Slowhand

Your stairs could be signatures of your builds, never seen them before , but really cool

Been a while since my last post as I've had a few hiccups The last 1 cm of the false port bulwark came adrift just after I'd attached the starboard so I decided to redo end gluing of both as it would be a pain if they came apart later on. Decided to attach the two lower ply bulkheads first to give additional purchases for the upper two which had caused the problems. Later Join Together the upper two and quite pleased with results. Found the ply bits needed quite a bit of shaping to get them to fit. I like the Occre way of working doing the structural stuff and the fine decorative planking together rather than the structural stuff all together. Now doing the 1st planking layer, one of my favourite tasks, both easy and satisfying to see the hull grow. Doing the upper sides first to give strength to the ply bits. Spot the song title in the post

Hi Augustus Never thought of using bread and butter for making a model of a historic sailing ship. It looks to be a fantastic build, where did you get the plans for the San Martin from and what wood are you using for the bread of the hull?. Will follow your progress with interest. Steve

Decided to plank the bulkheads instead of staining them as the instructions said. Stained underside of decks. Glad I did it although waited for extra wood. 2nd photo taken before using Amati plank bender on next bulkhead, left hand end.to get it to fit. Dunno why photo came out upside down Other bulkheads nearly ready to fit - must remember to shave frames before fitting. Taking my time.

Hi Etcher All build logs of Occre models I've seen, do planking of decks before fitting. It worked okay for me. Not come across on it on Corel models I've done. Steve

Well here goes, my first build log. The San Martin was the flagship of the King Phillip II 's commander the Duke of Medina Sidonia and is frequently mentioned in "The Defeat of the Spanish Armada" by Garrett Mattingly. It survived the battles and voyage and finally reached Santander after sailing around the north of Scotland and Ireland. An earlier incomplete build log of this model , with several photographs of the parts in box is shown in San Martin by Volkerbo - Occre - scale 1: 90 so I won't repeat. This is my first Occre kit and so far compares favourably with Corel efforts quality wise. The frames and false keel went together easily with only a little easing and first picture shows three of the decks planked, although only the main deck is glued in place which needed clamping it was straight whilst it lies curved. The planks were lightly sanded and given one coat of Danish oil and tree nails added in pencil. For this build I intend to sand, coat with one coat of Danish oil and rub in beeswax at the end. Noted a few oddities in the instructions already, one of which suggests bulkheads planked vertically with mahogany. Never seen this before so will plank horizontally as in many build logs. Also suggested this planking is done before the decks are added which I think would have needed trimming the planked decks. So will fit the decks and then plank the bulk heads. The only bashing I intend to do is to cut out more gun ports to replace the metal stick on castings. Will try the method used in Half Moon using stub cannons glued into a block fixed to the bulkheads. Aim is for the cannon barrels to protrude from dark shadowy gun ports. If I can't get the planking right around the ports or the effect doesn't look good can always debash the kit. Now for the fun, I have a decent camera but struggling to get a good lighting and spot in the house. All comments welcome and I hope its of interest to the members, signing off for now. Steve