Oseberg Viking Ship (v3) by Kevin - Pavel Nikitin - 1/25 - started June 2025

[Kevin Aris]

1:25 Drakkar ‘Oseberg’ V3

 

 

History
It is believed that the word “drakkar” originates from the Old Norse words “dreki” and “kar,” which mean “dragon” and “ship,” respectively. The warship acquired this name because the head of a dragon or another mythical creature (like Jormungandr) usually adorned the ship’s bow. The shape of the ship was also long and narrow, resembling a sea serpent. The Vikings constructed drakkars out of pine, oak, or ash wood. They used a special technique for splitting trees along the grain. They then watered the planks and held them above a fire to make them more flexible. The shipbuilders put the parts of the ship together with iron rivets and nails and bound them with cords and ropes. After that, they tarred the whole structure and caulked it by plugging holes and gaps and making the seams watertight. The sail was rectangular or square. It was made of sheep’s wool and covered with grease so that it didn’t get drenched. If there wasn’t a fair wind, the Vikings used oars – 20 to 35 pairs of them.

 

In the Viking age, few ships could compete with a drakkar in terms of sheer speed, but drakkars were also very nimble. Thanks to the drakkar’s shallow draft, the Northmen could easily sail along rivers and fjords. They could land in places that were very difficult to access and attack their enemies unexpectedly. These warships were also barely visible between the waves because of their low sides. This helped the Vikings catch their enemies unawares, even in the open sea. Drakkars were created for more than just war, however. They were solid and capacious, so the Vikings sometimes used them for trade and to transport goods, but more often these ships were used for sailing long distances. How far did the Vikings travel? They reached the shores of Iceland, Greenland, and North America, to name but a few destinations.

copied from the kit review by @James H

 

the full review can be found here

 1:25 Drakkar ‘Oseberg’ V3 - Ships of Pavel Nikitin - REVIEWS: Model kits - Model Ship World™

 

Edited July 2 by Kevin Aris

[Kevin Aris]

Good evening everyone

Having recently completed two large builds, Belle Poule and Indefatigable, and jumping straight in with the Santissima Trinidad, i wanted a quick build, just to reset myself, i wasnt even going to create a log, it was to be a build going on in the background, something i could play about with and if it went all wrong, no one would ever know, well what changed your mind, I hear everyone ask?  well space, to do this the ST had to be put away, therefore for as long as this takes me, the other log has to wait.

 

i bought the kit from @chris watton at Vanguard Models a few weeks ago and started her 3 days ago, so far i am real impressed, very heavy box, most of the weight though is from the MDF which makes up the two slipways, i actually built both of these up on day one, so  lets go on another of Kevin's messy and cluttered journey, as i tackle this project

[Kevin Aris]

Day 1 building jigs

made from mdf, the instructions are easy to follow, but, not all steps are covered, and some of the parts are different shapes to that shown, ideally, the best bet is to work alongside the excellent online video

 

Jig 2 is used after the keel and frames have been removed from jig 1 the hull is turned upside-down placed on top to allow hull planking

 

[Kevin Aris]

good evening everyone
im on day 5 now, so better bring you up to date
keel

no issues with making the 2 keel/centre pieces, these are offset sections to avoid weak sports, are glued together, allowed to set and then joined together, being held in the right place by 3mm inserts


Frames
21 frames numbered from the middle - zero, up to number ten fwd and aft, most of these frames 0 to 7 are made up off 4 pieces, a 5 part is added later in the build when the frames are placed in the jig, frame zero has 2 extra parts to be added later, as this forms part of the mast support.
lasered markings denote the tapering areas, which does not take long to do, apart from frame 8 which was a pain to sort out, i dont have a photo at present, but as the planking is clinkered and a lot of tapering i found getting the filing quite awkward


frames dry fitted

the keel was placed into the jig, although at this time there are is right or wrong way of doing this, i marked the jig with frame numbers and decided to write fwd on one end, 

frames are cleaned up again, and glued onto the keel, the cross member 2-5 is not fixed at this time until the stringers are in place

some time later

[Kevin Aris]

day 4

having been left overnight to set the keel and fitted frames are removed from the jig, only to be put back in with the cross member clamps

shaped stringers

in place


simple yet clever way of holding down the cross members whilst the glue sets


as i mentioned yesterday the way frame zero goes in dictated fwd at aft of the build, now is the time
 
Mast step



out for the day

 

another rent a field session with the bois



and the whole assy removed from the jig

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Arjan]

I'm following this build with interest. Looks like this Vanguard kit is light years ahead of the old Billing Boats 1/25 Oseberg kit versions. Also the Vanguard kit is the first one I have ever seen showing  the oarsmen's chests in the correct position for rowing.

 

 

In other respects such as the compass the Vanguard kit also seems to be historically correct. The attire of these oarswomen certainly isn't 🙂 :

 

 

Regards,

 

Arjan

 

Edited July 6 by Arjan

[Kevin Aris]

1 hour ago, Arjan said:

I'm following this build with interest. Looks like this Vanguard kit is light years ahead of the old Billing Boats 1/25 Oseberg kit versions. Also the Vanguard kit is the first one I have ever seen showing  the oarsmen's chests in the correct position for rowing.

