Vikings Vanquisher Viking Ship Diorama Coomodel Review

GubernatorFan wrote:
Good point. In this instance the diorama (the 3D ship anyway) actually might have more realism than the figures. You are probably right about  some repaint (weathering?) making it even better, but I haven't had the time to consider and research that. The duller treatment of the inside in particular could benefit from that.

Lifecolor and Vallejo do really nice weathering materials. Lifecolor even do ones for different types of wood.

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ReverendSpooky wrote:Great review, and really cool piece.  I actually really like the shot from inside the ship, and while not perfect, think it actually photographs quite well, while the outer just looks inarguably fantastic.  

Also kinda love how well the screaming berserker head does double duty guzzling meed!  Perfect.

Thanks, Adam! I also think it's a great piece. And a screaming head can indeed be used for multiple purposes. Someone suggested putting it on one of the new "fat" World Box bodies and having it guzzling while barechested, but so far I don't seem to be able to fit any appropriate (period-wise) clothes on it to make it work.

If you like these reviews, check out the Hot Toys Star Wars Royal Guard one.

Rogerbee wrote:Lifecolor and Vallejo do really nice weathering materials. Lifecolor even do ones for different types of wood.

Oh I agree, but it would take some research in terms of the look I would be going for. I don't know enough about ships and boats to have it in my mind, and I'd be looking for a pitch-treated wood surface that is in better shape than what we have from archaeological excavations. So at present I am leaving it alone, but might come back to it later.

There are restored Viking ships in Norway, which I have seen first hand, though many years ago now.



Don't think this was the one I went to, but, it should give you some ideas.

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Interesting video, Roger. Thanks for posting. That burial ship is so shallow, it’d be interesting to see how much of it was above the water before they sank it.

Thanks for the Video, Roger. Those are the very ships I was referencing above. But they have been in the ground for centuries and then cleaned up, so I am not 100% certain how well we can infer from them. At any rate, the overall look and feel is remarkably similar to the piece by Coomodel, except that it is obviously shinier and newer looking. Some weathering should help, nevertheless.

Stryker -- yes, they are well known for being very low to the water along both sides (though not so much the prow which we have as the diorama piece or the stern). Remember, these particular ones weren't sunk, they were buried into the mud. I suspect that like Greek triremes they were actually too light to properly sink and be preserved on the bottom of the sea (rather they would have capsized and floated about until eventually falling apart -- but I am just guessing).

Rogerbee wrote:There are restored Viking ships in Norway, which I have seen first hand, though many years ago now.



Don't think this was the one I went to, but, it should give you some ideas.

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Me too but at the Tonsberg museum in Norway where I lived.

Great review GF! I hadn't imagined it was that big for some daft reason. Thought the sail was an actual material one, bummer it's not for that price.

shovelchop81 wrote:Me too but at the Tonsberg museum in Norway where I lived.

Great review GF! I hadn't imagined it was that big for some daft reason. Thought the sail was an actual material one, bummer it's not for that price.

You lived in the Tonsberg Museum? Just kidding, I know what you mean. Very cool, though.

Thank you, Alex. Yes, it is a good size, actually about right for what it is (the prow being taller above the water in every sense). The sail is just printed, but if you think about it, it makes sense. The mast would be so far back on the real ship, that the diorama piece would have to be much much longer than it is. As it is, we get a shortened perspective on the printed background. To be honest, I am still more shocked by the weight than the price. If you want a shocking (or at least exorbitant) price, check out my HT Star Wars Royal Guards review.

GubernatorFan wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote:Me too but at the Tonsberg museum in Norway where I lived.

Great review GF! I hadn't imagined it was that big for some daft reason. Thought the sail was an actual material one, bummer it's not for that price.

You lived in the Tonsberg Museum? Just kidding, I know what you mean. Very cool, though.

Thank you, Alex. Yes, it is a good size, actually about right for what it is (the prow being taller above the water in every sense). The sail is just printed, but if you think about it, it makes sense. The mast would be so far back on the real ship, that the diorama piece would have to be much much longer than it is. As it is, we get a shortened perspective on the printed background. To be honest, I am still more shocked by the weight than the price. If you want a shocking (or at least exorbitant) price, check out my HT Star Wars Royal Guards review.

