Revell Viking Ship WIP- FINISHED!!

At Gokstad the anchor hook apparently disintegrated when excavated, leaving just the stock.

At Oseberg, an anchor without a stock, and two other stocks, were found.

At Ladby (pronounced Lad-boo) in Denmark a very nice anchor without stock, and 10 M chain were found.

Landstrom on page 63 reconstructs an anchor and chain from all of the above.

Ironic indeed! This kit is on a completely different level than any other Revell sailing ship. It reminds me in many ways of an Imai kit.

GM - what are you going to do with square-link chain? It's been a long time since I did mine, but I don't recall that any chain was found on the Gokstad site.

I think that it is a bit ironic to say " . . . have faith in Revell."  Aren't they the company that brought us HMS Beagle, USS United States, Thermopylae, and CSS Alabama, et. al.?    But, they seem to have done well with this kit!

Bill

jtilley

I rarely say things like this, but have faith in Revell. Those oars, like just about everything else in the box, are quite accurate. The oar blades have a pretty subtle shape, and Revell got just right.

There were 36 total on the sprues, in groups of 6, which obviously enabled them to be various lengths.

They'd also be two handed. Did the left handed guys sit on the starboard side and the right handed guys sit on the port?

Like baseball, the lefties would be in high demand...

I've only used about 12, and don't really want to stack the rest on the deck. I may work a little on the so-far unused oars and replace the ones on the rack.

Funny thing, I've run out of parts. If it would stop raining I'd get some paint on her. Also going over to Michaels to get a plaque base and some square link chain.

I have got to admit that I have rarely followed a thread with so much interest as I am following this.  Great work!

Bill Morrison

I rarely say things like this, but have faith in Revell. Those oars, like just about everything else in the box, are quite accurate. The oar blades have a pretty subtle shape, and Revell got just right.

Here's a rum thing. Clipped off all the oars to get them painted and was confounded a little.

Good on Revell to do that. I really wanted to cut off those hand grabs on the end as I strongly suspect they were not on the actual thing, but they'd then be too short to fit on the oar racks.

Progress so far:

Well, the French co-opted aircraft.

"Excuse me Marcel, could you please serve me some nacelle on this piece of fuselage?"

jtilley

- thereby originating the term "steerboard side," later corrupted to "starboard." I learned that in high school. Sheesh.

Beautiful work Bill! I was planning on building in tandem another of the Revell Gokstad ships with the Heller Oseberg ship. I know the Heller kit only vaguely represents the real Oseberg ship, but I really love the carved work the Heller crew did on the model. After seeng all the awesome work you are doing I might have to do these before the Cutty Sark.

I will definitely use your's and John's threads as inspiration and borrowing of techniques.

Thanks for posting all these great pictures and explanations.

Steve

I have heard that in the middle ages, before widespread use of paint, fish oil was the common preservative for the exterior of ships, above waterline, in areas not painted.

Sure, you bet.

Things I learned today: In The Saga of Eric the Red reference is made to sealing (pun intended) ship bottoms with seal oil. The Viking Ship museum in Roskilde Denmark ran a series of experiments and got good results using porpoise oil.

Judging from the literature and numerous archaeological finds, ropes in the Viking period and the Middle Ages, and also up to recent times, were made of lime bast, flax, hemp, heather, pine, hide and hair etc. Walrus hide was used for the halyard, shroud and stay (rosmalreip, svarðreip). Use was also made of hide rope of seal, deer, elk or ox. Horsehair (simereip) was used for the sail’s bolt rope (liksima), or for sheets, bowline, braces etc. Rope made of cow tail hair, the coarse hair from sheep fleece or pig hair (bustreip) has also been used.

-Viking Ship Museum website

That book isn't going to help much with the rigging - largely because nobody knows much about the subject.

I figured the principal lines would be these:

A stay, leading forward from the masthead to the bow. It had to be adjustable, so it could be slacked way off when the mast was lowered.

A backstay leading aft from the masthead. (It wouldn't necessarily have to be adjustable.)

Two or three shrouds on each side.

A halyard to hold the yard aloft. (Yes, the Vikings lowered the yard to furl the sail.)

A pair of braces from the ends of the yard running aft.

A pair of bowlines running forward from the leeches of the sail.

Several old sources also show an odd line that has no modern equivalent: a simple arrangement of blocks and line running down from the foot of the sail to the deck. Its function, presumably, was to assist in controling the sail when the ship was working to windward. (A sail made of wool would be really clumsy.)

