Oseberg Ship by KrisWood - 1:25 - Vibeke Bischoff Plans

[Louie da fly]

This is such beautiful work. And that's just the planning for the model . . .

[KrisWood]

Almost done designing the new jig...

 

Bulkheads:

 

False Keel:

 

Assembled with keel in place:

 

First five strakes:

 

After the first five strakes are installed I will be removing the bulkheads/false keel assembly and turning it upright.

 

Next steps will be:

1. Design the uprights that hold the keel in place

2. Design the horizontal cutout with notches for the bulkheads

3. Design the strips of wood to go on the baseboard to hold the keel in place when upright

4. Slice the keel into cross sections and scarfs so I can build it up out of layers

5. Print templates and start cutting things out of wood!

 

I'm so close and so excited!!!

[liteflight]

You are excited, and the wood is looking forward to being transformed into a thing of beauty

[KrisWood]

I've completed redrawing the layers of the keel and stems with the new dimensions. Now to arrange all the parts for printing on card and cutting out.

 

[KrisWood]

It's the end of the road for CAD work.

 

I'll be losing access to Rhino soon, so here's the final CAD screenshot. Everything else will be photos of wood from here on out.

 

 

This is the completed jig design. I'm not sure if all of it is necessary, and may not end up building it this way, but it would support both the keel and the cutout. I've also made the cutout opening wider in this version than my last screenshot. The jig height is set up so that the cutout is exactly halfway up the keel and it can be flipped over with zero change in geometry.

 

The bulkheads will only be used in the upside down position while placing the first five strakes. After that I think the hull should be sturdy enough to flip it over and remove the bulkheads and cutout.

 

I've never done this before so please tell me, does this sound like a sane way to build a model?

 

Next step will be printing out all my parts and backing the files up to the cloud for when I'm able to get Rhino again some day.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Do you want to build the keel from different layers? The only point for me to use a layer is the really complex design of the stemdecoration. If you have a colser look to the original stem you can see that it is very thin at front.

I hope that you need to much time, to start your build log. I am very interested so see, how you proceed.

[KrisWood]

Hi @AnobiumPunctatum,

 

 Yes, I’m still planning on building up the keel out of layers. My woodworking skills are insufficient to craft angled scarfs and the T shaped wings of the keel by hand, so I’ll build them up one layer at a time and sand them down.

 

I haven't honestly given much thought to the decorations. They are far beyond my skill level and I'm not sure how I would go about them. I'll give it my best effort, but may very well leave them out for this project. It's more important to me that this boat floats than that it be an exact replica.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

I understand what you mean. That's also the reason, why I didn't start building the Oseberg or one of the other bigger viking ships. The stopped Skuldelev III was a not so nice experience. But I love this kind of klinker build ships.

But before I go back, I will finish my HMS Triton; but this project needs some more years to complete.

 

[KrisWood]

I finally made more sawdust! Armed with my new plans I thought for sure this time things would work out correctly.

 

Then I started trying to assemble my parts and ran into two terrible errors on two very important thicknesses...
 

I misremembered my keel layers as being 1/16".  They're 1/32". I don't have any 1/32" basswood long/wide enough to make some of the pieces. I'm either going to need to buy some sheets of 1/32" basswood, or I'm going to need to redraw them at 1/16" thickness.

I also drew all my jig parts for 1/8" plywood, but my plywood is 1/4". This means none of the parts fit together. I'll need to either cut all the slots wider than drawn, or redraw them at 1/4".

Back to the drawing board, and this time without CAD. XD
 

 

 

[KrisWood]

It turned out widening the notches on the jig was super easy, next to shrink my keel layers. XD

[KrisWood]

I went and got more 1/32" basswood yesterday. I'm back in business! Pics to come soon.

[liteflight]

Pics welcome!

 

The problems you mention are mere breadcrumbs in the bed of life!
You have surged past the bottlenecks/ breadcrumbs and are about to regale us with layers and pics

Avanti!

[KrisWood]

It's been slow going these last few weeks. I've started a new job and it's taking up all my time and concentration.

 

I've been gradually getting parts cut out, little by little, and assembling them.

 

I accidentally glued the aft stem at the wrong angle, tilting too far aft. While attempting to pry it loose with a sharp knife, I accidentally snapped my keel in half. 🤣

 

Well, that'll teach me not to try that again.

 

So I reprinted my keel templates, cut them all out of wood, and lined them up with the parts I'd already cut out but hadn't glued yet.

 

 

They didn't fit! 😢

 

I carefully double checked all measurements and found that when I'd printed the templates on paper, the scale of each print was very slightly different, within a range of up to 2mm over the length of the ship.

 

Well, that's a problem. That means nothing is going to line up perfectly!

