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Hi, Will. I have no experience with copper sheathing, so I can't help you there. One of the best ways to get mentoring is attend local club meetings. Of course, not everyone lives near a club, but you never know. Check out the list here to see if there is a club near you. Cheers!

It's the key from Bremen's coat of arms.

If you are referring specifically to the age of sail, then your generalization about generalization is largely correct. During most of that era, progress in ship design was slow and took place in tiny steps, largely limited by the technology available at the time. Countries were also quick to copy whatever worked from other countries. Thus, for example, all frigates of the late 18th century had very similar lines, carried similar armament, and had very similar fancy work. Why? 'Cause it worked. Once steam propulsion came on the scene, the evolution of ship design was much more rapid. Consider that ships-of-the line changed mainly in size only for well over 200 years, but less than 100 years elapsed between Robert Fulton's primitive North River Steamboat and Jacky Fisher's Dreadnought -- pretty incredible.

ENDURANCE by OcCre 1/70 scale MSRP €159.95 Image courtesy of OcCre All images by author except where noted. Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance scarcely needs an introduction to nautical history enthusiasts. Launched in 1912, two years later she set sail for Antarctica with Shackleton and 27 others aboard for what was intended to be a transcontinental crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole. Instead, Endurance became stuck in pack ice in January of 1915 and eventually sank the following November. In April of 1916, Shackleton and several crew members set off for South Georgia in one of Endurance’s boats. They reached the island two weeks later and crossed a mountain range to reach the island’s whaling station. A rescue party was sent to fetch Shackleton’s remaining crew. Miraculously, everyone survived. Endurance trapped in the ice. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia (public domain). Over the years, this forum has seen numerous folks pine for a kit of Endurance, and now OcCre has responded. The kit is in 1/70 scale and carries an MSRP of €159.95, which in today’s market has to be considered a bargain. I was very interested in doing this review because of the striking look of the prototype model, the fame of the subject, and the fact that the ship is not a man-of-war (hence no tedious cannon to rig) and carries a barkentine rig, which is one of my favorites. Let’s dive in, shall we? First Impressions Endurance was shipped by FedEx Economy and made the trip from Spain to South Carolina in one week. I was a bit alarmed to see that the exterior shipping box had one corner completely stove in – it had obviously been dropped from some height and landed directly on that corner. Opening the box revealed that the kit had been shipped sans packing material, which is not the greatest way to do business, IMO. However, the kit box was not damaged during transit, despite the smashed corner. I’ve never built an OcCre kit before, nor even seen one in person, but I liked the look of the kit box, with a nice shot of the prototype model and a window through which one can see the fittings box. On closer inspection, I discovered that the “box art” is actually a printed sheet that is glued to a generic box cover. I suspect that this is why OcCre kits aren’t built to any standard scale; like the old “yellow box” kits from Model Shipways, OcCre kits are probably built to whatever scale will allow the kit to fit into a standard-sized box – 1/70 scale in this case. Opening the box revealed that although some of the contents could slide around a bit, they had been taped, shrink-wrapped, and compartmentalized in such a way that any potential for damage was really rather slight. Paper Stuff: Plans and Instructions Someone unfamiliar with OcCre might initially be alarmed upon reading the instructions – there essentially aren’t any, at least not in written form. Apart from a single paragraph about what to do before starting assembly, the written instructions consist of one sheet (in a choice of languages). (Apologies for the purplish tint -- I'm limited by the capabilities of my photography equipment.) But have no fear! What the kit lacks in written instructions, it more than makes up for in photo instructions. And in addition, OcCre provides a series of online video tutorials for the kit, which you can preview here. Let’s look at some examples from the photo instructions. BTW, the instructions, as well as the drawings, are bound with only a couple of staples. It’s not high-quality binding, but