A Merry Christmas to you and your family, and a Happy modelling New Year

Best Wishes

Mike

Hi shipmates

Back in drydock and just about to finish the last 10 planks.

I have put together an excel spreadsheet to enter the rib gaps and then calculate the individual plank widths for port and starboard sides, automatically.

For those coming up behind you can download it from here if you don't want to write in the magazine.



Click here - Plank - Last 10 or send me your email address.

All the best,

John

So on to the last 10 planks and a couple variations I have made to the instructions. Firstly I set 2 garboard planks in place each side as I thought it might be a little easier doing the last plank without so much bending.

Also to make life a little easier I put some masking tape on the garboard planks and transferred the rib numbers on to it along with a P & S, so that I knew where I was at any time . The rib gaps/plank sizes were printed off from the spreadsheet (above) and put on the wall so they were easy to see while I was laying the last 10 planks.

I must say the Digital Callipers I bought are great and so easy & quick for measuring especially the internal rib gaps. One point I learned though is to reset the zero point whenever you use them. Luckily the results I got were so ludicrous it was easy to see what I had done wrong.



Still haven’t had to use pins for the planks so have had to be a bit creative at times ensuring that they lay flat. It hasn’t worked out perfectly so a little more rubbing down than usual required I think, but it’s worth it. I can’t imagine the mess I would have created trying to get all of the plank pins out after gluing.



Another point I am pleased about was deferring the upper deck planking until after the hull was complete. This allowed me to keep the ship nice and steady on the jig I constructed while laying all of the lower planks. I don’t know if this will cause me problems later but I will soon see. I will keep it like this until the keel is laid and glued up, maybe even to laying the copper tiles that have just arrived, and then she can continue the rest of the build the right way up on the stand.



As ever any comments, tips or faults you can see most warmly received.

John

Good looking build you have there John. I do believe you are on the right track and would tend to agree with Mike, tile first and then continue onto the decks. All the builds have brilliant ideas to make life easier, you just need to spend time reading and find them. keep it up.

So this was a wonderful sight at last although the planking is not yet finished. The last few should be a doddle after this though. I thought the last 10 would go in easily but I still needed droppers and steelers at the stern.



So now on to the rubbing down. I must say I enjoy this part as it requires little skill and the results are dramatic.

TOP TIP #1 – The better the planking the less rubbing down you need to do.

TOP TIP #2 – When rubbing down you will create a lot of sawdust. Keep it for filling in later

As I have mentioned before I didn’t want to use pins so it all looked a bit rough initially but came back nicely. So much so that I now have a dilemma for which I would love to hear my friends advice on. I will leave the question ‘till the end.



TOP TIP #3 – Don’t skimp on the fairing it pays dividends in the end.

I took nearly 2 weeks to do it in the end but it was necessary. The shape of the hull is critical.

TOP TIP #4 – Use balsa on the bows and stern.

I thought using filler was over the top but will definitely use it next time. I small dent appeared but I managed to rub it out however a solid shape to the curves would have saved a lot of trouble.

The keel went on OK but took a bit of fitting and sorting out. A little paste (sawdust, water and glue) in the gaps brought it up again though.

However could resist making a start on the mast in the meantime.



Still a bit more planking to to but hopefully should be able to solve the problem of the misaligned ports on the upper gun deck at the same time.



I was really pleased with the way it turned out especially the stern which was a real pain to get right. I used hot water in a vacuum flask with planks left soaking overnight and then run through the steam from a kettle before bending.



As you can see here, there is a major cock up on planking the bows. The obvious point was that there were not enough dropper planks early on but the thing is the planks followed the frame quite happily. In other words, it may look wrong but there was no clinkering whatsoever. So in the end, I am not quite sure what I could have done better.



So my question is, having bought the copper tiles I am now wondering whether the planking would be good enough to colour after all. I would like it done in a dark stain maybe walnut, to show off the planking but I have a question about whether it’s good enough for that. Would really love to hear your comments and if you think it would look rubbish please let me know.

Best wishes

John

Hi John!

Mike is right your planking is excellent there is some small areas in the upper hull were you have had a small gap, but that’s been filled and we all get them, so no problems there.

You have the opportunity to make the ship any way you like, you don't have any problems with the hull that would need to be covered up with paint. You’re in a great position so you could paint, stain or even double plank, the choice is yours.

PAINTING!
Great to give the ship an authentic look, covers filler and will make the ship instantly recognized as the Victory.

STAINING!
Shows off all your hard work people can tell the ship isn't plastic, you can use different stains to get the look of a natural wood version of the ship instead of using paint.

DOUBLE PLANKING!
A second chance method it true! the first layer of planks is used to get the correct shape of the hull, you can see the problem areas in the planking and correct them write notes on the hull, even test the placement of the second layer planks before fitting them. The second layer of 0.5mm or 0.6mm thick planks is very easy to shape and covers up any problems you might have had the first time, also you can choose the wood used for the top layer of wood that will be seen.

The bow on this ship is very blunt and I found that starting to shape the second layer of planks from the first plank at around frame 14 was the key, I had to add 8 dropper planks from the fourth layer. The links below show what I mean:-

http://forum.model-space...s&m=23752#post23752

http://forum.model-space...s&m=22018#post22018

Don’t forget you have the copper tiles, so many options are open to you John and whatever you choose to do will look great as you have a well-made hull there mate. I see you have painted a mast section so take that into consideration, even the natural wood version has some painted parts.

Darron

Hi John
A very clean build that you should be proud of,if you already have the copper tiles i would use them and then use your experience on your next build but its your choice at the end of the day.
regards
Andy

She's looking good John