BLACK VIKING

Have done a bit of coppering over the weekend. Coppering is new for me. I have no previous experience so progress is slow. As I have understood copper tiles have been laid out differently over time and in different countries. I have not found any good reference yet as to how it was done in Britain by the end of the 18th century. I will therefore use my artistic freedom since I am the captain (as Sjors said). What I am looking for are tiles running toward bow and stern at an angle of 20-30 degrees to the waterline and reasonably horizontal tiles mid ships all the way to the water line with smooth transitions. To get this I have started drawing some gore lines where one row of copper tiles changes direction not running parallel to the row below in order to better follow the shape of the hull. I will try to explain my idea in a later post but since I am in a bit of hurry just now I leave that out for today.


 
Kind regards
 
Henrik

Second planking is nearly done
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I am quite happy with the result. Not sure what I am going to do with the finish.

Post 31: Bowsprit
 
I am in the process of constructing the remaining deck furniture - Windlass etc.  However, I decided to make and trial fit the bowsprit so that I can avoid maneuvering around the deck fittings. I turned this from 5/16 square stock as suggested by chuck.  I drilled three 1.5 mm holes while the stock was still square and also the holes for the sheave at the tip
 

I then turned this on my home made "lathe"

The board at the end has a Roller Blade bearing.  I actually have two of these and on longer jobs I position one about half way along to add extra support.  I find this works pretty well and is cheap!
 
Of course I had to enlarge the hole in the bow to fit.  Initially, I did this with drills of increasing diameter but this led to tearing of the timber so in the end I did most of the work with a round file.  Here is the fitted bowsprit:
 

 
John
 
 

Feel free to vote for the stain colour you think most appropriate for a display model of the Oseberg longship.   
There should be some more stains to try before the first staining.
 
In the course to trying these I have discovered:
These stains are soluble in Iso-propanol! As I discovered by spilling some on my cork building board The narrow bottles ALWAYS get knocked over and spilled I now know this and prepare the area, and keep them upright in a deep container padded by cloths I applied a coat of stain to the 4mm ply that the frame is made from.  The large parts of the turnover jig are perfect for this

I have two bottles labelled Walnut and one labelled Mahogany

These are the two pots labelled Walnut, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I used one of them to trial-mix in a little Mahogany
I also stained an Obechi strip and some of my micro-veneer

I'm distinctly chuffed with the behaviour of the veneer, because A) it took the stain sweetly, and
B )  I was able to iron it flat without the stain misbehaving (or staining the sole of the Iron!).  Thank you GladBake (baking parchment)

 
So there we are.  The stain has been applied, and fully dried.
I expect to be able to glue the stained timber as easily as unstained.
The experiments with intentional glue contamination can now commence!
 
Why does the veneer (0.2mm thick) need to be ironed?
Well because it was bought rolled and stapled into little cones for use as dainty holders for something like sweets (US=candies:  Lincolnshire = clats)
So the veneer needs to be flattened by ironing or similar
 
Jack P used white oak veneer to cover the ply end grain, and since no mention was made of thickness I assume it was 0.6mm (25thou) which is more-or-less standard (I am told).  For Jack and Von Kossa the veneer was made to follow the concave curves on the frames (using Packing tubes already!) and the remaining part of the frame covered, I think, in  separate pieces of veneer
 
I aim to cover each frame top edge in a single length of veneer since
My veneer is thin ,
The tops of the frames are rounded off and I expect the veneer to be able to follow the rounded curve.  Its rounded because there are no square corners to fall against in my Longship!
I have experience of this both as a boat-user and full size builder of marine equipment,
 
I said that I was chuffed earlier
In fact my state is "chuffed to little Naafi-breaks" because I have just made my first box-joint
 

This is made with scrap ply, but now I have  a working jig, and the world is my lobster!
 

Time for an update.
 
Of course, these photos are part of the instruction manual, so I've taken a selection to show where I'm currently up to with DoK. There are three 3mm MDF sheets, and I took my time to remove all of them and clean the tabs up with a knife and/or sanding stick. All parts are engraved with a number, and I knew all would be used in this quick bench session. First up, I built the temporary cradle. There's a gorgeous acrylic one for final use, complete with engraved nameplate, so this one is the scrapper that I'll throw away at the end.
 

