Good start to the planking and think you have made the right choice with the wood you are using. That is a tight curve on the bow and a brittle wood could have you pulling your hair out with potential breakages. The balsa infills also help on the bow.

Hope things continue the way they have started for you.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Trev/Derek

Many thanks for looking in.

My plank soaking Trev is the method i use now as be a big clumsy bloke i ended up burning myself on a coupke of occasions using one of those soldering iron type plank benders and that did hurt.

Going to get the next set of planks glued on tonight So hoping if i can get a bit dome each evening that planking should be finished fairly quickly over the next couple of weeks.

Tony

Like what I see Tony, carry on the way you're doing and she'll turn out to be a beautiful creation..… Very well done.... ..

Regards

Alan

THE MAYFLOWER – 26th MAY 2020

Slowly moving forward on my build. Time spent over the last few weeks has seen the completion of the first layer of planking that runs from deck level to hull bottom.

My process of soaking, pinning, drying, chamfering then gluing each plank is certainly not a quick way of working but working with a soaked plank allows it some flexibility but you then need to allow it to dry else you end up with gaps as the wood dries out and shrinks back.

PICTURES 1 Through 6

I have not mastered the “Drop Plank” process at the moment but my attempt has allowed me to get planks around quite a tight curve on the bow without any major “clinkering” with planks trying to ride up over each other.

Were I have need to curve a plank I use these little plank crimping pliers (pic 4 & 5) as I find the traditional versions are just a little too big for my hands.

PICTURES 7 Through 11

In picture 7 I have arrowed the first plank that is loose fitted and from were we then work down the hull.

When this loose fitted plank is removed the gun ports will be cut and these start at the Top of the first plank glued in place.

In Pics 8 & 9 you can see that the planking has gone on with next to no gaps between the planks. This is achieved by chamfering the edge of each plank so they butt up against each other as they follow the curve of the bulkheads.

In pictures 10 and 11 the bow is beginning to look like “Pinhead” from the Hellraiser films but just wanted to ensure that the planks around the curve of the bow were held nice and tight as the glue dried.

PICTURES 12 Through 15

Again, just general views of the hull planking as its progressed.
One point of note if how wood varies in colour. I am using Lime as the first planking layer and had to order up a second batch and its noticeable just how much variation in the colour there is.

No major issue as it’s the first planking layer but its always worth watching out for when you put the finishing layers of planking in place.

PICTURES 16, 17 & 18

What was surprising was I ended up with just 2 triangular fillets each side of the hull to infill.

I ended up with an “elongated Oval” down at the last 2 plank level and to infill these I used a straight plank length with each end cut at a point (45 degrees).

In picture 17 you can see how I have overlaid this new plank over the previously installed ready to be marked up and fitted in position.

Camera batteries just died on me so a picture of the completed (to this stage) planking in my next post.

The next part of the build starts to get interesting as we do the following:

1. Install the next plank running up the hull into which we have to cut the waterway holes.

2. We drill out the 3 mast and the bowsprit holes.

3. Then the decks are planked.

4. We then continue up the hull with the rest of the first planking layer.

So that’s it for this time.

Stay safe everyone and Happy Modelling.

Hi Tony,

A very good update I build the same way regarding the planking, yes it will take a lot longer to build but with a better end result, I can see you will have to sand down and with the Walnut planking added this will set it off a treat.

Regards

Trev

Mark/Trev/Garth

Many thanks for your support.

Slow and steady at the moment with this one. Its taking quite a lot of pre-thought as the instructions are not the best and I can see chances of committing and getting caught out if not careful.

Tony

You're doing a cracking job with her Tony, beautiful finish to your first layer of planking and am sure the second layer will go on a treat. Very well done.... .. Loving how she's looking....

Regards

Alan

Nice job, Tony.
The planking looks good and the second layer will hide any minor discrepancies.
Chris

THE MAYFLOWER – SUNDAY 28th JUNE 2020

Well started this weekend with a slight disappointment ☹

I think I mentioned that because the kit is an “old” second hand one much of the thinner wood (0.5mm) is extremely brittle and in the case of the decking its compounded by the fact that the wood is described as “Mukaly” so not one of the common woods you can source as easily.

While I did contemplate using it the quantity supplied may just be sufficient to do the decks but with absolutely no space for error.

So, on that basis I decided to go with a favourite and ordered 30 lengths of Tanganyka which arrived on Friday.

The disappointment being its even worse that what I have in the kit. When you round a plank and touch ends (always a good test to see if the wood length is even width) one end is around 4mm (should be 5mm) and the other around 6mm.

So, on that basis you would not easily cut this down to length and run a nice parallel set of deck planks.

Onto Plan Number 2.

I have used Maple in the past and this can sometimes be just fine but other times it has a “Weird” silvery grain that stands out at certain angles/lighting. No enough in my wood stocks and not wanting to spend even more money I looked through my wood stocks to see what else I had available.

0.5mm x 6mm Lime I had in quantity so that is what I decided to use.

PICTURE 1

I should really try and find some time (if only) to “Play Decks” and work out some colour methods that I am happy with.

I saw a video recently were the builder had achieved just the sort of deck colour I hanker after but apart from mentioning he had used to AK Interactive products (a Filter and a Panel Line Wash) there was no instruction as to how to use these 2 items.

In Picture 1 you can see I have had a “little play” with some lime and Tanganyka which just resulted in me going back to my tried and tested Light Oak wood stain which I will use for the basis of this ships decking.

DRILLING OUT THE MAST HOLES

Before we can start adding the decking, we need to drill through the mast hole markers in the false decks to the correct level so that the holes are in place for when we eventually get to the masting stage.

At this stage I have not drilled out the bowsprit hole as that needs to go in at a steepish angle based on the still to be fitted bow section – and that section does not fit – but more on that later.

PICTURE 14

This shows that you have to be so careful in cross referencing the picture book, printed instructions and plans.

This is a picture of the bowsprit and I think its fairly clearly that is identified as part 147.

PICTURES 15 & 16

When we cross reference Part 147 to the parts list is wrongly described as “BLOCKS” rather than “Bowsprit”.

Scanning along the line shows that this “block” has a diameter of 6x215mm so I think we can safely assume this is not a block but the bowsprit.

PICTURE 17

The printed instructions are “wonderful” as are the plans.

While they do give a depth of 2.5cm to drill the mast holes to, they also say to angle the mast but absolutely no noted angle in the plans or instructions.

PICTURES 18 & 19

Paying careful attention to the instructions we discover that the Main and Foremast are 8mm diameter but the Mizzen Mast is just 6mm diameter.

Having taped the drill bit 2 the 2.5cm depth its time to chuck the drill (not literally – although there have been moment) and using the drill we proceed to drill out those holes.

PICTURE 20

Looking like the woodworm has had a good feed we just need to clean of the wood dust from the previous drill exercise.