Burgundy

@Ronald-V I definitely appreciate that advice. Sometimes I get caught up in thinking that there are kits I "should" build, and almost forget that at the end of the day, it's supposed to be fun 😀 It's interesting to see the different quality kits and instructions, even with the same vendors. One kit might be very quality, yet another may be quite a bit older with poor instructions, etc. I was leaning toward Artesania Latina, but realized that it was pretty much the same as the OcCre kits. Nothing bad about OcCre, but now that I have 2 from them, the intent was to branch out a bit and learn other skills. I concluded that instead of taking my existing skillset and scaling it up (with a larger kit), I can tackle a smaller kit with high detail. Almost quantity vs. quality. -Ron

@Snug Harbor Johnny I appreciate the suggestions! Both of those kits look gorgeous. The Bluenose II came up on my radar from looking through logs. I was initially apprehensive about trying Model Shipways, but after seeing their line of American ships (I'm from the US), I was quite intrigued. They also scored very high on the poll that was taken here regarding the kit quality/etc. I appreciate your input!

@JacquesCousteau I appreciate your response. I very much enjoyed the challenge that the Golden Hind presented, and certainly want to scale up the difficulty a bit without necessarily scaling up the size of the ship. I know that a lot of that answer is dependent on what I like, and what interests me about these ships. Personally, I love warships, and love the assorted deck details that make them feel real, so perhaps realism as well. I suppose I want to harden the "baseline" shipbuilding skills in smaller forms, as opposed to taking my current skillset and scaling it up to a larger, but perhaps less realistic kit. When I first started this past February, I ordered some paints from Model Expo. I received one of the sample catalogs with the Model Shipways ships in them, and after looking at some of their instruction manuals, I felt immediately overwhelmed. Fast forward 6 or 7 months to today, and I look at those very same instructions as something that I can actually build! Your input definitely helps point me in the right direction!

Hey everyone! Relatively new wood ship modeler here, and also new to Model Ship World (just introduced myself last week). I'm another transplant from the plastic model kit world, and decided just this year to build my first wood kit. Now I have 1 3/4 kits under my belt. I finished the OcCre Polaris this year, and immediately turned around and started into the OcCre Golden Hind, which I expect to complete in a few weeks. I'm putting some thought into my next build, and wanted to get some input from the community. I've been looking through tons of build logs and forum postings to get an idea of the "trajectory" of users shipbuilding careers. I had no idea of the available kits until I found the OcCre website, and even then took months building myself up for the challenge. I considered the Polaris quite a challenge indeed, and hopefully laid the foundation for skills to come. I chose the Golden Hind for a couple reasons: I wanted the next "challenge" in line from the Polaris, and also wanted to build something old so I could experiment with some different finishes, etc. Got a good feel for deck planking, and although my hull planking turned out pretty rough, each iteration gets better. I'd like to see what the general consensus is for the next build, both in terms of overall difficulty and natural skill progression. Initially I wanted to jump into the OcCre frigate Diana, but after reading through the post here regarding jumping into frigates, I shelved that idea. Doing some more homework, I found different builds like the Vanguard models geared for Novices (Sherbourne jumps out at me), the Artesania Latina schooners (Harvey and Virginia), Model Shipways offerings (armed Virginia sloop, US Brig Syren, Rattlesnake), as well as the "Medium" difficulty ships from OcCre (Beagle, Terror). I feel that while OcCre might be the logical next step in having already built two OcCre ships, I want to ensure I'm not building bad habits, or getting used to build techniques that are maybe OcCre specific (like the planking, etc.). I also want to broaden the skill set as I go. The Golden Hind was quite a bit different challenge-wise in that the instructions were somewhat lacking in comparison to the Polaris, and forced me to think outside the box to assemble things. I love the look of the bigger ships, but don't want to fall into the trap that has been warned against repeatedly here. Anyways, apologies for the long winded ask, but certainly looking for peoples opinions, as well as your own journeys. The community here is amazing, never have I found so many awesome individuals getting together for such a fantastic purpose. Thanks!

Of course, happy to! I keep Galleries and Journals on my own website, Burgundy Models (please mods let me know if not allowed, not commercial website or selling anything, etc). Most of my background is in plastic kits, mostly Tamiya, Revell, etc. Appreciate the welcome! -Ron

Hello everyone! Relatively new here, and wanted to introduce myself. I live in Wyoming, and have been building models for some years now, but fairly new to wood ship building. I pulled the trigger on my first build this year, the OcCre Polaris, and loved it. There were some ups and downs, but was able to produce a fairly decent build. I got the bug, and after finishing the Polaris, began the OcCre Golden Hind. Also very challenging. I haven't made any build logs yet (I put updates on my website, but not sure if I can post that here), but certainly plan to eventually. Although I'm just saying hello now, I can't stress enough how awesome and useful the build logs and forum posts here are. You guys are incredible, and I'm looking forward to many years of breaking bread and talking boats. Cheers!