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First model ship kit build: First build log on MSW. Be still my beating heart! The Kit: Billings large model of the Oseberg Ship (1/25). This turned out to be Billings part number 720 and has plywood laser-cut shields, and laser-scored scrollwork in ply (More on the laser and ply later as the build commences) The kit was a Christmas present (2018) from my lovely Admiral, and was ordered and obtained from our local model boat shop Float-a-Boat. It took about 6 months to arrive but this was not a worry, as we both had plenty to do since we had just moved house. By the way, "Oseberg" in Australia is pronounced "Osssburg" I'm sure I could have obtained it cheaper and faster, but the end cost would be huge, as real model shops will not be there unless we use them I failed to take the ceremonial unboxing and layout on the carpet pictures. Sorry Not much in the box, as longships do a LOT with a little material. Some dowels, stripwood - all obechi as far as I can see, sail material, build instructions (which make IKEA instructions look encyclopaedic by comparison) and a double sided full size plan, which includes (some) dimensions for the build Jig Why a Longship? I love them! I went to see the Sutton Hoo museum in Suffolk, UK and was smockraffled by the model of the reconstructed boat in the entrance. It's about 1.5m long and I remember seeing it's bow from water level and realising that I want to make one of them. So since that I have been reading about the construction - actual and model. I have learned of the wide range of boats in this style of construction then and now. I can remember walking round Stavanger harbour in the 1980s and seeing small boats whose construction and fastenings are clearly cousins of the Oseberg ship Confession. I have Previous Form In the early part of this century I raced Footy Radio-control (sometimes) yachts and progressed from state-of-the-art carbon masterpieces designed by Angus Richardson (he designed the 507 Footy still sold by Melbourne's RadioSailingShop) to satisfying scale gaff-riggers such as Presto (https://www.woodenboat.com/boat-plans-kits/presto-footy) I was asked by Angus to make him a Drakkar to the Footy rules to act as his Admiral's barge on ceremonial occasions, so I made one, learned a LOT and made him the requested Drakkar called Rodolm with an Angus-designed pattern on the sail (photos follow if anyone is interested) The lower hull was carved blue foam (to the sections of the Gokstad ship) with about 3 strakes above the foam to make the hull. The keel allowed a removable polycarbonate keel with lead ballast to be inserted. Mast was exactly in the centre of everything and sail was fixed to the mast. Both rotated up to 180 degrees to allow close-hauled sailing on either tack. Now regrettably Angus had poor sight, and Rodolm had low and symmetrical prow and stern (as it had to comply with the Footy rules) and sailing her turned out to be a challenge for him. I added a staff and mylar streamer to the stern to help him with orientation and wind direction. Info: "Footy" yachts have to fit in a Box 12 inches long x 6 inches wide x 12 inches deep. (Rodolm did) I am aware of venturing into a huge forum of skilled experts with diverse knowledge. Please feel entirely free to dive in and comment, help, suggest solutions and/or request more (or less) information To come in next post: The build so far Mine is a Friday Kit Decisions about Floor levels There will be no Ply edge visible! The Giants on whose shoulders I an planning to stand andrew -
So yesterday I got my new model, the Fairmount Alpine from Billing Boats. This will be my first posted build on this forum. I am still building my HMS Pegasus from Victory Model, but I was lacking in the photographic department (too lazy to pull out my camera, and too busy with the build ). The objective will be to make it Radio Controlled, with the most functional parts, certainly the bow and stern thrusters will be fitted, the lights and the fire monitors will be mounted. The lights and fire monitors have some time before me having to decide of a solution. For the bow and stern thrusters, I was thinking of scratch building my own with brass proppelers, but if that will not be possible I will go with Raboesch ones. Also I will be outfitting her with winches for tug towing competitions, so probably a bit of modifying of the inside of the hull, to create a sturdy anchor for the towing rope. View of the box, it is BIG (and if someone is curious, yes that is the dining table- the superior work bench in the picture). The model is of classical construction, wooden hull "skeleton" planked, in this case, mostly by pre-cut ply pieces, and in the bends of the hull by wooden strips. The content of the kit: I already started pulling out the parts of the false keel. All of the laser pre-cut pieces were of great quality, and each piece had plenty of supports left, even after considerable bend of the ply, no pieces fell out, the plywood is 5mm. The plastic bag contains the supplied round stock, plastic tube for bow/ stern thrusters imitation and brass round stock, including the