Occre Polaris Build Log

Kedennis · Tuesday at 7:34 PM

Well, after a couple years of my life being turned upside down, I decided to try this again. Wasn't going to post, but figured, why not. Got a new kit as my beagle kit was lost. Opted for the Occre Polaris for it's relative "simplicity". Also designed and 3D printed a new and better balsa chopper table for when I get to the decking and what not. Got the skeleton and deck together. Now getting ready to fair the frame. Got a battery dremel, some wood rasps and a sanding block with several different grits of paper. Gonna take my time and try to get the frame as straight and flush as I can. Here goes nothing....

KAYA61 · Wednesday at 8:36 AM

It's great that you're starting again. I'll be eagerly following your built log.

Kedennis · Wednesday at 8:17 PM

Couple hours sanding the now and it's pretty close. Stakes seem to sit flush touching all the spars. Now to figure out how to shape the stern. Not quite as straight forward.

DennisP · Thursday at 2:48 AM

Good luck and welcome to the forum. The Polaris was my first model to try eighteen months ago and gave me some challenges with lots of mistakes. There was lots of helpful advice from the folks on here. I did post pics on here so people could see my mistakes, but everyone makes them.

Kedennis · Saturday at 9:39 AM

Starting to plank the deck. Taking advantage of my personally designed and 3D printed balsa cutter. Can cut five planks at a time. Get 30 planks in about 45 seconds. Should save some time cutting wise.

DennisP · Saturday at 9:58 AM

Kedennis said:
Starting to plank the deck. Taking advantage of my personally designed and 3D printed balsa cutter. Can cut five planks at a time. Get 30 planks in about 45 seconds. Should save some time cutting wise.

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Ok, nice work, but how are you going to do the nails in the planks ?
I just followed the instructions and did two pencil marks at each end of the plank

Kedennis · Saturday at 10:19 AM

Same, but using this pen. .25mm

mberg · Saturday at 11:48 AM

Kedennis said:
Same, but using this pen. .25mm

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Depending on what you're going for, you don't even need to make those marks or VERY faint ones. Boat any real ship or simply look at pictures of decks and they're barely visible. The occre "design" idea is highly inaccurate.

DennisP · Saturday at 1:40 PM

mberg said:
Depending on what you're going for, you don't even need to make those marks or VERY faint ones. Boat any real ship or simply look at pictures of decks and they're barely visible. The occre "design" idea is highly inaccurate.

Well if you want total accuracy you wouldn’t build a kit, but I enjoy building the kits and am not worried about total accuracy.
We are all different but thanks for your input.

mberg · Saturday at 6:06 PM

DennisP said:
Well if you want total accuracy you wouldn’t build a kit,

I disagree, there are very accurate kits out there, and even the less accurate ones can be made far more realistic with some adjustments. A lot of builders enjoy taking a kit and improving it correcting shapes, changing planking methods, swapping materials, etc.

And just because a manufacturer puts something in the instructions doesn’t mean it’s the best or most accurate way to do it. OcCre and AL especially have some pretty odd planking approaches, and their kits often lean more toward decorative/furniture style builds than true scale modeling. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s also totally normal for people to ignore or improve on those choices.

We all build differently, but accuracy and kit building aren’t mutually exclusive.

In any case, I'm not looking to debate this, I just want to make sure OP as a new builder has the knowledge that they can build it a bit different and maybe even more realistic. Your Polaris looks great also.

Kedennis · Saturday at 6:14 PM

mberg said:
I disagree, there are very accurate kits out there, and even the less accurate ones can be made far more realistic with some adjustments. A lot of builders enjoy taking a kit and improving it correcting shapes, changing planking methods, swapping materials, etc.

And just because a manufacturer puts something in the instructions doesn’t mean it’s the best or most accurate way to do it. OcCre and AL especially have some pretty odd planking approaches, and their kits often lean more toward decorative/furniture style builds than true scale modeling. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s also totally normal for people to ignore or improve on those choices.

We all build differently, but accuracy and kit building aren’t mutually exclusive.

In any case, I'm not looking to debate this, I just want to make sure OP as a new builder has the knowledge that they can build it a bit different and maybe even more realistic.

I've looked at many decks now and decided to leave the nails out. I'm also cut all same size planks instead of two different sizes and staggering them. Not sure how correct this is, but it's looking good IMO. Thanks for the input. It all helps make better decisions, right or wrong.

mberg · Saturday at 6:23 PM

Kedennis said:
I've looked at many decks now and decided to leave the nails out. I'm also cut all same size planks instead of two different sizes and staggering them. Not sure how correct this is, but it's looking good IMO. Thanks for the input. It all helps make better decisions, right or wrong.

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Nice choice. That's the right way to do it (many would say). Here: Download the PDF on this post. It explains the hull planking shifts. Looks far better.
Post in thread 'Three/four butt planking' https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/three-four-butt-planking.8243/post-192481