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New member from the Netherlands building the Wasa Billing Boats

Joined
Dec 9, 2025
Messages
3
Points
3
Hello all,

My name is Lennart and I am a new member. I live in the Netherlands and am about nine years away from retirement.
About fifteen years ago I bought the model ship Wasa from Billing Boats. It was second-hand and partly built. The previous owner has passed away due to old age, and his children had no interest in the model. They told me he had been a woodworker and that he had built the base of the Wasa himself, as show in the picture.

Normally I would prefer to start a model from scratch, but there is no way I could have achieved the quality of his work. I am therefore very happy with this well-built and solid base, and I hope I can live up to his standard.

Fifteen years later, I decided to pick up this project again, only to discover that I was missing parts. Sometimes you have all the luck in the world: just when I realized most of the fittings kit was missing, I found one in France on eBay. New old stock, sealed, and like brand new. So now I really have no excuse to delay this project any longer.

My goal is to build the Wasa as nicely as a builder named Nazgul did on another forum, although he called his version Wasan for some reason. I specifically like the way he painted the ship, see attached picture. This is a perfect example of how I imagine I would like to see my Wasa.

Modern times call for a modern approach, and since I am quite a ChatGPT fan, I have already gathered a lot of information and advice. I will also use my air brush for painting and together with chat I will try to get the colours as close as possible to the colours of a two year old freshly built ship before it sunk. However, despite modern technology, there is nothing better than advice from people who have actually built model ships. So here I am! If there is anyone holding the original building papers of the Wasa from Billing boats, I would like to know if they are different for the downloadable PDF file on Billing Boats. Would it be nice if I start a new building thread of my ship?

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A warm welcome aboard Lennart from another Dutchman.
You can surely count yourself lucky for finding that fittings kit.
You might profit from visiting the Wasa build log of Paul @dockattner who did a miraculous building/painting job on his Wasa.
I wish you lots of fun here.
 
Modern times call for a modern approach, and since I am quite a ChatGPT fan, I have already gathered a lot of information and advice. I will also use my air brush for painting and together with chat I will try to get the colours as close as possible to the colours of a two year old freshly built ship before it sunk.

I don't know about you, but I have found AI research far from adequate for ship modeling information. It appears that the AI chat-bots don't speak "nautical-ese." Even with detailed queries, I keep getting responses about entirely different subjects or useless generic AI non-responsive "answers." Just for grins, I played with it and got this link explaining the colors, but not with sufficient specificity to know what they were exactly and where. (See: https://www.vasamuseet.se/besok/audioguide/audioguide-english/textversion/7.-vasa-shows-its-colours)

I'm sure there's a lot of useful data in the archaeological reports regarding the colors of this once brightly painted vessel. Keep in mind, however, that the time she was submerged likely had some effect on the colors and that colors seen on computer screens aren't reliable at all due to variables in both the software and hardware (screens.) There is a standardized numerical color classification system which is explained in detail in Volume II of the NRG Ship Modeler's Shop Notes book. (See: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ship+modelers+shop+notes&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&loc=88716&mktype=&sitelnk=&poi=&cmpgn=604341432&rlsatarget=kwd-77309798233895:loc-190&geo_id=&network=o&mkscid=102&mkcid=2&_odkw=ship+modeling+books&norover=1&MT_ID=&adpos=&adgroupid=1236951642717259&matchtype=p&abcId=&keyword=ship+modeling+books&mkrid=711-34002-13078-0&crlp=_&device=c&msclkid=ea06557088e81b51683a3c4e0423cc75 )

The noted nautical archaeologist, Dr. Kroum Batchvarov, worked extensively on Vasa and may well be able to tell you where you can find the scientific reports on the exact colors used. (See: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kroum+batchvarov )
 
I don't know about you, but I have found AI research far from adequate for ship modeling information. It appears that the AI chat-bots don't speak "nautical-ese." Even with detailed queries, I keep getting responses about entirely different subjects or useless generic AI non-responsive "answers." Just for grins, I played with it and got this link explaining the colors, but not with sufficient specificity to know what they were exactly and where. (See: https://www.vasamuseet.se/besok/audioguide/audioguide-english/textversion/7.-vasa-shows-its-colours)

I'm sure there's a lot of useful data in the archaeological reports regarding the colors of this once brightly painted vessel. Keep in mind, however, that the time she was submerged likely had some effect on the colors and that colors seen on computer screens aren't reliable at all due to variables in both the software and hardware (screens.) There is a standardized numerical color classification system which is explained in detail in Volume II of the NRG Ship Modeler's Shop Notes book. (See: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ship+modelers+shop+notes&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&loc=88716&mktype=&sitelnk=&poi=&cmpgn=604341432&rlsatarget=kwd-77309798233895:loc-190&geo_id=&network=o&mkscid=102&mkcid=2&_odkw=ship+modeling+books&norover=1&MT_ID=&adpos=&adgroupid=1236951642717259&matchtype=p&abcId=&keyword=ship+modeling+books&mkrid=711-34002-13078-0&crlp=_&device=c&msclkid=ea06557088e81b51683a3c4e0423cc75 )

The noted nautical archaeologist, Dr. Kroum Batchvarov, worked extensively on Vasa and may well be able to tell you where you can find the scientific reports on the exact colors used. (See: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kroum+batchvarov )
And let us not forget about Fred Hocker, head of research of the Vasa Museum and also a member of this community.
Author of several books regarding this ship and may help you if you have specific questions.
 
Thank you all for the warm welcome! @Bob Cleek I agree, chat uses whatever we've put on the internet so we should never take it for granted what is says. But it does search so much faster then I can, and with the right parameters it does give useful answer. But always check 'm! I realise, at this moment at least, we will never be sure what the exact colours were. So one of my parameters were more like: How would 2 years old wood have looked like. Thank you for the very useful information. If I see all the great builds here I am more worried about my own skills now!

@Herman You are building my favourite ship, the 7 Provinciën !!! And the details..... incredible!

Back at primary school we had a teacher who could tell stories about the gold age, the war with the brits and Michiel de Ruiter like no one else. Ever since then it's in my imagination. You will not be surprised how disappointed I was when they decided to stop building the full size version at the Batavia yard. I contacted the director at that time and suggested to have parts of the ship adopted by companies all around the world to finance the project but unfortunately he was not interested at all.
 
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