Hi Fellow Builders

I am currently following a build on Model Ship World and thought this might be interesting to us all Taken from site as follows -

"A little more progress, and my first major deviation from the kit itself. I stated when I began that I would be sticking to the kit as much as possible, but after I finished planking the hull I found that just wasn't feasible. The kit is single planked, and the sapelly provided is nice enough, but a combination of a slightly less than expected finish, and some trouble in the planking led me to the inescapable conclusion that leaving it single planked just wasn't going to do. I was not particularly pleased with the results of my first efforts. A part of this (a smaller part truth be told) I blame on the wood, and a much larger part I blame on my own planking skills. I have already mentioned I believe that the size of the hull on this ship was unlike anything I had ever encountered before, and each strake was planked with two pieces. This led to a lot of gaps, and some fairly uneven runs. In the end, even after sanding, the color difference in the wood, and the general look just wasn't appealing.

This led me to a pretty lengthy internal debate of whether to paint or leave the wood. That's been going on since I started it. I want to leave it as a wood finish, since I like the look better, but the color scheme of the Victory is so well known and recognizeable. If I was to paint it, then the planking job wouldn't matter as seriously, since it would be filled and then painted. But in the end I decided to keep it as wood.

Luckily, we have one of the greatest carpentry stores I have ever seen here, a place called Lee Valley. They have bundles of cherry veneer for a pretty unbelieveable price. I had grabbed a few of them some time back with the intention of saving them for some kitbashing in the future, and I figured no time like the present, so I started on a secondary planking layer of the lower hull. I have one side done so far, and while not completely perfect, the effect is far and away better than the original, and I'm more than satisfied.

I still have to give the second planking a final sanding and coating, but even so, I'm still pleased with the look after the second planking is on.

The cherry veneer is a bit light in color, but a coat of water based vermont maple stain, along with the natural color of the cherry has darkened it nicely. It won't be as dark as the original sapelly, which was a bit closer to a walnut look, but I prefer the lighter surface. Once it's got a coat of wood oil I will have a final evaluation and make my decision. So far though, it's looking good to stay as a wood finish."

Links to the build is here Static HMS Victory (Artesania Latina)

A Comment from Admin would be nice to see if they have changed the original to Double Plank ???

Waiting for Pt 2 & 3 !!!!

Russ

I had just viewed you build and I can see exactly what you were talking about..I have double planked almost all my models except for RMS Titanic, well technically single planked but there had to be an extra thin layer fitted to the hull to give it that ribbed look..I suppose the jury is still out on whether you could have called it double planked..still, your model looked pretty damn good. What I thought was most annoying was when you got strakes that that had to be curved and pointed to fit those final gaps in the hull only to have it come up short, or the gap was a seemingly impossible shape to fill with a strake. I think that's when a second language usually French come to the fore..hope you enjoy the new build. John.W

Hi lads i must admit after following this build i too am tempted to double plank the hull
john

Hi well I hope I will be getting double planking for my HMS Surprise, re your statement,

FOR THE Surprise

Kit features:
* Traditional double planking on frame wooden hull .
* Factory precut keel and all main frame parts
* Highest quality planking mahogany, walnut and lime woods
* High quality fittings in white metal burnished or in real die-cast brass.
* Sails set full sewn. You just have to rig them at the masts.

Many thanks admin, really pleased you are responding to all the feedback.