Good point about the sail, I'd still be tempted to make a custom one though!
I'm sure your Royal Guards review is great but I'm staying away as I don't want to be tempted! I'm happy living in ignorance with my 1/6 Hasbro ones flanking one of my Emperors!

The one I went to was in Gokstad (Not even sure if that's how you spell it.).

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shovelchop81 wrote:Good point about the sail, I'd still be tempted to make a custom one though!
I'm sure your Royal Guards review is great but I'm staying away as I don't want to be tempted! I'm happy living in ignorance with my 1/6 Hasbro ones flanking one of my Emperors!

Oh, don't get me wrong. Making a real 3D mast and cloth sail would be great. But one would also have to make more of the ship. Even getting two ships (which would be expensive, though not as expensive as some other things in our hobby) would not solve this, as the entire long and low middle section would still be missing. If anyone could do this on their own, it would be you.

I have full confidence in your self restraint. Actually, with just the helmet from a parted-out set I am sure you would be able to make a figure as good or better than the HT. Did you ever get around to doing a sequel trilogy praetorian guard? I will add a photo of that to the Royal Guards review topic (I put one together from parted-out parts and some other stuff). But like I say above, if you are just going to have them as background characters, the old Hasbro ones work very decently.

Rogerbee wrote:The one I went to was in Gokstad (Not even sure if that's how you spell it.).

Gokstad is probably the best preserved, and I am pretty sure it is the first/main ship from the video (the one with the looping coil at the prow instead of an animal head -- though the coil is probably supposed to be a stylized snake).

Ah, so it is the museum I went to. I was only 11 when I went and memories are a tad vague now.

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Rogerbee wrote:Ah, so it is the museum I went to. I was only 11 when I went and memories are a tad vague now.

Sweet... no wonder you called for more weathering... you've seen the actual artefacts!

The problem with artefacts is that they are centuries old and have little resemblance to the items when they were new. When these ships were being used they were brightly painted and carefully maintained. If you want to replicate the appearance of these ships when they were in use then there should be no "weathering" or artificial aging.

shazzdan wrote:The problem with artefacts is that they are centuries old and have little resemblance to the items when they were new. When these ships were being used they were brightly painted and carefully maintained. If you want to replicate the appearance of these ships when they were in use then there should be no "weathering" or artificial aging.

Agreed. That is why I haven't taken brush and paint to it yet. I feel that if I am to do anything to it, it would have to be very subtle and not look nearly as damaged and worn out as the archaeological display. And like I said, I simply don't know exactly what a pitch-treated (if that's what it was) ship in good repair would look like. The piece looks more or less as I would expect it to.

One of the sagas said that the bottoms were treated with "seal tar" to prevent borers. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the rest of the ship, which was elaborately decorated in brightly coloured paint.

shazzdan wrote:One of the sagas said that the bottoms were treated with "seal tar" to prevent borers. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the rest of the ship, which was elaborately decorated in brightly coloured paint.

Yes, we're talking about different things -- I about the overall look of the wood, you a decorative scheme. You mean like the carved parts and the top of the "railings" along the side? And of course if you hang colorful shields along the side by the rowers (as at least imagined in popular culture) that would help. But that part of the ship is missing here.

There was no "overall look of the wood" because it was covered in bright paint. There are traces of paint on the hulls of several extant examples and we have illustrations to give us an idea of colour schemes. The entire hull was painted, not just the trim.

The entire ancient world was brightly decorated. We are used to seeing ancient statues in white marble but at the time they were garishly painted. The first image shows how they looked when dug up. The second shows how they looked when newly fashioned.

Even their metal armour was painted. A good percentage of those bronze helmets in museums were originally covered in paint. To our modern sensibilities the paint jobs were lurid and gaudy. Archaeologists have started to go back to these items and use new technologies (chemical analysis, high-intensity lamps, ultraviolet light, x-ray fluorescence) to try and find traces of paints and pigments. Here is one bronze Chalcidian helmet that was recently reanalysed and reconstructed using the new techniques.

