Oseberg and Kraken by Glen McGuire - FINISHED - Bottle - 1/250

[Glen McGuire]

Early last year, a good friend gave me a bottle of Kraken rum thinking I could use it for a future SIB project.  I’d consider him a great friend had there still been rum in the bottle, but since it was empty he’s only a good friend. 

It’s the thought that counts though, right?  So after finishing up the Adventure Galley SIB, I decided it was time to do something with the Kraken bottle.  But what exactly?  I wasn’t real familiar with what the Kraken was, so I started googling.  Most pictures I found showed a huge octopus-looking thing wrapping its tentacles around a sailing ship.  Hmmmm.  For some weird reason, it made me think of the 80’s and something that you’d find in just about every honky-tonk bar and high-class living room in Texas back then - an armadillo on it’s back holding up a bottle of Lone Star beer like it was fixing to drink it. 

 

 

Then the dim light bulb in my head flickered on.  Why not try to make a SIB where the Kraken is acting like the armadillo, holding the SIB above the water like it’s trying to drink the ship out of the bottle?
The bad news was sculpting a Kraken creature would take skills way beyond my abilities. The good news was that the friend who gave me the Kraken bottle also happens to be an incredibly talented artist who does amazing carvings and sculptings.  So I threw out the idea of a collaborative effort on this project.  Unfortunately, the timing was not good for my friend so he declined.  Which means I’m gonna try to do this whole project myself.  Lord have mercy!

 

 

[Glen McGuire]

The Ship - Oseberg
I described the concept to my son and he immediately suggested doing a Viking longship inside the bottle.  I loved the idea, especially since I had not tried one before.  So I started digging around and found a longship whose look and story grabbed my attention – the Oseberg.

The Oseberg is a Norwegian Viking longship that was discovered in 1904 during the excavation of a burial mound in Tonsberg, Norway.  It is considered a Karve, which is a smaller longship used for both warfare and trade.   Based on dating of the wood and artifacts, the Oseberg was believed to have been built in 820 AD and buried 14 years later as a funeral ship containing the skeletons of two women of royalty or high social status.  

As for the ship itself, the Oseberg was almost entirely made of oak, about 70 ft in length, 17 ft wide at midpoint, with a 30ft high mast.  There are 15 oar openings for 30 potential rowers.  
Interesting pictures of the archeological site can be found here: https://thevikingherald.com/article/famous-viking-ships-the-story-of-the-oseberg-ship/92.

My version of the Oseberg will be fashioned after a model of the ship from the Maritime Museum, in Stockholm, Sweden.  There are also several good build logs for the Oseberg on MSW that I will look to for help on some of the details.

 

The Kraken
There are several versions of the Kraken legend.  I’m going to try and fashion mine after the classic Jules Verne description from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:

It was a squid of colossal dimensions, fully eight meters long. It was traveling backward with tremendous speed in the same direction as the Nautilus. It gazed with enormous, staring eyes that were tinted sea green. Its eight arms (or more accurately, feet) were rooted in its head, which has earned these animals the name cephalopod; its arms stretched a distance twice the length of its body and were writhing like the serpentine hair of the Furies. You could plainly see its 250 suckers, arranged over the inner sides of its tentacles and shaped like semispheric capsules. Sometimes these suckers fastened onto the lounge window by creating vacuums against it. The monster’s mouth—a beak made of horn and shaped like that of a parrot—opened and closed vertically. Its tongue, also of horn substance and armed with several rows of sharp teeth, would flicker out from between these genuine shears. What a freak of nature! A bird’s beak on a mollusk! Its body was spindle-shaped and swollen in the middle, a fleshy mass that must have weighed 20,000 to 25,000 kilograms. Its unstable color would change with tremendous speed as the animal grew irritated, passing successively from bluish gray to reddish brown.

My plan is to build the longship and insert it in bottle, then somehow make a kraken holding the bottle.  If I haven’t given up and gone into hiding somewhere along the way, I’ll finish by adding roiling seas around the kraken on the display base.  Here we go!  
 

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[Knocklouder]

As they say here ,,Pulling up a chair.   Cant wait to see what you come up with this time😁 You know your the reason I am hitting the bottle lol

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Knocklouder said:

You know your the reason I am hitting the bottle lol

Glad to have you along for the ride!  I hate drinking alone!!

[Keith Black]

Oh no, can't make a stinkin' penguin but we bloody well can make a frigging bottle guzzling, viking chewing, scare the knickers off ya Kraken!

 

This is gonna be good. 

 

 Wait a minute, I thought your son lost his input privileges?  

