrific! Well done!
 
Vasa Build. Decks done.
I have completed the Gunwales and planked the decks.
According to the instructions I should now assemble and attach the beak head structure. However, it is very long and would significantly overhang my work table. It looks a bit fragile and I think it would be a bit vulnerable.
I will ignore the instructions and move on to the deck fittings: hatches, bitts, canon, belaying rails etc.
I discovered late that the model has two open hatches on the main deck. It would have been handy if Corel had cut these in the plywood deck part. A plunge saw attachment on my multitool solved the problem. This was also useful for cutting
off the tops of the plywood bulkheads to be flush with the deck - though sledgehammers and nuts come to mind.
The item in the foreground of the first picture below has a stub of dowel protruding from the block. It plugs into the main mast pit and provides support when the model is on its side. It is deployed in the second picture.
Aside: the Vallejo "Azure" paint referred to in my previous post turned out to be rather pale. I tried various mixtures of green and blue paints but couldn't get a true match for the Corel azure planking. I did manage to improve slightly on the original blue straight from the Humbrel pot that I originally used for the stern galleries.
Deck 1.jpg. Deck 2.jpg
 
Increasingly mix a small amount of white paint to your azure and test it on some scraps until the paint dries to the same color as the hull strips. It will lighten up the paint to match the hull color. I like the wood quality in Corel models, but the small scale has forced them to make some simplifications. Adding a few scratch built details to the model makes a vast improvement. Now that the actual ship is available for study, you can choose what to add to make the model closer to the original. Do you plan on adding sails or stay with the Corel plan and complete it without them?
 
Gun Port Lids
There are about 50 gun port lids on the Vasa. Although I am not ready to fit these yet I decided to start preparing them as a background activity while waiting for glue to set/paint to dry in the current tasks. I met a few issues.
The gun port openings are about 10mm square. The pre-cut plywood covers in the Corel kit are 13x10mm and look distinctly oblong. A diagram in the instructions says they should be clad with four strips of 4x1mm walnut - which would make them even more oblong: 16x10mm. I have decided to ignore the instructions and aim for 10x10mm
I stuck three strips of walnut on a strip of masking tape. 2 of 3x1 (not supplied in the kit but left over from Mary Rose) and one of 4x1mm. Total 10mm and a bit. On these I glued about half the supplied plywood lids with a spacing wide enough to accommodate a saw blade. When set, I sawed off the overhang of the plywood lids and painted their exposed surface (inside on the model) ) red. See picture below.
Now the hinges. These are brass. On any other model I would paint (all 100) black to simulate iron straps. However, since the Vasa is covered with so much nautical bling already I decided not to bother. They are not over visible when the lids are fixed at about 45 degrees from the vertical. The hinges actually have loops at the end though there is no indication in the instructions about what to do for pintles. After a bit of experimentation with wire I opted for brass pins with a right-angle bend near the head. The pins are inserted into the hull above the gun port. With this arrangement the lids can be moved upwards from the horizontal almost to the vertical. Closing is not a requirement since the model has the cannon run out anyway. I guess I will fiddle with the final angle when they are all fitted. A dab of glue on the hinge mechanism might be needed to supplement the rope pulls. A token lid with cladding, hinges and pintles is included in the photo below.
The device that looks a bit like a ladder is a crude jig for fixing the hand rail supports along the top of the gunwales. It keeps them square and regularly spaced while the glue sets.
Gunportlids.jpg
 
Gun Tackles
The left photo below shows a section of the Corel instruction sheet depicting the gun tackles for the deck cannon.
The arrangement shown is a luff tackle which uses one single and one double block. The instructions suggest using 3mm blocks. There are a number of issues.
1) In a preliminary search I did not find any 3mm double blocks.
2) The 14 deck cannon would require 4 x 14 =56 blocks. This looks like a substantial drain on the number supplied and I'm not sure how many will be required for the rigging.
3) I contrived a luff tackle using two 3mm blocks by making two passes through the fixed block. I added the depicted brass ring (not many of those in the kit) and eyebolts. The result is laid on the plan below.
4) On the plan I have made a pencil sketch of the actual size of a gun carriage. The assembled tackle is clearly far too cumbersome and out of scale to be used as specified.
After a few trials using a simple gun tackle (two single blocks) I gave up in favour of a token representation of a controlling tackle.
The second photo below shows the first implementation: Two small, pierced lengths of 3x2mm walnut are glued directly to the gunwale on either side of the carriage A representative rope passes round the back if the carriage (under the barrel), through the pierced blocks. The free ends finish as coils on the deck. I hope subsequent applications of this tackle will be a little neater. They will probably give adequate impression of a tethered carriage when viewed from a distance.