That was pretty thorough, shazzdan, but you omitted what might be one of the most famous examples -- Caligula as King Joffrey



At any rate, while I knew about the statues (and the helmets are not a surprise, though less widely realized), the ships were a bit of a revelation. I have seen the Bayeux tapestry images (wrote a paper on them in college) but I suppose I had always subconsciously assumed that this was either a fanciful artistic flourish or an impressionistic attempt to convey the multiple layers of planks making up the hull. Moreover, these were from the mid-11th century. Do you happen to know if the Osberg and Gokstad ship hulls have been found to show any traces of paint?

I can't remember which ships had traces of paint but I can find out. I don't think it was Gokstad or Osberg. IIRC they found painted hull planks on finds of more fragmentary remains.

I see what you mean. There is a difference between modern day restoration work of what was found and what it looked like at the time. That said, there could have been some artistic license.

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Rogerbee wrote:That said, there could have been some artistic license.

Maybe if it was only one source. I've given you three independent sources that all show painted hulls.

Very true, I don't doubt they may have been painted, but, it's still hard to tell exactly what they looked like.

Take Tudor portraits, they reflected an artistic style and never truly captured the actual likeness of the person. When they did the forensic reconstruction of Richard III over his actual skull, he looked unlike any painting of him at all.

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I found 2 sites showcasing 1/6 scale viking ships for us all to admire :
patchesofpride
Viking Boat 1/6 Scale

I don't know if they are historically accurate (or if the builders knew it) but dangit - anyone who can build something like that really deserves my respect regardless as they are simply gorgeous !!

Allotropos wrote:I found 2 sites showcasing 1/6 scale viking ships for us all to admire :
patchesofpride
Viking Boat 1/6 Scale

I don't know if they are historically accurate (or if the builders knew it) but dangit - anyone who can build something like that really deserves my respect regardless as they are simply gorgeous  !!

Very very cool. It is pretty pathetic that no American museum was interested in the first one because the ship wasn't American.

Allotropos wrote:I found 2 sites showcasing 1/6 scale viking ships for us all to admire :
patchesofpride
Viking Boat 1/6 Scale

I don't know if they are historically accurate (or if the builders knew it) but dangit - anyone who can build something like that really deserves my respect regardless as they are simply gorgeous  !!

Very cool finds, Allotropos, thank you for sharing them with us! It does show how truly massive these would be in sixth scale. I agree they are gorgeous, and they do seem accurate overall. The fact one of them was shown able to float is in itself a testimony to accuracy. 1/1 scale replicas based on the famous Oseberg ship had failed to float because the modern restoration had inadvertently shortened the vessel a little bit -- only after the realization of this and compensating for it did a modern replica actually succeed (see HERE). I do have my doubts about the design of some of the shields (especially on the American version) and see shazzdan's evidence above for the painted planks, but still very cool. My Viking action figures would have loved them, for sure.

shazzdan wrote:Very very cool. It is pretty pathetic that no American museum was interested in the second one because the ship wasn't American.

I agree... and am appalled that the curators of these collections were so ignorant as to ignore Leif Eiriksson and all that. Admittedly, they tend to be modernists, and even if they were aware, they are probably dealing with limited space, and the item being offered to them was not only space-consuming but also a modern scale model rather than an actual artifact. But even so, this seems quite unfortunate.

Rather impressive!

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Thanks for the detailed review of this!

Admittedly, I normally don't even look twice at a lot of these 1/6 'Viking' figures and accessories, etc, because they look so incredibly wrong to my eyes. I have an M.A. in medieval studies, specializing in Viking and Anglo-Saxon period, and have spent a lot of time doing historical reenactment and living history in the UK and Scandinavia. I can't even watch that Vikings tv-show because the aesthetic is like the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard to me. -_-

That being said, this ship (or partial ship, I should say) is decent enough for what it is, and seems to make a very nice photography backdrop at the very least. I can actually see some uses for it, as my husband and I put on an annual Folk and Viking metal festival, and this could be a really fun prop to use with promo materials.