[Glen McGuire]

16 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

but we bloody well can make a frigging bottle guzzling, viking chewing, scare the knickers off ya Kraken!

LOL!  That remains to be seen.  The trashcan may get a nice Kraken meal when all is said and done on this! 

 

18 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Wait a minute, I thought your son lost his input privileges?  

He is trying to earn back his input privileges.  I think the longship is a reasonable suggestion, so he has moved up from banned to probation.. 

[mtaylor]

Count me in also.   In spite of your self-doubts, I suspect we'll see another mini-masterpiece.

[Landlubber Mike]

I'm in for this one Glen, sure to be another creative build!  Funny, a year or two ago I was looking for rum and saw this bottle.  I bought one thinking I'd do a Kraken SIB with the Kraken in the bottle, but I like your idea a lot better!  I actually ended up buying a fantasy miniature of a Kraken just to give me a sense of proportions, head, tentacles, etc.  

 

Are you going to build the Oseberg with the oars?  That will certainly make things challenging!

Edited January 8, 2023 by Landlubber Mike

[Glen McGuire]

Always glad to have you on board, Mike!  

53 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

I actually ended up buying a fantasy miniature of a Kraken just to give me a sense of proportions, head, tentacles, etc.  

Can you send a picture or 2 of that?  I'm a long ways from working on my Kraken but I don't really have a solid idea of what I'm going to do with it yet.  So looking at your fantasy miniature may help me move from idea to reality.

 

54 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Are you going to build the Oseberg with the oars?

Yes, gotta have the oars since I think they are part of the iconic longship look!  Which means I will have to do another split hull to fit it inside the 3/4" bottle opening. 

 

Also, how was the Kraken rum?  Since my gifted bottle was EMPTY  😠😠😠, I don't have a clue! 

[Landlubber Mike]

I don't recall much from drinking the rum.  Not that I drank the whole bottle which caused me to forget but I am not much of a hard liquor person so I usually water my drinks with mixes.  So I certainly don't have a refined palette in this area!

 

This is the one I got a while back:

 

 

If you go on Etsy, there a ton of these kinds of things.  Just search for "kraken miniature."  The sellers are using 3D printers to make them, so they can scale them up to the size you need.  Or, to ensure the tentacles fit just right in securing the bottle, you could get a smaller one as a model to sculpt it out of modeling clay.  With your approach of having the kraken grabbing the bottle, you can even go for one of the prints where the kraken is half submerged and just tentacles and the head are sticking up.  

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1148454888/kraken-miniature-from-goonmaster-3d?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=kraken+miniature&ref=sr_gallery-1-47&organic_search_click=1

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1161793199/mines-of-maznar-kraken?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=kraken+miniature&ref=sr_gallery-1-37&frs=1&sca=1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1

https://www.etsy.com/listing/933305132/breaching-attacking-kraken-sea-monster?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=kraken+miniature&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&organic_search_click=1

 

 

Hope this helps - whatever you decide I'm sure will be really sweet!

Edited January 8, 2023 by Landlubber Mike

[BANYAN]

I think you may be 'fibbing' just a bit Glen.  To come up with this idea, and then blame your mate and son, suggests you may have drained that bottle yourself .  Anyways, it is another very clever and interesting way to display your miniature masterpiece 🦑.  Now where is that bottle of 'sauce' - I need some inspiration.

 

I'm also along for the ride; look forward to you log.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

7 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

you can even go for one of the prints where the kraken is half submerged and just tentacles and the head are sticking up.  

Thanks for the pics and links, Mike.  Your description above is exactly the picture I have in my mind for the Kraken's role in this project.  

 

@Keith Black also sent me some links from Etsy which I had never thought about as a source for creative images before (duh).  So thanks to both of you for opening my eyes to that site!

 

1 hour ago, BANYAN said:

Now where is that bottle of 'sauce' - I need some inspiration.

According to my map, Caribbean rum is a loooooooong ways from Melbourne!  There's got to be an Australian equivalent???

[GrandpaPhil]

I’m looking forward to this build!
 

Safari makes high quality plastic toy animals, including squids, that are cheap and easily modified, and would save you the trouble of sculpting one entirely from scratch.

 

Amazon and Walmart sell them.

Edited January 9, 2023 by GrandpaPhil

[Glen McGuire]

24 minutes ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Safari makes high quality plastic toy animals, including squids, that are cheap and easily modified, and would save you the trouble of sculpting one entirely from scratch.

Thank you, Phil!  I will look into that.