 

My question now is, how can I print paper templates at a consistent scale???

 

I'm already setting Adobe reader to print at 100% scale / actual size for my 1:25 Rhino drawings. I'd assumed that meant the resulting prints would all be at the same scale but obviously that is not so.

 

I'm stumped and would greatly appreciate any advice for printing consistent scales between drawings, especially for the parts that consist of multiple pages taped together when they're longer than one page.

Edited October 30, 2020 by KrisWood

[Cathead]

Would an option be to have the templates printed on single larger sheets of paper through an office store? I believe you can submit files online and pick up the printed product. That would mean the whole thing would be at one scale. Whether it would be precisely accurate to what you intended, I don't know.

[KrisWood]

Hi @Cathead,

 

Good idea! I looked it up and the Office Depot near my house does same day blueprint printing, so that might work.

 

Alternatively it occurred to me that if I export my plans as one really really REALLY big PDF I can print all the pages at once with the same scale settings. Then it would at least be to scale with itself. It's not as big an issue that it be exactly mathematically to 1:25 scale with the actual ship as that all the parts be to scale with each other.

 

I think I'll try printing the pages together in one big PDF first, and if that doesn't work out I'll try Office Depot.

[bigpetr]

It is hard to say where the problem is. It can be printer or PDF exporter. PDF exporter acted wierdly in rhino. For example  circles were not circular. So I export to other format (.ai format because i have Illustrator) and export to PDF from there. This way i have also no problem to print PDF with actual scale set up.
 

I did not checked it since so maybe rhino PDF exporter is fine now. 
Also I print 15cm ruller on the edge of the page, so i can check if page is printed at 100% scale

[Binho]

@KrisWood if you haven't seen this, check it out: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=x4xgpD8hUBj

 

The Oslo Museum of Cultural history has a 360 degree walk around of the Osberg ship exhibition space (Looks like the pictures were taken while they were scanning it a few years back). The pictures are very high resolution and you can see a lot of detail.

[Cathead]

What a fantastic resource! I've already discovered several details very useful to me in my own build.

[KrisWood]

Hi all!

 

Since my last post, I've got Rhino working on my personal laptop and have been hard at work drawing the few remaining pieces before going back to printing again. The rudder frame was by far the single most complicated part to figure out in 3D in this entire project. Sooo many complex shapes!

 

 

I've got a couple more parts to figure out in 3D before going back to printing.

 

Stay tuned!

[bigpetr]

Hi Kris,

how do you continue on the ship?

[Louie da fly]

That's amazing work, Kris. I've never tried Rhino - just AutoCad, Sketchup and Revit. None of them are capable of this kind of thing.

 

Steven

[Larry Cowden]

On 12/1/2019 at 1:28 AM, KrisWood said:

Hi everyone!

 

It's been a while since I posted in these forums, but I'm starting my first wooden ship model so I figured it was time to start a build log thread.

 

For this first project, I decided to build the Oseberg Viking longship. So far the best plans I've found are here: 

 

http://oseberg.narod.ru/pages/Oseberg_Schiff_Spiegazioni_Pag_01.htm

 

If anyone knows of any other publicly accessible plans that are better, I'd love to hear about them. This appears to be from a kit model but I think that might make it easier for a first build.

 

I'll post pics as I make progress.

 

Edit: I've updated the title to reflect the plans I've settled on, which have changed multiple times since I started this thread. I'm now working from the plans by Vibeke Bischoff that were used to build the Saga Oseberg 1:1 replica, from the book, "Saga Oseberg: rekonstruktion af et vikingeskib" by Thomas Søes Finderup, master boat builder of the Saga Oseberg replica.

Many thanks for that link! It's in my files now for future build.

[Larry Cowden]

On 12/1/2019 at 6:56 PM, KrisWood said:

The longest piece of basswood I could find in my neighborhood is a little over half the length of my keel, which would put the scarph joint right underneath the mast step (I think that’s the right term?) on the left side of page 48 of the plans in my first post. Would that weaken the entire keel?

 Thanks!

Modeler's Central may have what you need and many free references on all aspects of ship building! I'm still exploring them myself.

[Larry Cowden]

On 12/2/2019 at 4:03 AM, Bob Cleek said:

Don't waste your time with balsa. It is too soft and your keel is the "backbone" of the entire model. Balsa is for model airplanes, due to its light weight. It is not suitable for ship modeling. I could go on explaining the many reasons for this, but you're just going to have to trust me on this one.