Gun tackle sheet.jpg Gun tackle.jpg
 
Gun Tackles
The left photo below shows a section of the Corel instruction sheet depicting the gun tackles for the deck cannon.
The arrangement shown is a luff tackle which uses one single and one double block. The instructions suggest using 3mm blocks. There are a number of issues.
1) In a preliminary search I did not find any 3mm double blocks.
2) The 14 deck cannon would require 4 x 14 =56 blocks. This looks like a substantial drain on the number supplied and I'm not sure how many will be required for the rigging.
3) I contrived a luff tackle using two 3mm blocks by making two passes through the fixed block. I added the depicted brass ring (not many of those in the kit) and eyebolts. The result is laid on the plan below.
4) On the plan I have made a pencil sketch of the actual size of a gun carriage. The assembled tackle is clearly far too cumbersome and out of scale to be used as specified.
After a few trials using a simple gun tackle (two single blocks) I gave up in favour of a token representation of a controlling tackle.
The second photo below shows the first implementation: Two small, pierced lengths of 3x2mm walnut are glued directly to the gunwale on either side of the carriage A representative rope passes round the back if the carriage (under the barrel), through the pierced blocks. The free ends finish as coils on the deck. I hope subsequent applications of this tackle will be a little neater. They will probably give adequate impression of a tethered carriage when viewed from a distance.

View attachment 251423 View attachment 251427
The cannon on the Corel Wasa are unfortunately the same, stock Corel cannon found on almost all Corel kits, including La Couronne, shown below. I guess they figure that the differences between the carriage and barrel shapes are not worth making different gun designs at 1:100 scale. At this scale, I even considered making tackles with blocks simulated by drops of glue that were painted. Even with 2mm blocks, the gun tackles look too large. The process of rigging these tiny carriages is meticulous. The trick is to use 0.3mm etched eyebolts, predrill the holes in the bulwark, and install the barrels and breaching ropes first. Then flip the gun barrels up and out of the way as you glue the gun tackle eyebolts to the bulwark, glue the carriages to the deck in position with their tackles already attached to the carriages, then lay the gun barrels onto the carriages. After that, you adjust the slack in the gun carriage tackles using tweezers, and glue the bitter ends of the lines to the deck and cover the ends of the lines with premade coils of line that are now shaped like discs. Note that the gun barrels shown were smaller, 9 pounder gun barrels bought separately from the kit, as are the etched eyelets, and Falkonet 2mm single and double blocks. Because of the scale, this is the point where kit building ends and scratch building begins in order to achieve the desired level of detail. The kit parts are inadequate. For the Corel instructions to indicate that we have to make gun tackles the size shown on the drawing is just ridiculous. The question becomes, how small are you willing to go to add the details? At some point you have to stop because it becomes impractical. That's why larger ship models can include more details. Scale sets the level on how many details we can add to the model.

101 Two Gun Tackle Sets Test Fit.jpg

103 Cannon Truck.jpg

108 Install Cannon Barrel.jpg

109 Install First 9 Pounder.jpg

111 9 Pounder Carriages Rigged.jpg

113 Install  9 Pounder Carriages.jpg
 
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Thanks for confirming my deduction that the Corel instructions re gun tackles are incompatible with the scale.
I am impressed the lengths to which you have gone to achieve a correct representation of gun tackles on such a small scale.
I'm afraid I am not quite so meticulous. I will display my finished model on a high shelf!
Preparing detatched coils rather than coiling the installed ropes is a good tip.
I might experiment with using eye bolts instead of the clumsy wooden blocks I used on the first gun and then
add a dob of plastic wood over the eye. I suppose I could do the same on the carriage though I have made this difficult by having already glued them to the deck
 
