I am back.Finally.After dealing with multiple life issues things have settled down enough for me to start modelling again.I figured the first kit would be OCCREs titanic.I approach this kit with some trpidation as my past experience with OCCREs kit are a bit mixed.I build the Stevensons Rocket and it was really nice, but the Jupiter was a challenge.

OCCREs kit is a 1/350 wooden kit of the Titanic.It is a basic plank on bulkhead kit with single layer planking.The quality of the parts so far is very good with no warping.

The instructions are typical OCCRE step by step photos.These can be tricky as the stages are not as simple as they seem.The major improvement over past OCCRE builds is they now have build videos on youtube.These are very helpful.

Thanks Gil,
I agree 100% with OCCREs customer support.For the titanic they give you stickers for the windows and some of the deck structures.I am findign that some of them are falling off when I am sanding the hull and when I contacted OCCRE they said thety will send me a new sheet of sticker right away.

Ok the next step is to assemble the cabins that sit on top of the lower deck.These are made of flat pieces that interlock together and then you sand the joints and paint them white.Stickers will be used to represent windows.You can use the lower deck to align the parts and make sure that they will slot into the holes in the deck once assembled.

OK the next step is to apply the deck planking to the lower decks.this was a bit frustrating because it was clear from the photos that some of the holes in the deck need to be planked over and some need to be open.So if you build this kit pay close attention to the build videos as it is much cleaer on those where you need to cut through the deck planking.A couple of coats of sating vernish were applied to the decks.Once the decks were dry the previously constructed deck structures were glued to the decks.

OK all of the stealer planks were fitted to complete the hull and then I used wood filler and sanding to start the process of smoothing the hull.Since there will be multiple parts stuck onto the side of the hull to mimic the hull plating the hull doesnt have to be perfect, but I wanted it as smooth as possible.The hull plates are made of cardboard and I have read people having major issues getting them to stick to the wood so I didnt want it glass smooth.

The next step after this is to fit the lower level side pieces that have the windows cut into them.

OK next step was to apply filler to the hull to make is smooth.it doesnt have to be perfect because there are additional planks you apply to recreate some the the details.I used lightweight spackle.I really made a mistake here.Following OCCREs recommendations I covered the whole hull in spackle (filler).it then took me HOURS to sand it all off.I watched a video afterwards from someone buildign this and he applied a thin coat of primer to highlight the rough spots and then just applied filler there.That is what I will do next time.

I sanded the spackle off with 120 then 220 and 320 grit sandpaper.Once that was done I applied 2 coats of tamiya grey primer to the hull.Again I should have applied a sanding sealer first.I used dilute PVA glue to coat the hull to seal the pores in the wood, but it ddint work that well.

Now the hull is primed the next step is to apply the side details.These are paper strips.They look really good because they are quite thins and to scale.I have read that they are a bit of a nightmare to apply because they are made of paper and getting them to stick to the hull is diffiult and when you try to sand them to hide the seams in the parts they tend to fall apart.

So stay tuned for the next exciting epsiode where I either apply them with no problems OR the OCCRE curse comes back to haunt me.

Thanks Derek.

So now we start adding the dreaded side detail parts.These are made of cardboard ( I think). I have watched some build diares that say these are a devil to work with .they dont stick well to the hull and they disintegrate when you sand them.

So with this in mind I toom a deep breath and started.I can confrim they are no fun to work with.They are quite delicate and will crease if you apply any pressure to them. I used a 30 second superglue which actually worked very well except it did spooge out in some areas.I think I used too much glue because I was nervous they wouldnt stick.If they dont stick well you will need to repalce the part you stuck because there is no way to get a partially stuck pice off again without it ripping.

occre gives you a spacer to figure out the spacing but it was hard to use that and hold the piece against the hull for 30 seconds so I just eyeballed the positioning.

I used lightweight spackle again for filler and applied it very sparingly.I read that you cant use anything under 320 grit sandpaper to sand these parts of they just fall apart. I used 400 grit to sand them seams and put a light coat of primer on a test area.As you can see it looks awful.This will likely need repeat sanding with 600-800 grit sandpaper to get a smooth result and you have to go VERY slowly or the paper just starts peeling up ans you can see it did on the top piece in the photo.