SiriusVoyager

Welcome to MSW!

Welcome to MSW!

The first layer planking is now finished. I don't like how OcCre has you start with a random plank in the middle. There are a few gaps in there that are too thin to really fill with trimmed planks. If planking started at the edge of the bulwark or the keel it would be much easier to fill in that space with the wood. It isn't pretty, but I suppose that is why beginner models have two layers of planking (and I am glad they do). After some sanding and shaping it looks a bit better. Just a bit of wood filler to even things out for the second layer of planking.

Looks great! especially the mast and sails. Nice personal touches.

Very nice jobs on the eyelets, they look great!

That probably makes the most sense. I sort of feel like that will just cause more planks to have to be corrected as it would be difficult to place that first plank exactly in the correct spot. Thank you for those resources. I have seen the videos, but the NRG document is helpful as well. That definitely seems like a better way to plank. I’m just not sure I understand why OcCre starts in the middle rather than at one of the edges.

Welcome to MSW!

Welcome to MSW!

Welcome to MSW!

Adding more planking, starting away from the keel now. These planks needed quite a bit of bending and some beveling on the outside edges at a few of the concave bulkheads. For these two I used the soaking method as I wasn't sure how I could use the iron to get the twist in them.

I have been slowly adding the first layer planks, about 1/3 of the way done. I am glad that there are two layers because this first layer is looking rough. I forgot to bevel one of the planks, and sometimes getting the them lined up with the aft edge of the bulwark is tricky. I’m not fond of the gaps between the bulwark and the planks. It’s partially due to me and partially because the instructions start about 1/3 of the way down the hull. I asked a specific question about it here: The instructions call for using nails to hold the planks down while gluing. I didn’t like using the nails so I just went with CA glue. It has been working ok so far.

I have looked through some of the instructions on a few OcCre models. They all have the builder place the first plank part way down the hull. Why not start at the keel or the bulwark? Does anyone know what the rational for this is?

The more I look at the bulwarks less happy I am with them. I was really hoping that I wouldn't be using any wood filler on this model but here I am. My plan is to paint and weather much of it so the unsightly filler will be covered in the end. Once again for anyone that may try this in the future, I highly suggest attaching the bulwarks from the stern and working towards the bow. I was starting to worry that the cap rail may not fit properly with the angle off a bit. I dry fitted one side and it seemed like they should work out ok with some bending. Installing the stanchions had one tricky part. There is little guidance on where they actually go. I marked off their location as best I could using the plans and a ruler. Many of the stanchions in the drawing are covered by other parts so there was some guess work involved. I used a strip of paper to mark of the height of bulwark the various locations, then used that to measure out the lengths to cut the stanchions from the wood strip.

The next part of the boat is the bulwarks. From looking at other builds, this seems to be the most difficult part of the build. I can see why so many build logs seem to just end at this point. I decided to pre-bend the bulwarks in hopes of making it easier later. I soaked them just briefly in water and used an iron to apply heat while clamped to a small pot. I also placed a couple legos under the edge of one side and applied some water and an iron to try and add some twist. The instructions show two planks being placed on the bulwarks, but it didn't seem right to only have the two. It wasn't clear in the instructions but I determined from later pictures that the entire inside edge of the bulwark should be planked. Having pre-bent them, planking was a bit more challenging than it otherwise would have been. The instructions call for contact glue but I used white glue without any serious issue. I was worried about how many strips I was using, so I trimmed as I went and used the scrap whenever possible. The trimming was a bit more difficult with the bent bulwarks. I had to use the corner of the table to have a solid surface . Now for the difficult part. Attaching them. I used CA glue because white glue was going to take too long to bond. Initially I was thinking this was going to be impossible and that no amount of bending and twisting would allow them to attach. Fortunately before I glued anything I noticed that I was trying to fit them backwards. Make sure you look at the photos carefully. I tried soaking and bending the bulwarks again which helped a bit. I did start to have a problem with some bonds coming undone on some of the planking, which was easily fixed with a little CA glue. I also had one instance when the spring loaded bulwark broke off a bit of planking. There was a bit of a gap but at least it is on. I used a little wood filler to fill the hole, and will sand and re-stain later. One side on and the other started. I started by attaching amidships, then went aft, then forward. I was worried that the aft ends were going to have a gap, but they actually fit ok and needed a little bit of sanding along the edges to come together. With the bending and twisting there is only a small corner edge that is attached to the deck so I made some white glue and sawdust filler to make more of a bond. The aft end will need a bit of fine tuning to bring it all together but considering how many seemingly failed attempts there have been, I am happy that they are on. I think if I could do things again I would have started at the stern and moved forward as the bow was relatively easy. I would also consider getting some thinner basswood and making my own bulwarks that are easier to bend and shape and installing them in layers. As can be seen there is a bit of damage around the edges of the deck from the install. I will simply stain over it and leave some of the damage as part of normal the wear and tear.

Working on this build so far, I do appreciate the quality and strength of the OcCre plywood. The one downfall of it is that when it comes to doing a lot of sanding, such as faring the bulkheads and particularly faring battens, it is a lot of work. The instructions call for faring down to 2mm wide along the forward and aft ends of the spine. The area near where the screw will be located is about 7 or 8 mm wide. There was a lot of shaving involved to narrow down those extra wide areas. I didn't photograph it, but I did use a few planks and some string to see if everything looked like it would line up properly. There may be some fine tuning as I plank and add the keel and stem, but it looks like everything should line up pretty well.

