I just received the Occre kit of the Beagle. Occre certainly deserve applause for their new rendering, which is far more faithful to the original than earlier kits (either wooden and plastic). However, I was disappointed when I saw how small it is.
A few years ago, I scaled up the plans in Karl Marquardt’ Beagle volume (in the “Anatomy of the ship” series) to 1/64 (my preferred scale). I was planning to scratch build a 1/64 Beagle, but never got around to it. So when I saw the Occre kit advertised as 1/60, I thought “ok, close enough”. But my hopes were dashed when I began measuring the kit parts.
According to official dimensions, Beagle’s keel length was 73ft 7 ins. I rounded that down to 73.5ft to keep things simple, then calculated the keel length. At 1/64 scale it should be approx. 13.78 inches. The Occre kit has a keel length of approx. 12.25 inches, which by my reckoning scales out to approx. 1/70. I compared the main deck length as well (90ft overall). Again, the model’s deck seems far too short. At 1/60 scale, keel length should be around 14.7 inches and the main deck should be about 18 inches long
The Occre kit is a welcome arrival and should build out to be a cracking model.. just nowhere near the 1/60 scale I was hoping for.
www.occre.com
