Dave

Many thanks.

bit of an experiment but a passable result.

Alan

Many thanks. Just in the process of making up a whole new batch if deck planks - it needs a lot more than first thought

Andy

Many thanks.

Steve

Many thanks nothing better to be doing so it fills the day well

Hi Tony lovely job on planking the decks

A little tip on the planks curling is to soak the planks first and let them dry out as it puts a bit of moisture back in as they tend to dry out in the box hope this helps rgd Martyn

Very nice work on the planking Tony

Certainly coming along Tony, looking great... Very neat and very tidy.... .. Very nicely done....

Regards

Alan

Beautiful job with planking Tony

Hi Tony.
Looking fab, keep the pictures coming Ian

SUNDAY 24th April 2016

Lots of care and attention needed on the next part of the build as getting the fairing of the hull prepared ready for the planking is essential for a good finish.

There are a couple of areas that are slightly confusing at first glance because some of the pictures appear to be at odds with each other.
If you look at the picture that shows the bow section (has a number 5 in the lower left corner) it appears that the infill sections used to support the planking are set back from the false keel by a mm or so. However, on my model and in the other two diagram pictures the infill sections appear to finish flush with the front of the keel.
Having thought about this I am going to leave mine as they are rather than try and make any adjustments to this area and possible cause damage to this area.

Not a great update this week because having looked at each of the bulkheads it seems some need attention because they do not fit well. Having run the plank down the sides of the hull the very centre bulkhead is a little on the narrow side (up to 2mm in places). Fairly easy to fix by gluing in a piece of scrap 2 x 5 mm wood along the sides of the bulkhead. This will then be sanded back to ensure a straight run across all of the bulkhead sections.

Apart from that the only other parts fitted this week as around the propeller cut-out. There are 2 pieces each side of the false keel which again will be tapered to act as planking supports.

What I do like about the Constructo kits is the table they supply detail what parts you have to cut yourself from the supplied lengths of timer. Parts 23 are the sections added around the propeller cut-out and from the picture of the table you can see that parts 23 are cut from a length of 3 x 3 x 480 Ayous each to 15mm length and x 4 pieces.

I must say that the quality of the wood parts supplied in this kit are exceptionally good all straight and true with absolutely no ragged edges at all.

Planking should be interesting as there are 5 strips per side that form the planking that gets painted white and then the rest of the hull is planked in sapelly. In theory it’s a single planked kit but according to the insert Constructo now supply a batch of 0.5mm veneer just in case the first layer of planking does not go as well as expected.

I have a busy week at work this week (when is it any different) with Tuesday being an expected long one with a trip to Cambridge from Swindon by train. However, have a week off next week so looking forward to being able to start the planking finally.