Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that the interior of the launch was painted in Olive Green? trying to remember where I saw it.
TIS

Cheers Mike, - Phew, that video brought me out in a sweat just watching it... Huzzah for chuffin' great combustion engines eh!

*retires for a lie-down*

@ Tiswas; As mike says, and I also 'think' that it was the Admirals barge that had the olive green interior (I may have got that from the official Victory colour guide, but I'm not entirely sure...).

First time I've ever heard of Olive green being described as showy though..

Mmm Yellow + Black = olive*.. lovely.

*amounts of each vary according to pigmentation of paint

mike thanks for the lead on the electric plank bender. I have decided to see what the mag says and see how i get on with the launch if i struggle i my invest for doing old vis hull

cheers matey

I'm relieved that it wasn't just me that had a problem with the formers.

Having said that, I am following the Official build diary very closely and Tomick (who is a professional modelmaker and blatantly quite handy at this planking lark) managed to make a cracking job of things with the supplied parts - so I put my errors down to being a tad over-enthusiastic (not fully considering potential pitfalls)and not the kit itself.

As I point out in my build diary, my only criticism is that the magazine instructions / official build diary do not highlight certain areas that could do with a little more in the way of advice or warnings. There are many people building this model who have only had experience with injection moulded plastic kits and may be unprepared for the fact that even laser cut, wooden parts seem to require a little bit more care in lining-up and prepping than may be expected.

What seems relatively simple and straightforward instruction-wise (glue part 'a' to part 'b') doesn't take into account the behaviour of wooden parts and the surprises that they may have in store for the unwary...

I am pretty sure that this kit is of a good quality and that I just need to get my head around the potential hiccups before things become a bit easier. If anything, I am am enjoying this build far more than any plastic or metal model that I have built precisely because of the challenges it presents.

Reading this and other posts, people want more information about planking. My view is that nothing beats hands-on experience but we all have the internet to help gather ideas as well as reading the various books which deal with the subject.

I am still taking my time and looking for time in which to tackle my launch however, this morning whilst looking for Google images I came across Launch Build

OK, so it is a much larger scale model which is described but there are some good pictures and advice on planking. He doesn't claim to be an expert but has described the steps pretty well.

If interested, you can get the kit from Cornwall Models Launch kit

Mike T

i`ve never done any planking before, never built a wooden model before but i am always of the mind of how hard can it be, i`ve been reading like you budgie, their gonna start theirs soon, gonna start theirs when time allows, i just didn`t wait to see anybody else`s planking i just did it, and to be honest with patents it was much easier than i anticipated but it is only the launch.

so i understand what you mean budgie everyone saying oh its the planking next, need a plank bender, must read up on plank bending, oh not the planking etc etc,,
it kind of puts doubt in your mind, but just go for it and take your time. i mean you can always get another issue if it all goes wrong. my glass is always half full.
willz

I'll echo Tomick's compliments and notes - I also had a bit of a problem with 'plank dipping' but this was due to either having gone a bit gung-ho with removing the laser burn on the outside surfaces of one or two formers or, more likely, going along with the assumption that the formers would be perfectly in-line when gluing them to the jig.


For anyone who has not started their Launch build, I would strongly recommend using the edge of a ruler along the formers to ensure that they line up perfectly (on BOTH sides) before actually gluing them in place and, if it's too late, certainly before applying any planks (pretty obvious really, but something that I missed on my first attempt).

Another point of note is the bow; the instructions and photo's suggest contouring the bow former itself as well as the two part 3, removable formers, (see pic below), but I am not convinced that this is correct since the keel part fits the bow former perfectly... It follows that planking the bow into a 'V' shape will result in a 'V' shaped bow (logically enough) whereas the keel is 'square'

I am of a mind that planks should butt-up against the SIDES of the bow former, leaving the laser cut surface of the bow former in a dark brown finish for visual guidance (creating a slightly blunter bow, but allowing a perfect fit of the keel when you come to apply it). I may well be wrong on this point and it doesn't matter that much if you intend to paint your model (since one can always fill any gaps and hide the fix with a lick of paint), but if you intend to leave your model in a wood-finish, then such issues become much more important.

As another 'tip', may I suggest that one also keeps using the keel part as a reference to the lines of the bottom of the launch when contouring the formers (stop sanding frequently and hold up the keel part to the formers at regular intervals as this will illustrate any excessive sanding before it is too late).


This pic illustrates how I 'think' the bow should be contoured (short of filing steps into both sides of the bow former that the planking will sit on). Like I said, I could be wrong, but it does seem logical).

Edit: Note that I have left a little of the laser burn on the edges of the two part 3's - this ensures that, when it comes to planking, each side will be symmetrical - if you remove all the laser burn, it makes it a lot more difficult to see if one side is different to the other.