 

 
 
As the model is single deck and won't have the usefulness of another lower deck into which the masts can align, a simple part is slotted into the keel before any work starts. It's most accessible to add at this stage. The part is a nice, snug fit. This is the main mast position.
 

 
 
Before any bulkheads are fitted, I first mark a rough bevel line on the first and last three bulkheads and then grind this away with my Dremel. A number of other parts are also bevelled at this stage too, such as the outer cheek parts and the front of the inner longitudinal beams. All bulkheads are now slotted into place.
 

 

 
 
For the foremast, a couple of parts are added to the outer cheeks. These will create a round base into which the down will sit. These are then slotted into place.

 

 
 
Now, those longitudinal beams are now added, starting with the inner two...

 

 
 
...and followed by the outer two:

 

 
 
At this stage, I painted wood glue into the joints and left the whole lot for a few hours to cure. I prefer this method when there are so many slots and such perfect tolerances.

 
 
Construction of the stern gallery areas starts with slotting in three frames, easily recognised with their engraved position ID. These just slot straight into position as shown, and are then glued.

 

 
 
Four extra pieces are added just before and after the midships cabin area. These are to support the floor/deck at either side. The cabin floor is also fitted and clamped until set.

 

 

 

 
 
Both the main and upper false decks are now glued into place. These are 0.8mm ply and you need to bend them and allow them to fit into the slots in the bulkhead tabs. This holds the deck parts remarkably flat across all bulkheads. As an insurance policy, I also add a couple of brass pins to the forward upper deck as there are no slots there to hold in position.

 
 
One nice little touch are the temporary beams which now slot into the bulkhead tabs. These are to give everything some real rigidity whilst the hull is worked on from this point. Afterwards, the beams and tabs will be broken out and discarded.

 
 
A few extra pieces at the stern, but not quite all. The model is now setting before I start to sand the hull to shape and add the ply bulwarks.

 
 
More soon... 
 

Four more oarsmen finished and four more started: Getting very close to the end.
 
 
 
A note regarding the clothing colours. Dyes at the time were (of course) all natural. I haven't done any natural dyeing myself, but from what I've seen the colours are much richer and more beautiful than those produced by modern dyes - an example:
 

 
The madder plant (rubia tinctorum) has roots that are quite dramatically red, and can be made into a dye which (depending on the treatment) can be anything from orange to maroon. The most common is a "brick" red - it's not capable of providing a "fire-engine" red.
 
A much brighter red was available from a small beetle, which was found on the kermes oak, native to the Eastern Mediterranean. It was difficult to make in great quantity (lots of beetles!) so was reserved for the rich. It's also known as Cardinal Red, for obvious reasons. Much too expensive for an oarsman to wear. 
 
Blue is from woad (like braveheart). It contains indigotin, the same chemical as the indigo plant, but not in the same concentrations. A very beautiful blue. Repeated dyeing would produce deeper and deeper shades of blue (the same applies to the other colours). The extraction process produced a truly disgusting smell, (a combination of bad cabbage and raw sewage) making woad dyeing a "noxious trade".
 
About half the easily available plants in nature produce a yellow dye. The most commonly used (at least in western Europe) was dyer's greenweed.
 
Dyeing alternately blue and yellow produced green.
 
Browns could be produced with walnut shells, and tannin from oak galls and iron (which was used to make black ink) could produce a good approximation of black though I don't know if that was used as a fabric dye. As far as I'm aware there's no mention of naturally "black" wool from black sheep being used, but that doesn't mean it wasn't. Shoes in contemporary illustrations are almost always black, and a friend of mine once sent me a sample of leather that had been tanned in an iron pot -combination of iron and tannin producing a very dark brown - almost black. I left it outf or over a year in the tropical sun at Port Hedland where I lived at the time and it didn't fade at all. Whether this is how they produced those black shoes I have no idea, but it certainly did produce the result this time.
 
Naturally enough, undyed fabric could also be used, but I have no idea whether this was actually done at the time or if fabric was always dyed. Presumably your wealth and status would have had something to do with that. "Pure" white was apparently a prestige colour, probably because it was so hard to keep clean.
 
