Montanes by OcCre built by Mallacoota

Joined
Feb 8, 2021
Messages
491
Points
323

Location
Victoria Australia
Starting this after the hull partly completed because the early stuff is a bit repetitive and boring. Going OK... My own personal opinion is that the parts quality is a little below Amati but I am sure they would disagree. The ladder components poorly cut, and some of the complex bow supports just simply dont fit as intended no matter what you do with them. So a little kit bashing needed during progress but pretty good kit really so far. Main shortcoming certainly that the real ship was coppered at Trafalgar but there is no copper in the kit or even mention of it. The only planking is 2mm x 5mm mahogany which is nice looking wood but very brittle and a challenge to bend the stern particularly.I bought roll of 6mm adhesive copper tape from Artesania Latina ( ansolutely excellent) and their rivet imprinting tool ( absolutely useless IMHO).

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Nicely done.
the bow indeed little bit tricky,but wait for the stern gallery ROTF
 
Good work, shipmate. The wood in my kit was pretty good, but the metal bits were awful & I had two of the same hand of the stern gallery bases. OcCre sent me 'dog-bones' as replacement part! I couldn't be bothered to try again so I made a pair from pearwood, & replaced the tops with same. As for those metal gunport frames & lids - they're residing still on a shelf - apart from being almost impossible to drill , I discarded the frames & made the lids from wood. I also re-made the head rails etc from solid wood as I did on several other inappropriate metal 'bits'.
 
Thanks for the encouragement Stuart. Really appreciate it. I must say with no preconceived bias I am strongly of the view that OcCre kits are very much inferior to Amati Victory series ...having built 3 x Amati and 2 X OcCre..I think the OcCre kits are very average quality.
I made a major stuff up on Montanes in that i got the gunport setting up all wrong and as a result cant do the realistic hingeing that Wolfgang Zinn has done so beautifully ( see Youtube) I am really really pissed at myself for this but as they say in the classics ...s**t happens. I will cover it up a bit by fixing the gunport lids open and adding ropes. What can you say..??
Still, notwirhstanding the above I think the model will be just fine, the problem is that I really set out to make every one better than the last and of course that becomes increasingly difficult by definition....and the last one..(Amati Pegasus) looks really good so I have set a bar a bit higher than I can handle...LOL
 
The guns are a bit disappointing...cast metal carraiges which really dont allow for anything more than a basic breech rope. Just confirming my view that OcCre have an inflated view of the quality of this expensive kit. It will be OK on the night...

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These are the gunport lids I stuffed up...they are glued in place rather than on hinges. My problem entirely.

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ooops...a runaway cannon ball
 
The guns are a bit disappointing...cast metal carraiges which really dont allow for anything more than a basic breech rope. Just confirming my view that OcCre have an inflated view of the quality of this expensive kit. It will be OK on the night...

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These are the gunport lids I stuffed up...they are glued in place rather than on hinges. My problem entirely.

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ooops...a runaway cannon ball
I guess that's better than a loose cannon! :D
The first things I did was discard those metal gun port frames & lids & made wooden lids, the same with the gun carriages, for which I made wooden ones.
 
There are no brass strops provided for the lower shroud deadeyes, the kit suggests just stropping them with thread. Yeah well I guess thats what I will have to do. Becoming inceasingly disillusioned by this kit which when bought direct from OcCre cost me $1600 aud landed here...I would value it at half that. I should have learned from the previous OcCre kit ( Endurance) which I was disappointed in. Personally I will never touch another OcCre kit under any circumstances. Thats not to say others may have another equally valid view.
 
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