 

 

In other respects such as the compass the Vanguard kit also seems to be historically correct. The attire of these oarswomen certainly isn't 🙂 :

 

 

Regards,

 

Arjan

 

good afternoon, the kit is from a company called Ships Of Pavel Nikitin, but Vanguard Models has imported a few to stock Pavel Nikitin store

[Kevin Aris]

Good morning everyone

 

Thank you for comments and likes

 

Day 8 Planking

 

Having never done a clinker build, i was expecting it to be far more difficult than it actually is.

The boards are made up in two halves, sanded then lined up against the rebates on the frames, frame 8 (bow and stern) is not a problem, but does need adjusting each time a run goes in, numbers 9 and ten, don't do much other than force the wood in the right direction

 

Before starting a temp piece is put in, and removed at a later date, all the boards then butt up against this, it also extends along the keel

board row number 1

row 2, and so on

 

i am finding the boards very dry and brittle at times, especially around the kerf joints, the whole assu will be stained so will experiment on best way to fill, and ensure the stain will take to those repaired areas

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

5 hours ago, Arjan said:

 

 

G'day, I've been warned about these budget cruises. 🙂

 

5 hours ago, Arjan said:

The attire of these oarswomen certainly isn't 🙂 :

 

Who cares? 😁

 

       G'day @Kevin Aris, I'm in awe of those like you that build model ships in wood. I do mine in styrene and my shoddy workmanship can be hidden by copious quantities of filler and many sessions of sanding. From what I see, you don't have that option and so your work is true craftsmanship. 👍

Regards, Jeff.

[Kevin Aris]

34 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

G'day, I've been warned about these budget cruises. 🙂

 

Who cares? 😁

 

       G'day @Kevin Aris, I'm in awe of those like you that build model ships in wood. I do mine in styrene and my shoddy workmanship can be hidden by copious quantities of filler and many sessions of sanding. From what I see, you don't have that option and so your work is true craftsmanship. 👍

Regards, Jeff.

i certainly do require filler in some of my builds, esp some of the older kits, however they are getting better and better at the way they are designed, and i now tend to stick to some of the new modern companies, 

 

a lot of filler was used on this build of the Victory

[Kevin Aris]

good morning everyone

 

took the build upto deck level, which is the height of plank 9

 

the frame is adapted again to fit the new keel width. 

Deck beams - Airbrushing

i would love to have bought the wood dye the Pavel Nikitin uses, but would cost a fortune to order and shipping (about £60), a set is available on one of the market sites, but at the same price, so i purchased a set of OCcre wood dyes, Walnut and Oak

[Thom216]

That looks really tempting!! Wow.

[RossFMJ]

Having been blown away seeing the real thing, you are now severely tempting me to empty my savings book with your nice work so far!

[Kevin Aris]

10 hours ago, RossFMJ said:

Having been blown away seeing the real thing, you are now severely tempting me to empty my savings book with your nice work so far!

i personally think that it is good value for money, the online tutorials are brilliant

[Kevin Aris]

Good evening everyone, thank you for comments and likes

 

deck plates- not finished yet

 

two sheets of plates have to be removed, separated and sanded,

 i numbered each piece of mine prior to removal, as i was bound to mix them, the instruction don't show much, other than where they go, but great online tutorial

then sprayed all the edges with walnut, sanded them with 3500 grit pad, repeated, then sprayed over with Oak and sanded again

 

Been 34 deg in the mancave, too warm for me, so im slightly behind, where i would like to be, not a race, im pleased with the way it is turning out, But wood glue, is a real bug bare, even with just using a cocktail stick to apply. So before she is completed, i will remove some of the worst offenders and open them to reveal the hold

 

no plates are glued down at this stage

[AlanG]

Just beautiful, even if it's still under construction.

 

After reading this very comprehensive blog, I must admit that I'm considering diverting the funds I've been putting aside for a 1/200 HMS Hood towards this kit.

[Kevin Aris]

6 minutes ago, AlanG said:

Just beautiful, even if it's still under construction.

 

After reading this very comprehensive blog, I must admit that I'm considering diverting the funds I've been putting aside for a 1/200 HMS Hood towards this kit.

you will enjoy working with wood far more, well for a while anyway, very few of my plastic kits ever get completed, lol thinking about it only twp. one of them the Bismack, back in 2017

[Noel Smith]

Superb Norse Longboat taking shape here.    And you describe it simply as a 'fill in' model between more serious big subjects Kevin ?

Considering when the originals were built the lines are brilliant both for a seagoing vessel and due to the low freeboard able to go way up river estuaries.

The kit looks really good and the finished will be a lot larger than I expected to see. It's a beautiful thing you are building and I will certainly be following this thread.

The laser cut frame pieces with the shapes cut in them to locate the strips of wood for the clinker build looks well thought out by the kit manufacturer.

I recently built the Artesania Latina Titanic's Lifeboat as my first wooden boat kit. What a (expletive) nightmare that turned out to be.

Had to correct the keel shape to start off with and the supplied strips for the clinker build were quite thick. In fact too thick.

If only they had thought to step the frame pieces it would have made the clinker build a lot easier and supplied much thinner strips.

I ended up cutting very thin plywood strips of about a third of the thickness to replace the kit ones. After that it was plain sailing if you will excuse the pun.