• Win a Free Custom Engraved Brass Coin!!!
    As a way to introduce our brass coins to the community, we will raffle off a free coin during the month of August. Follow link ABOVE for instructions for entering.
  • SUBSCRIBE TO SHIPS IN SCALE TODAY!

    The beloved Ships in Scale Magazine is back and charting a new course for 2026!
    Discover new skills, new techniques, and new inspirations in every issue.

    NOTE THAT OUR NEXT ISSUE WILL BE MARCH/APRIL 2026

Pavel Nikitin 1/25 Oseberg V.3

In answer to your question, I made all the nail from brass wire 0.7 mm diameter. 3 different sizes..

View attachment 580694View attachment 580695View attachment 580696View attachment 580697
Thanks --- Yikes, Guinness world record for hand made nails. Brilliant super labor intensive solution. Results are superb.I will need to rethink my approach -

Adding those 3000 nails to this ship does indeed make a huge +++ difference. AND you also went as far as scratch building - perfectly no less - the oars. Kudos to you as well. On the + side my kit is the 1/32nd -- ROTF so maybe 300 less nails

Regards,
 
3000 nails later......

It was quite a job to place the nearly 3,000 nails. First, I marked all the locations, drilled, pre-shaded, then cleaned all the holes with a microfile, cut all the nails from brass wire, (three different types of nails), chemically blackened them, treated them with painter's varnish, and then placed them, pressing them into place with a special tool. It was a lot of work, but I'm very happy with the result.

View attachment 580691View attachment 580692View attachment 580693
Good morning. Brilliant very skilfully done. Cheers Grant
 
Thanks everyone for the comments, likes, and watching. In the meantime, I cheerfully continued working. I made the rudder blade and (temporarily) hung it up. I made the rudder blade from a single piece of wood, as I wasn't entirely satisfied with what was supplied. So, I continued making the rudder from a single piece of wood. I have it temporarily hung up now, but I still want to add the necessary details, though that will be at a later time.
20260307_212215.JPG20260307_171455.JPG20260307_212921.JPG20260304_212400.JPG


In the meantime, I started on the deck. Initially, I made the deck nice and sleek and smooth, as unintentionally described in the instructions, but I couldn't quite get myself comfortable with that. Around 850, they didn't have nice table saws and all that other beautiful luxury tooling we have now, but rather adzes and axes.
20260313_220051.JPG
So I decided to make it somewhat like that as well (using the roof structure of my old house, which dates from 1853, as a reference, where the marks of axes and adzes are still clearly visible). Below are a few photos. It is remarkable, by the way, how much work)time and steps you have to do to make something machine-made look even remotely like it was handcrafted.
20260311_160946.JPG20260314_204445.JPG20260314_141505.JPG20260314_165132.JPG20260314_214154.JPG20260314_204029.JPG20260314_203912.JPG
 
Last edited:
Next chapter on the planks; so far, the lengthwise directions of the planks have the correct shape in my opinion.
20260315_163616.JPG
Now moving on to making adjustments to the end grain of the planks, as these are still far too unnatural in my view.
So, I have further worked on the end grain of the wood: first, using a rotary tool, I shape the wood somewhat to the correct form, after which I sand away some of the wood from the bottom on the end grains. This creates a beautiful, natural curve of the plank when viewed from above.
20260315_161945.JPG
Next, I scraped the planks with a scraper to flatten the curve created by sanding and filing the grooves in the wood somewhat. Then, I carefully rubbed them one more time with steel wool in the lengthwise direction of the wood.
20260315_171447.JPG20260315_171426.JPG20260315_165239.JPG20260315_170833.JPG
And then the planks are finally ready to be colored.
 
Thanks everyone! I'm really trying to capture the look of how they used axes and adzes to shape the pine planks back then. It takes a lot of time and checking through the magnifying glass, but I'm glad to see the realism is coming across. More updates soon!

By the way, i forgot to post this picture in my last Post , sooo there it is.
20260315_220601.JPG
 
Last edited:
Willbor,

Would you post, if you have, a few more images of the actual wood pieces that you used - before - turning them into 2000 year old planks. Did you use the kit's deck framings as templates?

It will NOW be "difficult" for me to use Pavel's kit planks. I don't' quite have a proper sense of your very first steps...I want to explore your brilliant solution.

I also know that I will have to scratch build the oars as well. Yours are so excellent....

Regards,

AND ---

20260315_163616.jpg
 
First i used the planking as it should be (instructions) but I could not find my self in the modern machine made deck
So i turned them a 180 degrees, and made the "New" planking from the existing deck.

Below a few pictures of my working method, I made a small piece under the exact conditions as the original deck
I think the pictures will tell how to handle, it's a bit of work, but I like the result.

20260316_205833.JPG20260316_205925.JPG20260316_210027.JPG20260316_210207.JPG20260316_210422.JPG20260316_210618.JPG20260316_210802.JPG20260316_210938.JPG20260316_211914.JPG
20260316_211925.JPG
20260316_213151.JPG20260316_213354.JPG

20260316_211140.JPG
20260316_213049.JPG
 
Willbor,

Thanks - very informative. The Ver. 3 kit in 1/32nd has the plank lines visible entirely through the panels. It could be, also that the kit's wood
is thinner than in the 1/32nd smaller sized kit. Your 1/25th might have thicker wood for the deck planks?

IMO - I will probably need to scratch build planks as opposed to just flipping the kit panels over and adding plank lines etc.....I can, of course, use
the kit planks as templates. Need to think more about this issue. Hmmmmm

Your work is so excellent. Well bone indeed.

Regards,

IMG_8399.jpeg
 
Willbor,

Thanks - very informative. The Ver. 3 kit in 1/32nd has the plank lines visible entirely through the panels. It could be, also that the kit's wood
is thinner than in the 1/32nd smaller sized kit. Your 1/25th might have thicker wood for the deck planks?

IMO - I will probably need to scratch build planks as opposed to just flipping the kit panels over and adding plank lines etc.....I can, of course, use
the kit planks as templates. Need to think more about this issue. Hmmmmm

Your work is so excellent. Well bone indeed.

Regards,

View attachment 584896

You should be able to flip each row of deck boards (I don't really consider them planks because they are so short) end for end as I have. My reason was to get rid of the gigantic treenail rings. I used them as a guide to drill my own treenail holes, but once flipped, the only thing visible will be the treenail ends rather than the laser burned bullseye.
 
Willbor,

Thanks - very informative. The Ver. 3 kit in 1/32nd has the plank lines visible entirely through the panels. It could be, also that the kit's wood
is thinner than in the 1/32nd smaller sized kit. Your 1/25th might have thicker wood for the deck planks?

IMO - I will probably need to scratch build planks as opposed to just flipping the kit panels over and adding plank lines etc.....I can, of course, use
the kit planks as templates. Need to think more about this issue. Hmmmmm

Your work is so excellent. Well bone indeed.

Regards,

View attachment 584896
Mine came like that too, you can use them perfectly, gluing everything together, and just flip them.
 
OK!!

I think that I get it now
- using the kit's deck board panels just flip them over glue new "old looking off shaped" bits above the overturned kit enclosed panels - then continue adding the great detailing that you've accomplished.

PS: My Admiral has been joking - I'm lucky to be retired otherwise after leaving A going to B, I would probably need to ask the one sitting next to me in the other seat, "Hmm. so where are we supposed to be going"?...
=====================

And as RussF just posted;
Beautiful deck boards! Do you realize how much extra work your going to cost me now? ROTF --- agreed fun indeed!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top