parts for the two prop shafts. The timber is beech, used for planking parts of the hull and the deck. The quality of hull planks is somewhat lacking, but the deck planks are of pretty decent quality. Parts of deck and superstructure, and the hull planks can be seen on this image, in the top part of each sheet. And lastly the small bits and pieces: The supplied popellers will be replaced by an aftermarket ones and the kort nozzles will probably also be replaced. To propel this ship I opted for brushless motors, for their superior efficiency and low operating noise: these units produce 300 W of power each (in an airplane...), and with 850 kV have maximum of 10200 rpm without load, which promises gearless mount. And the supplied plans, are in the form of a thick book and one A0 sketch of the finished ship, with marked colors and decals, captioned in the bottom left of the picture. -
I bought this kit many years ago and it is now at the top of the pile - actually it is the last kit in the pile for now. Here are some pictures of the box and contents. The wood looks OK as do the larger laser sheets. The thin sheets are a bit warped so I may have to remake some pieces. There is just one two-sided plan sheet but it is a real plan and not an isometric view. There are some plastic trim pieces that I am not thrilled about but I'll deal with them when the time comes.
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For my second model ship project I will build Billing Boats "Will Everard". It is the first kit I bought. But due to delayed shipment I bought another kit (Swampscott Dory by BlueJacket) from a local hobby store and built it instead as my first build. I originally selected this kit since I thought it "looked nice" and wanted to try model ship building as a hobby. I have since read a lot more about the hobby, the kit in question and about the ship itself. I still feel that it will be a fun kit to build, but now based on a bit of more understanding and knowledge. The kit is labeled as a beginners kit on Billing Boats website, but on the box it says "The Advanced Beginner". I think that should be about my level of experience 🙂 The content of the kit looks OK. There are laser cut plywood parts, strip wood for planking of the hull and of the deck and a building board in MDF. Fittings are a mix of plastic and metal parts. I have read in several places that Billing Boats instructions are lacking a lot of detail. After having read them I can confirm this. Even simple things, like that the numbering of the parts list is the intended order in which the parts should be assembled is not mentioned. I figured this out after studying the drawings for some time. Fortunately there are two good build logs for this kit here on MSW by Izzy Madd and by Micklen32 they should help me along. The hull of this kit is built in two halves, which are later glued together. It should (in theory at least) make it easier to do the planking. We will see... After reading the build logs mentioned I have noticed that Billing have made modifications to kit over the years (this is a rather old kit). In particular regarding how the bulkheads are mounted. The form it takes in my kit looks to be slightly easier than seen in Izzy Madds or Micklen32s builds. -
Hi, My name is Peter, and I live in the snow country of south-east Australia (yes we do have snow in parts of Australia during winter!!!). About 12 months ago, following an inspirational cruise in the Baltic Sea and a visit to the Vasamuseet in Stockholm, I commenced building the Billing Boat's Vasa. This is the second large Billing Boat I have constructed, the first being the Cutty Sark, almost 40 years ago. This model is proudly displayed in a glass case in our home and has been a talking point and feature most of my life. Hopefully, while I now have more time, the Vasa will be the same. I have read many of the build logs regarding the Vasa by Nazgul, Marketdiens, fmodajr, md1400cs, mar3kl, Karleop and others. These builds are a mix of Corel, Sergal/Mantua, Billing and more recently the De Agostini release from Italy. Prior the DeAgostini model (by ModelSpace), a number of writers commented that they felt the Billing Boat's Vasa was the most accurate, and it was available before the DeAgostini model release, and so my choice was the Billing Boats kit. Having now progressed through this build, overall I am reasonably happy with the content of materials (although I have substituted some timbers), and scratched a number of items (eg below decks cannon mounts etc). The instructions are limited and short on detail, but the build logs have subsequently helped and filled in some of the 'gaps'. In particular, the exquisite build of Matti (Nazgul) has been wonderful, but many of the ideas of Mark (mar3kl), I have also adopted. So, to begin, the packaging and delivered product was complete with no obvious broken parts or missing items, but these would be picked up as I went along in the build. One thing that I did notice however was that hull planking used timber referred to as 'Obechi'. While this was all included, I did not like its scaled width or thickness, and so I did some