HMS Victory - Occre #407/999 (2025)

DSRB said:

I have started to view other individuals thoughts and progress on their HMS Victory Occre build and have gain considerable insight into different build ideas. I purchased my kit from Model Expo at a considerable discount as compared to having purchased through Occre. Kit arrived at my doorstep here in Canada 12 days after I ordered it online. I immediately unboxed my new play toy and got down to examining the parts. The first thing that I can tell you about this kit is that I have found the quality to be exceptional. I can also tell you of a few issues I had right at the beginning that one should be aware of right of the bat. Occre has a PDF file for the complete build of this ship but do not have it on there website as a download. I had to correspond with the company through email to obtain a copy of this file. They had no record of my purchase of this limited edition because I had bought it through Model Expo. After showing them my bill of sail and a couple of pictures showing the boxes contents they relented andView attachment 505347View attachment 505348View attachment 505349View attachment 505350View attachment 505351View attachment 505352View attachment 505353View attachment 505354View attachment 505355View attachment 505356View attachment 505357View attachment 505358View attachment 505359View attachment 505360 sent me the file. Occre sent me a link for a download PDF file that had a very short expiry date on it. With that issue resolved I wanted to make sure that I had all of the parts for this build as it is a limited edition and who knows if missing parts were available 2 years from now. They do not have a part list summary. They only have a description of the parts and when and where they are used. I took the time to go through the instructions and confirmed each and every individual part received in this kit. I also counted and tabulated every length and kind of wood supplied with the kit and found that there seems to be ample lengths to complete the tasks required in this build. With that being said let me explain some of my thoughts on this build going forward. First and foremost pay close attention to the setting of the ships ribs as this is crucial down the road. The plans show that the ribs should be 90 degrees to the keel, 90 degrees straight up and down and a spacer keeps them a certain distance apart. What I failed to watch more closely was that the rib tips were not lining up correctly. If I were to do it again I would create a jig that has the tops exactly the same distance from the centre of the keel and the tops the exact same distance down to the bottom keel holding platform until the glue sets. Creating a template for the small spacing pieces was something I thought of after having completed the two initial levels already. Going forward with the upper levels I will have to think of a better way to handle them but this may be more difficult as the hull will be planked in by then so it will be more difficult to slide a template under the beams.. I created a form of bacing and alignment to gentlely get my ribs back into line and after having planked the sides of the boat I am more satisfied with the alignment results. I will also tell you that the ribs are very fragile as I have broken three of them during construction so far. I would sand the ribs completely before assembling the ribs in the early stages of construction completely taking off all laser char on them, do this before even gluing them together. Then next issue I came accross is the setting of the first row of planking. I Followed the instructions and found that I came up a bite short at the top when alll was said and done. The staement to adjust the first plank up abit without a measurement needs to be beter explained. So here are my thoughts when it comes to starting your planking. Look at the detailed instruction pictures and count the rows of planking at the bow, midship and stern and count down from the top of the ribs. This will give you a good idea of how high you should start above the line you have created. I also gave up on the nailing and gluing of the planks and went back to just gluing and using clicks to keep aligned and attachec to the ribs. I found drilling just for the sake of placing a nail to hold the planks in place just too damaging. I had two instances that the plank nail ended right at a weak spoy on a rib and cracked the rib forcing another repair. I opted to pull all of the nails so I did not follow the steps of clipping the nails and sanding the stubs flush. I am going back and drilling a small hole in every plank that will fill with saw dust when I go back to sanding the hull. I will test how they look when go to finishing the hull. Well this is about all I have to say at the moment other than has anybody started the cannon openings and how did the line up with the different levels. I have read that some individual found that the templates were off and they chose a different way to proceed. I guess time will tell when I get to this point in a week or two. In closing don't be afraid to go ahead in the instruction booklet, there are alot of little projects you can complete if you want a change of pace. Good luck with your builds.

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You are right, it is not an easy model -(( goo luck