Buccaneer 1:100 by Occre - Build log

[HughLo]

5/20/26 to 5/21/26
I will be building the mizzenmast in the same way as the foremast and mainmast, including building it off the ship as well as building it in sections.

Being the third mast, and all three have been pretty much the same, it goes together very quickly.

First there are only 2 sections. Second, I have made two others very recently. Third, I have learned from my previous mistakes.

The top went together quickly and while it was drying, I seized the shrouds. There are six shrouds (two pairs and two shifters) off the mast and then with the mast head open, I placed them over the mast head and tightened them up. All shrouds were marked with which deadeyes they would go to.

The topmast was installed.

Very quick build. And then while writing this I realized that I forgot to put the four wooldings on. Argh. Not a difficult fix, but I hate it when I get moving faster than I should.


The masts are complete.




Next up… stepping the masts and the tying the lower shrouds.

Time for this portion: 4 hours
Total time to date: 295.5 hours

 

[FriCap]

Great job! Good luck to fit rigging!

 

[HughLo]

5/22/26 to 5/28/26
I will be carrying on with posting a less wordy and condensed build log but will attach the full unredacted build log as a pdf for those who want it.

I know I have been working on rigging for a little bit, but I am finally going to get to do what I envisioned as “rigging” when I picked up the hobby, when I purchased my Bluenose way back in October of 2000, and again when I started the hobby in earnest in March of 2023 (again with my Bluenose). That vision was of attaching lines from the top of the masts to the deck.

Over the past few years, I have learned that those lines are called shrouds and they do not attach to the top of the masts, nor do they attach directly to the deck.

Today I attached the first two lower shrouds on both the starboard and port sides of my Molino to their respective deadeyes.

But let us take a step back as the first thing I did was step the three masts.

I glued them in place one by one aligning them both by themselves and in relation to the other masts. I used a couple of clamps to hold them in place while the glue dries.


I decided to try twisting the wires together again. I had tried this previously, but it just did not work as there was a lot of play between the wires.

It took a few tries, but it worked. I now have the twisted wires “X” to hold the deadeyes apart. And they work much better than the single or double wires.


The process is fairly straightforward. It starts with the two foremost starboard deadeyes and then switches to the port side. This back-and-forth pattern continues through all the shroud pairs (and swifters) for all the masts.




I took an extra step of putting a second seize on each shroud, slightly above the seize right at the deadeye.




Two key takeaways were:

• Although stressed earlier, it makes life a whole lot easier if you have extra thread on the shrouds, seizes, and reeving. Short threads take a lot more time to tie than longer ones.
• Remember the reeving pattern, and that the pattern on the starboard and port sides are mirror images of each other. Reeving always starts at the fore most lower hole of the upper deadeye.

Next up… the ratlines.

Time for this portion: 13.5 hours
Total time to date: 309 hours

 

[HughLo]

5/29/26 to 6/2/26

Finally the ratlines…

While prepping for the shrouds, I had seen a little information on the small boards on the shrouds directly above the upper deadeyes so I thought I would dig a bit deeper into what they are along with anything else associated with the ratlines.

Ouch, either that little research was a big mistake or a good thing as I found several items that are part of the shrouds/ratlines but were not included in the kit or the instructions. I am game for learning about ship design and construction and since the Molino is a fictional ship, I have complete artistic freedom over my build so instead of my planned jump into the ratlines, I will first be adding the following:

• Sheer poles
• Futtock staves
• Catharpins
• Futtock shrouds
• Rat-boards (or shroud boards)

And then finally the rope ratlines.

I guess only time will tell if adding all of these was good decision or not.

First up are the sheer poles which are considered the baseline anchor of the shrouds. They are installed directly above the upper deadeyes.

At scale they are only 0.5mm in diameter, so I am going to use some wire. After a little sanding and two coats of flat black paint, they are glued onto the seizes above upper deadeyes.

Once the glue dried, I tied a clove hitch topped with a half knot at each shroud/deadeye using small brown thread to simulate how the sheer pole was attached.



The sheer poles really helped with squaring up the deadeyes to the ship and kept them from spinning/twisting. So far or at least adding sheer poles look to be a genuinely nice add.






I was only able to do about half of the knots as we were heading back to the states for our first time after moving here. On our trip we will be splitting time between Colorado and North Carolina before returning here in early July. It will be great to see friends and family, but it will be a month away from the Molino.

I will finish up the knots on the sheer poles upon my return and then add the futtock staves and the catharpins.

Time for this portion: 3 hours
Total time to date: 312 hours