Gokstad c. 900 AD by bigpetr - 1:48 - CARD - viking ship

[Binho]

Beautiful work bigpetr! Such clean lines, it's super impressive. How did you do the rivets? Will you be doing rivets on the rest of the hull?

[bigpetr]

Thanky you Binho, . Rivets are punched with o,5mm diameter punch tool from the 0,1 mm thick paper to be in scale with real rivets and glued on the surface of the plank. I decided not to paint them with metalic color, because on ship reconstructions they are covered with protective paint and metal mostly do not shine throu.

Rivets will be on the rest of the hull too. I will also do tree nails on outside hull, not inside where they were inline with the plank surface. I needed to rivet this planks first so I can paint them before instaling them. It will be easier to colour triangles before instaling the planks. Painting them is what I am working on now. Then I will do rest of rivets on outer hull and then finaly detach the ship from the jig. I almost detach the ship from the jig few times to see it without it, but I manage to supress my impatience. Riveting will be much easier with the jig attached

[Binho]

Wow, that's going to be a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it! I think not painting them metallic is a good call. Can't wait to see it removed from the jig either Your build is making me want to try modelling in card too!

[bigpetr]

Card is worth the try. Chalenge (for me, since I did this first time) is that you have to imitate the materials with paint. With wooden model you have it for free.

 

One row of rivets from fore to aft takes me about hour including punching them. So to rivet outer hull takes me 17*2= 34 hours. I will interlace it with other building task like CAD work on the ship, mastfish, rudder to rest from it

[bigpetr]

Initialy I want to print the parts textured, but I feared that printer inks/toners fades in time. So I decided to paint it by hand. Maybe I will try to print  textured parts for next ship project. It will be a chance to dive into Substance Painter. I want to learn it deeper for some time.

[bigpetr]

After a few tests painting triangles I decided to print whole strip of colored triangles and glue it to the plank. One strip prepared for triangles, other is finished. I will weather it and add litle imperfections here and there to break the uniformity:

[bigpetr]

Last plank is finaly attached. Next step is riveting.

 

[Louie da fly]

Wow. Just, wow.

[bigpetr]

First stage of riveting is complete - tree nails attaching the ribs and square rivet plates on outer hull:

 

Round rivet heads go next ...

[Louie da fly]

Beautiful, precise work, Bigpetr. It just keeps getting better . . .

[bigpetr]

Hello friends,

 

I have prolific discussion with realy knowleable men who sails and maintain viking ship replicas.

 

He proposed to do shield rack on Gokstad. I will try to investigate this idea, because It would be practical to have one. But bigger news I am excited about is that if he will help me I will do this type of rigging:

 

 

It is not the "official" rigging used on viking ship archeological replicas, but it was depicted on several pictures from that age. I am realy looking forward to try to interprete this drawings.

 

Do you know some models with this rigging used?

[Louie da fly]

13 hours ago, bigpetr said:

Do you know some models with this rigging used?

 

No, but it will be very interesting to see it being done.

 

As I understand it, the idea of all these ropes was to even out the forces on the homespun (wool) sails, which had a tendency to stretch. And in this picture and others, there are (usually diagonal) criss-cross patterns, probably reinforcements also to reduce stretching.

 

             

 

         

 

 

     

 

 

Steven  

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Louie da fly

[bigpetr]

Thank you wery much for this pictures Louie.

[Louie da fly]

It's my pleasure. In fact I've learnt a thing or two while doing this The only two contemporary sources I know that show sails on Viking ships are these runestones and Viking coins.

 

 

And [almost?] without exception the sails seem to have these criss-cross patterns. Looking at all these pictures raises the question - were all Viking sails like this? I know the modern stereotype is for Viking ships to have striped sails, but where does that come from? Perhaps the sagas contain more information, and perhaps they mention striped sails - but that would be another study which I'm not prepared to chase at the moment. 

 

Another point to consider - were the Viking sails really made of homespun wool? Is there any actual evidence of this? I got it from a book, but it certainly didn't mention any evidence to back the assertion. The Vikings were fully conversant with making linen and even used stinging nettle fibre to make cloth. Why would they have used wool to make their sails if it stretched like that?

 

Final point - the great majority of depictions on picture stones have this kind of rigging at the foot of the sail - some is a lot simpler than the example you posted, but nonetheless they're there - and perhaps the simpler ones (often a Y shaped arrangement) could give an idea of how the more complicated ones work. If you look at the middle picture on the third row in my previous post, perhaps that gives a hint of how it was done - a loop around the upper rope leading to the next rope down.  I'm reminded of crows-feet on bowlines in 17th century ships which perhaps performed a similar function.

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by Louie da fly

[bigpetr]

I have to sort out rudder placement and attachement so I modeled rudder and its holders in 3d:

And then printed and assembled paper template and attached it to the hull. Halfway in the proces and finished:

 

Rudder itself will be next.

 

 

[Louie da fly]

Looks good, but I'd say the tiller should be higher - it looks like the helmsman would be working inefficiently if he had to move it at that height. More like chest height, I'd say - then he can use all his strength in the horizontal direction, rather than wasting some of it downward.

[bigpetr]

Exactly my thinking Louie. I scratched my head about it for some time, but this is how it is, based on archeological plans. This part of the ship survived quite well up to the top strake.

 

On "Viking" replica of Gokstad it was like this and captain Rasmussen was surprised how easy it was to steer the ship:

 

Saga Oseberg replica has it like this, also quite low.:

 

And if you are on helmsman deck of Saga Oseberg, it looks like this:

 

I was realy trying to do it as high as I can based on dimensions I have.

[Louie da fly]

Well, that's fair enough. It was just on an issue of workability. They've obviously proved it is workable that way.

 

Steven

[Schrader]

On 12/10/2020 at 5:26 PM, bigpetr said:

First stage of riveting is complete - tree nails attaching the ribs and square rivet plates on outer hull:

 

Round rivet heads go next ...

It looks really good!!!.  

[bigpetr]

I am slowly working on riveting and in the meantime I completed rudder (comparison with the original).

 

[KrisWood]

Hi @bigpetr,

 

Have you made any progress lately? It's been a while! I'm eager to see what you do next on this beauty!

[KrisWood]

Btw, for resources on viking sails and rigging, the best source I know of is here:

 

https://www.academia.edu/37851682/Vikingetidens_sejl_form_og_proportion

[bigpetr]

Hi Kris, Thank you wery much for the sail resouce.

 

Well I am still riveting, but it goes slow, not much time throught the christmas to this day. I am helping my brother to build his house and rest of the free time goes to kids. I steel hour here and there at night to progress on riveting. 

[Cathead]

Have you made any further progress? Surely that house is built by now!

[bigpetr]

Well Eric, that house is not build by now, my brother is not in a hurry, but my help is not needed there. So I fluently switched to reparing another building - our cottage. I barrely touch my ship this year. I want to get back to it soon.

 

[KrisWood]

Hi Petr! I'm revising my Oseberg project to mirror your Gokstad project. Are you still around? I could use some pointers.

 

1. What software did you use to draw/print your parts? Sorry, it's been a while, I forgot you're using Rhino
2. Could you please describe your technique for building up layers to scale thickness?

Thanks!

Kris

Edited September 2, 2022 by KrisWood

[Hpeter]

Hi bigpetr,

is the construction of the ship still going on, or have you abandoned the project?
would you make the blueprints downloadable in pdf format?

I'm thinking about building a similar boat, but I couldn't find any really good plans. I managed to download the Billing boats Oseberg plans, but I'm afraid they are not detailed enough.

it would be nice to see your finished ship.

 

BR.: Peter