Oseberg Viking Ship by killickthere - FINISHED - Billing Boats - 1:16 - SMALL

[killickthere]

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.

Edited November 24, 2017 by killickthere

[killickthere]

The keel and bulkheads all went on easy. The planking worked out better than it should have. I didn't put tick marks on the stem & stern due to my lack of experience and lack of interaction. Finally when I'm trying to figure out where they should end did it occur to me to look at the plans, measure from those plans and transfer. Live and learn. So kiddies... Do try this at home. Take your plans measure where the planks end on S&S and  mark onto them. Like I said worked out better than it should have. I left the last strake until I did a bit of interior work, like adding the extra bulkheads. One thing I will add about the strakes. They all start approx. the same place. It would have been nice if they'd have been more staggered.

 

[killickthere]

One thing that did happen was I developed a twist at the stem. I'm thinking because I added to many strakes on one side at a time? So I wet the whole forward section, (I won't tell you all the strakes came loose at the stem and became a total mess), with  hot water. I made this contraption to twist the stem back in line. Certainly not pretty but it was effective. I let it sit over night and it worked well.

 

[killickthere]

What to do next... Oh, I did make a tail out of the 2nd head, as most know the kit supplies two 'head' pieces for the stem & stern. Around that time I'm thinking what my brother said to me when he saw the project. Did doesn't have a dragon head. That along with the ship being my funeral ship I thought why not. The little artistic side I have kicked into full gear. I made a few liked one pretty much but it was kinda of bland. I remembered in the basement I had some really cool burl for knife scales. So I made a 3rd figurehead. It came out decent. I finally came up with a tail design that was a bit different. Here are a few pictures of that process. The decorated stem & stern pieces just didn't look right with the head & tail so I made my own from birch I had purchased. The fitting took quite awhile and at this point I do not have them permanently attached. I'll wait until I finish the outside of the hull.

[killickthere]

I did try my hand at carving the figures but nothing I did was up to my measly standards. Well I did do a bit of carving on the head itself. I couldn't figure out how to make the eyes. Again I could carve them in. Well one evening I has reloading some shot shells for a skeet match I had and bingo! #9 shot, that's the ticket! I drilled into the head just a wee bit for a socket and whala eyeballs. I initially painted them red but they didn't stand out enough against the color of the wood. I first made a tongue from a piece of brass but it was to thin. I attempted to make it from scrap wood of the burl. It came out to my liking. I added the beard for grins and giggles.

Oh a picture of my crew.

 

I apologies for the VERY lame photography. I'm using my phone with the crappiest of backgrounds. I wasn't going to do a lot so I didn't think that far ahead. Hopefully they'll get better.

[killickthere]

I also made my own rudder & tiller. It's funny what 'wars' we choose to battle and ones we don't. I enjoyed this process and it did come out very nice. I used the same species of wood as the head & tail but apparently there is a redder version! No worries it looks nice I think.

[killickthere]

I fiddled making an oar and a shield so I will know how to preside when it's time. I'll only be making 5 shields, one for each of my four dogs & myself. I had two prior and Maxx & Cobi when their time comes. I have Cody & Niki's ashes already. They'll be going to Valhalla with me. on to the nailing of the hull.

Edited November 21, 2017 by killickthere
spelling errors

[killickthere]

OK I am up to date. The next log will be much better, I hope, as I'll write it as progress is made. Hopefully much more detail. So I am at this point now. I bought some nails from an online model store. They are nice but I wanted to find something a little smaller than the head size of them. I think they were 1.6 mm or so. Well I did. What I found were pins women, (and I'm sure a few menfolk), use for making lace. The head is 1.20 mm. I did the scale conversion and it comes out to 1.13 inches. Das ain't to bad!! So I ordered 2,800 of them. They are a bit long at 17 mm but they are working very well. The pins are steel then nickel plated. I used etching acid to remove, blacken the nickel. Experimenting with time in the acid showed me I could get different colors. From gray to black to an almost rust color. Perfect! I took 400 pin batches, the pins came in 400 piece lots and soaked them various minutes. I used 11mm spacing. I also made a little jig to help with the hole drilling. Worked out nicely. After drilling all the holes, (I counted 968 on one side), I coated the hull before starting the nailing. I wanted the color to be authentic and since the ship will actually go into the water for the funeral I went this route... I purchased a pint of Stockholm pine tar and a pint of boiled linseed oil. Man the stuff smells but in a good way, to me anyway. When I get home and get close to the work area it smells of pine tar. Just like a real shipyard! I mixed it 50/50 and coated the hull. I'll put a 2nd coat on after the nailing is complete. I'm about a 3rd of the way done with the other side. I am also going to nail the frames and mastfish so I'll have plenty. 

OK, up to date...

