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Airfix Vintage Ship Model Modification -The Classic WASA


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I read many posts regarding the classic kits Airfix introduced during the 70s and 80s; and that it would be in the best interest of the company to re-establish some of them, if not all. Personally, I concur.

Several of those kits (in my early years) I either built by commission or by experiment through modification. I still enjoy them 'today'. However, instead of my early applications to these fine models, I thought it best to build them as study models to show not just the beauty of how Airfix produced them, but to incorporate in these pieces unique and accurate details to encourage contemporary builders to dig deeper into their treasures (models) and bring out the best in them.

The 1:144 scale WASA (Vasa) is one of them that I recently completed. Again, a study model built and rigged with details supported by the late author Bjorn Landstrom's book "The Royal Warship VASA". With it I used other supporting materials concerning the methods of Dutch rigging to give an indepth study of their applications that differed from the English. 

Airfix has done a stellar job producing these gems, inspite of the complaints regarding its materials. In my experience (and opinion) these models stand on their own merit as can be seen of the ones I built over the years and 'today'. I can only hope they will be restored back into the mainstream, as there are those around the globe who would enjoy having them in their collections.

I leave with these images of WASA./media/tinymce_upload/4d1cdf9375f1d1e88402797b8074578d.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/ec64d270344dc9eaf62d6e07c50e7170.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/be704385a143a615b90effdc997fc4a2.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Jaw dropping amount of rigging on this spectacular job 

Thanks...

The rigging was tough with this one; but overall, I'm satisfied. The real challenge was making the miniature blocks. Without them the rigging would not be as good.

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Great job!  The whole model is beautiful.  I especially love the sails. What material did you use for them?

Patrick: 

The sails are finished with aged bond paper which gives a more realistic look to this scale. Cloth sails would ruin it and tissue is fine, but bond paper tend to give a better quality to models up to 1:96 scale.

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