Purple came from the shellfish murex, but was reserved to the Imperial family -  "Imperial Purple". Another dye which produced a disgustingly foul smell. Purple could also be produced (and was) by dyeing with woad and madder - but the colour was still restricted to Imperial use.
 
So I've given my oarsmen clothing in colours that could be produced with the dyes of the time and within their budgets.
 
 
 
 

Getting better at the roofing, also the start of a market scene 

Main mast shrouds up -- ratlines still to come.  I spent a lot of time getting my deadeyes to line up.
 
Regards,
David

Finally finished the ratlines on the lower main mast shrouds.  Took a lot of time, which is why I haven't posted in a while.
 
Now for the foremast.
 
Regards,
David

Attaching Bulkheads:
 
I've glued on the 4 bulkheads, started working on the pieces that attach to the sides of the bulkheads and started test fitting the sides and making the adjustments that I'll have to do for them to fit properly. Everything is going pretty much to plan and I'm really enjoying this part of the build as things start to come together.
 
As I've been test fitting the sides I have wanted to see how the last stern bulkhead will fit together with the sides so I've started working on it and as I do more test fittings I'll decide if I want to glue it in place before the sides. The instructions put the sides on first and then the stern bulkhead but for some reason it seems like it's working better for me if the bulkhead is in place first so I'll see as everything comes together.
 
The rather large gap on the sides between the frame and side pieces is one of the things I'm correcting as I'm test fitting the sides and I've managed to pull it into place with some regluing and careful trimming. Hopefully it will all work into place.
 
The picture includes some test fitted parts as it really helps me to visualize everything a couple steps ahead plus it's nice to see how it's starting to look.
 
 

to quote keith s "the little terror" continues. Got the glazing bars in on the bigger skylight and used some brass shim from my spares box and shaped the metal bollards on the windlass using round nosed pliers.
 

 

 
take care all
 
Keith

Standing on the shoulders of Giants
 
The choice of Longship came down to size, as always at the back of my mind is a sailing model. 
On this count Billings won as it is, afaik, the largest Viking ship model kit on offer, and at 1/25 scale it makes into a substantial model
 
I had also read all the relevant build logs in the Kit section, and KrisWood's absorbing saga in the scratchbuilt Forum
 
I mean no disrespect by omitting excellent builders, but the Build Logs of Von Kossa and Jack Panzeca are the lodestars I am steering by - I cannot hope to achieve either their learning or excellent results, but I can learn a lot from them.  Thanks guys!
 
Billings kit 720  Oseberg Ship 1/25
 

 
 

Double-sided full size plan (with ruler for scale)
 

In my view these plans are excellent.  The instruction book is at the top of this picture

 
(Thank you Steven for the pic-shrinking tutorial)
The instruction book appears to be straightforward, but leaves a lot unexplained - hence my gratitude to the members who have posted their journeys of understanding and achievement.
 
 the Kit includes all required for the jig shown apart from the base-board, and this seems to earn Billings 30 brownie points.
All is not, of course as it appears :
Obechi 4 x 8 mm is supplied to hold the keel, and I chose to pin these to the base board such that the keel is a squeaky fit and held straight
There are two parts in 4mm ply designed to hold the prow and stern timbers.  They have a slot which does not fit any stage in the build, so they have been sleeved with soft balsa to be a neat fit
The build jig also neatly holds the hull inverted for planking and other fun and two formers are supplied to make a frame allow the hull to be clamped securely to the frame
The formers are shown (?glued) to the board using more 4x8 as a reinforcing block
To me this means that either the keel holding members or the formers have to be cut away to allow them to fit.  No great problem, but why?
Next:  Friday Kit
andrew
 

I want to give an update......

Let’s keep in mind this “famous” picture....
 

 

It is time to start with the central beam or girder .... according with the investigation this is the equivalent to the keel. It is its predecessor..... it was among the Hugging-Truss, the elements that kept the hull with this form and gave to it the strength.....

In this case, the beam was convex and in order to give it the right form I needed to tie it up to the hull. Thanks to God I had a lot of holes to do it.... 😀
 
 

 
I did it before the deck beams. It gave me the “exact” position for them.....
 

 

 

They have a little holes in both ends, that is the way they wil be tied to the hull.....
 

