For some reason, pirates and pirate ships are very popular subjects these days. Who hasn’t enjoyed watching the swashbuckling adventures of the old days of Errol Flynn, or watched Treasure Island or even the more recent Pirates of the Caribbean films. There’s a reason that Disneyland has had the popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride for so many decades. People just like the old swashbuckling villains.
Ship modelers like them too, so a number of manufacturers have come through, providing us with a range of pirate ships to choose from, and Ages of Sail has them all:
In addition, there are kits of ships that were often associated with pirates, in particular, the Barbary Pirates of the Mediterranean Sea. These aren’t specifically pirate ships, but could easily be displayed as one:
But there’s nothing like a classic pirate ship flying the Jolly Roger, and the Buccaneer Caribbean from Occre of Spain is just that. At Ages of Sail, we have a supply of these kits and we’re going to give you a little peek into what makes up the kit.
Occre’s Buccaneer is a relatively new kit. It is a 1/100-scale representation of a 16th century pirate ship. The completed kit measures 22″ long and just under 18″ high, so it should fit nicely on your bookcase or mantle.
The kit comes in a fairly compact box, only about 9″ by 18″ by about 2-1/2″ thick. It is solidly packed which helps keep the parts from shifting around and getting damaged in shipping. Cardboard flaps inside the box also help keep things from shifting around.
When you take everything out of the box, it’s hard to figure our how they got everything in there in the first place.
Wood strips come in three bundles and there appears to be a good supply of planking material.The laser cut parts look very cleanly cut. The sheets with the bulkheads are a very nice quality plywood and parts are tightly organized on them, leaving very little waste. The wooden parts that will be visible on the model are laser cut from nice darker colored sheet wood.
The rigging material is supplied on 10 spools in beige and dark brown. There is also a coil of dark heavy line which looks like it’s probably anchor cable.
Something seen in a lot of kits these days is photo etched brass. This is a nice way to provide very precisely designed parts made of thin brass. Generally, unless the parts are meant to represent decorative details, the brass parts need to be painted or chemically blackened using a metal toner.
You may notice in the above photo that there is a kink in the frame that’s holding the brass parts. This is only because the brass sheet was folded over in order to fit in the box. Clearly, this was done with care so that none of the parts themselves were bent. I unfolded the sheet for the photo.
The kit contains a number of small parts that come in a handy compartmentalized plastic box that helps keep the parts separated and safe from getting lost.
As you can see, there is a nice selection of small parts including deadeyes, blocks, grating strips, a one-piece cast metal ship’s boat, stern lantern, mast caps, belaying pines, eye pins, rings, nails, cannons and carriages and more.
The kit also includes a full set of pre-sewn sails, which will save you a bit of work when it comes to rigging the model.
And what is a pirate ship without a pirate flag!
And when it comes to plans and instructions to help you build your model, Occre doesn’t skimp at all. In addition to a full-color booklet, there are also numerous sheets of plans showing the parts layout, rigging detail, belaying locations and more.
Overall, this is a nice kit and a very good value at only $149. It’ll provide many hours of enjoyment for the builder and will look good on display once it’s finished.
Check out this and other kits of the Occre line including Ships, Trams, Trains and Accessories at Ages of Sail.
Ages of Sail 