Hello and welcome to the sovereign gang,looks like you've made a cracking start,as for being huge wait until you get the masts and bowsprit on .As for infills I did this at the bow and found it quite useful.I decided not to treenail as I thought the scale was too small,something I later regretted after seeing other builds, gandales and martins for example.

Thanks for the welcome. I'm currently looking for the best deals on balsawood for the infills!

It was gandales build where I first saw the treenailing and thought it gave an excellent look to the hull.

I'm also researching some miniature carpenter models that i can place alongside my dry dock while I build it!

Welcome to the forum and enjoy your build, looks good so far. If your unsure of anything then just ask theres loads of help on here if its needed.

Regards

Andy

Welcome to the forum Owen looking forward to seeing your build. The balsa Infills will help in getting a nice run to the planks

Rgd Martyn

Welcome aboard Owen..Looks like you have made a great start there...I hope that you thoroughly enjoy this fantastic ship...Look forward to following your build diary...

very nicely done Owen. I tend to use thinner bits of balsa wood I found it easier to cut them to the right size to fit between the frames than a thicker peace A little tip is to make sure the balsa woods grain is in line with the keel ie straight up and down as that makes it easier to carve to the shape of the ribs Hope this helps.

Rgd Martyn

Thanks for the advice. I will continue along this plan then and source a bigger bundle of balsa wood from ebay!

Thanks for the advice about the grain direction!

Hi Owen, I myself have a dremel rotary tool and have used it on a number of occasions on my build and of course other builds too.. That said, everything on the build can be done with hand tools, just takes a little longer... .. You'll also find the dremel has many other uses other than model building.....

Hope this helps..

Regards

Alan

I really should have posted this as I was going along but I’ve been quite busy.

Made lots of progress since my last post but the planking is taking me much longer than I was expecting

I got lots of Balsa wood and cut out all they layers to build up the infills. Here are some pics of them sitting loose in the hull at the moment. I measured as best I could and glued each block together and the tried to file and sand it to get as close to the two ribs it was sitting against.







When I had them all dry fit and measured. I glued the infills in and let them set for a while. I glued them in one at a time and clamped where possible where i had clamps to fit the gaps







Then I sanded down once as a complete hull to get an even form with as little bumps as possible. It felt really solid at that point which is a nice feeling.





Next I filled in the gaps with wood filler and the sanded it once more






Before starting the planking I wanted to use the launch both to get some practise at the method. Here are some pics of the results. I was quite please with it and it left me feeling confident for the planking of the main hull










Then after I had done the launch planking. I decided to get started on the main hull and did the underside of the Galley. I feel like it’s is a little bit more curvy than it should be but it looks less so in person. The pictures make it look more curved than it actually is.








Then I layed the first plank along the hull. An exciting moment! Even took the picture before I wiped off the glue because I was eager to get a picture. I’ve been using the candle inside the tin can method to do the bending. I wasn’t keen on the whole soaking and drying method.
I found just nailing straight into the bamboo would split it. So i have been measuring, cutting, bending, and then drilling the points where it will be nailed. I’ve been doing a single plank and its opposite at the same time, and sanding and shaping together to help maintain the symmetry.






Then on to the bottom of the hull. Filing and shaping these first few planks on the bottom was very tricky and took me quite a while.





Got the top 6 rows done and the bottom 4 done!






I was quite pleased with my progress on the planking and decided to sort all the bundles at one go, so they were all the same width and thickness as there was some deviation in the sizes. When this was done I found I had 40 more bundles to lay on the hull, or close to that!

Worf was not impressed.



It has been taking me about an episode of Star Trek to lay down a single row across both sides of the hull, so I guess i have about 30 hours left to go before the first planking is done!
I feel like my progress is too slow but I think I am doing it in the most efficient way possible. Does anybody have any neat tricks to speed things up without dropping in quality?

Go at your own pace is the best advice. Its never a race to build a model and whatever time it takes you just enjoy the experience and get the best out of your build investment.

All looks like its coming along a real treat.