Like I said in my "Gokstad Ship" thread, nobody knows where all those lines were belayed. I described my solution in that thread - but I can't claim to be certain about it.

I don't think much beyond that is known about Viking rigging.

Got it, Dr. T. They did just look odd, only straight line on the ship. Fixed, and thanks for the photo. I made them a little smaller too, using your reference.

Jester, I do think those frames were to hold the thirty two oars when the ship was under sail, which was probably most of the time, or anchored. There were also a couple of long leech poles, called beitasses that stepped into some chocks you can see on either side, at the base of the bulwarks of the ship, forward of the mast. Those angled across the deck in front of the mast and were attached to the side (leech) of the square sail somewhere between the bottom (clew) and the middle of the leech. That kept the sail full and not collapsed against the mast when the ship was beating upwind. These ships could sail upwind, something hard to do without fore-aft sails. They'd be stored there.

Landstrom also notes that both could be set, crosswise to each other when running downwind. It puzzles me how a ship without much of a keel and a relatively flat bottom sails upwind, but they obviously knew how to make that work.

i'm looking forward to a book I ordered to get rigging details. For instance, what the parrel if any, looked like. Did they lower the yard, or furl the sail aloft?

Looking good GM. I am guessing those 3 t-bar structures are for the sail to rest on when its lowered?

Lookin' great. One little suggestion: those two triangular boards at the extreme bow and stern have little scallops cut in their inboard ends. Here's a picture that shows one of them (though you have to look pretty carefully): https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj8v56v8ZTKAhXIQCYKHSdWBRAQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fzug55%2F9681349993&bvm=bv.110151844,d.eWE&psig=AFQjCNEGzOd6gquwJnNUXx1H34xdafAWLg&ust=1452159341688166 .

Easily done in a few seconds with an X-acto knife.

I'd forgotten about those little missing frame pieces on the sides. I made them just like you did - with styrene strip.

The tiller on the ship now is a reproduction. The original still had some traces of gold paint on it. It is/was the most heavily ornamented feature of the ship.

very nice work gmorrison , can't wait to see your progress on this one.

Holy mackerel GM, that's a LOT of work! Very nicely done.

Mike

It looks really good and nice progress.

I see you have The Chopper there.

After a long evenings work with basswood and a sharp knife or ten.

I'll smooth it all out with sanding sticks once the glue hardens.

jtilley

For what it's worth, I didn't make any changes to the "crone." I think Revell got it just right. I don't remember the painting instructions, but maybe the arrow for the metallic paint pointed to the spike heads? Or maybe the painting instructions were compiled by he same nincompoop who drew that decal for the sail. 

 

This kind of relaxation activity is the kind that would give me stress. Watching someone build these is nice, though. Gimme them stealth ships...

For what it's worth, I didn't make any changes to the "crone." I think Revell got it just right. I don't remember the painting instructions, but maybe the arrow for the metallic paint pointed to the spike heads? Or maybe the painting instructions were compiled by he same nincompoop who drew that decal for the sail. 

GM,

I love it!! The best way to relax. Please post more WiP photos.....I can't wait too see waht you do with it.

OK, now I see what the knees look like on the Gokstad ship. I gather you'll be making them more like those. How about the cross pieces that butt up against (where the mast lock is) and go over the crone? It looks like you took those off as well.

Mike

Edit: I now see that the kit shows an overlap coming off the crone over the cross pieces. I suppose you'll be correcting that to better represent the Gokstad ship?

And a nice Kit to boot. Looking forward to watching this one.....Cheers mark

1943Mike

GM, I still don't get why you carved the knees off - I haven't opened my kit yet so I suppose they're not shaped the proper way?

Gees, I have sooo much to learn in the way of nautical terminology! I couldn't find "crone" with a quick Google search but in a minute or two I found this:

http://vikingships.tripod.com/constructionmethodspg3.html

So now I know - it's a supine, dead, ugly old Oak hag who holds up the mast.

GM, I still don't get why you carved the knees off - I haven't opened my kit yet so I suppose they're not shaped the proper way?

For JTilley: John, at the risk of going a little off topic, I used the address you supplied to see both sail versions of the Viking ship kit on the Revell site and, while there, noticed the 1/150 USS United States. I'm sure it's been discussed at some length on FineScale but, if you'd be so kind, would you let me know if you think it's a kit worth building?

Mike

 JTilley, nevermind - belay that request! I just found this: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/46955.aspx?page=1 

which pretty much answers the questions I had.

Mike