Dark painted eyebolts may do the trick, especially if they are very small and made from round wire instead of etched brass which is square in cross section. After feeding the line through the eyebolts and determining the size of the tackle, measured from block to block, make many tackles the same size, and consistency and patience is the key here. That way, they will all have the same amount of tension or slack when installed on the carriages. After the tackles are made, place a drop of some glue on the eye of the eyelets to make them round, consistency on the drop size is the key here. Then paint the fake blocks brown, being careful not to get paint on the tan line, and see how they come out. Then insert the shank of each tackle into the hole in the carriage after dabbing it with CA glue. When you are ready to put the carriages on the deck, have all the gun barrels already secured to the bulwark by their breaching ropes, and use tiny needle nose pliers to glue eyelet at the opposite end of each tackle to the bulwark in the pre-drilled holes. I'll bet the tiny fake blocks will look more realistic and to scale than using real wood blocks. Of course, all this work should be done with a magnifying headset to see with and good lighting, and lots of patience. The end result will make you (and all of us) proud! Building a 1:100 scale man of war with this commitment to detail sets it far apart from the average kit build. It's not as important that other see that detail as it is the YOU know you poured your heart and soul into it and made a masterpiece, even on your first ship!

Here's that trick on making faked down rope coils for the deck. I make this tiny platform from scraps, and hold it in the desktop machine vise. On it is a small square piece of 3M double faced tape, the kind that has a foam layer in it between the adhesives. using the tip of a razor knife, you coil the line onto the sticky adhesive, using its tip to keep the coil flat and round in shape. Then, you apply a generous drop of PVA glue on the top surface of the coil, which binds the line together. After it dries with the help of a hot air gun, you carefully pry up the disc of line with a razor knife. Glue the coil to the deck, glue side down of course, and viola! Nice coil. Cut the tell-tail end of the line short to the side of the coil, and lay the coil over or against the end of the tackle line, where that tip was tacked to the deck with glue. See my previous post for the results. Note, I installed trail tackles at the rear end of each carriage just for show. In battle, these would not be installed, because the recoil of the gun would roll the carriage to the rear, making the train tackles redundant. Also not that I got the breaching lines wrapped around the cascabels of the gun barrels upside down. (oops) Pay special attention to the length of the breaching rope, because they should be slack enough to allow the crew to reload a retracted gun. For simplicity, many modelers will omit not only the train tackles, but the gun tackles as well, leaving only the breaching ropes. The level of detail is strictly up to the builder.

100 Make Deck Coils Using Double Adhesive Tape.jpg
 
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Gun Tackles (2)
Having established that the Corel instructions for rigging gun tackles is impractical (see above) I cast round for a source of smaller blocks. I sent off for the items shown in the following picture.
mini blocks.jpg
They look ideal in the pictures on packet and the website. However: they are very tiny and come as three layers of card (five for the double blocks) which have to be stuck together. The internal slices are in two parts separated by a tiny space to receive the cord. Trying to assemble these without filling the gap with glue defeated me. I gave up!
Instead I created blocks from short lengths of 1.5 x 1.5 mm walnut with a single hole drilled through. (drill first then cut).
One of these I glued end on to the gunwale; another is glued side on to the gun carriage.
One end of the gun tackle rope is glued to the side of the gunwale block. It then passes through the carriage block and back through the gunwale block. Following the useful tip from "Darius Architectus" above I did not attempt to flake down the free end but simply stuck it to the deck. I then covered the end with flakes prepared 'off-line'
The first picture below shows the jigs used for winding the flakes between two layers of perspex. The thread can be either wiped with PVA glue or a blob may be placed between the plates near the pin. PVA does not stick to perspex so the sheets can be separated when the glue has dried. The winding process is visible through the perspex.
The second picture below shows the results. The camera is not very kind; to the naked eye it is not so obvious that the blocks are square, not round.
Flaking.jpg Gun tackles.jpg
 
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