Scale Plastic & Rail

1:150 Swedish Regal Ship VASA from Revell

1:150 Swedish Regal Ship VASA
Revell UK
Catalogue # 05414

 

The Vasa must have been the unluckiest warship ever built and floated, for on her maiden voyage on the 10th August 1628, she sank. The unfortunate Vasa didn't even make it out of the safety of the harbour. Sailing with open gun-ports ready to fire a salute, the mildly windy conditions caused the ship to heel to far over, and the gun decks flooded with water, sending her 32 meters to the bottom of Stockholm Harbour. Doubts had already begun to surface about the viability of the design before she sailed into open water. The vessel had a very shallow keel and was relatively flat-bottomed in section compared with contemporary vessels. Coupled with steep sides, she was also top-heavy due the number of high gun decks and cannon, therefore an inherent instability was designed into the Vasa. This was demonstrated when the construction supervisor had a team of thirty men run across the width of the ship, and after only three 'runs', the test was stopped for fear of capsize!

Irrespective of the very present danger of the ship capsizing, the King ordered that the Vasa must put to sea as soon as possible in order to redress the Swedish balance of sea power. When the Vasa sank, around a fifth of the crew of 150 perished. The Vasa was then to lay undiscovered until 1956. Fortunately, salvage equipment had progressed substantially since the first attempts to raise the Vasa occurred immediately after her sinking. Those early attempts at salvage were successful in bringing Vasa's bronze cannon to the surface. In 1961, the Vasa was finally brought to the surface once again floated back into Stockholm Harbour, where she now resides, restored in a specially designed and built Museum.

The Revell 1:150 Vasa is another newly tooled kit, and this one is done in collaboration with the Vasa Museum, so you can be assured that the Revell design team have had every access to the real thing, plus any archive material necessary to bring a modern kit of this famous vessel. So, have Revell done the Vasa justice with this kit?

As is now customary for Revell, the Vasa comes in the usual flimsy side opening box that I feel is perhaps a little small for this kit. Inside the box, TWELVE sprues of vivid brown plastic are packaged, along with some rigging cord, anchor cord, and a very thin vac form sheet containing the numerous sails for this ship. The sprues aren't packaged individually either, which always gets a thumb's down from me. The difference with this kit, I suppose, is that there aren't any shiny flat surfaces to scuff, with most parts here being given a subtle, if not perhaps over-scale timber grain effect.

I did mention the box was perhaps a little small, as opposed to the usual cavernous boxes we are used to. There is so much plastic within this box, and with those large hull halves, that the vac form sail sheet can easily be crushed. I found it quite difficult to re-package the model once the review was completed.

By far, the largest parts in this box are the hull halves. I know the Vasa quite well, and I am very impressed with not only the quality of these parts, but the detail that Revell have managed to incorporate into this, such as the carvings around the bowsprit and the figurines which adorn the rear galleries. The hull planking, despite some of the detail perhaps being a little over-scale, does actually look very good, and certainly conveys the impression of the timber construction of the real vessel without resorting to using a faux-grain pattern. The exterior trunelling running around the ships circumference, at framing points, does look a little pronounced. I might be tempted to reduce this detail ever so slightly. There are a number of ejector pin marks running within the beak head timbers, and you will need to eradicate those.

This kit doesn't contain any internal deck structures, but through the gun ports, you really wouldn't see anything. However, Revell have designed this kit so that the interior bulwarks have a 'track' installed around them, running the full length of the gun deck, and onto this track are moulded the gun carriage bases and wheels. These positions align perfectly with the gun ports on the hull, meaning that all guns will be perfectly centred and also protrude evenly. Great design detail from Revell! This same technique is applied to the gun ports on the rear

Another sprue contains the parts for the two ships launches, the transom with its carved decoration, plus the various trestle-tops and lanyard mountings. All are beautifully detailed and exceptionally rendered for a 1:150 model ship! The carvings on the various external fascia's are amongst some of the nicest detail on this sprue, and it's clear that a lot of attention has been paid to the real Vasa. I remember some of the Heller sailing ships, but they really aren't even in the same class with regards to level of detail as given here. On this sprue you will also find the rudder, complete with gudgeons.

Before the hull halves can be joined and the deck placed, the modeller must secure the anchor cable inside the hull and run this to the outside. Make sure there is plenty of length externally so that you may lash and hang the anchors properly.

The main deck is a single piece, including the various decks aft of this. You will need to install the entry bulkheads and doors, including the ladders, from deck to deck. The main deck has its deck gratings moulded in situ, and to me, this is a weak point as you should be able to look into the gratings. If possible, and with some tedium, the grating holes could be drilled out and cleaned up with a sharp scalpel blade. The timber plank representation of the deck is a little overdone too, as these would have been more or less smooth on a real ship, but I can understand Revell's reticence, perhaps, to NOT include some detail here.

