Great job, she's looking good and some nice tips along the way.

Graeme

that ended up being a bit of good luck. After a few nails I was looking for some kind of handle and that ended up being just right.

Hi Jeff,
superb work so far.You can get tanganika from model expo online in various widths and thickness.

I have this kit too and will be following your build with interest.

I am one of the USA forum support members so let me know if I can help in any way-not that you need any help building!!!!

Carl

So I actually READ the instructions today. Browsing thru pack #4 to get more info on deck planking, I had stuck in my brain that none of the decks were planked, only simulated with pencil lines on the deck sections. I did find the offending picture that gave me this idea, of simulating the caulking by using a pencil in the seams in between the planks. I would like to say that this cleared up so many things, but my head was so far up my butt that I was just.... "you're an idiot". Literally slapped my forehead

So just to clarify, for the people that planked the 2'nd deck, (just for practice), did you buy the Tanganika planking for just that or did you replace all the Basswood deck planking thru the whole thing?

On to actual building, I did get all the support strips for the 2'nd deck installed and most of the support strips for the support strips



I was on the fence if I would need the secondary supports but after cutting out the 2'nd deck pieces, they have a pretty good warp to them so I will need to put some weight on them to get them glued down flat. I do intend to do some planking on the 2'nd deck, but just enough to cover what will be visible thru the holes in the 3'rd deck. I considered doing the fake lines with a pencil (like I thought they were) but I'm planning to make those 2 grates removeable so it should be a little more authentic.

More to come.. stay tuned :)
Jeff

Lovely work, like the way you're progressing with this.....well done.... .. As for your deck planking question, I purchased additional planking strips and planked the whole deck simply as a practice session and to see how it would look prior to carrying out the process on the decks that could be seen. If I didn't like the look of it then no harm was done as it would all be hidden.....

Regards

Alan

Jeff

That is a really smart looking build you have yourself there. You certainly know what its all about and that gunport lining idea is very neat.

I shall follow on with great interest to see some more of this coming together.

Going into production mode. I need to precision cut 48 pieces for the gun port frames, and that's just for the first deck. I have the Mastercut plank cutter which does a nice job but none of my traditional machinist work stops will adapt. My solution was to use double stick tape to affix a depth micrometer to the side and press a round Delrin support onto the thimble to keep it from sagging.




I can now cut the strips with an acceptable variance. The cuts aren't completely square so I cut them a hair long and made a fixture that I can square the ends and sand to finish length.



So now I'm in business Got my little assembly line set up



I was able to get strips enough for 12 ports during lunch today, one side of the first row of ports. Now it's just gluing them together.



This will probably take the rest of the week and this weekend I will try and get the starboard side framed. Stay tuned..

Love the precision work, looking superb.....

Regards

Alan

Back again folks. Not a lot of progress since last update. Work keeps getting in the way. As usual I have 3 things going at the same time. Still working on gun ports, have the port side 1'st deck finished framing, and scribing out the 2'nd deck frames Also planking 2'nd deck under the 3'rd deck grate openings. More on that Sunday when I finish it up. Third project I want to plank the bottom section of the gallery before I glue it to the keel. I just think it will be easier. Which leads to project #4, finishing my planking clamps. You've probably seen them lurking about in other pictures in various stages of incompletion.



These are used to hold planks against the rib instead of nailing them to the ribs. BTW, I ran into an issue there. When I did try to use the pin pusher that comes in the DeAgnosti tool kit its too small, the nail heads are bigger than the pusher tube. Has anyone else had this problem? Are the nails too big or the tool too small? Anyway the clamps are a little bulky for planking the gallery so they're sitting this one out.

There are 2 distinct compound curve sections on the gallery and I wanted to get the transition as crisp as I could. So I'm laying the first 2 planks there.





The top plank is set on all ribs, the bottom one is just glued to the 2 center ribs. Those lines at each rib are actually razor saw cuts to allow them to bend. My plan is to finish the deck planking and the gallery planking this weekend, update to follow, stay tuned :)