Viking Ship Drakkar by Barry1 - FINISHED - Amati - 1:50 Scale

[Barry1]

I am waiting for a few items for my Mayflower build and I made the mistake of opening the box of my next build the Viking Drakkar by Amati. The kit is detailed on other logs so I will not go into it other than to say the wood quality appears good not great. I have decided to use the kit supplies wood and other accessories although I might add a few items done the road. I’ve been working on the ship for a few weeks so I will catch up with this log. The keel and frame assembly is pretty straight forward. Three of the frames have notches in them to help align the strakes which are all precut and fit well. I found several pics of Viking ships and decided to stain the strakes and frames in a dark walnut before assembling them to the frame. Next up was adding the false deck and planking. All straight forward. The planks were laid center offset per plans and it came out ok. Not sure yet what stain to use on the deck but it will be stained. I then drilled all holes for oars and shrouds. And added spacers and racks on hull. I will show the sail down so oars will be shown in their racks. I’m now working on trestles. That about catches up to where I am in the build. 

[Barry1]

This kit builds up fairly quickly. Finished work on trestles, added cleats and oar racks and stained the deck with a golden oak. It’s hard to see the stain in the light. Will try for a better pic on next update. 

[Barry1]

I decided to add another coat of golden oak stain to the deck to deepen it a bit. Looks better to me now. 

Then went on to mast, rudder, yard and swinging booms. I decided to use the kit supplied bucket and anchor but not the chest. I made up several of my own chests for display on the deck. I don’t know yet how many I will add but I have plenty now. The chests were used not only to store supplies and belongings but also served as seats when the crew were rowing the ship. I decided to display shields on the side of the ship and painted the kit supplied shields both red and white and black and yellow. There is debate on whether the shields were actually displayed on the sides of Viking ships. One theory is that there is no clear proof of this from the ships that have been unearthed and the other is they would have been used on the sides for defensive purposes to protect the crew from in going arrows and such. I am going with the second theory purely based on builder preference. 

Now starting to work on the sail. 

[Barry1]

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the ship since my last post. I fabricated the sail, painted it and added blocks and rigging lines then attached it to the yard. Next was to add the 5 shroud lines.  It’s now ready for setting on the ship and completion of the rigging. Next up was to assemble all the oars. There are 14 on each side of the ship, all of various lengths depending on where they would be used on the ship when rowing. While I will display them in the oar racks if I ever want to change the display I can. Pretty unlikely though. 

Rigging is up next and it looks to be pretty straight forward. Sorry for the quality of the oar pic. I’ve only shown the first batch of 14. 

[Barry1]

I have now finished the Viking Ship. The rigging was straightforward but a challenge due to the small scale. I added several chests to the deck as well as a couple of the items supplied in the kit, an axe and a bow just for interest. This was an enjoyable kit to build. The English instructions and pictures were adequate, however, a few steps did require some imagination. Wood quality was fine as well. I do suggest good stains and paint to bring the ship to life. 

[Binho]

That was a fast build, but it came out very nice!  I like it Barry, I like the dark stain too. Might try that dark walnut for my Viking ship as well.

 

It looks like the shield rack they provided is based on the rack found on the Skuldelev 5 longship. Interestingly if shields were placed in the rack on that ship, they would have blocked the oarports. So at least on that ship, if they did use the rack for shields they couldn’t put the shields out while rowing.

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Well done!

[Barry1]

On 10/5/2019 at 1:31 PM, Binho said:

That was a fast build, but it came out very nice!  I like it Barry, I like the dark stain too. Might try that dark walnut for my Viking ship as well.

 

It looks like the shield rack they provided is based on the rack found on the Skuldelev 5 longship. Interestingly if shields were placed in the rack on that ship, they would have blocked the oarports. So at least on that ship, if they did use the rack for shields they couldn’t put the shields out while rowing.

Thanks!! There is quite a bit of debate on the shields are their placement. I hedged by trying to show the ship at sail, besides I liked the look of the shields in the rack so took modelers prerogatives over most accurate historical interpretation😉

[Barry1]

On 10/5/2019 at 9:42 PM, GrandpaPhil said:

Congratulations!  Well done!

Thanks!!