[paperairforce]

Thanks all for your encouraging and helpful replies. Got all the planks on and it looks OK, so at least I know that I will have a ship now without too much more trouble. There are imperfections, but in all, it looks ok to me so I feel relieved and can feel encouraged continuing with the details.

Michael – thank you for your encouraging words – and yes – I hope to make it look as much as wood as possible – at least from 10 ft away, where it will mostly sit! To that end it’s a tough call for me to cover it with gloss coat, or leave it as matte. Still thinking about that. Sometimes I like the matte sheen, but it also looks too smooth and therefore not realistic. I noticed when I covered the keel with epoxy it looked more convincing as a real piece of wood that had been sealed and varnished since the grains don't show so much. Hmmm…

Phillip, thank you for the confidence. It does look better from the outside with less “rot”. The inside where the drill did the most damage, raising the sides and requiring more to scrape away and use brown marker in its place – it may resemble “eye shadow” more than wood rot? I hope not!

Siwi – I had also thought to consider printing an extra plank. In the end I decided if the existing planks could do it, that would be best. I noticed the box picture had the planks going quite a bit higher than the ribs! At least in the middle. But the instructions had them connecting perfectly evenly. Mine would fall 1 – 2 mm short in a place or two, but another strake would also mean a much higher line at the bow and stern which I thought might not look right. So, I stuck with the proscribed number, though I may need to trim a rib or two at the tops. The shields will also cover that somewhat.

Thumb Dog – wish you had been able to give advice a little earlier! The oar – hole nitpick strikes me as the kind of thing that would be easily noticed from the outside by any potential house guest who knew a thing or two about Viking ships and would know the “round” oar hole wasn’t right. I definitely want to try to change it, though I wish I’d noticed that before mounting that strake. I’ll try it on one or two and if that goes alright, I’ll do the rest. Thanks again for your input, much appreciated!

Some pics of the finished hull, and I’m fairly pleased enough, though I noticed something about the way the strakes attached to the keel (after examining the real examples ) that i'm not sure are period correct and thinking about a possible remedy there.