maths to scale the planking of the actual ship pictures I had, and then purchased some 5 x 1 mm mahogany in precut strips. This to me, was a much better planking material, and better for the scaling appearance of the ship. A similar argument held for the deck planking and so I milled some of the mahogany to use for this as well. Different stain/treatments were also used to maintain reasonable appearance and weathering effects. Bulkhead layout was straightforward but the bulkhead extensions above deck (which were instructed to be 'thinned') were weak and fragile. Some of these broke in the process of the build, especially with the deck plywood fitting and so I trimmed these and added extensions later when the planking was built up above the deck level. The decking base needed some trimming but this was minimal and fitted satisfactorily. Before any comments are made about the Smirnoff bottles in the background, these are holding raw alcohol which I intend to use in assisting the bending of planks. This is to be an experiment, but I have read where it is more effective than water and/or steam bending. More on this later!!
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Well with winter round the corner, it's time to hunker down and get back into the shipyard with Cutty Sark. This is a model I have always wanted to build since starting out in this hobby with Billing's Mary Ann. Thanks to Kip (aka Sawdust), I was able to acquire this second hand model which he purchased from a neighbor for 2 bottles of wine. He also sold me Nepean's book and Campbell's drawings so I have lots of info over and above what Billing supplies which isn't much. Thanks to Lou's lead, I have also purchased J.J. van Griethuysen,s drawings which are spectacular. As you can see from the photos, this is an early Billing kit , from the 70's I would guess. Einar Billing includes a little intro with the Reader's Digest version of instructions they are known for. In them he states that the kit is intended to be built and not merely assembled. He expects the builder to exercise skill and imagination in the building of the kit. Sage advise indeed. As with all earlier Billing kits, the hull and fittings are sold separately. Billing believed some modellers might want to create their own fittings. They also recognized that many models are never completed so why buy a bunch of fittings that might never make it onto the model which will never be used. The majority of the wood in this kit is mahogany, which you can imagine is now rather dried out and a little warped. I have decided to replace the hull planking with obechi which I have used on previous Billing kits. It's not expensive, bends easily with a little steam and will be painted, so no need for top quality timber. As the build progresses, I will decide what other wood needs replacing. As can be seen from the photos, the kit is already started. The original owner of the kit did get it stared but then realized he no longer wanted to continue. So I have the kit framed and with the false deck installed. The rest will be all me. He has done a first rate job, and the keel is straight so it is a good point to resume where he left off. Job one will be to bevel the bulkheads. So here's a couple of pictures of what is to come...
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Good evening all, This is my first build log and first model build in close to 30 years. When I bought the Oseberg I bought it with all intentions of building it as the museum ship. Best laid plans right. I'm going to be cremated when it's time. I thought hmmmm... a Viking funeral, (yes I know there really weren't any ship burnings but what the heck). I also bought the Billing since it didn't NOT have the dragon head & tail, again the best laid plans. I actually bought and started the model in August. I read in another post that it isn't bad taste to start a build log as long as there aren't just pictures. And I might just help other newbies pointing out the 5,741 mistakes I've made already. Mistake #1, thinking the kit would actually have instructions, not. I guess Model Shipways & Bluejacket got me spoiled with their superb instruction booklets. I am not able to have the open box ceremony as I didn't realize that was proper manners. Next will. I will say the kit itself isn't to bad. But maybe not the kit for a fella that hasn't modeled in 30 years to get back into the hobby. I shall overcome! (Especially with the build logs here that I've scoured over countless times. Setting the frames was pretty straight forward. Here are a couple pictures to get started. -
I recently started a build of the Danmark by Billings which I started nearly 30 years ago and then let sit idle during several moves over the years. It received some damage during this time which I've repaired. Upon starting it up again I've noted that some3 of the wood pars aren't laser cut but just printed on the wood and need to be manually cut out (which is a lot more work and prone to errors). Enclosed are photos of its current state. I will start on the planking next. The instruction manual is mostly useless with the exception of the drawings.
