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Albatros by Occre - Fourth build but first Ship

A quick update. The second planking has been completed stained and varnished. Lember boards and other trim pieces have been installed. Still need to install the rudder, but I hate gudgeons and pintles, so I'm procrastinating. I'm happy with how it's going so far, but there are several things I did wrong and hopefully will correct on my next ship. First off, there is a very slight twist to the frame which I didn't notice until I had the bulwarks attached and had already started planking. Next, I did a good job of fairing the bulkheads but did not adequately fair the added blocks at the bow and the stern. This resulted in a fatter than normal stern and a more rounded bow making the final planking less than perfect. Then I learned a lesson of not cutting stick lumber to what I thought was the correct length but cut it slightly longer and then sand it to proper length. Still have some sanding to do on the gun portals. I have just started on the deck furniture which leads to my next question.

I've just started work on the cat davits. The directions specify holes to be 0.5 mm but these seem to be much too small. Are these accurate?

Here are some current pictures of my ship:
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Long overdue for an update. Was on vacation last week. Here are some photos of how far I had gotten before vacation. I added the Cat davits, boat davits, railing, along with some of the pin racks and the channels. I positioned the channels according to the top view of the plans. However I think I may have to move the forward channels farther forward to not have my gunners shoot the chain plate. The illustration in the instructions shows it farther forward than the plans.

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Here you can see the rudder is installed after much procrastination. I cheated here by leaving the pin the entire height of the rudder instead of three separate pins.
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Will try posting later today or tomorrow with some pictures of the deck furniture I've been working on.

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Thank you Rebus, that means a lot. Also thank you PDL. I think yours looks great too. I've been using yours to answer questions I have.

Here are some latest pictures showing some of my deck furniture. I wish I had a drill press to aid in drilling the pin racks and channels. For the life of me I cannot get evenly spaced holes that go vertically through the racks. Besides adding the furniture, which is not glued down yet, I also relocated the forward channels to avoid the gun ports. I am still unhappy about how the canons don't fit well in the gun ports. I feel the barrels should be centered in the port, not resting against the top. Even with the barrels pointing down they still don't fit. I feel that the carriages are too big and have tried to find a way to lower them by filing a channel in the bottom to recess the axles.

I'll probably go ahead and glue the furniture, excluding the canons, to the deck. Should I glue the belaying pins into the racks at this time? Some of the holes will need to made larger to get all the pins to seat fully.

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Here are my first set of five deadeyes. Every time I look at them, they remind me of Vincent Van Gogh's Scream painting. These chain plates, (do we still call them that?) have not been attached to the hull yet. Before I do, is there any need to increase the size of the eyes?

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Thanks for looking and any suggestions or comments you can offer.

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My pin racks were uneven as well. Once they were attached to the ship and the rigging was attached it wasn’t really noticeable. I use a pin vice to drill my holes.
 
I spent a fair amount of time yesterday tieing dead eyes to the chain plates. I used CA glue on them. Yesterday evening I started tacking them to the hull. Excuse me, I tried tacking them to the hull. I couldn't get a tack through the CA saturated chain plates. I have now switched to using thinned white glue. I felt really bad as I chopped the heads of twenty dead eyes from their thread bodies. I've redone 5 dead eyes with the white glue and was easily able to tack those to the hull.

After I had made up the original twenty, I counted the remaining dead eyes. I only had 19 left. Either I was shorted one, or the dead eye ran off to who knows where. I am totally surprised Occre didn't package extras. The Canon carriage wheels came with about 40 extra ones. How many dead eyes does Occre normally pack? I guess I'll be trying Occre's guarantee.
 
OldeManToad said:
I spent a fair amount of time yesterday tieing dead eyes to the chain plates. I used CA glue on them. Yesterday evening I started tacking them to the hull. Excuse me, I tried tacking them to the hull. I couldn't get a tack through the CA saturated chain plates. I have now switched to using thinned white glue. I felt really bad as I chopped the heads of twenty dead eyes from their thread bodies. I've redone 5 dead eyes with the white glue and was easily able to tack those to the hull.

After I had made up the original twenty, I counted the remaining dead eyes. I only had 19 left. Either I was shorted one, or the dead eye ran off to who knows where. I am totally surprised Occre didn't package extras. The Canon carriage wheels came with about 40 extra ones. How many dead eyes does Occre normally pack? I guess I'll be trying Occre's guarantee.
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I used CA as well. I completed the starboard side shortly after I completed the chain plates and didn’t have any problems. On the port side I completed the chain plates and came back the next day to attach them to the hull and had the same problem. I redid everything as you did, however, this time I attached the pins, twisted the thread, and simply tied the thread to the pins. It worked out really well for me.
 
OldeManToad said:
Did your kit come with extra deadeyes? I went ahead and submitted a request for the missing deadeye. I wonder if they'll send me one or a small packet of them. Did you request the parts for your broken mast?
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I had 2 extra deadeyes. I didn’t request the mast replacement since it wasn’t their fault. I’ll eventually get a couple of dowels and fix it.
 
Thank you Jeff, I appreciate it.

Since the last post, I have added the deadeyes to the channels and attached the chain plates to the hull as shown below. I have also added the steps, the door, and connected the anchors to the cat davits. Will include pictures later. I do not like the steps and door being cast from metal. Both of these should be done in wood.


Started work on the Bow sprit. I cut and sanded the two parts as shown on the plans. Then using the side view on the plans, I cut the notch for the gammoning. Then dry fitting it to the ship I notice that the notch is not even with the corresponding hole in the bow even though the piece is fully inserted into the ship. I then looked at the top view on the plans and the notch is not even close to the notch in the side view. Did no one even teach the Occre designers basic drafting? I thought the 1 to 1 plans were supposed to be accurate.
 
