brunnels

Having done both an Occre kit and in the middle of a Vanguard kit, my recommendation would be to go with Vanguard. I found the Occre youtube videos not as helpful as I would have thought with the builder in the videos often doing steps differently than the instructions and other steps barely being shown enough to even help, and you almost need to rely on their videos some because their paper instructions are pretty poor in my experience. Vanguards instructions have been incredibly good, with very detailed pictures and the written instructions were very clear and detailed. Vanguards kit designs are also much more beginner friendly with many laser cut pieces that fit easily together, have tons of detail, and were designed for that specific vessel. Occre will have much fewer pre-cut parts, will offer less detail, and many of the parts will probably be designed to be used for several of their kits and won't quite be to scale or have quite the same amount of detail. Also of note, my Occre kit was lacking in material in quite a few areas, I had to purchase more materials on several stages of the build. As @ccoyle said, I would highly recommend getting the vessel that has more interest to you first, but I would look at some build logs for each kit and look at the details of the end results to see what you would prefer to have as an end result.

It's been a week since my last update. I have been working hard on the stern of the ship and decided it would be best to save all the images for one post. Column Decorations. I started by painting these with a base of Ochre Brown, then painted the raised portions with Ochre yellow. Next I started on the resin stern decoration piece. Sadly I got so focused while painting this piece I forgot to take pics of the steps. I started with blue as the base for the piece. I then painted all the raised portions with a base of Ochre Brown. I then started slowly painting the details with a very fine 000 brush using Yellow Ochre, followed with tons of touchups of all the colors. Once I was happy with the shading and highlights, I applied a Varnish followed with a light wash using Vallejo Umber wash, and then wiping away the excess wash. End result glued on the ship. On the QG's, I painted and installed the PE shingles. Then I started on the upper fretwork pieces. I painted the infill's blue, and installed. I really regret how I dealt with the fretwork piece, after doing mine I looked at some logs to see how others handled this piece, and I think many others did a much better job with this piece by cutting the rail on the hull instead of the fret piece. I really wish I would have gone that route as it looks much better than the route I went. But that will just be another mistake I always have to glare at. Next I painted and glued in place the two Eagle Decoration pieces, and the small decoration piece that goes above the windows in the red painted area. I was expecting the thin PE decoration to be hard to deal with, but to my surprise the piece actually behaved and went on pretty smoothly. Next, was finishing the Quarter Galleries decorations. The piece below the windows was pretty straight forward. Upon looking at the actual Sphinx plans I purchased, I noticed that the lower counter decoration appeared to be a carving. I have no idea what is correct, but in my mind if there was an intricate carving then they probably wouldn't have just painted it black to match the gunwale. So I repainted the lower counter in blue. I then added the lower counter carving PE pieces. I am happy with the decision to switch to blue, it really looks sharp and helps take the eye away from that ugly upper fretwork piece I hacked up. Lastly on the stern I added the name which took a really long time as the small letters are really hard to handle, followed by the two decorations next to the name. Here are a couple more photos of the mostly completed stern. I want to give a small review of this primer. I have always had trouble getting paint to stick to PE, no matter what I tried. This go around I have tried "Mr. Metal Primer-R", and this stuff works great, I have had no trouble getting acrylics to stick to PE after using this stuff. Only complaint is it seems kind of hard to find in the USA. While I was waiting for paint to dry on the stern I was working on other things as well. Gangway steps. I found it was easier to first glue on the lower piece of the step to the hull and then go back and add on the top pieces rather than assembling off the hull and then gluing on as one piece. Steps painted to match. Next I skipped forward a bit and started on the hatch covers by removing char and gluing. I also glued together the ladders. I really like these Vanguard ladders, they are pretty easy to put together, and look great once assembled. Way better than the crappy PE ladders that came with my Occre Beagle kit. Lastly I have started on the rudder straps that go on the hull. I am going to run out of nails that came with the kit, so I am going to have to figure something out for the other side.

Wow, that's some beautiful planking.

Beautiful model, I really enjoyed your log.

I have gone back and forth a couple times on whether to paint the lower counter black or leave natural, and at the moment my decision is to leave natural. I believe this is the sketch the painting was based off of.

Rudder. Nothing about this part is hard to put together, but it was one of those parts that just wanted to give me trouble. I lost the two smallest pintle straps that sit on the highest position on the rudder, not a huge deal as they are at least the smallest of the pintle straps and can easily be imitated with some paint. I then broke 3 micro drill bits in the rudder, 1 from cleaning wood glue out of the pre drilled holes, and two drilling out holes for the pieces that connect the rudder to the stern post. I need to find some quality micro drill bits, because what I have seem to break just from looking at them. Lastly when gluing the rudder to the hull I was applying pressure to push it into place and the rudder took a sudden turn sideways from the pressure and broke off the horizontal post (tiller?) that goes into the hull and that piece is now somewhere inside the ships hull. Last step to complete are the straps that bolt into the ships hull. Next I switched my attention to the stern of the ship starting with the windows. A big inspiration of what I want to go for is the painting of the British fleet during the Penobscot Expedition by Dominic Serres. This is one of my favorite naval paintings, I love how the sterns of the ships are represented, your eyes are just immediately drawn to them. Plus two of the Sphinx's sister ships, Camilla, and Galatea were present at the action depicted in the painting, so I thought it would be an appropriate painting to take inspiration from. My other goal is to use colors other than gold paint. Luckily @Blue Ensign pretty much already achieved a really good representation of what I am going for using shades of Ochre, so I am going to take a lot of inspiration from him as I feel his stern colors are a perfect fit for matching Dominic Serres Penobscot painting. I started with fitting the windows into place using a file, and then gluing them in place with Kristal Klear glue. Next I painted the window frames with Vallejo Brown Ochre, these were then glued to the windows. And here is what the ship looks like as of now.

