Gokstad Viking Ship, Jack.Aubrey, Dusek Shipkits, 1:35
It seems that for at least one year, but could be even longer, I'll spend two/three months in Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), in the house that I own since more than forty years, and two/three months in Calci (Pisa) in the house of my daughter Silvia where, being currently single, she has plenty of space to guest me and my wife, with mutual synergistic satisfaction.
Therefore, by accepting this situation, there is a problem with my shipmodeling activities: in my house I've set up a quite functional workshop, where I am currently building the "Brick de Guerre 24" starting from ANCRE plans; but when I go to my daughter's house what and how can I do? I decided that it's not practical to bring back and forth the Brick and related material: the more the build progresses, the more it becomes cumbersome and the materials and tools needed increase, so I thought a solution that allows me to do any activity in Tuscany without having to make use of the materials and equipments located in my lab at home.
The solution is for me the purchase of a kit: with this option I have everything I need (even though that's not completely true) in the kit and then I solve 90% of the problem for the materials while regarding the tools I can duplicate the equipment, on a minimum basis, or take them from home, not having, however, the need for great efforts for transport.
Of course, in the months where I'm in Cinisello I'll work on the Brick, and when I'm in Tuscany I'll work on the kit. This means that to finish the models I'll most probably need twice of the time, but I don't think to die in a short time (sign of the horns exposed more and more times) and, with regards of patience, I don't miss it.
I took advantage of a fairly advantageous offer from a Czech kit manufacturer, the Dusek Shipkits, http://www.dusekshipkits.com/, and I bought via the internet two Viking ships:
1) the Gokstad ship, found in Norway and
2) the Skuldelev 1, a knarr, transport ship, found along with other boats in Roskilde, Denmark.
Both kits are marketed in 1/72 and 1/35 scale. I chose the 1/35 scale. To start I decided to build the Gokstad ship.
I want to start with a minimum of history about this ship, on display in a museum located in Oslo. The source is an article I found on wikipedia, from which I extracted some contents relating to this ship:
The Gokstad ship is a 9th-century Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. It is currently on display at the The Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The site where the boat was found, situated on arable land, had long been named Gokstadhaugen or Kongshaugen (from the Old Norse words kóngr meaning king and haugr meaning mound), although the relevance of its name had been discounted as folklore, as other sites in Norway bear similar names. In 1880, sons of the owner of Gokstad farm, having heard of the legends surrounding the site, uncovered the bow of a boat while digging in the still frozen ground. As word of the find got out, Nicolay Nicolaysen, then President of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, reached the site during February 1880. Having ascertained that the find was indeed that of an ancient artifact, he liaised for the digging to be stopped. Nicolaysen later returned and established that the mound still measured 50 metres by 43 metres, although its height had been diminished down to 5 metres by constant years of ploughing. With his team, he began excavating the mound from the side rather than from the top down, and on the second day of digging found the bow of the ship.
The Gokstad ship is clinker-built and constructed largely of oak. The ship was intended for warfare, trade, transportation of people and cargo. The ship is 23.80 metres (78.1 ft) long and 5.10 m (16.7 ft) wide. It is the largest in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The ship was steered by a quarter rudder fastened to a large block of wood attached to the outside of the hull and supported by an extra stout rib. The block is known as the wart, and is fastened by osiers, knotted on the outside passed through both the rudder and wart to be firmly anchored in the ship.
There are 16 tapered planks per side. The garboard planks are near vertical where they attach to the keel. The garboard planks are narrow and remain only slightly wider to take the turn of the bilge. The topside planks are progressively wider. Each oak plank is slightly tapered in cross section to allow it to overlap about 30mm the plank above and below in normal clinker (lapstrake) style. Iron rivets are about 180 mm apart where the planks lie straight and about 125 mm apart where the planks turn.
