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Oseberg 1/32nd from Pavel Nikitin - With hopefully also many added details.

Lionel88 said:
Having just built a full size 32" Viking shield, I can offer that the backside 'reinforcing' pieces are what hold the shield planks together and are fully necessary as it's all butt joints on the face.

As for different shield plank widths, I think there is no purposeful reason to make them the same, and saving extra work as a warrior or craftsman on an expendable piece of gear is a plus. Also, depending on your handle configuration, shield boss size and placement on the laid out planks, having same width planks may cause some small pieces to be impractically small, like at an edge or by the boss where the cut out is. I'd be wary of authoritative or definitive statements on Viking shields as these undoubtedly had an element of practical necessity in such a widespread culture, meaning the practices would vary with the wood, time and skill available.

Regarding model sized shield rims, I laboriously hand cut a thin wall copper pipe into slices to use as shield rims, then painted them, with a nice result. Although if i was going to do it again, i'd array my shields in a column, roll that tightly clamped stack/column in adhesive so all the edges get glue on them, then roll the stack in thick AL foil and let it dry. At that point, you just slice off each shield. if you wanted a specific color or patina, you would just treat the face of the foil before this process.

All that said, I love this particular ship and I can see you're doing it more than justice, bravo!
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I would love to see some photos of your full scale shield! :D
 
RussF said:
Looking forward to following your build John, as I hope to get back to mine soon. You have presented a lot of great information here - the research is half the fun!
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@RussF - thanks indeed - yes, I’m enjoying learning something of which I knew almost nothing about - well until after I binged all 6 seasons of “The Vikings”, then read Michael Hirst’s book about how he wrote and created the series. - Then watched the sequel series Vikings: Valhalla all my motivations to build the Oseberg.
 
RussF said:
I think the only place you can get it is Pen and Sword Books in the UK. Those of us who ordered a copy last year when Pavel's 1:25 kit first came out, had to wait about 4 months to get it - with many emails to the store as well as directly to Dr. Bischoff to try and light a fire under them. Apparently, the Viking Museum (with whom Dr. Bischoff is affiliated) sells them, but stopped doing direct sales to the public and only sells them through P&S. Well, last year we devolved into a blame game with P&S blaming the museum for not shipping on time and the museum blaming P&S for never having placed an order. It did eventually arrive, however. Fortunately, I live about an hour away from Cornell University who had one in their library and I was able to borrow it on a guest card for the four months while I waited for mine. Be aware that if P&S does not have it in stock, they will place the order in backorder status, but they will immediately charge your credit card - it is their policy.

During that period of waiting, Dr. Bischoff granted me and the members of SoS access directly to the online copy of her dissertation from which the book originated. It is written in Danish, but nearly all the drawings and illustrations from the book are there. The link is here in my build log. I highly recommend getting the book, however, it is a great read!
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Russ
YES to every thing you said. I also had communications with them and per your comments exactly. That said they WILL ship the book - and yes CCs are charged at time of purchase. Yikes...
 
Vfordyce said:
It’s interesting that the Vikings used different widths of wood for their shields. The planks were obviously the same thickness so they had the technology to make them the same width. I wonder if there were a reason for different widths structurally.
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Vic - you will regret asking that question So....

Per your question -- to create a lightweight, flexible, and efficient defensive tool that could be easily repaired, rather than relying on a single, heavy piece of timber
here is a link to way-more that we need to know hahaha


Cheers
 
Lionel88 said:
Having just built a full size 32" Viking shield, I can offer that the backside 'reinforcing' pieces are what hold the shield planks together and are fully necessary as it's all butt joints on the face.

As for different shield plank widths, I think there is no purposeful reason to make them the same, and saving extra work as a warrior or craftsman on an expendable piece of gear is a plus. Also, depending on your handle configuration, shield boss size and placement on the laid out planks, having same width planks may cause some small pieces to be impractically small, like at an edge or by the boss where the cut out is. I'd be wary of authoritative or definitive statements on Viking shields as these undoubtedly had an element of practical necessity in such a widespread culture, meaning the practices would vary with the wood, time and skill available.

Regarding model sized shield rims, I laboriously hand cut a thin wall copper pipe into slices to use as shield rims, then painted them, with a nice result. Although if i was going to do it again, i'd array my shields in a column, roll that tightly clamped stack/column in adhesive so all the edges get glue on them, then roll the stack in thick AL foil and let it dry. At that point, you just slice off each shield. if you wanted a specific color or patina, you would just treat the face of the foil before this process.

All that said, I love this particular ship and I can see you're doing it more than justice, bravo!
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for your nice comments!! as well as your interest in Viking lore. You are certainly way up there with knowledge..

Also as you know - and I've recently learned - Some shiel faces were also covered with hide as a reinforcement.
In 1/32 and given the great etchings on Pavel's shields - won't think about that. But I will add shoulder straps - already thought about how to do that work-in-progress.....


Do you have any images of your shields?

 
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Vfordyce said:
Smart Alec!
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Vic indeed --- great question

You got me so interested about these details - it was a long read - but lots of interesting information.

I also just learned, seeing an image that Pavel had posted in @yancovitch log that possibly those benches may have had hinges so as to raise their tops to allow for storage within - Hmmm will

now need to figure out how to possibly include some of those details into some benches. Also need to research a bit more -could be that a bench might have been found at Oseberg or at Gokstad's sites that had evidence of such hinges and openings ..TBD


qnbdBr7.jpg


Regards,
 
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Katandy said:
you can get copy strait from Viking Ship Museum
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I hope that is the case. My last correspondence with Dr. Bischof (last April) indicated that the museum had stopped shipping the book directly to customers. My guess was because the museum is currently closed for renovations and they have a skeleton crew while that is happening. I can't find a link on their site to order one from. Do you have that information?
 
RussF said:
I hope that is the case. My last correspondence with Dr. Bischof (last April) indicated that the museum had stopped shipping the book directly to customers. My guess was because the museum is currently closed for renovations and they have a skeleton crew while that is happening. I can't find a link on their site to order one from. Do you have that information?
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Russ is correct - Even when I ordered mine over a year ago -The museum was not selling books online. Sword & Stone is certainly your best option,
That is assuming thet the closed museum still have staff that deals with Sword & Stone at that time. Frustrating indeed.

You might want to communicate with Sword & Stone directly - Let us know the results
 
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Wowwwww...lo poco que he visto, impresionante, que gran trabajo, yo hice el Gokstad, y cometí el fallo de colocación de las tracas, en proa y popa no van a tope, mientras que en el resto del casco van a tingladillo. yo, coloque todo a tingladillo, gran fallo. Un saludo.
El Gokstad de un amigo y muy buen modelista...
 
RussF said:
I hope that is the case. My last correspondence with Dr. Bischof (last April) indicated that the museum had stopped shipping the book directly to customers. My guess was because the museum is currently closed for renovations and they have a skeleton crew while that is happening. I can't find a link on their site to order one from. Do you have that information?
Click to expand...
Sorry, I put link to website up
 
Katandy said:
Sorry, I put link to website up
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And we appreciate that, however, look at the last line from their web site when you actually click on the book:

Screenshot 2026-02-01 180003.png

We all ran into that last year - many places listed the book, but all except P&S were unavailable. Even when I emailed Dr. Bischoff directly, she pointed me to P&S.
 
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