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Hello All, As the title says, "De Smit Rotterdam" will be my newest adventure. For those interested, some history. In January 1974, Smit Internationale decided to build two super tugs, which with their 22.000 IHP at that time became the strongest, operationally operating sea tugs in the world. The order for these two powerhouses went to B.V. Scheepswerf & Machinefabriek 'De Merwede' v h van Vliet & Co., Hardinxveld-Giessendam. The content of these tugboats is 2273 grt., Length a.o. 74.83 m, width 15.78 m and gr. draft 7.60 m. Two Stork Werkspoor TM 410 4 tew 9 cil. diesel engines, each connected to a four-bladed adjustable propeller, delivered a capacity of 13500 apk, the installed capacity is 22.000 IHP. "De Smit Rotterdam" was the first of the two to leave the slope on December 6, 1974, after being baptized by Queen Juliana. In mid-April 1975 the tug came into service with Smit, to be used directly as the leading tugboat for the transport of the drilling and production platform "Beryl-A" of the Condeep type, with a weight of 350,000 tons. 216 miles was towed from Stavanger to the Beryl field of Mobiel Oil, in the English part of the North Sea along with the "North Sea" (11,000 hp) and the Bugsier tugs "Atlantic", "Wotan" (both with a capacity of 12,500 hp) and the "Pacific" (10,000 hp), together about 42,000 hp of towing capacity. In 1986 the tugboat was accommodated at Smit Tak International Ltd., Nassau, and in 1991 the sea tugboats of Smit Internationale and Wijsmuller were merged into the combination 'SmitWijs Towage C.V' and the tugboat sails under the name "Smitwijs Rotterdam". As it often happens to ships, at one point they are discarded by the original owner and they wear their last years for relatively little money and, above all, with little maintenance, in the service of countries that actually sail the boats until they can no longer sail. That also happened with "De Smit Rotterdam". In 2013 the ship came into Panamanian hands. In July 2014 De Smit Rotterdam was demolished. Built: Hardinxveld-Giessendam. Tonnage: 2273 gross register tonnage Length overall: 74,83 m Beam overall: 15,78 m Motor: 22.000 IHP Engine speed:16,5 knots Crew:25 Fire-fighting: 400 tons/hour with 14 to. 10 ton a foam Below the measurements of the model: Model length: 95 cm. Model beam: 20 cm. Model height: 50n cm. Sjors
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Hello shipmates Yesterday my new kit arrived, it is a Billings Kit. I will post some photos soon. Jo. -
Well here we go, with my first log. The Wasa. It looks quite challenging but extremely interesting to build. The history of the ship is fascinating, and one day I will visit the WASA Museum in Stockholm. The attached file is just the beginning, with the layout, and the review of the drawings. I will keep you posted on the progress with as many pictures as I can spare the time for. Looking forward to talking to you all and those in particular building the same boat. JM
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I have recently completed Billing Boat’s 50ft Steam Pinnace, (listed as HMS Renown). It was quite a steep learning curve, as it has been many years since I attempted a similar build. I found it much more involved and more satisfying than the average plastic kit. The result is maybe not the most accurate rendering of one of the boats, or up with the efforts of many of the boats on this site, but it’s a start. I purchased a few of their kits whilst working in Saudi Arabia in the 90’s, where I discovered a model shop in the town where I lived. They were a little more expensive than they would have been back home, but, (a) it saved them from the ravages of Saudi Customs bringing them in and (b) the shopkeeper had decided to include the fittings packs with the basic kit, making them actually cheaper! The Admiral liked my first attempt and helped me choose the next one from my stash, Billing’s St Canute. It is one of their 700 series where the hull is built in two separate halves and then bought together. With the Pinnace I glued the two halves together before I planked it, but with this one I will follow the manufacturers method. So the first job, find a suitable board and pin the skeleton keels down and then mount the frames. I also added the deck at this stage. The kit is die-cut as opposed to