[Keith Black]

 I looked for kits and couldn't find one. Maybe Mr Google was just being contrary?

[BANYAN]

On 1/9/2023 at 12:12 PM, Glen McGuire said:

According to my map, Caribbean rum is a loooooooong ways from Melbourne!  There's got to be an Australian equivalent???

Thankfully there is Glen - Bundaberg Rum - my favourite tipple

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks for all the help on the Kraken figure.  I will circle back to that later.  Now it's time to build the longship.  It's unique shape is going to present some fun challenges.  With oars, the width of the longship is going to be too wide to fit inside the 3/4" bottle opening so it's going to necessitate a split hull like the Adventure Galley.  The high rise of the stem post and the stern post are too tall to fit so I will build them separately and attach inside the bottle.  Since there is only a main sail, there's no need for a hinge on the mast.  So I will also build it separately and attach inside the bottle.

 

As far as the actual construction of the longship, I'm trying a couple of things I haven't tried before.  First, I'm doing sort of a bulkhead method for the hull, except the bulkheads are all glued together for a solid hull.  The longship is so flat compared to the others I've done, I think this method is easier to get the proper shape.

Second, I'm trying to do a small bit of actual planking for the first time on a SIB project.  After studying so many Viking ships, the clinker-built hulls stood out to me as one of the iconic looks.  So I want to do my best to give my Oseberg something that resembles clinker planking. 

 

Once again, I'm poaching pieces from my Artesia Latina Constellation kit which has been gathering dust in my closet since I stumbled down this SIB path.  The planking strips from the AL kit are razor-thin (.4mm according to my caliper), so I'm using them to try for a clinker look.  Here's progress so far.  Not sure yet how well this is going to turn out.

 

       

 

     

Edited January 10, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[Keith Black]

 Glen, from what we can see in the photo the hull looks very convincing. 

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

 Glen, from what we can see in the photo the hull looks very convincing. 

Thanks, Keith.  At least I can get the planking done in a few days vs a few weeks for a real size model!

[BANYAN]

No holding you back is there; significant progress already.  Looks good Glen.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

Well, I had to do some backtracking.  I was having trouble making a smooth transition from the planking, bow, and stern to the curve and upsweep of the stem post and stern post.  I could not make it work to my satisfaction with the current hull/planking.  So I decided I just needed to bite the bullet and start over.  Ugh. 

 

As I started rebuilding the hull, I thought, "this is gonna take way too long.  Hmmmm, why not just sand off the planking and rebuild from there?"  So I did probably the most delicate sanding I've ever tried and it worked out ok.  With my hull still intact, I rebuilt the bow and stern.  Then I re-planked and now I've got the proper shape going for the stem post and stern post.  Both full posts will be built separately and attached inside the bottle. 

 

Next step is to replicate all this for the other half of the hull.            

[Keith Black]

 Nice save buddy. The hull looks great but then I thought your first attempt was great.

[Glen McGuire]

31 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Nice save buddy. The hull looks great but then I thought your first attempt was great.

Thanks, Keith.  I probably did a better job with the planking on the first go, but the rebuild will work better overall (hopefully).  

[Louie da fly]

On 1/10/2023 at 3:09 PM, BANYAN said:

Bundaberg Rum - my favourite tipple

 

Aussies will understand . . .

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Louie da fly said:

Aussies will understand . . .

I'm not an Aussie but I'm pretty sure I understand what the polar bear is thinking...

[Louie da fly]

Nup - it's all about how Bundy is as much an Aussie icon as the other two:

 

http://www.postkiwi.com/2006/bundaberg-rum-bundy-bear/

[Glen McGuire]

8 minutes ago, Louie da fly said:

 

http://www.postkiwi.com/2006/bundaberg-rum-bundy-bear/

OK. I watched the Bundy commercials on that link.  Hilarious!  Especially the camping one!

 

We used to get a lot of Fosters Lager commercials here - "Australian for beer" - but I don't recall seeing one in a long, long time.

[Keith Black]

But, but, there aren't any Polar Bears in Australia.............but there are penguins. 

[Louie da fly]

2 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Fosters Lager commercials here - "Australian for beer"

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Dreadful ghastly stuff. Remember visiting the UK and being offered a beer in a pub; as a proud Australian I said "Anything but Fosters . . ."

 

Steven

[Glen McGuire]

7 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Dreadful ghastly stuff. Remember visiting the UK and being offered a beer in a pub; as a proud Australian I said "Anything but Fosters . . ."

That's funny!  Same thing goes for the Lone Star Beer mentioned in my first post.  Great name, horrible beer.