At the bow, all of the planks taper to butt the stem. The stem is carved from a single curved oak log to form the cutwater and has one land for each plank. The inside of the stem is hollowed into a v shape so the inside of the rivets can be reached during construction or repair. Each of the crossbeams has a ledge cut about 25 mm wide and deep to take a removable section of decking. Sea chests were placed on top of the decking to use when rowing. Most likely on longer voyages sea chests were secured below decks to act as ballast when sailing. The centre section of the keel has little rocker and together with flat midships transverse section the hull shape is suited to medium to flat water sailing. When sailing downwind in strong winds and waves, directional control would be poor, so it is likely that some reefing system was used to reduce sail area. In such conditions the ship would take water aboard at an alarming rate if sailed at high speed.
The ship was built to carry 32 oarsmen, and the oar holes could be hatched down when the ship was under sail. It utilized a square sail of approximately 110 square metres (1,200 sq ft), which, it is estimated, could propel the ship to over 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). The mast could be raised and lowered. While the ship was traveling in shallow water, the rudder could be raised very quickly by undoing the fastening. Dendrochronological dating suggests that the ship was built of timber that was felled around 890 AD. This period is the height of Norse expansion in Dublin, Ireland and York, England. The Gokstad ship was commissioned at the end of the 9th century during the reign of King Harald Fairhair. The ship could carry a crew of 40 men but could carry a maximum of 70. The ship's design has been demonstrated to be very seaworthy.
Both kits have the same price: in total I spent € 230, including VAT and shipment. A price (115€ each) quite interesting also if the kits are rather simple.
The completed model should look like in the images 01 and 02 here below.
Length: 610mm, Width: 260mm, Height: 370mm
01 gokstad35-2.jpg
02 gokstad35-1.jpg
The kit of this model, shown in the photos 03 and 04, looks like this:
03 P1100347r.jpg
04 P1100348.jpg
Inside there is the materials, drawings and building instructions. On the internet there are also downloadable files with the same instructions at: http://www.dusekshipkits.com/viking-gokstad-1-35
That's all for now, but the adventure has just to begin . .
Cheers, Jack.Aubrey
It seems that for at least one year, but could be even longer, I'll spend two/three months in Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), in the house that I own since more than forty years, and two/three months in Calci (Pisa) in the house of my daughter Silvia where, being currently single, she has plenty of space to guest me and my wife, with mutual synergistic satisfaction.
Therefore, by accepting this situation, there is a problem with my shipmodeling activities: in my house I've set up a quite functional workshop, where I am currently building the "Brick de Guerre 24" starting from ANCRE plans; but when I go to my daughter's house what and how can I do? I decided that it's not practical to bring back and forth the Brick and related material: the more the build progresses, the more it becomes cumbersome and the materials and tools needed increase, so I thought a solution that allows me to do any activity in Tuscany without having to make use of the materials and equipments located in my lab at home.
The solution is for me the purchase of a kit: with this option I have everything I need (even though that's not completely true) in the kit and then I solve 90% of the problem for the materials while regarding the tools I can duplicate the equipment, on a minimum basis, or take them from home, not having, however, the need for great efforts for transport.
Of course, in the months where I'm in Cinisello I'll work on the Brick, and when I'm in Tuscany I'll work on the kit. This means that to finish the models I'll most probably need twice of the time, but I don't think to die in a short time (sign of the horns exposed more and more times) and, with regards of patience, I don't miss it.
I took advantage of a fairly advantageous offer from a Czech kit manufacturer, the Dusek Shipkits, http://www.dusekshipkits.com/, and I bought via the internet two Viking ships:
1) the Gokstad ship, found in Norway and
2) the Skuldelev 1, a knarr, transport ship, found along with other boats in Roskilde, Denmark.
Both kits are marketed in 1/72 and 1/35 scale. I chose the 1/35 scale. To start I decided to build the Gokstad ship.