The deck sprue contains the various belaying rails with the belaying pins already moulded in situ, plus the beak deck and gallery quarters, again with some beautiful carving representation. The nature of some of these parts means that the tooling and moulding would be quite complex, but Revell have done an excellent job with no moulding issues and some very fine detail expressed throughout. Lastly on this sprue we have a good number of the ships yardarms which are nicely moulded and nigh on seam-free.

The decks, as well as being fitted out with cannon, also have all the correct capstan and knighthead detail, plus some nicely moulded catheads. The cannon themselves comprise of the a single part carriage and wheels, and a separate barrel. The differing poundage of gun are also represented, and all gun locations are easily worked out from the upper bulwark loop positions.

The three mast main sections are moulded across another two sprues, in various sections and are simple to construct. A sailing ships masts are stepped, with each mast containing a successive number of smaller, taped lengths, fitted together with blocks. On this kit, the builder need not worry about the alignment of the varying sections due to the simple and intuitive design.

The ships bowsprit also contains a small mast, yardarms and trestle top. Again, detail is superb, and assembly very easy.

Being a modeller of wooden ships, one thing that always lets a plastic sail ship down are the shrouds. This kit is no exception. The shrouds are part of the ships 'standing rig' which secure the mast sides by means of a number of rope lines running from the various mast parts, down to either the shroud channels secured to the ships sides (in the case of the main lower mast sections), and down to various trestle tops, in the case of the upper mast lengths. These diverging ropes were secured together horizontally by the means of a smaller rope known as ratlines. Ratlines were used as steps for the crew to climb up the masts towards the trestle tops and onto the yardarms in order to man and set the rig whilst at sea. This kit has these moulded as single plastic parts, and they look nothing like rope, being without texture, or any sag on the ratlines. The underside of the trestle-tops also show some ejector pin marks, and these will need to be sanded away.

Of course, the easiest thing to do is to use these parts, as in all honestly, it is time consuming to make these from rigging thread. Tying hundreds of clove-hitch knots isn't everybody's idea of fun. If you are inclined though, I would give it a try, or at least do something to the plastic parts to shape the ratlines into a sag, and to texture the plastic with thin cement and a stippling brush.

A loom of cord is given for all of the running rigging. Running rigging is the rig which the sailors adjust in order to alter the attitude of sail, and to raise and lower sail, plus to swing the yardarms into position so that the sails catch the wind. The cord is actually very good and doesn't contain too much lint. I may decide to use some proper rigging cord for wooden models when my time comes.

Installation of the full running rig will take some time and patience, and Revell's drawings are clear.

Now, Revell has supplied the modeller with some very nice and very thin vac form sails. All these need is to be trimmed from the main sheet and fastened to the yardarms via cement or stitching. Revell shows how do to this in each way. If you want an insight from a timber modeller, I can tell you that it isn't customary to fit deployed sails to a period ship model. It is thought to detract from the rest of the workmanship, plus sails aren't easy to get right. I certainly won't be fitting them to my model. However, if you wish to, then Revell's sails do actually look very good, and bearing in mind the ship sank on her first voyage, not too much will need to be done to the sails to age them.

Some flags are included in this kit, being printed on paper. These are well made, and before using them, I would let them soak in some dilute white glue, and then allow to dry whilst sagging in the correct 'drop'.

Decals are included for the display stand too, and are supplied in both Swedish and English text. Printing is in gold, and also in Italy; presumably by Cartograf. The decals are nice and thin also. Registration is irrelevant, as is carrier film.

Instructions are printed in usual Revell style, in a 24 page booklet containing SIXTY-SEVEN constructional sequences, including rigging and painting. Please be warned that painting this model is no easy option! Scientists working on the Vasa restoration have removed flakes of paint pigment from the recovered vessel and Revell have worked their findings into this kit. The intricate carvings have many small details which need to be picked out in various colours, as well as the modeller needing to paint the numerous gilded areas in gold. The ship sides have an ample splashing of red colour, so this model isn't one which will look dull. In fact, the VERY opposite. Paint reference colours are given in Revell colours, and the painting drawings are very good.

So what do we think?
Having studied the Vasa in several books, I feel I know the ship well enough to know if this model is at least an accurate representation and one that doesn't look 'plasticy'. In both senses, this kit excels; both dripping with some of the most ornate plastic I have ever seen, and being designed as not to be a difficult model to assemble. The kit itself contains 330 parts, so this isn't a weekend build. If you decide to do the full rigging option, then you will have an extremely impressive result that you can rightly be proud of.

A fantastic, well priced kit which is full of detail, and at an excellent price!

Our sincere thanks to Revell UK for the review sample. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit www.revell.eu

James H