Viking Oarsmen--1:72nd scale unpainted plastic figures
$11.99

T.O.S. May 2013

Contents:  42 figures in 9 poses.
Material:  Plastic (fairly hard)
Color:  gray.
Average Height:  24mm (=1.73m)
1:72nd scale unpainted plastic figures

The Vikings were amazing seafarers. In an age when ships rarely went beyond sight of land or the relatively safe arena of the Mediterranean, the Vikings regularly crossed the wild North Sea and the equally unwelcoming North Atlantic, reaching as far as North America with open boats and navigating by the stars.  Several Viking ships have been excavated and reconstructed in modern times, and several models exist of varying accuracy.  Emhar recently produced a model of the Gokstad ship, now on display in Oslo, and this set of figures is intended primarily to provide a crew, and therefore life, to that model.

The first three figures on the top row --the oarsmen that form the bulk of this set--all have arms held out to the side in a manner the human anatomy cannot achieve, but of course this is not the intended pose. These figures are all made in the poseable plastic Emhar and others have used recently, which is extremely good at moving without having any memory.  Emhar have used this property to make rowers in one piece that only require that their arms are bent forward to produce the desire pose.  Exactly what that pose is will depend on several factors, but the rather lonely example gives you the idea.  The position of the arms will vary depending on the position in the ship (particularly whether on the starboard or port side) and on the required angle of the oar, but with these blank figures any arrangement can be achieved.