Vasa - 1:65 DeAgostini [COMPLETED BUILD]

dockattner said:
I'm going to make a mold and pour up replacements for the missing parts in plaster. Not sure if I'll do the missing head or not. Three mer-men are needed as hull adornments at the railings and their absence has already been noted by a keen-eyed forum member (Marc :mad:).
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Just give it a shot, almost the same as shaping the tooth of an Englishmen
 
dockattner said:
I'm going to make a mold and pour up replacements for the missing parts in plaster. Not sure if I'll do the missing head or not. Three mer-men are needed as hull adornments at the railings and their absence has already been noted by a keen-eyed forum member (Marc :mad:).
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Guess as an orthondontist you go for plaster otherwise I would go for resin.
 
In order to install the halyards for the yards on the top and topgallant masts it was necessary to fabricate euphroe blocks. They are not difficult to make apart from their small size and the fragility factor. I would say that I started twice as many as I ended up with because of breakage.

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Of course, the problem with making euphroes is that it will eventually lead to rigging crow's feet... ROTF.

As long as I was making blocks, I decided to make some more of the specialty blocks that show up on the Vasa. On the course yards there are these odd birds:

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Figure Credit: Rigging and Gun Tackle Blocks of the Royal Warship Vasa - Thesis, Nathaniel Frantz Howe (November 2011)

Notice that unlike a violin block the sheaves are perpendicular to each other. This prevented the lifts and sheets from chafing or tangling each other at the end of the yard.

Here is what I ended up with:

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The result of half a day's work...

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dockattner said:
In order to install the halyards for the yards on the top and topgallant masts it was necessary to fabricate euphroe blocks. They are not difficult to make apart from their small size and the fragility factor. I would say that I started twice as many as I ended up with because of breakage.

View attachment 309750

Of course, the problem with making euphroes is that it will eventually lead to rigging crow's feet... ROTF.

As long as I was making blocks, I decided to make some more of the specialty blocks that show up on the Vasa. On the course yards there are these odd birds:

View attachment 309757

Figure Credit: Rigging and Gun Tackle Blocks of the Royal Warship Vasa - Thesis, Nathaniel Frantz Howe (November 2011)

Notice that unlike a violin block the sheaves are perpendicular to each other. This prevented the lifts and sheets from chafing or tangling each other at the end of the yard.

Here is what I ended up with:

View attachment 309751 View attachment 309752

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The result of half a day's work...

View attachment 309755
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You make scratch building look too easy please teach me your way.....
 
dockattner said:
I want to begin by thanking all of you for your continued interest in my build and for the active participation of many as I struggle to work out the details. While I have to accept that every question I would like answered can't be answered - and that I will make errors in judgement and execution along the way - neither do I want to be dismissive of the simple fact that I am building a model of a real ship with real history.

Over the past several weeks I have come near to completing the standing rigging. I have made some decisions along the way that not everyone will support but that's OK - it wasn't for lack of time spent trying to figure things out.

My customary blue background didn't cut it for pictures of rigging, so I cobbled together a few pieces art board that my kids had lying around... and now that I see the photos I regret not taking the time to set up proper lighting...

The overall view:

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Mizzen:

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Main:

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Fore:

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Sprit:

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And I chose to rig the top ropes just for fun. Obviously these lines would have been taken down once the masts were raised but I think they make a nice addition to a model and could create a worthwhile talking point. I only did these for the top masts not the topgallants...

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I'm confident, given the attention they have received on this log, that you didn't miss the fact that backstays are not rigged. Research continues with the hope that more can be learned.

Fun fact: I have now used nearly 60 meters of the smallest rope (roughly 0.24 mm) I can make from my chosen source threads. Most of this went to ratlines but also lanyards in a few spots. While there is great satisfaction in rope fabrication - I'm no longer sold on the (time) cost to value ratio.

Thanks for stopping by! It's a joy to share this journey with you!
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Beautiful work Paul! Keep a wooden mallet next to your ship, for those who question the rigging! :p
 
Nice work on these blocks. And yes they take time to make. Sometimes hours to make because they are so small and special.
The block you call a violin block is called a sheetblock in English. In Dutch schootblok. This was topical a Dutch thing used for sheet and lift on the mainsail. Unknown name in English because it was only on continental ships used. Difficult to make on a small scale.
Do you make also shoeblocks for the martnets?
 
Stevedownunder said:
Great little blocks Paul,
It is funny how half a day or more can disappear on making some little pieces.

Cheers,
Stephen.
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Then carpet makes the pieces disappear... :rolleyes:
Still looking for one of my home made shoe blocks... I think the vacuum cleaner ate it. I've fished two blocks from the vacuum lint bag so far. It's ship modeler's dumpster diving.
 
dockattner said:
Question: why are there only martnets on the course sails?
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I don't have any idea.
The only reason I can imagin is the format of the sail. But that will probably not be the reason. Those ships evolved very fast during 1590 too 1655. A lot of rigging changed. This one too, after 1650 you barely can't find this way of clewlines back on ships. That could be a reason too, the sails getting stronger woven and it wasn't necessary to do it this way and could do it the same way like the upper sails. But that is just guessing.

I like these martnets, especially when the sails are tied up.
If you look to this webpage you can find a lot about blocks, but you have too translate the page.
zienenweten.blogspot.com

BLOKKEN VOOR TUIGAGE EN TAKELEN.

EEN WERKTUIG TER GELEIDING VAN TOUWWERK, STAALDRAAD OF KETTING. BLOK. Een blok is een werktuig ter geleiding van touwwerk,...
zienenweten.blogspot.com zienenweten.blogspot.com
 
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dockattner said:
Is that what they are called? I see them on the drawing from the museum so I will certainly be making them.

Question: why are there only martnets on the course sails?
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Hi Paul,
As I understood ,for top sails in that period ,they( martnets) were not so necessary as for course sail,
top sails were of specific shape with very wide bottom and narrow top, and as top sail yards in that time were relative short compare to main sail yard, sail couldn't be stored entire on the yard as main sail and used to furle and store partly vertical ,in their central part... You could see that, how they manage sails on the Kalmar Nykel replica foto....
For top sails leechlines as single rope mostly was sufficient... this arrangements You could also see on every old pictures were galleons depicted
 
On Vroom's pictures, topsails leechlines ommited as a rule, and only one central buntlines shown... later on, when martnets on the course sails disappeared at all, there are two leechlines only shown on the top sails and course as well ... as we could see on the Van de Velde drwngs...this is a difference , but in the same time, martnets for top sails halliards still in use...

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None of the Dutch ships-of-the-line were big. I speak under correction but the two biggest ones were the Gouden Leeuw and De Witte Olifant (White Elephant :) ) and they were both in the region of 170 feet. So was the Batavia and the Prins Willem - the latter two being first and foremost merchant ships.
 
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