Revell Viking ship to be re-released !

That is very good news. I only hope Revell will send some to the my part of the world.

Thanks for the information.

What is wrong with Heller's "William the Conqueror" viking ship?   How can I make an image of it more accurate in a painting?

 

Richard

Richard, Heller's William the conqueror is a horrible abomination, result of a sinouous marketing trick. It's a variation on a disfigured and totally wrong shaped Oseberg ship with ridiculously thick and big decorative dragon (wolf ?) heads. No greater insult should be done to duke William's fleet or, in that particular case, to his flagship Mora. We have talked about avaliable ships of antiquity and norse craft in detail in previous threads.

The beauty of viking longs ships are that they came in quite a variety of sizes that all share very similar hull forms, so 1/72 scale kit could be easily and convincingly converted to represent a larger ship in smaller scale (1/96, 1/100, etc) or a smaller ship in a larger scale (1/50) etc.

 

The reappearance of Revell's Viking ship is great news.  For the benefit of anybody who's interested, and doesn't already know about it - it was originally issued in 1977, and was the last genuinely new sailing ship released by Revell of the U.S.  (Revell Germany has done a few since, but all later sailing ships appearing under the U.S. Revell label have been reissues.)  U.S. Revell, in other words, has been out of the sailing ship business for thirty years.  The first Revell sailing ship, the old 1/192 Constitution (which is still on the market) appeared in 1956.  (My source for all this is, of course, Dr. Graham's excellent book, Remembering Revell Model Kits.)  Revell has been out of the sailing ship business longer than it was in it.

According to Dr. Graham, the kit was based on a full-size replica on exhibition in Lincoln Park, Chicago.  I believe that replica was built in Scandinavia and crossed the Atlantic for one of the Chicago World's Fairs.  It was, in turn, based on the Gokstad Ship, one of the two large surviving Norse vessels preserved at the Viking Ship Museum in Norway.  For quite a long time lots of people associated that ship with Leif Ericsson and his voyage from Greenland to North America.  That notion has been thoroughly discredited during the past few decades; by Ericsson's day (about 1000 A.D.) the fabled "Viking long ship" had given way to a beamier, tubbier, extremely seaworthy vessel called a "knarr," which actually didn't look much like the vessels associated with the Vikings in the popular imagination.  (If I remember correctly, the marketing geniuses at Heller sold their "Viking ship" for a while with the name "Leif Ericsson" attached to it.  That's even more ridiculous.  The Heller kit is based - extremely inaccurately - on the Oseberg Ship, which is a ceremonial barge probably never intended to go to sea.)

It's been close to thirty years since I've had that Revell kit in my hands, but I remember it as an excellent one - accurate and beautifully detailed.  (As I recall, the "wood grain" detail was remarkably similar to that on the superb Imai kits.  Hmmmm.)  The "dragon head and tail" ornaments on the bow and stern were a little suspect; the actual Gokstad Ship has no such decorations.  (The ship was found in a burial mound, with the stem- and sternposts projecting into a higher, more acidic layer of soil that had rotted the ends away.  Revell, to its credit, did base its reconstructed ornaments on other Norse artifacts.) 

The kit is announced on the Revell Europe website - but not the U.S. Revell-Monogram one.  I imagine we'll be able to find it in American hobby shops, though.

The Revell-Monogram website does include a list of the company's new releases, through May, 2007.  (Only the names and release dates are included; no scales or other information.  I imagine quite a few of the kits in question are reissues.)  The distribution of subjects is thought-provoking:

Automobiles (including cars, pickup trucks, etc.) - 30.

Aircraft - 3.

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters - 5.  (My nine-year-old grandson will be thrilled.)

Ships - 0.

I guess that tells us where the money is in the American plastic model industry these days.

Professor, the german online modeling magazine "modelversium" states that the Viking ship will appear on May and its price will be 15 euros. I call it more than a deal I just can't wait for the date. I'm long thrilling to find an easy to build yet detailed and accurate scale model sailing craft which is small enough to fit in my small room. I'll probably buy more than one Revell Viking ships and try to make one as Duc Guillaume's Mora.

Hi

When in the Chicago{Il.} area, 35 miles west of Lake Michigan is the city of Geneva,Il.{on Rt. 38}. North of Rt 38 on Eastside Dr. is a park that has a guenuine made in Sweden to "typical" Viking Style ship. It was made in Sweden and SAILED to America for the Chicago Worlds Fair Columbian Exhibition, it was built in protest of the mention of Columbus' "discovery" of America. Even in the 1890's the Swedes where pointing out that Leif Erickson was FIRST! It IS a beautiful example of a typical Viking ship, in the hometown of the Geneva High School Vikings. This is also the hometown of the "Swedish Days" festival the last week of every June.

SteveH

Sounds like the vessel Steve H. is talking about is in fact the one on which the Revell kit is based.  Dr. Graham's book says it was in Lincoln Park, Chicago, at the time the kit was designed; I gather it's been moved.  (I've never seen it myself.)

For the record (just in case anybody hasn't already read this) - about the only thing certain about the "discoverer of America" is that it wasn't Christopher Columbus.  There are various theories about who first sailed across the Atlantic; theories include the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, and heaven only knows who else.  The Norse are generally regarded as the first "discoverers" whose presence in North America can be proven with reasonable certainty by documentary and artifactual evidence.  They almost certainly did not come in vessels like the Gokstad Ship (the subject of the replica and the Revell kit).  Reports from the seamen who sailed that replica across for the 1898 exposition indicate, however, that she did it with remarkable style and ease.  As I recall, one account says her hull planking twisted by as much as three inches without leaking.  Those old boys knew how to build ships.

Hi again

Yes, this is the Viking ship that was in Chicago's Lincoln Park. I don't know when she was moved to Geneva,Il. at Good Templer Park{on Eastside Dr., about 1 minute north of Rt. 38.}. It is now on the list of Treasures of Illinois to be preserved list, it can be seen from the street just inside and to the right of the main gate to Good Templer Park. It is curantly under a plastic "dome", but it's open at the front and back. The ship has taken weather badly and needs much work to repair the weathering. But do remember she is a 120 year old ship.

SteveH

jtilley wrote:

Sounds like the vessel Steve H. is talking about is in fact the one on which the Revell kit is based.  Dr. Graham's book says it was in Lincoln Park, Chicago, at the time the kit was designed; I gather it's been moved.  (I've never seen it myself.) For the record (just in case anybody hasn't already read this) - about the only thing certain about the "discoverer of America" is that it wasn't Christopher Columbus.  There are various theories about who first sailed across the Atlantic; theories include the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, and heaven only knows who else.  The Norse are generally regarded as the first "discoverers" whose presence in North America can be proven with reasonable certainty by documentary and artifactual evidence.  They almost certainly did not come in vessels like the Gokstad Ship (the subject of the replica and the Revell kit).  Reports from the seamen who sailed that replica across for the 1898 exposition indicate, however, that she did it with remarkable style and ease.  As I recall, one account says her hull planking twisted by as much as three inches without leaking.  Those old boys knew how to build ships.

Professor, Fernand Braudel (to my opinion the greatest historian of 20th century) quoted that "The New World was not ready to be discovered before 1492" Few words would sum up the situation better. I'm also pretty sure that Don Cristobal knew where he was going -there were numerous charts before his turning point voyage; which showed rough outlines of Brasilian coast and windward Islands. I'm pretty much convinced that tales of Atlantis has something to do with the ancient links between old world and america. But it was only in the 15th century, when european demography, capitalism and his institutions matured enough that conquest of the western continent should start.