it does allow everything to easily be laid flat by simply removing the staples. Here you can see that the photo instructions are very detailed; no step is left uncovered. You can also see that the construction method is typical plank-on-bulkhead, but there are some nice touches. The deck is planked in such a way that small slots are left on the underside; these fit over the ears on each bulkhead, so that the entire structure is strengthened and locked in place. The directions for planking present a Mastini-like simplified method, which can be forgiven considering that the hull is intended to be painted. Of note on this sheet is the kit’s method for dealing with the ship’s round stern; it is built up bread-and-butter style and sanded to the correct shape. Apart from decking and planking, nearly all of the ship’s upper works are built from laser-cut parts, rather like a large jigsaw puzzle. I believe that this, along with the simple rig and lack of armament, makes the kit doable for an intermediate builder. A last shot of the hull instructions, mainly to show the construction of the chainplates, which, surprisingly, are made from brown rigging cord. Drawings The kit includes a complete set of 1:1 masting and spar drawings, as well as a 1:1 set of sail drawings. The instructions for rigging consist of a separate set of drawings. Fine points of mast and spar construction are covered, with different drawings depicting standing rigging, running rigging, and belaying plan. Finally, the paper bits include a parts list, a key to the parts billets, and a color code for use with Vallejo paints and OcCre stains. Parts The various parts billets come in a shrink-wrapped bundle and consist of parts cut from walnut, plywood, or MDF. All of the billets arrived perfectly flat, the wood is of good quality, and the laser-cutting is very well done, with fine, sharp lines and minimal reverse-side charring. The walnut sheet includes parts for a display cradle. The shrink-wrapped bundle includes an etched brass sheet that includes ladders, recessed door panels, trailboards, and ship’s name. Two bundles of good-quality strip wood and one of strip wood and dowels are included; the strips are nicely dimensioned and free of fuzzy edges, and the dowels are straight. Fittings A single, compartmented plastic box contains the fittings. The box was taped to prevent its contents from spilling during shipment. The largest compartment contains a fret of PE brass parts, three spools of 0.50 mm brown cord, various diameters of brass wire, a flag, a sheet of acetate for glazing windows, and cast metal davits, anchors, and stocks. The castings are free of flash. Other wood or metal fittings include cast metal bollards, fairleads, cowl vents, rudder hardware, binnacles, ship’s wheel, propeller, wood and metal capstan and windlass parts, and brass chain. Again, the castings are of good quality. The rest of the fittings box is filled with garden-variety wood and metal parts: blocks, deadeyes, mast hoops, belaying pins, eyebolts, nails, etc. Finally, a sealed envelope contains the remaining seven spools of rigging cord (one brown, six tan), which I was surprised to discover were all of the same diameter (0.15 mm), and a full suit of pre-sewn sails. The sails have the usual sort of heavy seam stitching typically found on such items. I don’t particularly like them and would probably opt to replace them, but for someone not inclined to put in that sort of effort, they will certainly suffice. Overall Impressions The new OcCre Endurance is not what one would call a great kit, but it is by no means a bad kit either. OcCre have economized here and there, as evidenced by such things as off-the-shelf fittings, providing only two diameters of rigging cord, and supplying less-than-convincing pre-sewn sails. Cost-cutting measures such as these succeed in making the kit affordable -- after all, top-end kits usually fetch top dollar – or Euro – don’t they? In other respects the kit is quite good, e.g. the thorough photo instructions, good quality wood, and excellent laser cutting. As I said earlier, I believe this kit can be built by an intermediate builder, and it will undoubtedly produce a nice-looking model right out of the box. However, with a bit of extra research and some kit-bashing, I have no doubt that the kit could form the basis for quite an excellent model. For the price and for the generally good quality (not to mention the unique subject), if not for the level of detail, the OcCre Endurance can be recommended to any interested builder. Image courtesy of OcCre Image courtesy of OcCre Thanks go to OcCre for sending out this review example. Endurance may be purchased directly from OcCre or from one of their regional distributors.

