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1/25 Billing Boats Oseberg Longship


Arjan

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This is my second wooden boat kit, my first was Aeronaut's Princess. I have been working on the Oseberg Nr 720 kit for two weeks now. This particular kit is the fourth or fifth incarnation of BB's 1/25 rendering of the Oseberg Longship. The very first kit was released well before the introduction of laser cutting. The vintage No 518 kit contained plastic parts for the prow scroll work. For the 720 kit BB exchanged these plastic parts by wooden scroll parts. The problem is that these new wood parts are much thicker than the original plastic parts (1.5 mm plywood) whereas the kit's design remained unchanged . The additional challenge is that the scroll parts should be fitted to the keel beams of the prows which taper both from rear to front and from bottom to top. Some people on the internet opted for thinning the scroll parts down by removing two layers of the plywood and by filing and sanding the keel beam into shape.

 

The box gave me a bit of a fright because it says 1/50 scale on the front ...... Fortunately the parts are definitely 1/25 scale. Rather stupid mistake by BB I have to say.

 

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The scroll parts are definitely the eye catcher of this kit :

 

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The slip with the bulkheads installed :

 

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Planking the hull :

 

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Yesterday I still had to do three rows of planks,  I felt now was the time to tackle the scroll parts. I decided to saw the part off coloured in yellow (to save me hours of filing and sanding) :

 

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This is what the prows look like after having cut the bits off :

 

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Today I glued the scroll parts together with a narrow strip of 1.5 mm plywood in between at the rear. The parts now taper from rear to front and from bottom to top :

 

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This is what the finished parts look like installed temporarily with a rubber band :

 

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I will fix them permanently later in the build.

 

Arjan

 

 

Edited by Arjan
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Thanks gentlemen ! Today I glued the scroll parts to the stern (took me most of the day 🙂). The triangular parts had to be thinned down considerably.  I removed one layer of the plywood which was easier than I had thought and then sanded them down a bit more :

 

aAUc3Bx.jpg

 

Regards,

 

Arjan

 

 

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Thanks gents ! In the mean time I have finished planking the hull and I have removed the two longitudinal slats that run inside the hull. These slats are in the way because I want to position the deck lower than intended by BB. Now I will first remove glue residues and fill some gaps with putty. There is also some sanding and filing to be done. By the way, I might modify the model into an rc version with an underwater motor. I would then have to use epoxy resin for the inside of the hull.

 

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Good evening gentlemen. I plan to use this underwater motor :

 

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4000157647711.html?

 

An rc Longship with working oars (definitely not what I have in mind 🙂 ) :

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=iU50H8N_Pn0&feature=emb_logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=94&v=vP02zXhSSi4&feature=emb_logo

 

Regards,

 

Arjan

 

Edited by Arjan
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Somebody in an RC boat club that used to be around here had built a longboat with working oars for propulsion. He started out with a little 1-man rowboat to figure out how to implement the rowing mechanics. He used a microcontroller to drive 2 servos to get the proper motion. IIIRC, one servo drove fore-and-aft motion while t'other drove up-and-down motion.

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  • 2 weeks later...

In the mean time I have installed a lipo, a rudder , a steering servo and a servo for operating the sail (sort of .....). There is simply no room for a proper sail winch (besides, this would also be too heavy) so I decided to make a makeshift wooden spindle to give the servo arm more travel. Should this work out the way I hope I will make a sturdier spindle from plastic. The yellow lines indicate where the lines to the yardarm plus sail should go :

 

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The rudder looks rather awful on dry land so I will remove it as soon as possible  :

 

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I installed the lipo as close to the center of gravity as I could (just behind the mast) :

 

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I have started on the deck planking which should remain detachable for access to the rc hardware :

 

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After these modifications I can continue  building the model more or less like any other wooden static boat model.

 

Regards,

 

Arjan

 

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Yesterday my 1/24 scale Viking captain arrived from China.  He's probably a bit too big for the boat but I doubt anyone will notice. Needless to say,  I haven't glued the figure to its base.

 

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The left front paw of the fox is missing so I will have to make one from magic sculpt (shouldn't be too difficult).

 

Arjan

 

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I've made some progress with the deck and rudder. I had intended to modify the figure to serve as a helmsman but I discovered that the helmsman was always in a seated position ..... . The height of the tiller makes steering from an upright position awkward and it makes sense that the helmsman/woman can sit down. This position is less tiring and exerting pressure on the tiller takes less energy.

 

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Arjan

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Looking very good indeed, Captain looks a pretty tough guy! I think they did, at least occasionally, stand - here's a shot of Saga Oseberg. The helmsman is standing, might save wholesale surgery on the captain...https://i.stack.imgur.com/gAic8.jpg;)

 

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Thanks gents ! In the mean time I have added a new rear bulkhead or rather deck bracing. BB Oseberg's foremost and rearmost bulkheads are simply wrong (both in shape and position). The only way I could get my helmsman to hold the tiller was to position his right arm behind his back (the magic sculpt hasn't dried yet so I still have to remove the excess material ). I also had to fill the furrow in the figure's neck and shoulder where the threshing flail was supposed to go.

 

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Arjan

Edited by Arjan
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  • 3 weeks later...

In the mean time I have added the missing bulkhead parts on top of the deck. BB provide 6 of the 12 but 4 of these have the wrong shape so I had to make 10 myself. I drilled out the oar ports and finished the deck. The deck planking took me quite a long time because I had to make detachable deck sections in order to provide access to the rc hardware. I also conducted a flotation test with a lipo installed. The boat is remarkably stable, probably because the hull is so wide in relation to its length. I think the underwater motor will provide enough counter weight for some fair weather sailing. I expect the waterline to be close to the original (Saga Oseberg).

 

I also started painting the figures, there is still a lot to be done especially on the eyes (always the most difficult part to get right).

 

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Arjan

Edited by Arjan
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Thanks gentlemen ! Not quite clear to me what the outer side of the oar port covers of Saga Oseberg look like. The pics I've managed to find of the outer side of the covers are not great,  they appear to have an oval shape,  The pics showing the inside of the covers are more useful. Anyway,  these covers are definitely different from those used on the Gokstad and Harald Fairhair longships. 

 

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Arjan

 

 

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