Now this is really taking shape Tony and looking very sweet indeed.... .. Going to enjoy seeing this progress so keep those pics coming....

Regards

Alan

Really nice work Tony

I could have done with your advice about using tweezers to remove the wood from the chopper when I chopped the planks for my Trinny deck, I caught my hand twice on the blade, you'd think I would have learned after the first time

Hi Tony,

Tidy work.

Made that little bit easier by the nice selection of tools you`ve collected.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Sunday 28th February 2016

Well despite quite a lot of time spent this week on the model the progress does not look that much further forward.

Much of the week has been given over to deciding on how to manage the planking element of the build and just how much detail I want/am prepared to add to this. More on that later.

1. The main part of this week’s build has been the completion of the bulkhead planking of which there are 4 areas that needed completing.

Once the planking was complete and the glue had been given enough time to dry out I filed down the excess level with the height of the decks.

I then lightly sanded each bulkhead face to level out the planking applied and while not shown in this set of pictures, I applied 1 coat of matt varnish to each bulkhead face.

The first 3 pictures in the set below show the completion of the bulkhead planking.

2. Having given some thought to the deck planking I have decided to replace the kit supplied 5mm wide plank strips with some 4mm. The wood strips I ordered are 600mm long so having tried out a couple of deck patterns I have opted to use planks of 65mm for the decks.

For cutting these to length I have switched to my older cutter “The NWSL Chopper III”. This is a nice unit as it is built to ensure you get a good 90 degree cut which means the planks fit end to end with no gaps.

Because the baseboard of this unit is wood it’s really important (I think) to stop the blade gouging a deep cut into this so I use a small piece of plastic card under the wood I am cutting just to protect the baseboard.

Again we are using single edge razor blades and they really can catch your fingers so a scrap of wood or a pair of tweezers for removing each cut plank from the cutter is essential.

I have cut 90 planks so far (6 bundles of 15 in the pictures). Having reached this stage, it’s onto the “caulking”.

3. Lots of options for caulking the planks. Some prefer to use a marker or pencil to run a line down each plank side. I have seen black cotton being used but for me (while time consuming) I prefer to use black tissue paper.

It’s important to get hold of some “Non Colour Bleed” paper because when it comes to varnishing the deck the last thing you want is the dye coming out of the paper and mixing with the varnish.

What I do is bundle (in this case packs of 15 strips) between 3 clamps) these particular ones are clothes peg types supplied under the Mantua brand). You need to get one long edge all nice and even along with one end face.

I then brush on some PVA glue and stick on the tissue paper which has been roughly trimmed to size.

Once thoroughly dry I use a single edge razor to trim the excess tissue paper away from the bundle.

What you can then see is how I separate the bundle into individual planks again using the razor blade. Each plank will then have one long and one short side edged with the glued on tissue paper.

SUNDAY 06th March 2016

Well progress has been a bit slow this week due to work (always gets in the way ).

I have finished my treenailing jig which you can see in the first 3 pictures below. The part (third picture) that impresses the treenail holes in the plank end is 4mm x 4mm with 2 pins drilled into it.

Finally, I have been able to start my planking with the first stage being the fixing of a temporary straight edge to the deck to ensure the first run of planks remain straight and true.

For the shift pattern I have opted to use a spacing of 16mm between the end of one plank and the start of the next plank on a new row.

The kit supplied planking is described as Mukaly wood – not a name I am familiar with. These planks are 5mm wide but I decided to use a 4mm wide plank and managed to pick up the same wood in the size I wanted from Cornwall Model Boats.

The wood has a very nice yellow/tan shade so depending on what it looks like when rubbed down I may leave it as is with just a varnish coat over the top rather than resorting to a stained finish.

So far I have completed one half of the main deck so hoping as the week progresses I can carry on and finish the other half of this deck as well as the other 4 .

When planked I will move onto the simulated treenailing so hoping I will have reached that stage by next weekend.

Alan

Many thanks for the kind comments.

Martyn

Many thanks for looking in. Taken on quite a task with the decking but hoping the end result will look half decent at least

Ken many thanks.

Just hoping the planking , when i get to that stage , goes on well

Hi Tony.
Progressing very nicely,lovely clean build. keep the pictures coming.
Ian

Ian/Carl

Many thanks for looking in and the kind comments.