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HMS Beagle Kit by Occre - first ship build

S

Simonomous

Joined
Nov 24, 2025
Messages
11
Points
28

Hello All,

After reading an alternative history/fantasy novel called Temeraire several years ago, and then discovering it's source material of the Jack Aubrey and Hornblower series, I really wanted to dive into the technical details of 1800's ships and start building a ship from a kit. I decided on the HMS Beagle as an intermediate starting point since I have small amount of model building experience. I hope to learn more about the model ship building craft and ship terminology and I'm going to try and provide updates every few days. I'm also going to work on the workshop organizer cabinet (kit pictured) at the beginning. Feel free to offer advice or pointers! Merry Christmas everyone!




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I am an intermediate builder currently working on the Occre Endurance but I just bought the Occre Beagle and plan to start building it in the spring or summer. I look forward to your updates.
 
Days 1-3 of the build. Been setting up the workbench, unboxing and organizing the kit, and beginning to glue the frames to the 'false keel'. I was getting sloppy with the glue, but figured it wasn't going to be visible. I was more concerned with making sure all the edges were smooth, aligned, and at a 90 deg. Question that came to mind was regarding how complex the compound curves of the frame were. I can understand a mathematician coming up with the most dynamic shape for a faster ship, but how does the shipbuilder make such a precise shape in the shipyard?

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Sam66 said:
I am an intermediate builder currently working on the Occre Endurance but I just bought the Occre Beagle and plan to start building it in the spring or summer. I look forward to your updates.
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I was torn between getting the Beagle or the Endurance, since I love the look and story of the Endurance. Good luck with your build!
 
Day 4: worked on the extra keel parts (for nailing surface?) and getting the planking ready. I like the idea of adding graphite to the sides of the planks for the visual contrast. Any reason why the planks aren't laid in actual planks with the ends colored the same way vs. just drawn on? Is it too much effort for not enough reward?
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Ismaele said:
Good choice for your first building! It was mine too and I had a lot of fun with it. In my opinion it's the just compromise between simplicity and complexity and the kit and instruction are very good.

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That's beautiful! I thought the same thing and it seemed like a good kit that others had done as well, so there were plenty of others with experience. Did you tint your sails a darker color, because they look much better than the ones they sent in the kit.
 
Since the strips are glued to a board, I cut them to lengths of about 8 cm so that I could also paint the ends and achieve a more realistic effect than simply drawing the joints.
For the sails, I left them immersed in a solution of water and tea for 24 hours.
I think modeling is beautiful precisely because everyone can decide if the amount of effort is adequate and justified by the result and dedicate more or less time to creating a detail.
For me, it was worth spending more time cutting the strips, as well as darkening the edges to simulate tar.
 
Simonomous said:
Days 1-3 of the build. Been setting up the workbench, unboxing and organizing the kit, and beginning to glue the frames to the 'false keel'. I was getting sloppy with the glue, but figured it wasn't going to be visible. I was more concerned with making sure all the edges were smooth, aligned, and at a 90 deg. Question that came to mind was regarding how complex the compound curves of the frame were. I can understand a mathematician coming up with the most dynamic shape for a faster ship, but how does the shipbuilder make such a precise shape in the shipyard?

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One secret of many builders here on getting the frames square, is to find, or buy some of the "2x4" (two rows of 4) rectangular LEGO pieces and use them in corners to hold the frame square, small clips help hold them when used in pairs on opposite sides of keel piece. Most glues, except CA type won't stick and you can reuse them as needed for other tasks.
 
Simonomous said:
Day 4: worked on the extra keel parts (for nailing surface?) and getting the planking ready. I like the idea of adding graphite to the sides of the planks for the visual contrast. Any reason why the planks aren't laid in actual planks with the ends colored the same way vs. just drawn on? Is it too much effort for not enough reward?
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In these models we have just a few bulkheads to attach planks to. In a real ship there would be maybe a 100 or more frames closely spaced side by side to attach planks to. The issue of using realistic plank length strips is lack of places to attach the ends to frames. Many folks I have see use a sharp scribe or blade to notch the fake ends in a long strip to look like real plank length boards were used.
 
I also calculated my first model in days and hours.
Now, on day 2, i'm saying something like "fk this sht" and i'll be back in 7+ days.

Besides that, you're off to a good start; you've prepared. I respect that Thumbsup
 
That planking took far longer than I expected... I'll take it as preview of coming attractions!

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I did end up cutting 80mm long planks, but came to realize during the process that the graphite I used to darken the edges was too soft and now pencil smudges were being transferred everywhere, darkening he face of the planks. Erasing the sides did little to remediate the issue, and consequently the sides were much lighter, so I used a chisel tipped expo marker to darker a single side of each plank and tried my best to keep things as clean as possible.

I understand the the look of the following reference image is probably beyond my skill, but I love that look and I'm worried that unless I tried to clean up the deck now it will look very muddy. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to clean up the planking? Or does it look manageable as it is? I will probably sand the planks smooth and add a very, very light treenail pattern to the planks.

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Simonomous said:
That planking took far longer than I expected... I'll take it as preview of coming attractions!

View attachment 567910View attachment 567911View attachment 567912

I did end up cutting 80mm long planks, but came to realize during the process that the graphite I used to darken the edges was too soft and now pencil smudges were being transferred everywhere, darkening he face of the planks. Erasing the sides did little to remediate the issue, and consequently the sides were much lighter, so I used a chisel tipped expo marker to darker a single side of each plank and tried my best to keep things as clean as possible.

I understand the the look of the following reference image is probably beyond my skill, but I love that look and I'm worried that unless I tried to clean up the deck now it will look very muddy. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to clean up the planking? Or does it look manageable as it is? I will probably sand the planks smooth and add a very, very light treenail pattern to the planks.

Reference image:View attachment 567913
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Good morning. Welcome to SOS and enjoy your shipbuilding. That is a fine looking deck. Definitely off to a great start. Cheers Grant
 
I will follow along a bit , i don't really like Occre's style but i have a hankering after the Beagle, so it will be interesting to see if i can live with it. Welcome to SOS.:)
 
Simonomous said:
Feel free to offer advice or pointers!
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Happy New Year!

This is a challenge for a first build, congrats on going for it! You may want to consider changing the size and color of the treenails on the deck planks on the other decks. They were actually wooden spike covers only about 1.5 inches in diameter (0.64mm at 1:60 scale) and the wood color would be close to that of the planks so barely visible. The following shows a comparison in sizes. I made them dark so easier to see the size difference. Subtlety can be a good thing.
Allan

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