Welcome to MSW!

Welcome to MSW!

Yes. Discrepancies like this have been my biggest frustration with this kit series. I just went with the predrilled holes. If I remember correctly, as I compared other builds, the predrilled holes seemed to be at a better placement than the plans. The halyard and it’s block were a little tight (which could have been my own doing), but everything else worked out ok.

Just mentioning this because I see you using Elmers school glue and I recently learned something about it. It is runnier and takes longer to dry than Elmer's glue all (I realize it is diluted for the sails now anyway) . I had been assuming they are the same thing and that the school glue part was just marketing. I wish I had known that prior to my third boat.

In regards to the previous post, the dark burnt umber acrylic stain was made with a very unscientifically measured 3 parts brown paint to 1.5 parts blue paint to 1.5 parts black paint and about equal parts water. Next time I would use just a little bit more water to thin it out just a bit more.

This update is planking the deck. The instructions say that a rapidly drying glue should be used and suggests cobblers cement. I initially used CA glue and quickly made a mistake with the plank placement (second photo). I tried to glue a small piece of scrap in there but it wasn't taking it so I left it for now. After the first plank I used white glue and occasionally used a small drop of CA glue when there was a spot that needed to be held it place. The white glue worked perfectly fine. After about a third of the way through the planking everything was going pretty well. One concern I had was the number of planks in the kit. The instructions (in later steps) use planks of the same type of wood, but different part numbers and lengths for them. It doesn't look like there is any other planking besides the deck and hull planks. I tried looking at other build logs and for unboxing videos/photos, but I only found one and it wasn't clear enough to see if they had a bundle of planks that I didn't. I favored one side of the deck to have as much usable scrap as possible. All of the deck planks on... and trimmed. I had thought about cutting the planks to the proper lengths for install, but decided to just follow the instructions and draw in the calking and nails. I wanted to do a little bit of weathering to the deck so I made a dark burnt umber stain from acrylic paint. I was a bit nervous that I would ruin the deck so I tested on a small bit of scrap. I also tested using some gray for aging, but it looked more frosty than aged. I was quite pleased with how the dark stain came out. I used the deck plans to estimate where the open areas of the deck would be and used 220 grit sand paper to make a bit of wear from foot traffic. The next step is to attach the deck to the spine. This did take a bit of tweaking to get everything lined up properly. Everything was mostly square but 2 or 3 of the tabs on the bulkhead didn't line up perfectly. I am not sure if they weren't square or if some of the bend came back to the spine. It wasn't bad enough to be a problem though as just a little bit of force on the couple of difficult bulkheads got everything to snap into place. This was another step that called for quick drying glue. I am glad I ignored that because it would have been a disaster. White glue and rubber bands with clamps worked fine. The last step for today was to add a few battens. Simple enough. I did a little bit of preshaping on a few to reduce the amount of faring in difficult spots later.

Getting started the first thing I noticed is that OcCre's plywood sheets are much tougher than the basswood I was used to from previous builds. It was very difficult to cut the pieces out using a #11 hobby knife blade. I swapped out a number #17 blade and it was much easier. I had some minor damage before switching to the new blade. Always make sure pieces are cutout well and do not try to pop them out. I did find the chiped off piece and glued it back in. After getting the spine and bulkheads removed and dechared it was time to make sure everything was symmetric and flat. For the bulkheads I traced each one out, cut out the paper trace and folded them along the center line. Anything that didn't line up mostly right would be shaped to match. Everything was very symmetrical. Anything that was slightly off I attributed to tracing/cutting errors or something that would fix itself when faring the bulkheads. As for the spine, it wasn't quite straight I didn't want to soak the plywood part because I was worried about de-laminating it. I clamped it to the edge of the table, used a brush to wet one side then used an iron to apply heat. I then repeated on the other side. I let it stay clamped down for a couple of hours and after removal it was looking quite a bit better. Dry fitting the bulkheads onto the spine, everything fit pretty well but there was a little bit of play. I'm sure removing the char inside the slots helped cause that. They squared up pretty easily and should be dry and ready to continue by morning. The structure is resting vertically in the vise because there wasn't room to grab it by the bottom of the spine.

For my fourth build after finishing the modelshipways series. I am going with the Palamos by Occre. It seems like a fairly good beginner build, I like trawlers and I managed to find it on clearance for $75. It appears that the boat isn't modeled after any particular fishing boat (at least as far as I could find) but rather is a general representation of fishing boats seen around Palamos Spain. I like the clean wood colors of the Occre model, but it looks like the real fishing boats were all painted bright colors. I am a bit torn on if I should paint the hull or leave the nice looking wood. Opening the box everything looks to be in good shape. There are 3 pages of 1/1 model scale drawings and separate instruction and photo reference booklets. There is also a paint chart that isn't photographed. I was planning on doing a parts inventory, but the way the parts list is labeled and references the instruction booklet photos, it would be quite time consuming and difficult. Upon comparing it to my previous builds, there are only a few sheets of wooden parts but all of the planking is with strips rather than laser cut strakes. All in all, it looks fairly well organized and should be a good build.

Welcome to MSW!

Everything looks so clean and precise. Nice work!