Oseberg Viking Ship by Norseman - Billing Boats - 1/25 Scale - 9th century

[norseman]

Have finished installing all the strips across the frames or bulkheads. Today I am working at laying a strip of veneer across the top of the frames or bulkheads to cover the plywood ends. Finding that soaking the strips in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes and using my wifes old hair curling iron I can bend the strips quite easily. The curling iron seems to have the correct radius for this job. Will take a while to get all the frames done but again I have lots of time staying in the house during the virus epidemic. 

[norseman]

I am taking a break from veneering the frames or bulkheads. Will try working on the mast foot which supports the mast on the deck. The one that is supplied by the kit is assembled out of plywood pieces and is not that appealing. I will try to make one out of solid piece of bass wood some what like Von Kossa and Jack Panzeca did. Hopefully it will turn out okay.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I love the use of paper towel cardboard for clamping!

[norseman]

The paper towel roll works quite good for this. I was having a hard time finding the correct diameter of a round piece to fit the curve of the frames or bulkheads. The nice thing about the rolls is they have a bit of give so it helps not to damage the part.

[norseman]

On my first attempt at making the mast foot when I drilled the hole for the mast it ended up not being in the center of the foot so I had to try again. This time it worked out okay and I just have some sanding to do to shape it and fit it to the ship. It actually turned out better than I thought. Lucky I guess.

[norseman]

I have added a few pieces onto the frames or bulkheads to aid in installing the mast foot. Still thinking about the mast foot and removing what they call the mast fish from the top of it. I know Von Kossa, Jack Panzeca and others have routed into the top of the mast foot and than made a mast fish to fit into the foot. You can see the outline of where the mast fish is on top of my mast foot. I don't really think I need to go to all the work of routing out that area and building a piece to fit into it. I may just carve the outline of the mast fish on the mast foot and darken the outline of the fish when I stain it. Will ponder over this for a while yet.

[norseman]

While I am pondering the mast foot decided to try to veneer the exposed area of the front and rear bulk head faces. I used some of the birch veneer I have to cut out pieces and fit them to the bulkheads. Veneer is really thin and you have to be careful not to split it when cutting. Once I glue the pieces onto the bulkheads I will sand them down to get a smooth fit. Will then veneer around the edges so you don't see the plywood ends. 

[Bossman]

Very nice work! She is looking great. 

[md1400cs]

Looking good!

I have this kit under my table - Did not pay attention to the kit's size - Sure love this one though prob. won't build it - no room haha  - really enjoying watching your's and how its coming along,

 

Cheers,

[norseman]

Thanks Michael. I am just finishing putting a strip of veneer on the last bulk head. Should be posting some more pictures soon. 

[Louie da fly]

Hi Norseman, haven't seen any progress photos for awhile. Are you still working on this?

[norseman]

I took a little break from it but have started again. Having a few problems putting the top 2 rows of planks on my ship. 

[Louie da fly]

On 2/8/2021 at 5:23 AM, norseman said:

Having a few problems putting the top 2 rows of planks on my ship. 

 

 

That's not uncommon from what I've seen in other build logs. Have a look at how others have solved the problem with Viking kits  - or bypassed (fudged) it. It might help.

 

Steven

[norseman]

There is a small strip that is a filler strip between the top of the bottom planks to the side planks. I found that I ended up with a small gap between the planks even with the strip supplied. So I remove the strips and made and installed strips that were slightly wider. Hopefully when I go to stain the ship the difference in wood won't show up to much. Still sanding down the the notches on the frames or bulkheads where the planks glue to them. Very time consuming.

[norseman]

I am back working on my ship once again. Enjoy getting back to it. Only time I get to work on it is after the New Year. Have been working on installing the strips to the bulkheads fore and aft floor the deck planks to rest on. Very time consuming cutting, sanding and fitting. Getting close to the end of that task. 

[Louie da fly]

Great to have you back, mate! The ship is looking very good.

 

Steven

[norseman]

Thanks Steven it is good to be back at it.

[norseman]

Finally finished putting the strips on the bulkheads for the planks to rest on. Took a while as there is a lot of sanding and fitting. The bulkheads at the bow and stern were tricky.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by norseman
two pictures the same

[norseman]

I mistakenly put 2 pictures in my last post of the same picture. Sorry about that.

I have decided to install nails in the side planks like Von Kossa and Jack Panzeca did. To get as close to the scale as I could I have ended up making the nails like Von Kossa did. Will have to make a lot of nails though. It only takes time.

 

 

[Louie da fly]

Nice work, mate. She's looking good.

 

By the way, if you want to remove the second duplicate photo, click on the 3 dots at the top right of your post, click on "Edit" in the dropdown menu, and just right click on the photo and select "cut". Then save the post.

 

But if you have two of the same photo in the "uploads" at the bottom, just hit the X at the top of one of them, and it'll do the same thing.

 

Steven

[norseman]

Today I was going to attach a thin piece of veneer to the edging of the dragon head and keel that runs up to it. Seems like I take two steps forward and one back. I didn't like the way the keel looked where it butts up against the scroll work. The piece the kit tells you to glue there is too thin to match up to the scroll work. So I am removing those 4 small pieces and will find some wood that matches up to the thickness better. Slow work as I don't want to damage the inner surfaces of the keel.

 

[norseman]

Thanks Steven for telling me how to edit that double picture I put in my last post. I wasn't sure how to do that but I know now. I appreciate that.

[norseman]

Finally got the 4 small pieces removed from the keel. Decided to use some bass wood with some of my birch veneer installed on top. It matches the original kit wood better and gives me a flush fit up to the scroll work piece.

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by norseman

[Louie da fly]

Nice rescue.

 

Steven

[norseman]

I was using 1 Panavise to hold my ship when working on the keel. Was getting worried that 1 vise was not adequate to hold the ship safely so I bought another Panavise. Attached them to a piece of plywood and it works great. Can position the ship in many different angles. It really helped with removing the old keel pieces and fitting the ones I made.

 

[norseman]

Finally have removed all 4 of the old pieces from the keel. Have made 4 new pieces and fitted them to the keel. Turned out good so far. When I glue the birch veneer to the parts they will be flush with the scroll work and the keel. Lots of sanding to be done to fit parts again after installing the veneer.

 

[norseman]

My keel turned out better than I thought once I sanded everything down flush. Just hope when I stain the birch veneer color matches the original kit wood

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by norseman
spacing

[norseman]

Getting ready to install the top plank to the side of the ship. It seems like everyone has had a hard time to fit these. They have a tendency to curve up at the end in the middle of the ship. Taking a while to get everything to fit and look not to bad. Before I do this I have been installing a small cap of veneer on top of the frame ends as to cover up the veneer plies of the original kit pieces.

 

 

[norseman]

Have been busy putting the top plank on the port side of the ship. Like everyone else I had trouble fitting the planks on. They are not uniform in depth all the way along the plank. There is a slight narrowing of the plank near the forward end. I ended up with a small gap between the top plank and the one below it. Had to remove the plank. Very time consuming as I didn't want to damage anything as it was glued on. Finally got it adjusted to fit correctly.

 

 

[norseman]

Starting to fit the top plank on the aft starboard side. The aft planks are more uniform along the width than the forward planks. Will run into the same problem I had on the port forward top plank. I am trying to also figure out how the rudder attach fittings are installed. The ones that came with the kit are laser cut out of plywood pieces. As I did with some of the other plywood pieces I am going to make the parts out of solid bass wood and try that.