 
Also the Bow-Stern “poles are made..... I choose different wood in order to “kill” a little bit the monotony.....
 

 

 
 

In the meantime, I started to tie ratlines. It is made by clove hitches, using size 50 Corona cotton thread
 

Currently I'm setting up the topmast shrouds, the next milestone will be the completion of the topmast stays.
Here is an overall view of the model in it's current state:
 

 
 

Back to the slices 🙂
 
Luckily found some old spare decks to cut a small stripe for the visible Gangway.
 

 
Then "tarred" the hammock netting, this time a bit darker than I usually do.
 

 
Used some paper stripes for easy assembly ...
 

 
... shortened the inboard side ...
 

 
... and fixed it.
 

 
Then fixed the net on the rope on the outboard side, always giving a touch of gravity into the ropes.
 

 
Made the hammocks with Magic Sculpt.
 

 
Dry test ...
 

 
... and the colored with all the colors of life ...
 

 
... and put in place
 

 
Still thinking how the cover should be fixed in a contemporary fashion ...
 

 
XXXDAn

There were a number of things about building Cheerful I’d never done or seen before. In the case of the square tuck I didn’t even know what one was. Fortunately @Chuck instructions are clear enough - I just dove in and took it a step at a time.
 
I’d already made it challenging by not leaving enough of a gap between the bottom layer of the of the square tuck and the counter. So I filed and sanded until what once was a 1/32 backing triangle was now equal in thickness to a communion wafer. I elected to use 3/32 wood for the square tuck itself instead of recommended 1/8 for a better fit.
 

 
Step one is adding the center piece and the two top pieces, that was pretty easy, if only I could stop there.
 

 
And then the fun begins, I got a little involved and forgot to take a lot of photos. The next step is shaping a solid piece to fit against the top and center pieces, lightly attach it to my wafer thin backing with just two small drops of CA, then shape it to fit flush and follow the flow of the bottom of the hull. My recently acquired foam sanders in different shapes came in handy. Of course the key is to sand the piece flush but not go through the bottom of the already sanded hull, which I managed not to do.
 

 
With it sanded smooth and a flush fit, using 180, 220, and finally 320 sandpaper, I pried it off with pair of pliers...not... Actually very carefully with an extremely thin putty blade. I marked a 1/8th line along the curve using my digital caliper and a series of marks as I moved it around the outside of the curve. I don’t have a scroll saw, I was able to rough out the curve with my #11 blade, one benefit of using the thinner 3/32 wood I suppose. I cut away from the line and then carefully sanded it down to the 1/8 mark - measuring the top flat part of the wood. The sanded slant doesn’t matter and is not included in the 1/8.
 

 
With both sides complete I attached them permanently and began the process of filling them with 3/16 wide planks cut from the 3/32 wood (although plank width, regular planks are too thin). I didn’t take any photos of that process. I first sanded the top angle to match the top piece (I never changed that angle on my Byrnes Sander so it was easy to match). then measured the two lengths of the bottom angle to fit….and yes while 10 planks are fitted, more than 10 were cut - my scrap pile got a little taller. I also used my phatic glue and cedar saw dust to fill in gaps. There was only one, otherwise I was perfect. I can say that because they are all nicely filled and no one can tell now…ok there were two…ok more than two.
 
All sterns are different, mine being no exception - I had to use a piece of 6mm wide (about 1-2mm wider than 3/16 wood) for the teeny tiny triangle of the outer most piece to fill the gap. This is the mindset I have been able to adjust to, differing from kits. I have a lot of uncut wood in various thicknesses, I’m not limited to what’s in the kit - so I needed wider piece I cut a wider piece.
 

 
And now I have a square tuck, though I still don’t know what’s square about it. It's not perfect. Once I finished mine I stopped looking at Chuck’s nice photos in his monograph, no good can come from that. So I've added a little more character to my model.
 
I have the counter sanded ready to paint red but I’m not going to do that until I get a good tight fit of the stern post. For whatever reason at the moment I’m not close to it fitting tight - hard to know what part to sand where. That’s a challenge for tomorrow.

Gary and Steven thank you for the compliments and thank you to everyone for the likes. 
 
