Building the Airfix plastic model of the "Wasa". 

Cool model!👍 Little tip: Turn the flags in the direction of the wind

The use of cloth over the vacu-formed sails provided by Airfix is a stroke of genius, clearly your experience as a wooden shop-modeller came through here. I have found the sails the most difficult part to get right on these models. Keep up the good work.

The cloth over the plastic is genius my friend. Inspiring me to build a ship myself.

Brilliant idea to cover the vacum shaped sails with sailcloth, thank you so much for sharing the idea, very nice build by the way! Cheers.

Love what you did with the sails! This turned out great, paint work was excellent on the hull, so well done to you! You mentioned you missed adding all the little details normally found in wooden ship kits? I've seen projects where folk add much more to the plastic model and end up with a sort of wooden/plastic hybrid of a ship that looks fantastic. Plenty of room on these old Airfix kits for a bit of scratch building.

Nice build. sir. I tried my best as a 12-year old, and you certainly did much better than I did at the time. And now, many ears later, I get to enjoy your build as Director General of the Vasa Museum. What can I say, thanks for sharing!

Lovely build. Sails came out very nicely

The idea of covering the plastic sails with thin cloth is an excellent modification! I will try that myself. A couple of suggestions for future builds of this sort: The ratlines and the standing rigging (fixed rigging) should be black, as they were tarred for additional strength and long life. As for any running rigging (which is designed to move the sails and yards around to different positions), that should be the color of normal hemp rope (light brown in other words).

I built this model when I was a teenager and I’m about to build it again when I’m just in my 50’s now. With the plastic models from Airfix, Heller, Tamiya, Revell, etc etc I’ve always used model enamel paint as you can apply just one coat and it holds colour very well. The only caviart is that on white paint when the moulded parts are in a darker colour I’d try to use a very light grey undercoat then the white paint. Only for larger areas like a civil airliner eg the current British Airways livery when the top half of the plane is white and a dark base would need the light undercoat then the white paint will be correctly matched and no shadowing that you might get with some colours. I use the Revell Contacta and it’s a brilliant glue and is solid a second or so after the two surfaces are joined. If there are any gaps or dents needing to be fixed then Revell is ideal. It is easy to use, just a tiny amount on a piece of card or a trowel you might use and sometimes I use the edge of my scalpel,. That works well for me and o have done over 100 models over the years & only one was metal and it was really difficult but so rewarding in the end. It was the Flying Scotsman in a 00 gauge working model for my railway set up. Eventually sold it all years ago but made a massive profit. There was a disasterous try for a wooden model. It was the Santa Maria, I was in late teens early 20’s and it didn’t work out for me at all. Gaps in the planks of wood, splitting and not having a good connection and time of it to the point where I just gave up and binned it …..

❤❤❤ Many thanks Sir you are fantastic. Best wishes from Belgium.❤❤❤

Hello Sir, I have this kit and I love this ship. I build model ships for a living, over 29 years now. May I make a suggestion. Please try black threads for the standing rigging. NEVER USE WHITE THREAD!!! Try to use a minimum of three diameters of thread, the largest being low and thinner threads aloft the thinnest being at the very tops. That alone will add so much to the first glance of the model. Light brownish threads for the running rigging. One last thing, the flags on a square rigged ship..... the wind is from the rear of the ship, please have the flags blowing towards the bow. I'm shocked at how many square rigged models I see with the sails bellowing full with the wind from the rear and the flags blowing in the opposite direction. The hull on this looks great but, you can do much better with those two simple changes. Take care Sir. Thank you.

Damn, that's a brilliant idea covering the plastic sails. I've built the HMS victory and the sails are the only unrealistic bit.

I like your video. Nice history lesson and sone cool tips and not too long or short. I just got gifted a plastic Victory ship from family member who had it since maybe the 80s but never got round to starting it. I haven’t modelled for a while so trying to work out how to approach it. Also Vasa is on my list to go and see! I was in Sweden in 2018 but not Stockholm but i did consider swinging by to see Vasa but it was too far out of my way.

well done!

I had built this airfix Vasa ship , i converted it into pirate of the Caribbean flying dutchman

Hi just found your channel can't wait to build one my self you gave passion to start up again ,can I ask are you from north or south island I'm in the UK came over 44 years ago I'm from north island all the best keep it up love it.

I think this is the boat that Mr Bean built in the Christmas episode

Hello , very good results on your model,compliments. Like to know when you mentioned using super glue,you meant CA type? Thank You if you decide to reply Cheers

Your wooden models are much better quality.p.s. your flags are facing in the wrong direction, it looks better that way however and I did the same thing before myself.lol great video as always and thanks.

What brand of paint is the red you used