Shackleton’s Antarctic Exploration Ship Endurance by Paul Reck – Completed Model

Just about two months ago, we posted an article about HSPMS member Paul Reck’s work on a model of Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic exploration ship Endurance, based on  kit produced by the Spanish ship model kit maker OcCre.

Paul is building this on commission. And, while he wasn’t in any hurry to get it done, he’s already wrapped up this project in record time.

Paul chose not to build the model with sails, leaving the model with a classic “bare poled” look. He also made some small modifications to the model, based on photos he found on the Internet of the actual ship.

 

As Paul noted early on, this is a big model. We’re not sure where the final home is for this model, but we’re guessing that Paul’s next project is crating the model up to ship across the country.

Only time will tell what Paul’s next ship model project will be. He had good things to say about the OcCre kit, so perhaps he’ll build another one soon. But, being primarily a scratch modeler, he’ll probably be working another 1/2″ scale yacht model commission. Check back here for an update on his model work. Ω

BLACK FRIDAY SALE!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

When you’re not busy with family, travel, cooking, or whatever Thanksgiving involves for you, you might want to start shopping around for some ship modeling deals!

Here’s the latest from our friends at Ages of Sail down in San Lorenzo… You can check out their deals, which includes free domestic shipping on orders of $150 or more here: https://www.agesofsail.com/ecommerce/

Shackleton’s Antarctic Exploration Ship Endurance by Paul Reck

HSPMS member Paul Reck was commissioned recently to build a model of Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic exploration ship Endurance. Paul chose to build the model based on one of the newest kits produced by the Spanish ship model kit maker OcCre, which he was able to acquire from the online shop of Ages of Sail, where he’s purchased kits and fittings before. Though it’s just across San Francisco Bay, for Paul, paying for shipping seemed to be a far better alternative than the time and hassle of dealing with Bay Area traffic!

Marketing photo from OcCre of their Endurance kit, showing their version of the finished model.

Marketing photo of OcCre’s Endurance kit, showing the kit contents.

Paul only recently got started, commenting that it’s a BIG model, at just under 30″ long. Because the ship has a relatively short bowsprit, that means the hull makes up even more of that total length.

The OcCre kit features a double-planked hull, but since he’s planning on painting the model, Paul is considering just leaving off the second planking layer, which is made up of very nice quality sapelli wood, which closely resembles mahogany.

Paul had lots of good things to say about the kit, including the instructions. While there is a limited amount of text, and what text there is is in multiple languages, he found the photo-based instructions to be clear and easy to follow.

The Endurance is his first OcCre kit, but is sounds like it probably won’t be his last. He mentioned that he was interested in finding a good beginner ship model kit from OcCre, and he thinks he may have found one in OcCre’s Polaris kit, which is a beginner kit based on a Virginia pilot boat design.

But, getting back to the Endurance, Paul mentioned that the kit is well designed, and that the instructions have you planking the decks before attaching them to the hull, making them very easy to plank, since there are no bulwarks or deck structures to get in the way. He also liked the use of sycamore for the provided deck planking, though he did say that there is some color variation between strips of wood.

The instructions make mention of a set of wood dyes that OcCre makes. Since these are water based dyes and not wood stain, he was intrigued and found some for sale on the Internet and ordered them. So, there may be a delay in construction of some components until his dyes arrive.

In the meantime, he submitted these photos of the model under construction, as well as the following photo of one of the laser-cut sheets, showing the parts for the ship’s four boats, which are miniature kits in themselves.

We’ll post more photos from Paul’s project as he progresses.

New Book on HMS Terror by Matthew Betts

Looks like a “must have” if you’re going to build a model of this bomb-vessel turn polar explorer.

Ship Modeler

I was quite surprised yesterday when I saw that there was a new book available on the Arctic (and Antarctic) exploration ship HMS Terror of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition. What’s more this is a book by Matthew Betts whose research, posted in his blog, buildingterror.blogspot.com, has been used in the development of OcCre Model’s wooden ship model kit, in the development of the AMC miniseries The Terror, and more.

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Disar Galleon Santiago de Compostela Build

Nice to see a build of this kit. We haven’t many of this company’s models built, but here’s a build of Disar’s Spanish galleon kit the Santiago de Compostella.

Ages of Sail

Customer Glenn Standfield chose Disar Model’s Santiago de Compostela Spanish galleon kit to be his first wooden sailing ship model, and he began his build with a kit he purchased from us back in August of 2021. Here it is, August 2022, and we just discovered that he’s been keeping a very nice build log on the ship model forum Ships of Scale.

Photos of Glenn Stanfield’s Santiago de Compostella build, posted here with his permission.

Glenn began his model back in September of 2021. It is his first wooden model ship build, and we think he’s doing an awesome job with it.

As a first time wooden ship modeler he’s faced some new challenges, but he’s done a great job overcoming them. Particularly impressive is how well he made the unusually shaped upper gun ports. That must have taken a lot of careful filing.

The finish of the deck…

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