Rant - Gaming Models and Historical Accuracy

Usually I can keep this stuff to myself, let it burn a little and let it go. Not this time. I'm contemplating getting into SAGA along with a few other friends. I already have a fair number of vikings painted and ready to go. So what what should the next project be for them? Well a longship of course. So I'm browsing around looking for 28mm reasonable representations. Really the best bet is a Revell kit that will have to be cut down to a waterline model (not hard, annoying, but not hard) or the one by Gripping Beast, pricey but very nice. Now there is a company out there making a lasercut kit version. Initial excitement, hit the web page, huge disappointment. With so many sources available now on viking ships of all types, this one doesn't measure up. One quick search will take you straight to a museum that not only has the recovered remains of viking era ships but has actually built them as well. Not only that I think we can safely get away from building replicas of the Oseberg and Gokstad funeral ships now and work up some nice gaming models based on actual warships and trading vessels (oh my like Gripping Beast did). And for the record, for most people what I consider to be sub-par resulting from lazy research are going to just fine for most gamers. But for me there is just to much historical interest to be satisfied with something that barely looks the part. The temptation to sit down and build a longship board by board is very strong, but time is short (especially since I just started college again, fourth time is the charm) so it looks like Gripping Beast is the winner by a huge amount and I'll be sending some dollars their way when the tax refund arrives. Oh and here is the link to the museum in Denmark just in case you need to see what a viking longship probably looked like: http://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/