 

[Derek C]

Looking real nice 

[md1400cs]

Good start!

Nice details on your dragon, tail, rudder/oar. I grabbed a chair and I will follow along as well.

 

PS: This one is next on my list 

 

Cheers,

[Seventynet]

Nice job indeed! I’ll pull up a chair as well. 

 

Ian

[killickthere]

First thank you all for your comments. It's been fun making a model ship again. Second, to those that celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope everyone is having a safe & relaxing holiday. I just finished dinner and of course I'm stuffed! I did the cooking and I do have to say the turkey AND the gravy turned out superb. 

 

OK I wanted to make a few comments on the nailing process that I'm using. This is from learning from nailing the first side. What I started doing was cutting two different sizes from the full size pins. So I'm basically using three different sizes. Full size, half size, and quarter size. On the stem & stern a lot of the quarter size are used. As I start nailing towards the center I can use the full size pins. Down along the keel I've needed to use mostly the half size. I also made a little glueboat. I'm using Gorilla super glue. I'll squeeze a fair amount into the boat which in that amount doesn't start curing. The viscosity stays pretty much the same for over an hour. Even over night it is usable. It will start developing 'strings' as you pull the pins end out so I just add more glue. I also adjusted the glueboat making it sit at an angle as to keep the glue at one end. So far this process is working pretty good. Here are some of my lame pictures.

 

 

Ahh you have to edit to put text after pictures! My glueboat, HMS Sticky

 

And nails with the implements of destruction.

Edited November 23, 2017 by killickthere
Add text

[killickthere]

I'mmmm back. Hey, it took Michelangelo years to finish the Sistine Chapel. One positive of all this virus mess is the free time. So I finished my ship. Named her Puffe. Yes after the song Puff the Magic Dragon. So I finished the nailing of the hull. As others have mentioned around 2500 nails I believe.

I made some odds and ends then proceeded on the decking. 231 hand fit pieces. Here's what I did. After fitting a section I removed each piece and marked on the back where they went. I wanted to see what a section glued together looked like so being the smarty pants I am I glued like all 4 or 5 pieces together thinking they'll fit right back into the section. Ummm, not! Such subtle placement caused them not to fit. I ended up glueing two or three together to make sections with in the sections. I forget, I had something like 70 sections? 

Here are some pictures of the decking process...

 

[killickthere]

After the decking was completed, staining and glueing in place I worked on the deck furniture. I took liberties with certain aspects of the build. I was fortunate enough that the Draken Harold Harfagre docked in Mystic Seaport here in Ct. and I got to take a tour. What a beautiful ship! 

Anyway I wanted to but in some water casks, crates etc. Here are a few pictures of those...

Vikings need water and have to have spoils from their radios right?

[killickthere]

Basically the rest is pretty cut and dry. I wasn't going to make a sail as the cloth provided was a bit, (ok a lot), out of scale. To me anyway. I YouTubed making a model sail and found an awesome tutorial by Tom Lauria using silkspan. I figured I'd try...

Sized, painted, and drying.

I figured it needed a little individualism...

I did glue an 1/8" strip in both sides all the way around the parameter for strength. Since I'm into this sail I might as well try adding a bolt rope. I had no idea if you can even do this with silkspan but what the heck.

Hey it works!

Let's put it on the spar

I decided to furl the sail as I wasn't going to mess with trying to get the perfect shape.

That's better.

[killickthere]

What was next? Oh, and anchor. I understand the Vikings valued iron too much to use it on an anchor. At least at some early point. I found a picture of an anchor made from stone and wood. Here is my inturpretation...

 

Pretty cool the wedges hold the stone in. No glue used in the anchor. 

 

 

[md1400cs]

Nice - let's see how the outer hull nails came out. I also plan to add nails, but to complicate things I'm hoping to leave some deck panels open

to show interior details - big issue I know - covering the deck, as you did makes things so much easier

 

Yours looks very good - nice build indeed. Anchor perfect - interesting that Viking kits only include much later style anchors.

[killickthere]

15 minutes ago, md1400cs said:

Nice - let's see how the outer hull nails came out. I also plan to add nails, but to complicate things I'm hoping to leave some deck panels open

to show interior details - big issue I know - covering the deck, as you did makes things so much easier

 

Yours looks very good - nice build indeed. Anchor perfect - interesting that Viking kits only include much later style anchors.

Thank you very much for the kind words. There are a hundred and one mistakes but it is what it is. Here is a picture of some of the 2500 nails. Of course you have to pre-drill 2500 holes first!

One word of caution and maybe it was just me. It's tricky getting enough glue to have them stay yet not make a mess. I'll bet I had to replace a couple hundred maybe? 

