"Viking Ships at Spartacon" Topic

I promised to post some pictures. So here they are:
webpages.charter.net/dervel

These are from the battle we hosted at Spartacon Jan 14th.

The ships are all 25/28mm scale, scatch built from wood. Artslave designed the viking patterns and built most of these. I designed the Cogs.

Those are lovely longships. Kinda makes me want to get out my DVD, of Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis in "The Vikings".

By Odin!

TMV

I am soooo jealous!

Nice work! Any chance that you might share the plans/patterns?

Cheers,

Skeptic

Very nice indeed.

Nice ships! I take it these where scratch built?

Sratchbuilt? Yes. Dervel and I employ dozens of 25mm axemen to fell trees in the winter for ship construction. The logs are easier for them to drag out of the forest in winter. It is quite entertaining to watch the little guys hook up the 25mm oxen teams and ride the logs into the village. The downside to this is the steady drain on our 25mm forests.
I would be will to share plans and construction details if folks are interested. You have to get your own small workers, though. I have instructions(somewhere) written up to be included with a set of miniature rules. The rules never got published, and the subject didn't come up again until now.

Dervel very cool ships.Makes me want to start painting my Old Glory and Flagship cogs. Were is Spartacon held.

Excellent!!!

Where was Spartacon? Please don't tell me Sparta, Wisconsin…only an hour drive from my house!

By the way we have been using the Oars to Cannons rule set with these ships.

Yes all scatch built. "The hardest part is painting the 25mm axemen that then have to build them."

Spartacon is held every year in Lansing Michigan – "MSU Spartans".

The viking ship design is not mine, but since Artslave is willing to share it: – I have a copy of the original rules with plans. I think we could clean up and publish?

The plans for the Cogs are in my head, but maybe we should submit an article?

Anyway we will figure something out:)

The rigging and sails on your ships look way cool. Makes me reconsider not putting up my mast and yardarm on my Heller longship. I like the generous sizing of your boats too. Mine is a baby compared to yours, or so it seems from the pics. I wonder how a Heller compares in size. How long are yours from bow to stern?

Looks fantastic! Please share the plans & the rules.

Al | rivetsandsteam.com

Yes, please share the plans. I probably wouldn't use them en masse, but one or two would be nice for roleplaying purposes.

(wripping drool away) YES! Please share the plans with us.
Kudos guys

A Small Knarr is about 10", medium Longship is about 12-13". The large dragonships are 15".

The rigging is cool, but you have to keep it reasonable for gaming. The latest generation have take down masts for gaming and storage. Plus you can rig the sails up and down to represent sail or oars.

I am not familiar with the Heller model outside of the box?

I am in consultation with Artslave about sharing plans. We have a fleet of about 20 ships for large battles (cogs, knarrs, longships…), but we have sold some to other gamers in the area for darkage games.

They look good pulled up on the beach near a helpless village! Originally they were built as a backdrop for viking raid skirmish scenarios. Then we just got carried away.

I always wanted to construct a vicing ship…

I am not familiar with the Heller model outside of the box?

14 3/4" long by 3 7/16" wide. So not smallish at all by your ships' standards. Cool.

The model has to be water-lined of course. As there is a subdeck, you can't water-line above that. But the ship sitting on the table looks pretty good, even sans mast and rigging. The oar benches are just the right distance apart to support 20mm wide bases on them. The model was a bear to make though. None of the parts fit together easily, and the oar benches all had to be trimmed individually to length. It was a fith all the way for me, and I think I am an above average modeler.

One last quibble with the detail: Heller provided a dragon "prow" for both ends; so if you don't replace the stern head with something more "tailish", expect some wag in your club to christen your fell vessel "the Black Push Me Pull You"! I replaced the stern dragon with a tail to avoid this. (Stupid Heller: whoever heard tell of, or saw, a longship with two dragon heads facing both ways at once? William the Conqueror's ship, according to the Bayeux Tapestry, link has a "boy" at the stern post, but he is facing forward. The prow is adorned with the usual animal-head motif — looks more like a lion to me. Note, that the first panel shows a ship with two forward-facing "dragon" heads, but they are each individually carved, not clones of the very same head like the stupid Heller ship has. Laziness.)

fith* = fight

HG, I uploaded some additional shots from the game.

Notice that theses ships have proper prows. Art slave carved them each by hand. The fanciful dragon heads, the more symbolic dragons (crecent shaped), and the sweeping ("we are just friendly merchants version").

Also, being wooden they are rather sturdy.

I included some views of the decks (no benches they just get in the way). The Knarrs have center cargo holds, and of course no dragon prows. All of the ships have decking etched into the surface, simple, but the effect is not bad.

