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

[Glen McGuire]

Reluctantly putting aside the far more interesting topics of animals and alcohol, it's back to the ship.  I finished shaping the 2 halves of the hull and then stained them with an oak-colored gel stain.

Next, I wanted to do something to resemble the Oseberg's metallic, ornamental edging on the stem post and stern post.    

 

I dug around in my pile of leftover brass sprues and found a couple of pieces that had a curve matching the upsweep on the stem/stern posts.  So I cut those to fit.

 

The curlicue thingy at the top (proper historical term no doubt) makes the whole assembly too tall to fit thru the bottle opening, which means it will have to be attached inside the bottle.  So far, the only thing I've been able to come up with to simulate the curlicue is a 1/32" brass eye pin with the shaft curved to shape and the eye squeezed into as tight a curl as I possibly could.  I may revisit that at some point later if I can come up with a better idea.  I keep reminding myself that at this scale, the goal is really a reasonable impression of something rather than an exact replica.

 

 

   

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[Ian_Grant]

Glen, you keep saying "will need to be attached inside the bottle".........it's going to be an epic insertion process!

[Glen McGuire]

8 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

Glen, you keep saying "will need to be attached inside the bottle".........it's going to be an epic insertion process!

I agree, Ian.  The body of the bottle is not wide enough for me to to flip the ship around once it's inside, so attaching the curlique thingy to the sternpost will have to occur at the very back of the bottle.  Fun awaits!!

[Keith Black]

45 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

the curlique thingy to the sternpost will have to occur at the very back of the bottle.

 Glen, could you pin the aft edge of the sternpost where it would act like a hinge and could then fold backward and down into the ship? If you could do that you might gain enough clearance where you could go ahead and attach the figurehead before insertion. Once in the bottle it could be raised just like you normally do with the mast.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Keith Black

[Glen McGuire]

38 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Glen, could you pin the aft edge of the sternpost where it would act like a hinge and could then fold backward and down into the ship?

Hmmmmm.  That's a very interesting idea.  I might be able to solder a couple of small bits of wire to the middle of the eye pin's shaft where they could act as sort of an axle which would allow me to lay it down and then flip it back up.  I'm gonna play around with that.  Thanks for the suggestion, Keith.  

[mtaylor]

On 1/16/2023 at 10:20 PM, Louie da fly said:

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

 

On 1/17/2023 at 5:47 AM, Glen McGuire said:

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

Reminds of Monty Python's analogy about "it's like making love in a canoe".   I won't explain further as I don't want banishment.  But Google will reveal.  You've been warned.

 

This build is starting to look epic.  

[Glen McGuire]

9 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Reminds of Monty Python's analogy about "it's like making love in a canoe". 

I did have to google that one, Mark.  Funny and right on the money!!!

[Glen McGuire]

I think I do these build logs just so I can see where y’all will take the conversation.  Would never have guessed Monty Python, but here we are thanks to Mark!

 

Trying to get the thought of canoes out of my mind, it’s on to another iconic feature of Viking longships – the colorful shields mounted on the gunwale.  I searched around and found a shield I liked, which was a yellow background with a red cross (1st pic).  The 2nd pic is an idea of the ship's look with all shields in place.   

 

 

 

For my shields, I found a batch of small nails in the garage that I thought would work.  They are ¾” long with a head that is 1/8” diameter.  So I painted all the nail heads yellow.  While waiting for them to dry, an annoying friend came over and told me it was boring to make all the shields the same color and the same design.  I call her annoying because, of course, she was right.  Sigh.

 

We did some searching and sure enough, we found few examples of Viking longships with uniform shields, and they were indeed boring.  Ugh.  More confirmation she was right (at least I was smart enough not to argue with her).  So long story short, we picked 5 different colors and decided on some simple designs that I thought I could pull off on a 1/8” canvas.  Here’s the artist’s rendition of what it will hopefully look like.

