'Oseberg' Viking Ship (v3) by James H - Ships of Pavel Nikitin - 1/25

[James H]

Well, I needed to build something, and plastic wasn't thrilling me too much.

 

So, as this kit arrived fairly recently, I thought I'd jump straight in and build it. I always wanted to build a viking 'longboat' or drakkar, and this ticks all the boxes in terms of design and possibilities. I'm also planning to use the antique stain set too, but maybe leave the outer hull a little darker to semi-represent how these looked. Not sure yet, so I'll play it by ear and do some reading as I go along. 

 

I recently reviewed this kit HERE, so you can get an idea of what's in the box. 

 

The first job with this kit is to build the cradle. You really get a sense of the size of the hull when this goes together. The cradle is assembled from a few of those thirteen sheets of MDF. Construction is quite easy, but of course, it pays to take things slowly so you can ensure everything is aligned and absolutely flat on your bench, so there won't be any twists in your hull. I used a large cutting mat, sat on top of the totally flat kitchen worktops I have in my workshop. 

 

Some of the dovetail joints on the horizontal sections, were a little tight, but gentle tapping with my Amati hobby hammer with plastic head, made short work of those. I also found it necessary to remove a little char from slots. With both of these, the whole thing came together perfectly. 

 

All joint are assembled first, and then glue painted over them in the same way I do the VM hulls.

 

 

My Viking overseer, Harald, has made an appearance. Ideal to show him from time to time for you to get a sense of scale. This is the figure that comes with the kit. Two heads are provided. The other has a helmet, but I didn't want that whilst he was on his ship!

 

 

[gsdpic]

I was just looking at your review of this kit earlier today and was quite impressed.  I'll eagerly follow along to see how it all goes together.

[James H]

I've spent a few days beavering away on the keel and bulkheads. 

 

The keel is made from alder, and you need to ignore the colour variation in this as you won't see it when it's all faced in quite pale walnut. There was a small variation in the length of each side, strangely, so I built the side which was more to the plan sheet and they built the second layer directly on top of that, pinning with the walnut pins as I went along. The last piece in the centre just needed a little rework at either side and it then fit in with not much of a problem. I spent a whole lot of time cleaning up the char, just for aesthetics, as you really won't see much/any of this when complete.

 

 

 

The bulkheads, as I said, are walnut. I've never worked with walnut this pale, so that was surprising. it's like a slightly off-golden colour which doesn't really show up here. The parts fit together nicely. Some bulkhead parts just needed a little kerf removing from the joint faces, while others didn't. On parts where I could flip them over to compensate the kerf, I did so. Where I couldn't due to bevelling marks, then I used a file to reduce the kerf and make them fit. I do have to say that you barely need to remove any material to make anything fit perfectly. It's more or less just the char.

 

[TJM]

Very interested to follow this build. I have version 2 of this kit for a (far...) future project, and while I understand that there are significant differences between version 2 and 3, especially on the rigging, it will still be a very nice reference to have your log to look into!

[James H]

28 minutes ago, TJM said:

Very interested to follow this build. I have version 2 of this kit for a (far...) future project, and while I understand that there are significant differences between version 2 and 3, especially on the rigging, it will still be a very nice reference to have your log to look into!

I really should take a further look at V2 to try and see the differences in the parts and construction method.