laser and it shows on the slots cut in the deck’s edge. Billing usually provides just one planking layer and those provided were quite thick – not too bad on most of the hull, but a problem at the stern which has tight compound curves. I decided to make an infill block with some balsawood, recycled from an earlier project. The first attempt was not particularly good, as I tried to make allowances for the planks to cover it, so I scrapped that and make one that the planks butted up to, as the hull will be filled and painted anyway. (You will notice that I had already put the first plank on before I had thought of it…) The rest of the planking I am doing in sections, as I am still experimenting with the best way to do it for me. -
I have just received my Oseberg purchased on ebay from from rc-multistore_de. Impressed by the very fast delivery to the UK from Germany. I do not plan to cover every step of the construction which has been done so eloquently by others including Jack and Kossa. However I will describe any variations as I make them. Firstly I noticed a tiny sketch in the instruction book showing that the stem and stern keel pieces #10a and #10b need to be faired. As described by Jack these pieces will be removed and replaced by the scroll pieces so they will not be faired. Instead I have faired the keel pieces #10 almost to a knife edge. I will decide whether to shave off a layer of the scroll pieces in due course. Like Antti I plan to fill between the bulkheads with softwood to stiffen the structure and to form a firm base for planking. I did the same with a Friesland model with good effect.
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A few people have asked me to start a build log for my billings victory so here goes! Decided to add part of the middle gun deck for at least one of the sets of ladders from the main deck- will cover the other hatchway with a grating- didn't want to weaken the framework in this area to avoid "hogging". work so far- building up courage to start the planking next! Keith
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Hi All I¨m new to this page so have a litle pations wit mee . trying figuring out how it all funks. Ennyway My name is Jens and i live in Copenhagen Denmark , so my englis is onfortunaly not the bedst but i vill take Google translate in youse later on . I am building an old Billing Boats no. 459 Cutty sark as i board sekond hand som years ago and has now buildt for at least 2 years . im nerly finish with the ships hull and is about building the lifeboats . The pic. belov is about 1 week old. I planing to schove pic. from the start and the hole proces as if i started on day 1. and sofort to today . I consither this letter therfor as a test in how this page woarks an will therfor erease it again hwen i soone start my "reeal " building log . Cheers All. Jens
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Hi all, Just joined the forum. I have a couple of half finished things to finish off, so apologies if I'm not starting from the beginning. First up is my old Cutty Sark model, started in the eighties that was pretty near finished, but I'm now re-rigging. (Next will be my Corel Wasa, that is much less progressed) The model was nearly done, save for some rigging details on the fore mast. However, in order to take it with me to Australia, I took the whole rigging down, so I'm restarting from this point. (Added picture of model some 5 years ago, before packing and transporting to Australia) Just starting on the mizzen now: -
Hello I use Google translate so excuse if the translation gets weird. Here I was going to write about the construction of Billing boats Denmark. I have tried to build several boats before but either I get stuck in some problem or I lose interest. This time around, I have the goal of just building on whatever happens. I do not have the ambition that it will be something fantastic but just ok. One thing I have trouble with is bending the 2 mm thick plywood that sits at the top of the sides of the boat. I have already managed to break such a part when I tried to bend it over steaming water. Should it be soaked and if so how long? So far I have come. Only the deck in the middle is glued, the rear deck is only fixed with a few screws. Here is a small problem, the deck goes 3 mm outside the frame. The plywood to be glued is only 2 mm.