 

 

After scraping the yellow paint off my previously painted nail heads and repainting them, the real fun began.  How to get the lines for the crosses drawn on each shield.  First, I tried dipping thread in paint and laying it across the nail head.  Epic fail.  The thread made nice straight lines but I could not get uniform thickness.  Next, I tried painting the lines with a fine tip brush.  The results were like Steven, a.k.a. @Louie da fly, described Fosters Lager – ghastly.  So I took a page from my previous Morgan build where I glued on white thread for pinstriping.  The results were passable I think, at least from a distance anyway.

 

Here’s the array of 15 shields for the port side of the ship. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[Keith Black]

 Those shields are fantastic! You clever ole fox. 

[Ian_Grant]

Glen, will you be able to cut the heads off without damaging that wonderful painting?

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Ian_Grant said:

Glen, will you be able to cut the heads off without damaging that wonderful painting?

That is a very insightful question, Ian.  The answer is yes, but it ain’t easy.  I did a practice run on a spare, using a sideways mounted Dremel and cutoff wheel.  The first challenge was getting the nail head completely off without the spinning Dremel flinging it into the far reaches of my garage never to be found again.  The 2nd challenge was getting the back of the shield deburred so it will lie smooth against the gunwale.  With 30 of these things, it’s gonna be a long and tedious process.  I predict lots of curse words to follow. 

 

[Louie da fly]

Perhaps you could cut them off then paint them? Then if you have high wastage (by being flung in various directions etc) it wouldn't matter too much. Just paint the ones that turn out well.

 

Oh, and at the risk of being thought annoying, here are some genuine Viking (and Frankish) shield patterns - http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html

 

Steven

[Glen McGuire]

56 minutes ago, Louie da fly said:

Perhaps you could cut them off then paint them?

Het Steven, I actually considered that but could not figure out a way to hold the tiny, flat head secure enough for me to decorate it.  No easy answer!  I've already spent hours decorating the shields so I just gotta put my head down and git r done!

[Ian_Grant]

Could double-sided tape have held the pre-severed and filed flat heads while you painted them?

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Ian_Grant said:

Could double-sided tape have held the pre-severed and filed flat heads while you painted them?

Probably!  But unfortunately I did not think of that.  ☹️  If I end up flinging my painted shields all over the garage this week, I may try that.  Wouldn't be the first time I started something completely over!

[Roger Pellett]

Duco cement is great for temporarily gluing metal to wood.  Duco is the old model airplane cement.

[Louie da fly]

Hold them temporarily to a horizontal surface with adhesive putty/mounting putty/Power tack? (we call it blue tack here in Oz, but it has many proprietary names)

 

Steven

[Knocklouder]

You might want to try building a small tent like a mini spray booth to limit the range of the flying projectiles  just a thought. I would not want to lose any of those sheids they are awesome. 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Knocklouder
Ya typos 🙄

[Landlubber Mike]

Clever way to come up with the nails and how to paint them Glen!  Good luck removing the heads from the nails.  Looks like you've gotten it figured out, but if it doesn't work, maybe consider using a hole punch and plastic card?  There are the fancy ones for modeling where you use a mallet to punch the circle, but depending on the size of your shields, you could probably get away with something like this.  You can get them in different sizes, like 1/8", 1/4", etc.  They are designed for paper, but my guess is that you can do thin sheets of plastic (or even wood so that you have the wood grain already there on the back side) given that these have the capacity of punching amounts up to 20 sheets of paper.  To paint them, you could always put a touch of CA on the end of a toothpick and you have a good holder.  I'm not exactly sure of the diameter and thickness of your shields, but this could be an option if the nails approach fails (which I'm hoping it doesn't given all that beautiful work you put in!).

 

 

Good luck!  It's looking really good!

Edited January 23, 2023 by Landlubber Mike

[Keith Black]

 Glen, you could also chuck a nail into your drill before painting and score the shank next to the head and then paint. Separation of the head from the shank once painted would be much easier and less violent. 

[Knocklouder]

22 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Glen, you could also chuck a nail into your drill before painting and score the shank next to the head and then paint. Separation of the head from the shank once painted would be much easier and less violent. 

✔️

[gjdale]

I somehow missed the start of this build Glen, but I’m caught up now. Fantastic project and a great start.

