Gokstad viking ship / WAK + scratch / upscaled to 1:48

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bigpetr

Designer/Master Modeler
Jan 27, 2016
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Czech Republic
I have finaly get to build this model.

More about the history of the ship here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gokstad_ship



Tomasz Weremko, designer of the model, used archeological drawings to design this model, so it is as historicaly correct according to available infomations.


I upscaled the model to my favourite 1:48 scale.

Skeleton is done. Comparison with model original scale:



I will try to paint it. Some early experiments with watercolour paints.

 
Last edited:
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I saw a video on a "built the way the Vikings built" their ships, the way they constructed those boats was such that instead of going over the waves, they snaked over them. 5 guys grabbed the nose, and they could lift it around a foot, that is how much elasticity they gave those boats, which is how they could survive oceans storms and waves without flipping, and het travel up a river that was thigh deep in water. Incredibly advanced knowledge of ship building. They way they riveted them together was also quite fantastic. The video below shows the largest Viking ship made in modern times. it is Clinker built,, just like the vikings did, amazing video. :)

 
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Fantastic! I saw a full-hour-length documentary on this project. It is so exciting to see these old techniques again. You can learn so much from it. In France they are (still) building an entire medieval castle (Guédelon). This is live archeology. :)
 
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It really is superb. I helped build a clinker built small tender for a ship at Mystic Seaport museum. There are different ways to do clinker built boats, but all involve peaning the nail at the other end to ensure it holds.
 
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I found somethig interesting. Now it seems that Gokstad shields was covered with leather. here is newest experimental archeology reconstruction:

64717546_1737241073089344_6687275255376904192_o-small.jpg

More about the discovery here:

translate.google.com

Vikingernes skjolde: Nu ved vi endelig, hvordan de så ud

»Nu kan vi sige med sikkerhed, hvordan skjoldene har set ud frem for at ty til gætværk,« siger projektets forskningsleder.
translate.google.com translate.google.com
 
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Full grain leather is really strong, and when wet, it tends to dry tight, pulling everything together. Nice!! :)
 
Hello,
planking the hull did not go well. The reason was waterbased glue that stretched the keel when laminating. I could notice earlier, there were some misalignment on the frame, but I underestimate it. As a consequence planking did not ended as high as it should.

After I recovered from little frustration I decided to start ower from scratch. Because planking on original ship is little diferent I will not use the paper model from WAK, but I will make my own. So now I am in proces of making 3d model. Not what I wanted, considering I started this model because I wanted to rest from working on computer. :). But I just need to have it right:)
 
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A closet perfectionist, I know the feeling. I learned long ago that I am my own worst critic. and I have since settled for mediocrity.
 
When planking a model, I learned a long time ago, you either tape or nail the keel down, and whatever you do to one side, you do immediately to the other side. Then the strained is linear and unilateral. ;)
 
Thanks for the tip Zathros, I did exacly as you sugest. In that respect everything is good and symetrical. But because the keel si longer, my complete planking would have ended aproximately as red arrow shows. So there is quite big gap left fo fill and planks have different curvature at the ends.

Gokstad_Ship_Side_View.jpg
 
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My scratchbuilding has begun. It is more time consumng than expected, because I have three sets of plans (from the archeologist who dug the ship, from the more recent monography about the ship and from the Oslo museum). And shape of the ship is different in every set, so I had to compare and choose dimensions that seemed right to me. So not 100% accuracy.

If some of you know what are the best plans, please let me know.

I did four rows of planks out of sixteen and so far everything looks fine compared to the photos of the ship. Dots mark end of the each row.

Gokstad ship 3d.jpg


gokstad planking.jpg
 
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It looks very good! I too have to deal with tolerances constantly. Choose the best of both worlds and you will be fine. :)
 
The original ships had the planks steamed to get into position. Also, they were cut much longer and that allowed them to get that last fance bend. The excess whas cut off. It would be impossible to cut the ends without steaming and making the pieces longer. Just take a long flat and thin piece of wood and see how esily it bends, compared to a short piece of the same wood. This "fairing" of the planks is how a builder got his lines. The would use extremely long strips of wood to get the lines onthe ship and mark the frames. This would give the builders the ability to draw out the planks, and to know where they would have to be steamed to get the really curved ends, and which ends had to be thinner. 15 planks on that ship, and while being symetric, each one has a different width at the ends. It would be impossible to fit otherwise. Luckily, with Rhino, when you unroll those planks, you should get a piece of paper that will fit. You may have to adjust some "Control Points" but it should work out fine. :)
 
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Great reading!! Soaking the crap out of it so it wouldn't burn, then heating it, making the wood pliable. I've seen guys use what looked like over sized Tea Pots use high pressure steam, after soaking the wood to almost boiling, to get the planks were they wanted them. Reproducing a 100 year old method shows just how advanced those ships where. They could go out to the blue ocean or hug the coast, and needed only 24" inches so they could go far upstream, and exchanged their ballast with gold they pillaged. :)
 
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