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End Of The Line

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About End Of The Line

  • Birthday October 1

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    Orlando

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  1. She is looking great! I love the rigging. The sail colors compliment the hull well. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the figurehead.
  2. Thanks for the kind words. For the deck, I mixed the stain with some clear flat acrylic, so the stain and finish went on as one. For the hull planking, the water based stain Seemed to have pretty strong binder, so I didn't. If I had used an oil based stain, then I would have topcoat with polyurethane or another comparable clear coat.
  3. You’re making great progress. The planking looks good, and the stain does a good job of capturing the color of surviving examples.
  4. As I recall, the Gokstad ship was buried with the stems exposed, so any evidence of figure head or attachment method would have rotted away, or been removed, long in the past
  5. Wow! The longship is looking great and your fresh approach to displaying the shields really elevates things. The added detail of the barrels and bundles contributes to an interesting snapshot in time.
  6. She's rigged and ready for her maiden voyage. Overall, I'm pleased with the way she turned out. I think the choice to go with closer rib spacing and the carved figurehead help the look of the kit a lot. The rigging changes make sense to me, and I hope are consistent with both historical authenticity and practice engineering.
  7. Who knew fingers were so complicated? Anyway, I still have 6 weeks of PT to go, but I've regained most of the use of my finger. So, I'm back to the standing rigging. The shrouds are tied with the shroud pins lashed into place. The shrouds installed. It took a little trial and error, but I figured out an approach that looks clean and allows for tension adjustment. It kind of functions like a trucker's hitch with the shroud pin acting as a quick release. I can't speak for the historical authenticity, but it's how I'd want things rigged if I was sailing her. Here's a longer view of the aft rigging. Though the plans didn't call for one, I added an aft stay. It just made sense to me, and I like the look. Here's the rigging for the forward stay. I decided to go with my first carved figure head. My initial reaction was that it looked a bit too much like a fantasy dragon, but it kind of grew on me. I have a Gokstad model on the shelf, and I'll go more primitive and stylized on that figure head, probably based on the Gotland stone. The standing rigging is complete. Next I'll move on to the running rigging and stage the oars, rudder and deck details. On to the running rigging! As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I didn't really care for the cleats provided in the kit. I did use one at the base of the mast, because that application made sense to me. Cleats riveted to the hull planking did not make sense to me though. Contemporary reconstructions appeared, at least in the ones I looked through, to take 4 approaches: tying the lines to thwarts, tying to holes in the ribs, tying to an inwale or tying to a partial rail attached to the ribs for and aft. There are no thwarts on this kit. It's really difficult to drill holes in the ribs of the assembled hull. A full inwale seemed to be overkill. So, I went with the latter approach. I shaped and bent rails securing them where they would provide secure tying points but not interfere with deployment of the oars.
  8. Grain is everything when working in wood. The grain running across the length of the end panel makes the legs vulnerable to splitting off. I did a quick search of Viking trunks, and though I haven’t looked into it enough to speak about authenticity, it appears as if many are crafted with the grain in the end panels running vertically. That would strengthen the legs.
  9. Funny story, I thought that I’d be able to bang out the rigging in a week or two, but the universe has a way of slapping you down. While trying to put our cat in a crate for a vet visit, I was on the receiving end of her displeasure. Though I cleaned everything well, the bites on my right index finger became infected. After a few days of worsening infection, I sought medical help. Long story short, after two rounds of antibiotics, a trip to the ER, and a surgery, the wound has been drained, and I’m on my way to recovery. Unfortunately, it is likely to be a while before I’ll have the dexterity required for rigging. I do have two kits on the shelf, Gokstad and Hemingway’s Pilar, so I may get a start on one of them while I work the finger back into shape. Warning, the following image is not for the feint of heart.
  10. I lost a week traveling, but I'm back to the Drakar. I'm going with shroud pins instead of the flying cleats, or whatever they're called, that came with the kit. I decided to laminate up some blanks, so the grain would follow the curve of the pins. My original plan was to build a mold for the curve, but it would have been time consuming to cut and mate such a tight curve for male and female halves. I decided to go the quick and dirty rout and it worked out. I steamed thin walnut veneer and clamped it into a tight U. After the curve was set, I applied glue and clamped everything together. Things dried up into a u shaped walnut block. The block was ripped into individual blanks. A little carving and sanding, and this is how they turned out. Hopefully this week, I'll make some good progress on the rigging. I'm looking forward to seeing her finished.
  11. I’m in awe at the level of detail you are achieving at such a small scale. It is equally impressive that you built the original model as a teen, and now get a chance to restore and improve by applying all you’ve learned since then.
  12. Cold blustery rainy days are perfect for some mead. Skoll! Your sail is looking great! Colors are striking. All anyone can do on the sails is gather the best information they can and make educated suppositions. Your reasoning g is sound and the results look good. I'm interested in seeing what you do with the diagonals.
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