 

Re separating the nail heads, just wondering if you could reverse the application - ie, hold the nail spinning in the rotary tool and bring the cut-off tool to the nail (much like using a lathe). The cut off part would then tend to drop off rather than being flung around the room.

[Roger Pellett]

Glen,

 

That punch that Mike posted will also work on sheet brass. .005,”,.010”, and .0145 in thick material is available at hobby shops and some hardware and home improvement stores.  Aluminum flashing material will work too.  If you use. Wood, try to find some 1/64” thick model makers plywood.

 

Roger

[Glen McGuire]

First of all, a big thank you to @Ian_Grant, @Knocklouder, @Louie da fly, @Landlubber Mike, @Roger Pellett, @Keith Black, @gjdale, @mtaylor for all of your comments and suggestions on my shield manufacturing process.  

 

Since I was so far down the path, I was committed to finishing the shields up by cutting off the nail heads with my Dremel and then deburring.  As predicted, lots of curse words followed - but not for a reason I anticipated!  The good news was that the Dremel did not fling nail heads hither and yon.  The bad news was that cutting off the heads generated so much heat it bubbled the paint right off.  So much for all my hours of careful artwork!  😠 😠😠 and  #@$%#!! x 100.

 

Back to the drawing board and a review of everyone’s suggestions.  The one that really grabbed my attention was the hole punch suggested by Landlubber Mike.  It made me remember that I had an adjustable leather punch that I’d bought probably 30 years ago to make a leather wrap for a set of longhorns I got in San Antonio. 

 

Based on Mike and Roger's suggestions, I thought the leather punch might work on some thin (1/64”) maple veneer that I’ve got.  I tried it and it punched out perfect little circles the perfect size!  Using the maple veneer also provided several advantages over the nail heads.

 

First, I could now make the shields out of wood, like the original Viking shields.  I do prefer to make as many part out of original-type material as possible.  Also, with a nice flat sheet of veneer, I figured I could use pinstriping tape to paint the thin lines for the crosses rather than gluing on bulky thread.  Second, I could now make a real boss for the center of the shield rather than just painting a black dot on top of the thread as I had done before.  My tiny brass nails were a good size for the boss.  Third, the thin veneer should be easier to glue to the ship’s gunwales.   

So even though I had to pitch all my previous work in the trash and start all over, I was confident this process would be easier and produce better looking, more authentic shields.  

For the process, I swabbed paint for the 5 shield colors on the veneer.  After it dried, I laid out the pinstriping tape and painted the crosses.  Next was drilling holes for the brass nail bosses.  The brass nail heads were a bit taller than I wanted, so I filed them down and squared them off just a tad.  Then I used the leather punch and cut out all the shields.  For the green and blue shields, I added the extra thin lines with super thin fly-tying thread.  It’s so thin, it’s almost indistinguishable from paint to the normal eye.  The last step before attaching to the ship was cutting off the brass nail shanks flush.

 

The pictures below illustrate the main steps of the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s the new shields mounted on the 2 halves of the hull.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[Landlubber Mike]

Fantastic work!  Sorry you had to re-do them, but second try was definitely the charm!  They look great!

 

In the future, if you are ever looking for something like the boss centers, you can get pre-made rivets in plastic and resin.  Armor and other modelers use them to add rivet details to their tanks, etc.  Outfits like Archer and Meng make them.  Snip them off the sprue/plug and glue them on and you're good to go.  Don't have to worry about drilling, inserting pins, etc.

[Glen McGuire]

37 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Armor and other modelers use them to add rivet details to their tanks, etc.  Outfits like Archer and Meng make them.

That sounds like another great idea, Mike!  I could find several uses for those.

[Keith Black]

Glen McGuire, Agent of Shield 

[Glen McGuire]

34 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Glen McGuire, Agent of Shield 

Rapidly Ageing Agent of Shield is more like it after this ordeal!

[Keith Black]

 Buddy, sometimes it's not knowing how to do it but how not to do it. We're all on a learning curve, I've tossed some my what was to be my best work into the rubbish bin. Your second attempt looks better than the first and as you pointed out it made the next steps easier.   

[gjdale]

Great solution Glen! The shields look fantastic.