Fantastic kit so far. Showing below deck really puts in perspective how tight the quarters were for 120ish men, they must have had to push a couple men in hammocks around just to open a door below deck.

Last bit of work on the bow for now, the V Frame decoration patterns. Another very fragile piece to work with.

This morning I started work on the head of the ship. V frame brackets and head platform patterns Glued, painted, and varnished. Platform and frame glued in place Next I started on the delicate scroll trim pieces. First step was char removal, slow and steady strokes on these fragile pieces. The kit does provide extras incase you break any pieces. I then varnished the pieces so paint would apply smoothly in the middle. Once the varnish was dry I applied paint to the middle, and once that was dry I lightly sanded off any paint that got on the outside parts of the pieces. I then glued the pieces in place. I next started work on the bow cheeks, and Hawse bolsters. My goal was to paint the cheeks blue with paint removed to match the trim pieces already installed. Next the Hawse boosters were rounded down, and glued in place along with the upper rails that route in-between the v brackets.

Thanks. I agree its amazing how much difference some rails and channels make. I love the process after completing the main hull structure, it's a bunch of smaller detail parts that really change how the ship appears and really brings the model to life.

Finished up installing the railings on the outer hull. Next was the fenders and chess tree pieces. I then applied WOP to seal and complete the outer railings. While the rudder patterns were gluing together, I decided to next start on the channels. I wasn't planning on leaving the channels in the natural color, but black channels just didn't look good with the light blue color I was using, and after looking at quite a few contemporary models I was inspired to try out the channels with only a couple coats of varnish and I am very happy with the result. Channels ready to be installed. Char removed, sanded, varnished, and pins installed. Channels for main mast. All channels glued on. Next were the channel knees. I removed the char, sanded, and after they were glued on I applied varnish. And here is how she currently sits. My next tasks are finishing the rudder, then starting work on the head of the ship.

Starting on the waist railings. Started off soaking the front patterns for 20 minutes and then clamped to the hull overnight to dry. I then spent the next night filing the char off of these fragile little buggers. I snapped a couple pieces, but I eventually found a small file that made really quick work of the laser char without putting too much pressure on the fragile parts. Once the front pieces had their char removed, I glued them on with PVA glue, and started the char removal on the next set. I have the front and middle waist rail pieces glued, and should be able to get the rear patterns glued on next session.

Looks like the start to a great kit, can't wait to see the progress.

Your planking looks fantastic.

I wasn't able to work on the Sphinx as much as I would have liked last week. Last Tuesday night we had a nasty thunderstorm blow through with some very high speed straight line winds that came with it. The high speed winds blew over many trees and powerlines and as a result a large portion of the city including our home was without power for several days. Being without power is a pain, but is a serious pain when the heat index is 115f (46.1 celsius). After a couple of very uncomfortable nights our power returned, and we were able to cool down the house. I now have much more respect for my grandparents and predecessors who lived through this summer heat on a daily basis before air conditioning, they were tough as nails. Anyway, back to the Sphinx. Before I lost power I had started the process of adding filler to the hull and sanding down to prep for the white paint on the hull. I then started to apply a couple layers of paint and then go back and add more filler and sand where needed. I did the process 3 times before I was satisfied with the result. I used Vallejo Off White for the hull color. Once I was happy with the paint, I applied 3 coats of WOP lightly sanding between each coat. Next I wanted to finish the quarter galleys. The last step was the lower molding. These pieces are created by gluing 3 laser cut pieces together and then shaping with a sanding block to get the result. I filled the gaps with some filler, and then painted the moldings black to match the gunwale. Now time for a little paint. Whenever I see paint colors on build logs I really like I note the color and typically order it. I then painted a sample of all the colors I liked and then chose my favorite. My favorite of my choices was Vallejo Blue Gray, It has a really nice muted tone from the gray, and a great looking light blue tone that I think will match up with the ochre color decorations that will eventually go on top. A close second choice was Tamiya XF18 Med Blue, it was just a tad darker than what I had envisioned for this model, but I will probably use it on a future kit. The red is Vallejo Flat Red.

I would say you still have time, I actually just touched mine up when I painted the quarter galleys.

