Viking Longboat Build

[paperairforce]

Fore and aft uprights completed. The kit comes with 3 pieces to laminate together for each upright, so these are just 3 pieces laminated to 1mm card, glued together. I applied some amber / teak color wood stain I had to the edges, which as expected significantly darkened (and why I used marker on other edges ). Some of the stain got on the front and back too, so I just covered them as well slightly darkening those too. But, I will still need some brown marker as you can see the white glue used to laminate the pieces rejected the stain.

[paperairforce]

The planks finally prepared. Cut out, sanded, straightened, reverse pieces glued on, and all 120 or so edges markered, taking about 3 markers. That was a bit of work! Each kit plank was cut into three pieces in order to fit on my 11 x 17 paper, and now in a pile ready for me to figure out how to glue them each back together into single planks.

I'll work on the rest of the keel trim while some of that dries.

[Vermin_King]

I am constantly amazed at how much you guys get done in a short amount of time

[paperairforce]

VK – thanks, and I probably am spending too much time on this now, to the neglect of other things I probably should be doing.

Siwi – thanks again for scrutinizing the model, and your suggestions. The frames of course aren’t very pretty, but yes they’ll be underdeck where no one should be able to tell! I tried to angle one or two left or right in order to make the tips perpendicular to the deck as much as possible – though it didn’t work with all of them. For those, my plan is brute force to bend them straight while that part of plank is glued to them and hope that will work well enough. Luckily the heavy card can bend – another advantage over wood.

I appreciate your point about the mast root / collar, and thinking about this, I’m afraid it means I’ll have to stop my planking and make the mast now (or just a temporary tube). Either that, or make the deck holes larger in order to slide a collar down through it and glue it – but seems not really the best way, and the right way would be to put it in now, with a mast, so I can make sure it will hold the mast straight. Wah, I was eager to proceed with the planking! There will also be a “mastfish” , a structure rising above the deck and cradling the mast, and which will also serve to keep it straight, but I still would like a collar on the keel.

A pic of a plank in three pieces, then rejoined. It was good luck that I could separate them at their natural rivet lines to fit on my sheets. I could run into some trouble here rebuilding them if the joins cause the wrong curvature of the finished plank. Hoping they can bend a little if that is the case.

[paperairforce]

In the meantime, I’ve completed the trim on the outside of the keel. The kit does not come with enough to go all the way across the keel bottom (normally covered by the stand), so I printed some extra. The keel near the tips is thinner, so that had to be cut to size, making many attempts!

I used 100lb card because I wanted something thick so that any imperfections from the ply underneath would not be telegraphed through the trim, and in the hopes it would look smoother. But, as you can see, the high profile sidewall of the card is not ideal, and to do it again I would probably have used something much thinner. Unfortunately I couldn’t really bevel it with sandpaper without taking off some “wood grain” too, so I just left it.

I did use a thinner piece on one part (the last done) on the inside of portion of the port side stern. I ran out of trim, so I peeled off some trim I had originally mounted on thick card (with another piece) . Since that peeling was much thinner, it went on almost seamlessly, though only on the port side.

All in all, pretty pleased though. Not near up to par of some of the super fine modeling we see on this forum! But from a few feet away, it really just looks like a nice piece of wood. I really like the “wood” artwork done on this kit, and I think it gives it the proper scaled look that would not be had using real wood at this size. Luckily the dark coloring caused by epoxy seeping into the seams looks near enough to “weathering” to my eye, so I won’t be too bothered by it. As the keel was covered with epoxy, it is very shiny – but I like it. It looks to me like a nice varnish as might be seen on wood boat today, though I guess the Vikings would not have had anything like that. I’ll leave the decks matte, and have sprayed them with a clear coat to protect it.

[paperairforce]

The starboard bow was the worst one, with for some reason the epoxy used not able to mash down both sides and hold them - one side always wanting to come up when the other was pressed. Doing one side at a time would have been better. Then, since the starboard and port "thicker" part of the keel were higher and lower than each other by about 2mm - the trim across the bottom wouldn't cover both. In my impatience to get the trim done, I decided not to try to correct it, which might have looked worse anyways. In the end it created this dark crack and mess near that spot. But - it looks plausibly like wood rot and weathering - at least to my untrained eye! - so I'm ok with it.

