First of all, This is an upgrade of a toy ship I bought at a yard sale for $1.00. The first pick shows the ship as it was originally sold. It was made by Chap Mei and was part of its "Heroes Of Olympus" toyline. The second pic shows what was left of it, only the hull without a mast. And the third pic shows what I turned it into.

Step 1: Making the Mast.

To set the new mast in, I made a cardboard form that fit the mast socket, as shown in the second picture, then I chose a long wood dowel as the mast. To hold it in place I cut off sections of wood dowel to fit snugly inside the mast socket then filled it with wood glue. I then set it aside to dry for two days. The sail is made from a white sheet of flexible foam(Trade Name: Foamies.) which I used wood glue to glue to wooden dowels for the crossarms of the mast and set them aside to dry as well. I then used my mototool to drill two tiny holes through the mast to mount the sail.

While the mast was drying, I drybrushed some of the built in detailing of the ship itself. I used gold acrylic paint to bring out the details, as can be seen in both pics. On both the Bow and Stern: Very good filigree work for a plastic model. And it made it look even more striking.

Step 2: Adding the Sail.

The top hole is drilled straight down through the top of the mast. A second hole I drilled horizontally through the mast lower down. I then used wood glue and bamboo skewers to pin them together. I later trimmed the lower skewer poking out of the mast.

Step 3: Now, the LEDs.

What I wanted to go for here was that this was not an ordinary ship: Rather, it was a "Gift From The Gods" which is a common legend that can be found in many different cultures. So... I added LEDs. I had a string of five battery-powered LED lights I had bought at a local dollar store, so I used those. First, I made from posterboard a box that would sit on the deck of the ship: This was for the battery pack, The second pic shows the deck removed from the toy... The masking tape is just to show where the box would sit. I placed the box brown, then hot glued it to where it would sit on top of the pre-existing hole in the deck, so I could thread the LED string through it. There were five lights so I drilled five holes through the deck, one on each corner and one at the base of the mast. The third pic shows the underside of the deck: Four of the LEDs rise above the deck, like torches set on the deck. The fifth one was set flush with the deck so it would illuminate the sail above it. After that I reattached the deck to the ship.

Step 4: LEDs ON!

Here are pics of the ship with the LEDS on. The first pic shows the ship with room light and camera flash on. The second the room light is on and the camera flash is off. And the third is a pic with the room light off and the camera flash off.

Step 5: Now, for the Crew...

This is just for fun. This figure is of a Viking Shield Maiden custom I made recently, based on historical Vikings from History channels Vikings Tv series, instead of the stereotypic scantily clad female fantasy warriors. I'll eventually make a crew of roughly 5 or 6 figures to go with this ship, dressed like this.

Oh... And why put VIKINGS on a GREEK-style ship?: I said I was going for a "Gift From The Gods" feel about it... But I never specified which "GODS" I was referring to.