As far as I know, it does (the box carries both the Disney and POTC logos). The only others I know of are the kits from Revell and Hachette ... and Legos, of course. All of the Chinese kits, e.g. ZHL, are unlicensed and therefore in violation of most everyone's IP laws (including Chinese IP law).

Yes! Boats are welcome. If you look through the build logs, you will see many examples of smallcraft.

Hey, Al. I'm very fond of pre-Dreadnoughts, so I will watch this with interest. I added a little substance to your title so that folks won't be confuzzled about what a "dlog" is. Cheers!

1:250 Destroyer Escort USS ENGLAND (DE-635) HMV Available from Fentens Papermodels €24.99 Photo courtesy of Fentens Papermodels (All photos by the author except where noted.) Fresh off the presses from Hamburger Modellbaubogen Verlag (HMV) comes the Buckley-class destroyer escort USS ENGLAND (DE-635), famous in the annals of anti-submarine warfare for her unmatched feat of sinking six Japanese submarines in the span of only twelve days in May of 1944. You can read more about her exploits here, including how she survived a kamikaze strike in 1945. Public domain photo courtesy of Wikipedia Designed by Darius Lipinski, this exciting new release from HMV is in their usual scale of 1/250 and produces a model 372 mm in length (14.6 in.). The first thing one notices is the striking packaging -- the kit comes in booklet form, the cover shows several views of the completed prototype model, and the back cover features a montage of other HMV kit covers. You might also notice several interesting numbers -- the parts count on this one is a hefty 1567 (up to 1875 if all optional parts are used) printed on 11 sheets. England is printed in 1944's Measure 21 uniform dark blue-grey. The printing is sharp with excellent registration. A lot of parts in this kit end up visible on two sides, and these parts are all given reverse-side printing. A nice touch on this and other newer HMV kits is that the fold lines are no longer printed directly on the parts but rather adjacent to them. The instructions consist of a whopping 28 diagrams that cover every facet of construction. A brief introduction on how to interpret the symbols used on the diagrams is included in six languages: German, English, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian. Parts marked "A" can be replaced or enhanced with alternative parts that raise the level of detail. Parts marked "L" can be replaced with optional laser-cut details. A departure from previous HMV kits is that the "egg crate" hull construction has been significantly beefed up, with many more transverse bulkheads added and some parts doubled for additional strength (as indicated by a block-style "=" sign). The internal formers also do not include the typical gluing tabs that are normally used for attaching the hull sides. Overall, this method is more in line with that used by most Eastern European publishers, and I anticipate that this will make for easier hull construction and a more rigid substructure. As you can see, this is an incredibly detailed kit with a lot of very small parts, making this kit deserving of its schwierig (difficult) rating. Potential builders should definitely have a few completed card models under their belts before attempting this project. One way to simplify construction is to invest in the optional laser-cut detail set. This €29.99 option includes five frets of parts, including railings, ladders, davits, and other small parts. Replacing the railings and the multitude of "fiddly bits" with parts from the laser-cut set eliminates the tedium of cutting those delicate parts out and improves the finished look of the model. Personally, I feel that the time savings and the inherent neatness of the laser-cut parts makes them well worth the additional cost. The level of detail of this model, coupled with the fantastic appearance of the finished product, show again why HMV are considered a top-shelf card model publisher. But despite the kit's complexity, it is apparent that HMV have taken pains to ensure that a reasonably skilled builder is given every possible advantage toward finishing a very impressive, medium-sized model. The kit's wealth of detail and great choice of subject will no doubt make this kit a big seller. This author hopes that HMV will soon follow this design up with additional small warship subjects. If they do, we'll be sure to let you know! Thanks go to Fentens Papermodels for providing this review copy, which was securely packed to survive the journey across the pond and arrived in excellent condition. To purchase, visit the Fentens Papermodels website via the link at the top of this post -- they have a lot of really neat models in stock. If you place an order, be sure to tell them that Model Ship World sent you! Photo courtesy of Fentens Papermodels Photo courtesy of Fentens Papermodels Photo courtesy of Fentens Papermodels Photo courtesy of Fentens Papermodels

Just be aware that the laser set does not include the base model, so the kit and detail set together come to €21.98 -- still a far cry from any plastic kit and its associated PE upgrades.

Okay, I will edit the title for you. Enjoy your project!