 The stern lanter is made, installed, and painted. I'm pretty happy with the color combination and the color match. I went with a straight pole from the cabin roof to the lantern, to me it looked more realistic. I didn't want to get too fancy and wind up with something that looked like a 17th/18th century stern lantern so I tried keeping it simple and in keeping with the time period and overall appearance of the model. The jury is still out on the lantern's shape. 🤔 

Thanks George. Your own Byblos ship is very impressive too.
 
Another 4 oarsmen complete and another 4 started . . .
 

Minor update – did some work for the stern cannon doors.
Needed to be sure that the required openings were not to high up. Looking at an image from old kit helped, along with positioning some decorative bits.
 

 
Needed to also cut out two spaces because gun door frames and dummy carriages would not fit.
 

 
Added a back filler and painted area black. Carriages will now also fit. Will drill the four gun holes after installation.
 

 
Put together the gun frame facings. Now set aside – now back to first hull planking.
 

 
 

Hi all,
 
My first build log entry dates to end of january. Now, at the end of july, I installed the last davits on the deck, and HMS Terror is complete 🙂
 
Finally got some results in painting the sloops I could live with:
 


 
And then the chimneys and the davits were installed. Here's the result:
 




 
What a ride this was! To say I'm hooked is an understatement. I really enjoyed the entire experience and I learned an enormous amount, although I realise still have a lot to learn. She looks gorgeous though, the only thing left is to paint the support 🙂 .
 
How do you maintain your finished models in prime condition? I assume a display case of sorts is the best way to keep the dust away. Any tips on this? Was thinking of using a wooden base and plexiglass cover.
 
Thank you to all the members who chipped in with valuable advice, tips and motivation, you've been an enormous help!

Oops! Made a mistake. The oars are notionally kept in place by a rope wrapped around the oar and the thole, but in fact are glued in place and held with a little brass pin next to the thole, glued into the gunwale and a hole in the oar:
 
      
 
 
The tall one on the right is the thole.
 
Which is all very well, except when I put the hole in the oar over the thole.
 
Doesn't sound like much of a mistake, but it moves the oar about a millimetre and a half (about two to three inches at full scale) towards the oarsman, which affects the length of his arms (they're already as short as I can in conscience make them).
 
So I had to remove two of the most recent batch of oars (which meant the wooden tholes broke off, of course), make new tholes and re-drill the holes for them and put the new ones in place. And then put the oars back, but this time in the correct position. The glue is a bit messy, but that is mostly invisible when it's dry and covered with the rope around the thole, and it adds to the firmness of the joint.
 

 
 
Oh well, relatively easy to fix, and I'm glad I spotted it now rather than later   . 

Did you have to do much thole-thearching before correcting things? (Sorry, Steven, but I can never resist!) Well done for revising them. 

Aha! As Terry Pratchett would say "A pune, or play on words". (And a particularly dreadful one - I love it!)
 
I'm afraid so. I'm just glad I noticed it when I did.
 
Thanks everyone for all the likes - I haven't acknowledged them for awhile.

I don’t see why you can’t modify an existing kit.  The Victory as she is now is a hybrid 1765 / 1803 stemming from her 1920’s refit, they used the original 1765 plans for her restoration as there was little other information to hand in those days, so a kit takes you a long way.  The main challenges will be reconstructing her open stern galleries and the complex figurehead she sported when first built, fortunately there are several contemporary models available at the National Maritime Museum (search ‘rmg collections HMS Victory’) to help, as well as plans.
 
You will be faced with making or obtaining figureheads whether you modify a kit or scratch build, the problem with off the shelf carvings is one of scale, and matching them to your base kit, so it could all be down to your modelling skills.  CAF Models one of the forum sponsor offers a 1765 figurehead at 1:72 which matches the Amati Victory Models kit, but at $923 is as expensive as the kit.
 
I’ve included some images below of Victory as launched.
 
Gary
 
 
 

Morning Folks to all around the World viewing this !!
im not exactly a "New member" but have  been here on and off 
for a few years , in the last few years i have sadly been away
from the hobby but in these trying times find i would like to
restart my hobby again.Very out of practice but very willing to
jump back in again. Hope some of my old friends are still around 
and looking forward to making some new ones !! 
"Dave"