Gimli's Viking gets facelift after a half century standing guard
The statue was constructed 48 years ago by George Barone, a former CBC set designer
Gimli's Viking has been caged up in orange tarps this week while it undergoes a facelift 48 years in the making.
Alberta's Dinosaur Valley Studios is the company in charge of getting the Viking back in tip-top shape.
The statue, unveiled in 1967, was constructed by George Barone, a former CBC set designer, who was also responsible for the White Horse Plain statue and Boissevain's turtle.
In the time since the Viking's birth, it has weathered quite a bit, according to Dinosaur Valley Studios' President Frank Hadfield.
"Right now we've done the first stage, which is to get through [48] years of grime and grit and lichens and mould and we're cleaning that surface up so we can see all of the damage and the original colour that it had. So we can move on to the second phase, which will be the repair of the gel coat and fiberglass structure," Hadfield said.
Hadfield and three of his colleagues will be consolidating the surface of the statue, repairing the cracks, then patching the Viking's gel coat, before it is then cured and ready to be unveiled to the public.
Hadfield said one of their challenges will be to match the statues original colour, an off-white cream colour, while they're working away under an orange tarp that discolours everything underneath. Hadfield said at some point they will have to give up their controlled environment and take the tarp off for the colouring process.
"Don't worry about that, we won't give him any sort of fake-and-bake tan or anything," Hadfield joked with CBC's Radio Noon host Janet Stewart.
Initially, the company had planned to move the statue to their studio in Alberta but some roadblocks meant they had to come up with a plan B.
"We couldn't find anyone who actually knew how it was actually anchored to the ground," Hadfield said.
And so, for the statue's safety, plans changed – and now it stands under and orange canopy.
Hadfield said they have allotted two weeks for the repair and they think they will be done ahead of schedule – but there could always be setbacks.