1:250 Steam Harbor Tug WARATAH 1902 HMV Available from Fentens Papermodels €8.99 Photo courtesy of HMV (All photos by the author except where noted.) The steam tug Waratah was built in 1902 for service in Sydney Harbor, Australia. She is presently part of the Sydney Heritage Fleet and is used for harbor excursions. You can read more of her history at the Sydney Heritage Fleet website. Fresh off the presses and designed by Carsten Horn, Hamburger Modellbaubogen Verlag (HMV) now offer this eye-pleasing vessel as a card model in their usual 1/250 scale. At that scale, the finished model is a mere 133 mm in length (5.23 in.), which may not seem all that small until the kit is actually seen in person! The kit consists of only 246 parts on two sheets, but because of the many tiny pieces, the kit is marked schwierig (difficult), so some prior experience in card modeling is desirable. The printing is up to the usual high standards of HMV, with sharp colors, excellent registration, and a good amount of detail. Reverse-side printing has been done on parts that will be visible on two sides. Parts marked with an "A" indicate alternate parts to provide additional detail, such as doubling doors. An "L" indicates that the part can be replaced with an optional laser-cut piece (available separately). Longtime builders of HMV models will notice that fold lines, which used to be printed right on the part to be folded, are now printed adjacent to the part instead, which is a nice improvement. Directions for construction consist in the main of a series of 13 diagrams. A very brief description of how to interpret the various markings on the diagrams is provided in six languages (German, English, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian). The diagrams appear to be very thorough; part numbers are plainly marked, and alternate and laser-cut optional parts are indicated as well. Also included is a rigging diagram, which, for such a small model, is thankfully very simple. The hull is built in HMV's usual "egg-crate" style, based on a longitudinal hull profile piece and a number of transverse bulkheads. Hull sides are attached to tabs that fold up or down from the base plate and deck. With an MSRP of only €8.99, this nice little model won't make a big dent in anyone's budget. The laser-cut detail set, at €12.99, costs a bit more, but in my opinion it is money well-spent, since the set includes nearly all of the "fiddly bits" pre-cut in colored card stock. This spares the modeler a lot of time and nerve-wracking effort spent cutting out tiny and delicate parts, and also greatly enhances the look of the finished model. Waratah's detail set includes a whopping 11 frets of variously-colored parts. With or without the detail set, Waratah should build into a very detailed and attractive small model, one that satisfactorily captures the certain elegance that workboats of a bygone era possessed. This kit is thus a welcome addition to HMV's fleet of civilian vessels. Thanks are due to Fentens Papermodels for sending out this review example. If you enjoyed this review, you can show your appreciation to Fentens by visiting their website. If you make a purchase, be sure to mention that Model Ship World sent you! Photo courtesy of Fentens Papermodels

True, Harvey is fictitious, but the type is not. There's lots of info available on Baltimore clippers, so detail her as much as you like, then give her a name that means something to you -- like the name of your oldest, who graciously made way for your work area! Have fun!

Is this your AL Virginia kit?

Properly cared for, i.e. cased, to protect against dust and insects, a card model should prove to be as durable as a wooden model (after all, card is wood). The biggest threat to a card model is over-exposure to light, which may fade some inks.

Hold my (root)beer...

Ah -- I hadn't realized that U-534 was also a museum ship. I just assumed it's present location was somewhere on the bottom of the Atlantic. I learned something today.

U-505 is a Type IXC boat, while U-534 (launched over a year later) was a slightly larger Type IXC/40. Beyond that, I do not what the differences are, but that should get you started.

Hi, Bill. I took the liberty of removing your email address from your post; otherwise, you would be a target for unsolicited spam generated by web crawlers. Members can contact you through our private messaging system. I'm not sure what you mean by "anything you might have." MSW does not sell model kits, though our members may advertise them in our traders and dealers section. If you are new to wooden models, I suggest taking some time to browse around our site. Check out some of the clickable links to our site sponsors (home page, right-hand side), some of whom are kit vendors. Also search or browse through the kit build logs and look for titles that have the words "first build" in them -- that will give you a good idea of what other first-time modelers are building. Bear in mind that modeling in wood is a different ballgame than working in plastic, so it pays to start simple. Hope this helps a bit.

No real 'bibles' of ship modeling that I know about, but there's plenty of good books out there. I enjoyed Frank Mastini's Ship Modeling Simplified when I was a beginner -- it gives a food overview of the building process. Check your local library -- they often have a smattering of ship modeling books on hand.

I think you failed the "convey the idea" mission, 'cause to me those look like exact replicas! 😲😉 Edit: Just for fun, here's something that, in my mind, "conveys the idea" of a Sea Fury, albeit perhaps not very well. Your model, OTOH, looks like a proper miniature Sea Fury!

Stump masts is certainly an option. One thing I would caution about, based on my own experience, is building two models of the same subject. Once I build something a first time, I have essentially zero interest in building it again. Something to think about before making a big time investment in a kit that's not really the kit you want to build.

Um ... I'm not sure how one would do that. A kit is designed to go together a certain way. The only way I can think of to 'simplify' something like Vasa would be to leave off the ornamentation (in which case it wouldn't be a good likeness of the original). Or get a simpler kit, e.g. something in plastic.

BTW, if anyone wants to drool over some nice hand tools, check out https://www.woodcraft.com/pages/japan-woodworker.

Great work, and I really like the display. Always a treat to see a finished model from one of the lesser-known manufacturers as well. Cheers!

Hi, Ekis. I didn't respond earlier because I am now in South Carolina, so not close enough to be of much help. Two other options you might try are contacting the Ship Modelers Association (Fullerton) and the CIMM Ship Model Guild (Oxnard). One or the other of these clubs might have a member interested in doing the work. Hope that helps.