I want to start with a minimum of history about this ship, on display in a museum located in Oslo. The source is an article I found on wikipedia, from which I extracted some contents relating to this ship:
The Gokstad ship is a 9th-century Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. It is currently on display at the The Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The site where the boat was found, situated on arable land, had long been named Gokstadhaugen or Kongshaugen (from the Old Norse words kóngr meaning king and haugr meaning mound), although the relevance of its name had been discounted as folklore, as other sites in Norway bear similar names. In 1880, sons of the owner of Gokstad farm, having heard of the legends surrounding the site, uncovered the bow of a boat while digging in the still frozen ground. As word of the find got out, Nicolay Nicolaysen, then President of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, reached the site during February 1880. Having ascertained that the find was indeed that of an ancient artifact, he liaised for the digging to be stopped. Nicolaysen later returned and established that the mound still measured 50 metres by 43 metres, although its height had been diminished down to 5 metres by constant years of ploughing. With his team, he began excavating the mound from the side rather than from the top down, and on the second day of digging found the bow of the ship.
The Gokstad ship is clinker-built and constructed largely of oak. The ship was intended for warfare, trade, transportation of people and cargo. The ship is 23.80 metres (78.1 ft) long and 5.10 m (16.7 ft) wide. It is the largest in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The ship was steered by a quarter rudder fastened to a large block of wood attached to the outside of the hull and supported by an extra stout rib. The block is known as the wart, and is fastened by osiers, knotted on the outside passed through both the rudder and wart to be firmly anchored in the ship.
There are 16 tapered planks per side. The garboard planks are near vertical where they attach to the keel. The garboard planks are narrow and remain only slightly wider to take the turn of the bilge. The topside planks are progressively wider. Each oak plank is slightly tapered in cross section to allow it to overlap about 30mm the plank above and below in normal clinker (lapstrake) style. Iron rivets are about 180 mm apart where the planks lie straight and about 125 mm apart where the planks turn.
At the bow, all of the planks taper to butt the stem. The stem is carved from a single curved oak log to form the cutwater and has one land for each plank. The inside of the stem is hollowed into a v shape so the inside of the rivets can be reached during construction or repair. Each of the crossbeams has a ledge cut about 25 mm wide and deep to take a removable section of decking. Sea chests were placed on top of the decking to use when rowing. Most likely on longer voyages sea chests were secured below decks to act as ballast when sailing. The centre section of the keel has little rocker and together with flat midships transverse section the hull shape is suited to medium to flat water sailing. When sailing downwind in strong winds and waves, directional control would be poor, so it is likely that some reefing system was used to reduce sail area. In such conditions the ship would take water aboard at an alarming rate if sailed at high speed.
The ship was built to carry 32 oarsmen, and the oar holes could be hatched down when the ship was under sail. It utilized a square sail of approximately 110 square metres (1,200 sq ft), which, it is estimated, could propel the ship to over 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). The mast could be raised and lowered. While the ship was traveling in shallow water, the rudder could be raised very quickly by undoing the fastening. Dendrochronological dating suggests that the ship was built of timber that was felled around 890 AD. This period is the height of Norse expansion in Dublin, Ireland and York, England. The Gokstad ship was commissioned at the end of the 9th century during the reign of King Harald Fairhair. The ship could carry a crew of 40 men but could carry a maximum of 70. The ship's design has been demonstrated to be very seaworthy.
Both kits have the same price: in total I spent € 230, including VAT and shipment. A price (115€ each) quite interesting also if the kits are rather simple.
The completed model should look like in the images 01 and 02 here below.
Length: 610mm, Width: 260mm, Height: 370mm
01 gokstad35-2.jpg
02 gokstad35-1.jpg
The kit of this model, shown in the photos 03 and 04, looks like this:
03 P1100347r.jpg
04 P1100348.jpg
Inside there is the materials, drawings and building instructions. On the internet there are also downloadable files with the same instructions at: http://www.dusekshipkits.com/viking-gokstad-1-35
That's all for now, but the adventure has just to begin . .
Cheers, Jack.Aubrey