Palamos by SiriusVoyager - OcCre - 1:45

[SiriusVoyager]

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.

 

Edited February 11 by ccoyle
deleted commercial photo stock

[SiriusVoyager]

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. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 12 by SiriusVoyager

[SiriusVoyager]

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 was 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.

 

 

 

Edited February 12 by SiriusVoyager

[SiriusVoyager]

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.

[SiriusVoyager]

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.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 18 by SiriusVoyager

[SiriusVoyager]

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.

 

Edited February 20 by SiriusVoyager

[SiriusVoyager]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20 by SiriusVoyager

[SiriusVoyager]

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. 
 

[SiriusVoyager]

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.

Edited February 26 by SiriusVoyager

[SiriusVoyager]

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.

 

 

Edited March 8 by SiriusVoyager

[SiriusVoyager]

The instructions call for attaching the second layer of planking, then attaching the false keel and rub rails.  From what I had learned from the Smack, I felt like the keel should have been installed first, then the second layer planking laid into a rabbet.  I decided to follow the instructions, but wish I had gone with my gut.  The planking was hard to lay properly, partially because of my inexperience, and partially because of the weird shape of the hull.  The stem also didn't fit properly.  I am not sure how one could expect it to fit properly installing it after the planking.  There is too much room for small errors to work there way in.  The thin sapelli strips were somewhat difficult to deal with. They are very porous and glue would soak right through making adhesion difficult at times.  It also chipped incredibility easy as can be seen in a few photos.

 

The top half of the second planking.  The planking towards the stern seemed a bit odd to plank it that way, but I went with it.  The lower edges are to be covered by a rub rail so they don't need to be perfect.

 

The second layer lining up with the keel and stem didn't end up as bad as I was expecting, but I still wish there were no gaps.  I will definitely not follow the instructions next time.  My plan the entire time was to paint the boat so a little wood filler with fill the small gaps. 

 

 

 

Most of the hull is complete.  I skipped the limber boards to attach after painting.

 

 

 

 

 

The hull painted and weathered a bit and coated a bit of shellac

 

 

 

[SiriusVoyager]

Interior bulwark painted and the cap rails installed.  I painted the cap rails prior to putting them on the bulwark, but they didn't line up right.  I will have to work on them a bit to get them to look better.

 

 

The next step is to assemble the parts that will be going on top of the deck.  The instructions call for building each piece separately, but I didn't want to do a bunch of small bits of painting here.  I jumped around to partially build a few of the pieces to paint.  For the most part I think this was a time saver as it reduced the amount of time spent doing prep work and clean up.  The one downfall, I didn't always plan well and painted over some areas that were to be glued.  Not the end of the world as a little sanding and scoring with a knife was sufficient to get good attachment. 

 

 

 

Partially planked and ready to paint

 

 

First undercoat

 

 

first blue coat

 

 

About ready to stain the next set of planking.  The taping worked well except for the fact that it let a thin line of white paint  sealed out some of the blue.  I will have to touch up at some point.  The darker planks and bare wood will be stained similar to the deck.  As I post this I realize I need to weather the wheel house.

 

 

 

[SiriusVoyager]

Most of the pieces to attach to the deck are finished.  The wheel house was difficult to photograph because it will be sitting on an up sloped deck and has a couple of tabs towards the stern that help align it into slots on the deck. There was supposed to be a tab in the very front of the wheel house, but I missed trimming that part of the deck out so I had to cut it flat.  I made an acrylic paint stain to darken up the sapelli and the lime wood.  I also did some touch up to remove some of the fine white lines from the tape.

 

 

The Trawling blades were a bit tricky because the brass bands had to be bent around, glued and then nailed into place.  Even using sand paper to rough up the inside edges, it still didn't want to bond very well.  The nails held fairly well though.  Some needed to be trimmed fairly short because of the proximity of the adjacent right angle nails.

 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 12:33 AM by SiriusVoyager

[David_T]

Hi Eric;

 

Nice to see that you choose colours inspired by the real fishing boats.   

 

Looking forward to seeing the completed model.

 

David