 

Pictures help a lot with questions like this one. It sounds like the keel is somewhat trapezoidal in cross-section, which would be expected. There are many ways to shape it. Lay out a centerline all along the length of the top and bottom of the piece. Then lay out the shape of the bottom, turn it over and lay out the shape of the top. Then shape it to the top and bottom outer lines. Of course, you will also have to lay out your rabet and carve that into the top edges of the keel. This should be shown on the plans. You should also give some thought to a building jig. These Nordic vessels, I believe, were built "planks first" on a few temporary molds and the frames and floors were installed after the planking had defined the vessel's shape. You will have to build on some sort of a jig or forms, or you will have nothing to hang your planks on.

 

A jig saw could shape the larger dimension, and the rest of the keel could be developed by planing the sides thereafter. Obviously, you've discovered the limitations of a razor saw, which is generally useful only for crosscutting straight stock. A coping saw or the like is required for curved cuts.

 

I don't want to hurt your feelings, but in the interests of honesty, it's apparent from your questions that you lack the basic tool skills and knowledge of boat building to get anywhere at the rate you are going. These longships were very sophisticated in their design and execution. The plans you have, assuming you speak the language in which they are written, are not suitable for a beginner. They are not easily built hulls. There are many longboat kits commercially available. You should use the search engine in the forum to read all the build logs of them, read all the kit reviews of them, and decide which best suits your needs and skill level. There's nothing worse than biting off more that you can chew. Start with the "baby steps" and build upon what you learn. You'll master the skills quickly enough. It's not a subject that anyone at your skill level should attempt to scratch-build. Don't feel bad about that. Just accept that the learning curve is greater than you first imagined. There's no shame in that!

 

 

Very good info. I looked at the plans on that link. Very detailed, but language is a drawback! And I suggest a scroll saw for keel, frames, and bulkheads. 

[Larry Cowden]

On 12/2/2019 at 11:16 PM, mtaylor said:

Kris,

I did a quick search of term Viking for scratch builds here on MSW.  There are couple and some that might be relevant in style:    https://modelshipworld.com/search/?&q=viking&type=forums_topic&page=4&nodes=11&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy

That link is broken and empty according to Model Ship World.  Anything else?

[Larry Cowden]

On 12/13/2019 at 12:52 PM, KrisWood said:

Oh also, I've ordered a copy of the Saga Oseberg book by the master boat builder of that ship:

 

https://mindzone.dk/saga-oseberg/

 

This should help immensely with the project. It looks like it has far better plans than anything I've got so far.

DGood idea! But who can translate it to English?

[Larry Cowden]

On 12/15/2019 at 9:59 PM, reklein said:

Don't mean to hijack your thread if you like I will delete these after you see them.

This was very honorable of you sir! I salute you for your efforts 

[Larry Cowden]

On 1/2/2020 at 12:18 AM, KrisWood said:

On this attempt I used a razor saw. I've also got a coping saw but that never cuts straight in any direction. I'm thinking about using an X-acto chisel for the next attempt.

 

Edit: I think I figured out a way to do it. If I mark the line on both top and bottom, and then saw from the end rather than from the top, I can make sure the razor saw follows both lines. If I cut along the outside of the line on the second piece then it should be pretty easy to sand it to fit.

I highly recommend the use of a scroll saw for cutting any such work as that.

[Larry Cowden]

On 1/7/2020 at 11:35 AM, KrisWood said:

@Cathead, I don't have a table saw, so that's out. I have a full set of X-acto blades (straight, curved, and chisel, large and small), a rotary tool that I could make into a router but building a frame for that would be a project in itself, and various files both full size and needle. The vikings cut theirs with broadaxes, so I think the closest I've got are the X-acto knives. At the moment I'm leaning toward a large file to rough it out, then needle files and sanding blocks to fine tune it. I figured out last night that I can scarf together the pieces while they're square as long as I draw the lines to cut where they'll be AFTER the pieces are beveled into wedges. If I cut the scarfs where they are on the plans at their current widths, the scarfs will end up too short after beveling.

 

As for the transition from T to wedge, the T of the keel transitions into a rabbet shortly before the curve of the stem and stern. The garboard strake follows the rabbet until it gets to the T, at which place it is riveted along the bottom of the T, then follows the transition to the rabbet on the other end.

 

You can see the cross sections before and after the transition between rabbet and T on the left hand side of the plan of the keel drawn of the original ship by Fr. Johannessen in 1933:

 

http://www.unimus.no/felles/bilder/web_hent_bilde.php?id=12384245&type=jpeg

 

Here is a photo from the construction of Saga Oseberg showing the garboard strake being fitted, where the transition is clearly visible toward the forward section of the ship in the right hand side of the photo:

 

For the work you have described, the best setup is a router table with a guide pin to control the shaping of the rabbit. You can control the start point and end point of the rabbit and tapering from there. Dremel has the equipment to do this.

[mtaylor]

20 hours ago, Larry Cowden said:

That link is broken and empty according to Model Ship World.  Anything else?

Sorry... but do try the search feature.