[paperairforce]

….happened sooner than I expected, brought on by the need to place a mast anchor below the decks before they get planked up. I decided to go ahead and build the mast rather than use a temporary one to help with placement of the collar. Thought the mast would be tapered, but checking the kit’s plastic mast – it is not, much to my surprise. So, that made it easier, though it has a tiered construction near the top that you can see. I took the measurements of the plastic mast, increased their size, printed some extra “wood” sheets made from trim pieces, and rolled them up and put them together.

I decided to do the “yard arm” (at the mast top) while I was at it – but I noticed that one does have a taper, according to the kit. At first I wasn’t planning to bother and built yard arm 1, since the taper was so subtle. Then I decided to take the time to do it right , since I figured it might permanently bother me , and did yard arm 2. They both had to be done in two pieces since they are longer than my 17 inch sheets, but even more so because of the taper, it was the only way to do that. I was pleased enough with both of them, though the tapered piece is 1 or 2 mm thicker than it should be in the middle.

The Color – was an agonizing choice! I really wanted the kit to have some diversity of color from the original – which is all the same – except the mast - which is a little darker maybe due to being plastic. But, far as I know and read, the Viking masts would have been made from spruce or pine due to needing to use a single trunk that has straight growth, and only those trees can provide, I read. And, those would be lighter colored woods, I reason. They all darken after weathering, of course, but this ship will generally be portrayed as a “brand new” off the shipyard, I suppose. Since everything is otherwise new oak, I guess it would all be the same color, with, if anything, a lighter colored mast.

I did the “uprights” (previously shown) with an additional layer of wood stain to change the color up and that’s the color I considered using for the masts too. But, in the end, I loved the golden color they already had so much I decided just to leave it – especially being probably more realistic - and I sprayed them with some gloss to make them pop a little more as well as protect. You can see the color difference in the first two pics between the colored uprights and the masts, and which show the actual color best. Then some more pics for closeup, etc, and the installed mast anchor.

[paperairforce]

The mast anchor below decks, installed - not part of the original kit. The planks rejoined. Will need some luck in that they are at the perfect angles, or that it won't matter and they can be "persuaded". Also, some pics of the reverse sides where they were tacked to paper for scanning, then ripped off for reverse. I had thought those "rip" marks would not be so noticeable, but they are! I should have "doctored" them up in the computer when had the chance, but I didn't, thinking they would be small and inside. I regret as they seem very large and prominent, but marked them up with a brown pen that I hope simulates "river mud" close enough (which these pics don't represent very well) Since they'll be on the inside, hopefully I won't notice very much.

Same with the deck ropes - I should have erased them when I realized I had the chance. Those will be covered with real rigging anyways, or I may have to print something to cover them.

[paperairforce]

The fun has begun! Plank 1 has gone on, port and starboard (or should I say “steerboard!, the apparent origin of the word) . Please wish me luck here, this is probably where I will need it most. I sprayed the planks with matte clearcoat front and back and edges to help waterproof as best as possible, and just in case. I am focused on trying to get both sides symmetrical – and not too concerned to pressing them to the frames. Interestingly, one site I came across indicated that the boats were actually built with planks first – then the “frames” added afterwards! That seems like it might produce a messed up boat, and I’m not sure that’s correct, or maybe only in the case of smaller boats. But in my case it makes sense since my frames may not be exactly exact, and I’ll want the planks to flow nicely whether the two sides are exactly symmetrical or not. Since I won’t have any animal hair and tar mixture handy to fill the gaps (as I have read!) I’ll slather all with epoxy to fill any gaps and hopefully, potentially, keep water out and strengthen everything.

[Siwi]

If the keel was laid in a jig then I can believe that planking first would be a viable construction order. You've got to support a structure that gets more top-heavy the more wood is added anyway, and trying to get the bottommost planks on to the ribs from the outside with the keel resting on the ground would have been more difficult than laying the planks into a jig and then creating the curves by pushing in the ribs and using heat and other bending methods whilst they are sandwiched against the jig.