 

[killickthere]

I only made one shield as they're out on a raid. The shield and weapons are from the only, to this point, fallen comrade.

 

[killickthere]

Back to the head and tail. I knew I was going to have to cover the area where the figurehead stempost, and planking came together. I tried cordage, couldn't get it to lay right, leather, too thick, and metal, I'm not a good fabricator. Well the whole darn thing is wood. Why not wood?? I really like the way the head and tail came out. And it needed some bling right?!

 

[killickthere]

33 minutes ago, md1400cs said:

Nice - let's see how the outer hull nails came out. I also plan to add nails, but to complicate things I'm hoping to leave some deck panels open

to show interior details - big issue I know - covering the deck, as you did makes things so much easier

 

Yours looks very good - nice build indeed. Anchor perfect - interesting that Viking kits only include much later style anchors.

Also Michael, I was going to leave a couple of the deck sections off also, maybe show some storage. Well everything would be soaking wet I doubt they used it for much storage. If you noticed I drilled holes in a couple of boards in each section. I saw this on the Draken. They had to lift the deck boards somehow to bail the water out and that is how ! There really isn't much detail to show inside other than a bunch of nails sticking through! Good luck with your build. 

[md1400cs]

Really like your work on this example - lot's of really nice details...nails look just right - yup not much under the planks, but was interested in the internal structure along

these lines -- but prob. overreach on my part. 

in any case Viking build will need to wait - one in between is up next - then to the 8th Cent.

 

Oh and your shield is just right !!!

 

Cheers,

 

[killickthere]

Again thank you Michael. Yes that is one of the pictures I found to model my mast fish after! Haha.

[md1400cs]

Yours is really excellent  - you should send it as a gift to Michael Hirst 😂  (I was a The Vikings huge fan for 6 seasons - got me super motivated to build a Viking boat)

 

FYI: if you were also a fan -- Unfortunately, the show has come to an end with Season 6 being the final instalment. The makers have confirmed this. However, there’s still good news because Hirst just isn’t done yet. Valhalla, a spin-off series has been confirmed which will stream on Netflix and not Amazon or History. As its predecessor show did. Twenty-four episodes have already been greenlit and will be filmed in Ireland.

 

His book about the series (Vikings) was also very interesting - He and his staff were obsessed with getting as much as possible visually and historically accurate for the series...

 

Regards,

[killickthere]

Yes am/was a huge fan. Although I haven't watch the last season. I've got all the episodes recorded. Thanks for the info on the new series that's great!

Oh and my brother has dibs on the ship HAHA. That's if I give it to him. I'm becoming quite fond of Puffe!

[killickthere]

One more pic. I ordered the warrior from a Ukrainian fella on Etsy. He's pewter , (really heavy), and had an artist friend of his paint it. I gave her artistic license and think she did an awesome job.

 

 

[Cathead]

Just read through this build, great work. Love some of the extra details like the anchor, I may use that for my current build.

[Balclutha75]

11 hours ago, Cathead said:

Just read through this build, great work. Love some of the extra details like the anchor

Ditto that! I've wondered about the iron anchor that came with my Amati kit. Didn't feel right, yours looks great.

 

Are these the kind of lace pins you used?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PSFC46/

 

Thanks.

[Louie da fly]

On 5/29/2020 at 4:09 AM, killickthere said:

The shield and weapons are from the only, to this point, fallen comrade.

Looking good, but the sword needs a pommel (the counterweight at the end of the handle). They came in all kinds of interesting shapes, some quite beautiful.

 

   

 

For more varieties, do a google image search on Viking sword pommels. I think you'll be agreeably surprised.

[killickthere]

22 hours ago, Cathead said:

Just read through this build, great work. Love some of the extra details like the anchor, I may use that for my current build.

 

10 hours ago, Balclutha75 said:

Ditto that! I've wondered about the iron anchor that came with my Amati kit. Didn't feel right, yours looks great.

 

Are these the kind of lace pins you used?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PSFC46/

 

Thanks.

 

9 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Looking good, but the sword needs a pommel (the counterweight at the end of the handle). They came in all kinds of interesting shapes, some quite beautiful.

 

   

 

For more varieties, do a google image search on Viking sword pommels. I think you'll be agreeably surprised.

Thank you all for the kind words. The anchor was a really fun little aside from building the ship. Going out and finding a suitable rock then messing around with the fit, (for the better part of the day!). Squaring the holes for the wedges etc. 

Louie thank you for the pictures yes they do need pommels.

Bulclutha75, they are something like that except I purchased mine on eBay. I tried to go back to my purchasing history for them but that only goes back to 2018. I don't remember if they were nickel plated or not. I do remember though that I soaked them in an electronic etching solution for various times. The longer they soaked the more rusty they became. If you want the name I still have the solution.