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The making of this model was started in 2006 After visiting the Wasa museum in Stockholm. It's my 1st wooden ship model. Normally I only build military vehicles in 1/72 scale Ps, I understand and read English. But i've never learned to write it. So. All I write in English will be translated from Dutch to English with google translate. Sorry for that.
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Started building a old Billing Boats kit. PS hull was told to be the last kit, they started a new production in wood some years later, available today. some tip about glue will be asked for 🙂
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The beautiful beast has made her presence known! Please follow this journey and offer criticism and suggestions and enjoy the show -
I am presently starting a second log. I am not even 2 years into this hobby, plugging away at a Caldercraft kit, the HM Granado, and have now started a new (old) build. My neighbour purchased this kit 25 years ago in 1989 and completed it to the stage shown in the pictures below. Unfortunately, that is where it has sat for 24.5 years and fortunate for me though is that he has passed the kit on to me. I was very surprised at the quality of his work, certainly better that what I would have done on my first effort and maybe even on a second effort for me, specifically with respect to the planking. The kit though has some definite misgivings. 1) There is no instructions at all - not sure if they were present originally and subsequently lost but for me I have had to do a lot of research both on MSW and with a co-worker of my wife's who to my surprise has built 3 Bluenose and Bluenose II kits and lucky for me, was able to provide me with his instruction manuals and plans to refer to. 2) The quality of the kit components is certainly not up to par with the Caldercraft kit - for example plastic deadeyes and blocks which I will surely replace with wooden items. 3) Some missing parts but certainly easy to scratch build - for example the rudder and the cradle. 4) There are some minor mistakes and deviations from the plans made by my neighbour, but easy to fix. There are some positive items to the present build and kit though. 1) The hull is single planked but my neighbour has done a very good job (in my estimation). The nail holes are nicely countersunk and with a fine layer of wood filler, the hull is ready for primer and paint. 2) The deck planking needs a simple fine sand and is basically ready for a protective varnish. 3) The fixes that are required are easy to do - for example at the transom. Also I feel that I should first put some fake stanchions to make it more to the proper and original form. I should also cut some scuppers into the hull which I find more appealing to the model. And I will also have to create a waterway which I presume will have to be masked off and simply spray painted, first with primer and then a paint, given the current state of the model and difficulty getting a brush into the bulwarks and stanchions. There is a current build on MSW of this same original kit, presently not on the market, at this scale anyways, done by 7Provinces. Hopefully we will be able to collaborate a bit and I think the model will turn out quite well. Not sure on how fast my progress will be as I currently have another build on the go.
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a rough log of the construction of the Norske Love.
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Just got this kit. I haven't built anything for about two years due to arthritis in my hands, so I might not do the rigging, but I think i can still do the carpentry work. So stay tuned, and follow along. I could only find one other log on this ship by "alpayed", and his work is fantastic. Don't expect this quality from me, but i'll try. -
Hello everyone, This is my build log for Billing Boats Oseberg viking ship that I originally did not intend to create. As the build (slowly) progressed I changed my mind and thought making a build log would put some pressure on me to actually complete it someday. Also this is my first ship so I chose this inexpensive Oseberg kit in belief that it would be a bit easier to make than something with three masts and complex rigging etc.
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Back in February, Luekutus started a build log for the Billings Calypso which jogged me into finishing a project that I started probably 10 years ago. I really appreciate that he has planked his, it looks great and I’m looking forward to seeing more! My goal was to build a nice model for the mantel that was a good scale and not a warship. While I’ve done some basic research, my model is not 100% accurate and I’ve taken some artistic license in some areas. The Billings kit is crude by today’s standards but can be spiced up with a bit of detailing and is the best available today in a large scale. The helicopter supplied is AWFUL! I’ve given up on trying to make it look nice and am looking for an after market substitute in 1:48 that’s close. I added some 1:48 welding gas cylinders that look fine and the rope I’ve used is the truly nice stuff from Syren. Most of the trim is Evergreen and a lot of the wood is from my spares stash. Enjoy, Don
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