Oleg's wife Tracey asked me if I would build a model of a stone thrower to decorate his coffin. Flowers were considered a tad unsuitable for a man like Oleg, and since we had so many discussions regarding castles and seige engines, I naturally said yes. I've built a great many models with Oleg, but this was probably the hardest, though technically, it was quite easy.
The reason why it was decided to put a stone thrower on Oleg's coffin, was due to the several 'machines' Oleg had built at the annual Moesgaard Viking festival (see below). I never saw any of these engines in real life as I seldom visited Moesgaard (reenactment has never really appealled to me, and after the first few times I decided I'd seen enough of the Moesgaard festival).
The model only took three days to build, but as I was building it, I was ever aware that any previous model would have generated a great deal of Skype chatter between us, with accompanying links to images, videos on You Tube (though we called it V-Tibe due to years of complicated in-jokes). Oleg would have urged me to build a model of a full sized trebuchet (like the one in the video below), though his own creations never reached such prodigious proportions (he would have had time and resources allowed it). Maybe one day I will build such a model... but then, I've been saying that since 2006.
2 comments:
A great way to celebrate the mans life.
Yes. Better than a bunch of flowers. At his funeral, many of the Viking reenactors from his group hung a garland of small replica shields about it.
I should add that the model is about 72cm long and must be something like 1/12 scale.
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