More work done on the Quarter Galleys. Before I closed up the Galleys I painted them with Vallejo Ivory White to match the great cabin. I also created the captains Seat of Ease using a 4x4 piece of lime with some leftover .8mm pear on top, and a hole drilled into both. Next I started to close up the Galleys with the window frame pieces. Next were the outer window frame piece, and the lower counter piece. A bit of sanding of the custom frame pieces I made was required to get the counter piece to sit flush to match the window frame. I then added the upper roof piece. This piece is intentionally oversized for fit, so it needed quite a bit of sanding to get the proper slant and to fit flush with the window frame piece below it. I then repeated the same process for the port side.

I was also nervous when starting them, and I used way more nails than I was expecting to keep it flat against the hull. But knowing the piece was being painted gave me relief as paint can cover up a lot of ugliness.

My next step was tackling the gunwales. While the gunwales were pinned for 24 hours to retain the correct shape, I started to work on the stern. I started with the inner lower counter piece glued with PVA. Next up was the upper inner stern piece. The next morning the gunwales had properly dried to retain their shape around the bow. I glued the gunwales using PVA, and a ton of nails. I wasn't expecting to have to use so many nails, but the piece just didn't want to lay flat on its own. No worries though as the piece is being painted, so I could fill any nail holes. While the glue on the gunwales was drying I decided to glue on the outer stern piece. The inner stern piece was a very thin piece of wood, and I kept accidently brushing it while working on the model and I was afraid I was going to snap off part of the piece. So I decided to skip ahead a few steps in the instructions and glue on the thicker outer piece to offer a little more protection against my clumsiness. I then added the outer piece for the lower stern. Once the gunwales glue had dried, it was time to tape up the hull and add some paint. I'm using regular Vallejo Black. Now time to tackle the Quarter Galleys. Since I opened up the doors this was going to requite a bit of custom work. Taking some insperation from @Blue Ensign and adjusting the parts as I felt best worked I decided to take a piece of lime wood and copy the outer curve of the MDF kit piece, and then cut it down so it was about 2mm wide. After checking the location of where the piece needed to sit a large number of times, I then glued the piece under the template piece. I then repeated the process for the two pieces below. My next step is to make a floor board, seat of ease for one side, and then add some paint before closing up the galleys with the windows.

I ordered a kit from them a few months back. They were really slow to ship the item out, but I received everything and their prices were very good.

I have finished laying down the second layer of pear planks. Just need to add some filler below the water line and then sand the hull smooth. It's not perfect, and definitely not up to par with most on this forum, but being only my second kit to build I am very happy with how it turned out.

I'm guessing it's the Santa Maria.

Weekend catch up post. This last weekend my plan was to get a start on the second layer of planking. So Friday night I glued on the llower pear laser cut pieces so I could get a good start on planking on saturday. Saturday morning came very early, my dog is in her twilight years and doesn't have full mobility, so if she is up at the crack of dawn that means I have to be up at the crack of dawn, which is fine unless I'm wanting to sleep in on the weekend. Not a problem though, as besides changing the oil in my truck I had my schedule cleared for the day so I could get some good progress on the second layer of planking. So waking up early just meant I had the opportunity to get more work done. So with an audience comfortable on the office couch, I got a nice early start on the second layer. Two rows of laser cut pear strips start off the 2nd layer, followed by two rows of full length strips un-tapered. I then started tapering at the bow, I also cut the strips in half to make it easier to work with as I will be painting the hull white so I'm not concerned about the layout of the boards. Also I had to add some thin limewood strips I had to the deadwood area as it was a little too thin for the planks to meet up at the stern post evenly. @mugje Gave me a heads up on this issue earlier, and he was correct. Here is where I left off at the end of the day sunday. The pear is very easy to work with, and the 2nd layer is actually going much smoother than I expected. Figuring out how the boards should lay down at the stern is the most time consuming part, but now that I am about 2/3rd's the way finished the boards are laying down flat at the stern progress is picking up much more quickly. The other side has a few rows less put down, but progress isn't that much further behind. Probably a few more nights of planking and then a couple more of sanding and cleaning up a few spots.

I have been pretty bad at remembering to take photos the last few days, but I have been making some progress. I spent a day sanding and filling the hull. After that was completed I glued on the keel, and stern and rudder post. Once those were dry I glued on the laser cut coverings for the keel and stern post. While the glue set on those pieces, I brushed on diluted glue and started on the port side laser cut pear pieces. After the keel pieces had set and I had some more clamps freed up I glued on the starboard laser cut pear pieces. I'm glad I invested in more clamps.

Finished putting the boards down for the first layer. A few gaps that need some filler, and a few bumps that will need to be smoothed out, but I'm happy with the result. I decided to not plank some of the deadwood area on the first layer as it will need to be sanded down to 0mm per the instructions anyway, I have seen a few others go this route on various models and decided to try this method. While the PVA glue was drying for the final planks, I decided to start wet forming the pear laser cut patterns for the out hull. While these won't be used for a few more steps, I wanted to give them ample time to dry in position over the next day. Question for the experts. I have been thumbing through the instructions and it doesn't look like these slots in the stern frames are utilized, is this assumption correct? I just want to make sure I haven't missed anything as it looks like the stern fascia pieces will cover them.