OldeManToad said:
Thank you Jeff, I appreciate it.

Since the last post, I have added the deadeyes to the channels and attached the chain plates to the hull as shown below. I have also added the steps, the door, and connected the anchors to the cat davits. Will include pictures later. I do not like the steps and door being cast from metal. Both of these should be done in wood.


Started work on the Bow sprit. I cut and sanded the two parts as shown on the plans. Then using the side view on the plans, I cut the notch for the gammoning. Then dry fitting it to the ship I notice that the notch is not even with the corresponding hole in the bow even though the piece is fully inserted into the ship. I then looked at the top view on the plans and the notch is not even close to the notch in the side view. Did no one even teach the Occre designers basic drafting? I thought the 1 to 1 plans were supposed to be accurate.
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and that is the reason we check and double check. :) Glad you caught it now. :)
If you want to change the steps and door to wood, do it now, before you put the masts on. It's much easier at this stage. :)
 
Jeff, Somehow I had the belief that these model kit makers had accurate plans and if you followed them everything would turn out well. Well, either I'm not foll9w8ng plans or the are wrong. wrong. So far on this kit I've had the following issues:

1. The deck piece in the bow was too narrow and I had to make my own.
2. The canons don't fit in the gun portals.
3. Plan top views and side views don't match and don't match the model.

You really do have to dry fit and be prepared to fix it on your own.
 
Hello,

I learned that lesson many years ago. As for cannons not fitting, what I do now is build an actual cannon and test fit it on the false deck with a few planks laid down, not glued, before I actually frame the gunports. Works every time. If adjustments need to be made to the gunports, I can do it before I install the cannons. That way when it comes time to install the cannons you won’t have to worry about that problem.

Take care,

Bob Hunt
 
Bob Hunt, the size of the gun ports was precut in the bulwarks and there is no framing of them. I guess I could have prebuilt one canon and tested the size of the port before planking them on both the inside and out, but why would I even think about doing that? Like you said I have to learn those lessons.

It's been a few days since my last post. I noticed some of my pictures didn't show up on a previous post. I believe it was because I used the attach files button, then inserted the pictures. There were some I attached and then didn't insert them so the I deleted the attached files. Oh well, here are two pictures of my current state. I have completed the bow sprit, masts, and yards.20250716_153448.jpg20250718_110751.jpg
Notice I haven't placed the canons yet until I decide whether to try to increase the height of the gun ports or not. Also I just finished building the bilge pumps but need to do some finishing touched to them.

Next up is the rigging. From videos I have watched, I see that most people are using thin instant CA on their knots. I have thin CA with the micro tips but I am unable to place tiny drops even though I am using a brand new tip. A single drop on a piece of scrap wood is about the size of a dime. When trying on a rope, it saturates the rope and drips down to whatever is below. I have better luck using a pin to place tiny drops of medium CA but would prefer the instant setting of the thin CA. What am I doing wrong?

Another question is whether I should glue the masts to the hull or let the standing rigging hold the masts in place. Occre's instructions just end after you construct masts and yards and rely on pictures with rigging highlighted in red.

Finally, how much extra thread does Occre provide? During the lashing of the blocks to the masts and yards, I kept finding better ways to do it and redid several of them. There are a few more on the masts I am contemplating redoing, but I don't want to run out of thread.
 
I removed the wheels, sanded down the gun carriage, then reattached the wheels. I also made a small wedge and placed it under the cannon to tilt it down.

I quit using CA on ropes. I went to using thinned down white glue. I think it works much better and doesn’t cause the thread to be overly rigid and brittle. Of course, I may have been using too much glue when I was gluing the twisted thread. I still like the white glue better though.

I ran extremely low on the brown thread when I was building this kit. I had plenty of the natural thread left.

Your ship is looking good. The Albatros was my first build and learned a lot building it.
 
Thanks PD, Did sanding the carriages help alot? My canons are all taken apart right now so this will be easy to do. I've been using thinned white glue to make my twisted block threads but use CA to attach them to yards. The natural thread is what I had to use when remaking my blocks so I should be good.

By the way did you order your replacement dowels from Occre? I put in the order for my missing deadeye and just received them (5) today. I placed the order on July 6, they processed on July 7, and shipped on July 9 and I got them today all the way from Spain. Pretty quick service.
 
OldeManToad said:
Thanks PD, Did sanding the carriages help alot? My canons are all taken apart right now so this will be easy to do. I've been using thinned white glue to make my twisted block threads but use CA to attach them to yards. The natural thread is what I had to use when remaking my blocks so I should be good.

By the way did you order your replacement dowels from Occre? I put in the order for my missing deadeye and just received them (5) today. I placed the order on July 6, they processed on July 7, and shipped on July 9 and I got them today all the way from Spain. Pretty quick service.
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The cannons fit after sanding the carriages and making the wedges to lower the barrel. I just bought some liver of sulfur to blacken the barrels on this build. I didn’t like how they turned out when I painted them on the Albatros build. I used ammonia on the last build and found the brass eye pins were very brittle.

I didn’t ask Occre to replace the dowels because they weren’t missing or damaged and it isn’t their fault my wife is a klutz. I knew that when I married her, so that’s on me lol. I’m using the Albatros as a test model now - for example, I’m going to try to attach rigging to the cannons on this build and I’ll try it out on Albatros first.

The mistake I made on attaching yards to the masts was trying to do it after I installed the masts. This time I'm going to attach the yards to the masts first before I attach the masts to the deck. I’m also considering drilling holes in the masts and yards and attaching them with pins. I’m working on my second ship, so this is all still new to me and I’m learning from my mistakes.
 
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