When I get some time I will take some additional pictures of one of my half finished hulls.

As we gather together the plans for this, I'll warn everyone that to make the hull blank you will need access to an adjustable bed jigsaw or scroll saw. It could also be done on a bandsaw, but I don't have any experience with them. I suppose the blank could be cut out by hand. It would be very tricky, though. All our ships use a hull blank cut from clear (no knots) pine board at an angle of around 20 degrees. I'll have to double check that number, as I usually eye-ball it.

Humphrey, you have noticed, no doupt, the assortment of prow and stern post details. This is just for varitey and my own ammusement. I have found very limited historical references for this, and the examples that we do have seem to support the "whoorl snake" of the Oseberg ship, the more stylized "dragon" of the Tapestry, or the gaping mouth form borrowed from decorative posts that the reconstructed Viking ships have used. The Gokstad ship has square stem and stern posts. No dragon, snake or nothing. I feel your pain on the Heller model. It is a very old model, and has been around for years. The molds have wandered off true.

Geez you guys, those are fantastic. I haven't enjoyed looking a pics this much in a while. Thanks.

I included some views of the decks (no benches they just get in the way).

The Heller ship doesn't even have a proper "deck", just the oar benches and subdeck. If you didn't have oar benches you wouldn't have anything to stand the minis up on.

It's snowing like mad here, and it's not safe to go anywhere. A perfect day for hobbies. I have been unable to dig up my old instructions for building the Viking ship (it's here somewhere). So instead of wasting more time looking, I started building a ship, and recording each step on digital snaps. This will make a photo record I could post while I look some more, or, just re-write the thing. If things go true to form, I'll find the old instructions just after completing the new ones. Always the way! Anyone put off by the "need access to scroll saw" thing?

Anyone put off by the "need access to scroll saw" thing?

Nope – looking forward to the instructions. Thanks for taking the time.

Here is an up-date on the photo/constrution project. I have finished all the preliminary steps to prepare the hull blank and bow and sternposts. I have taken pictures along the way, showing layout and before/afters of the carving process. Next, I need that fore-mentioned access to the adjustable bed scroll saw (Dervel's saw). He informs me that he has a bandsaw now too, so I can give a report on how it goes with a new tool. I have found parts of the drawings for my instructions, so we will see if these can be digetized. At the very least, for now, we will put together a photo essay on the construction steps. You guys are clever, and can probably figure it out from there. Meanwhile, I'll re-write the instructions as it is fresh in my mind after finishing these ships. Here is the best news: total cost for a ship is right around five dollars, US. Less per ship if you make several. The OG and Gripping Beast models are very beautiful, but the cost of one would fund a whole fleet of wooden ones.

We should be able to cut them this weekend.

No matter what you say about price, some of us do not have access to the tools. How much would one of your boats go for, if I wanted to buy one off of you? (That is more than the "five dollar" question!)

Very nice pictures. I've got a bunch of the OG viking ships but I'm not against building more ships and would love to see your plans. I've got a scrollsaw and also a small bandsaw that hasn't made it out of its box yet.

My previous customers paid 50 dollars U.S. for a finished drakkar, with mast,spar and sail. I'll be tricking them out a bit more with stearing rudder and oar trees. We have been leaving this detail off some of the later models to keep things simple in battle. This is about what the unfinished kits cost, IIRC. I am constructing a drakkar and a knarr for the intructional photos, and they would be available when we complete that. The knarr is a tricky model, and I usually would not concider doing one for commission. It takes longer to build and yet is not as "cool". I have a sneaky feeling though, that the knarr was a much more likely vessel to encounter in this era.

Goldwyrm, you have the magic items to make this happen. I will try to inspire you to un-crate that bandsaw when you see this process. I've been making wooden ship models since I was a kid and could only dig scraps from my Dad's pieces bin. My brothers and I would float little fleets on the big mud puddles of early spring and throw dirt clods as bombs. Very early wargaming! And the best part, no dice!

Artslave, Saturday is open for hull cutting and filming.

$50 USD is pretty reasonable, You typically pay that much for unfinished resin hulls and wooden dowels.

Remember, you still have to pay your wood shop guy. He typically works for food though.

Also, I think HG should get "special Pricing", just because.

Dervel

Yes, yes! A special pricing for ME! (special = lower)

Special = Special :}

Dang

Good news, I did cut two longships and a knarr hull today. Once, I get with my partner we can compile the photo journal.

I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures. Thanks.

Okay we have posted Chapter one. Let us know if we should continue.

TMP link

Fantastic ships, great instructions, I hope I can ever encourage myself to give them a try. In the meantime, I just take off my hat and stand in awe.