best kits

Just finished the Occre Cala Esmeralda. The plans/instructions for the running rigging along with other excluded instructions made it a real challenge. I just did the research and completed it the best I could. Had a love - hate relationship with it. I'd just beware of the Occre instructions they may be cryptic or nonexistent. In the end it came out OK.IMG_1209.jpg
 
Fletch Dog said:
Just finished the Occre Cala Esmeralda. The plans/instructions for the running rigging along with other excluded instructions made it a real challenge. I just did the research and completed it the best I could. Had a love - hate relationship with it. I'd just beware of the Occre instructions they may be cryptic or nonexistent. In the end it came out OK.View attachment 421892
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you made a very good model out of this kit Thumbsup
 
Fletch Dog said:
Just finished the Occre Cala Esmeralda. The plans/instructions for the running rigging along with other excluded instructions made it a real challenge. I just did the research and completed it the best I could. Had a love - hate relationship with it. I'd just beware of the Occre instructions they may be cryptic or nonexistent. In the end it came out OK.View attachment 421892
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Could it be an older kit & the instructions have not been update? Just a thought. OcCre are very obliging if contacted when problems arise, I've found.
 
Stuart Little said:
Could it be an older kit & the instructions have not been update? Just a thought. OcCre are very obliging if contacted when problems arise, I've found.
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I believe the big issue was this boat is not a replica. There is a boat like it and they threw in a lot of extra stuff. I counted and there’s over 100 lines that terminate to the deck. I tied over 900 cow hitches for the rat lines too. So without an actual boat to do research on it just made it real tough. Nevertheless I enjoyed the challenge and took some artistic liberties.
 
Corsair said:
I agree with all the previous answers. It depends on what your qualities are that make it best. It's like asking what the best road vehicle is. Do you need something that goes fast, or something that carries a lot of cargo, or something that carries a lot of people, or something that gets great gas mileage, or something that is reliable? :)
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All of the above actually, and it should be cheap and available in a color the Admiral likes.
 
Fletch Dog said:
Just finished the Occre Cala Esmeralda. The plans/instructions for the running rigging along with other excluded instructions made it a real challenge. I just did the research and completed it the best I could. Had a love - hate relationship with it. I'd just beware of the Occre instructions they may be cryptic or nonexistent. In the end it came out OK.View attachment 421892
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Thank you very much FD for the expression hate-love relation.That is the correct termwhich I couldn’t find while building my last model Red Dragon Artasenia (attached).Because of this love-hate feeling i really sometimes wanted to stop finishing it.
Occre tm name is known to me but never had experience with their products.But if it is so misunderstandble by the details etc as mentioned in the threads then my Congratulations .
You have created a goldpiece out of Occre parts snd plans.

IMG_5740.jpeg
 
bluefish said:
I have occre great unit but at times I get little lost.
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i have built two Occre kits and just ordered the third one from them. I am beginning to understand how to read the instructions and for that reason i’m sticking with Occre. Don’t know how to compare with any one else. It does seem the instructions get more vague as the kit gets more advanced.
 
Glasetj said:
i have built two Occre kits and just ordered the third one from them. I am beginning to understand how to read the instructions and for that reason i’m sticking with Occre. Don’t know how to compare with any one else. It does seem the instructions get more vague as the kit gets more advanced.
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I'm going to guess that as the kits get more advanced, OcCre assumes that the modellers have gained more experience as they, themselves, 'advance' through the kits. ?
 
Fletch Dog said:
Just finished the Occre Cala Esmeralda. The plans/instructions for the running rigging along with other excluded instructions made it a real challenge. I just did the research and completed it the best I could. Had a love - hate relationship with it. I'd just beware of the Occre instructions they may be cryptic or nonexistent. In the end it came out OK.View attachment 421892
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That´s true, I,m thinking the same:
Occre instructions they may be cryptic or nonexistent....
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And, furthermore, if you ask them by email they respond with obvious things. :(
 
Fletch Dog said:
Just finished the Occre Cala Esmeralda. The plans/instructions for the running rigging along with other excluded instructions made it a real challenge. I just did the research and completed it the best I could. Had a love - hate relationship with it. I'd just beware of the Occre instructions they may be cryptic or nonexistent. In the end it came out OK.View attachment 421892
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how long did it take to build this?
 
I am finishing the build of Occre's Endurance.. one of their latest releases, and started Occre's Cala Esmeralda, which I think is one of their oldest models. The quality of both kits is very good; the wood, sails and fittings are adequate, all fits extremely well and there is material to spare. The 'rope' is not great, fuzzy and not to scale.
But.. the instructions are very different between the two kits. Although they have the same format, color printed photo's of the building steps, and short descriptions, the Endurance ones are much clearer. Almost no ambiguity there, and as far as I can see no errors.
Plus.. a really helpful series of 70 YouTube videos that take your hand through the build.
So in short.. I think that, had you build the Endurance (or Beagle or other more recent model) first, you would have had a very different experience.
If I had started (after a 'stop of a couple of decades) with the Esmeralda, I think I would have not managed without help from..well.. our friends here at SoS;-)
Also: the last 2 pages of the instructions were missing. My email, sent on a Sunday afternoon, was answered the same evening (!) in a very friendly and helpful manner, and after 8 days a complete set of instructions arrived from Barcelona to Sweden, free of charge.
 
Fletch Dog said:
It took a long time. But I don't really work on building boats in the summer and I was ill for awhile too. I can't really say. I enjoyed the challenge and the finished product looks pretty good for me:

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"...the finished product looks pretty good for me", and for me. I like it so much.
 
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Fletch Dog said:
Just finished the Occre Cala Esmeralda. The plans/instructions for the running rigging along with other excluded instructions made it a real challenge. I just did the research and completed it the best I could. Had a love - hate relationship with it. I'd just beware of the Occre instructions they may be cryptic or nonexistent. In the end it came out OK.View attachment 421892
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That is beautiful! Great work. I can only hope to have mine come out half as good.
 
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