usedtosail

Thank you Steve. That sounds like a great way to simulate the cannons on the gun deck. I can't wait to see how it turns out for you. Tim - No worries. It is Minwax Oak stain, straight out of the can.

Thanks Tim, and those likes too. After a light sanding and clean up, I gave the spar deck planks two coats of wipe on poly. I used a fine piece of plastic "steel" wool between coats with a very light touch. I like this finish a lot, much better than the Tung oil I used on the gun deck. I used it on the coamings, bitts, and gratings too. You can see that there is some paint damage to the bulwarks from sanding the deck planks that I need to touch up. Before I do that though, I went through the plans and found a few more details to add to the deck first. I used 1/32" strips for the doubler planks around the mizzen mast, as shown on the plans. This was fortunate because I had elongated the mizzen mast hole slightly to get the mizzen mast to sit straight vertically side to side. Although the mast coat would have hidden that, I can now get the hole more rounded. These are the raw planks as glued on last night. They still some sanding and finish. I do have to be careful sanding them, however, because their thickness shows along the edges, not like the other deck planks. I am also going to be drilling holes for the scuppers in the deck planks, and fill them with some brass tube painted grey. Then I will clean up the bulwarks paint.

Thanks for likes, guys. I finished drilling and filling the treenails, and gave the deck planks a good sanding with medium then fine sandpaper. I also scraped down a few high spots. I wiped the deck with a tack cloth and gave it a coat of pre-stain, wiped off the excess, and gave it a coat of Oak stain. I also gave the coamings and bitts another coat of stain. I was glad to see that the spar deck color matches the gun deck pretty well. I may give the spar deck planks another coat of stain though to even it out some more. I am going to use a different finish for the spar deck, though. I used Tung oil on the gun deck, but will use Wipe On Poly for the spar deck. The Tung oil was a bit blotchy and took a long time to harden up. When I checked my almost brand new can of Wipe On Poly, it was a solid mass . It looks like the plastic cap popped open at some point (or I forgot to close it the last time I used it? - nah! ) Instead of buying a new can, I decided to make my own by mixing 50% Poly with 50% mineral spirits. This way I can make up just as much as I need when I need it and store the Poly in a regular can. More to come on that later.

Thanks for the clarification. This has been on my mind since I read this because I had to put a few into the sides of the Constitution deck planks but didn't want to put too many in.

Great looking deck planking, Chuck. You put mine to shame. In a previous post, you said: "I find that on most contemporary models there are only a few scarf joints.... as opposed to modern models where the builder uses way to many. I have always seen just two or three and on the rarest of occasions four hooked scarf joints against the waterway." It looks like you ended up with 5 scarf joints on each side, two in the bow and three in the stern. Did you mean two or three per each end?

I finished marking the butt ends and started drilling and filling. Here you can see the steps I use - the raw drilled holes on the right, the holes after I clean them out with an awl in the center, and the filled holes on the left. I use a wood putty for the filling. I then scrape the excess putty off with a razor blade, X-Acto chisel or smaller chisel, and end up with this: I am about half way done with this step, so more drilling and filling tonight.

George, those deck strips are the 1/8" by 1/16" strips from Model Expo. There was a bunch that came with the kit, but because I used a lot of them for planking the gun deck, I did order another batch from ME, so these are a mixture of both. I actually ran out of these strips near the end, but I used the Byrnes saw to split some 5/32" by 1/16" strips that came with the kit into two 1/8" wide strips. The hull plank strips were straight out of the box. I sanded each strip on all four sides before gluing them in place, but in most cases they were in really good shape out of the box.

Thanks Sal and Steve, and for the likes. This part seems to me that it is taking a while, but it has been enjoyable. I am looking forward to moving on, though. Some progress this week, but first I had a small side project to take care of. Our old kitchen sink faucet let go and dumped a bunch of water under the sink . It took out the particle board cabinet floor. I had a plumber replace the faucet but I replaced the cabinet floor with some sanded plywood. I got to use the big boy tools so it was fun ! Here is the new faucet, which my wife picked out: And here is the new cabinet floor. I just put on a coat of poly so it looks a bit uneven. I have one more coat to go: (that flash is sure a harsh light, shows how bad these cabinets are, but that is a job for another day, or the next owner whichever comes first ) Back to ship modeling. I gave the planks a good sanding with medium sand paper to get them all even. I had a few more small cracks that I filled with sawdust filler. Then I marked the plank end butts. I used long planks when I did the planking but I wanted to show them at the appropriate lengths with a three butt shift. I first marked the planks with pencil, using a strip of manila folder to get a straight line. I then indented the planks at the pencil marks with a 1/8" angled chisel. Because it was angled, I could use it on the planks that were less than 1/8" wide. To get an even indent across the planks, I made one indent, then turned the chisel 180 degrees and made another. I still have to make the indents on the stern planks, they are just penciled for now. Planks after sanding but before marking: Bow area planks indented: This is the chisel I am using for this step. It came in a pack of chisels from Micro Mark (I think): We are home this weekend so I should have this step competed tomorrow, then start drilling and filling for the tree nails.

Nice job on the ratlines, Tom. And the rest of the build looks great too.

You are right Jerry about wanting some supports for those vertical pieces. You could add some scrap pieces under the deck after making holes through the deck for them. Just make sure they don't interfere with a bulkhead.

Thanks Rich. George, thank you too, and here is the real milestone, the last plank is in! Markus, thank you and welcome. I am happy to have you follow along.

Thank you for the likes. We are almost done with the deck planking so hang in there. A couple more along the starboard side bulwarks to add. You can see I added a piece of manila folder over the main hatch opening to try to keep the dust out while sanding the spar deck planks. In between planks, I opened up the mast holes. I used a circle template to mark the holes on the deck, then a small round file to get the holes close and a large round file to finish them. I checked the mast rake and alignment of the three masts as I went and adjusted the holes accordingly. I will finish this off with mast coats later when I install the masts. I had added the tenons to these three mast dowels before and made sure they fit in the mast steps. I was worried that I would not be able to get them back into the steps after the deck was planked, but I had marked the tenons with the directions that the dowels should go into the holes, and they went into the steps without a problem. I have some more initial sanding for the decks then I will mark the rest of the plank end joints and add the drill and fill treenails, like I did for the gun deck planks.

Looks good. I'll follow along and if you have any questions I will be happy to answer them, although it looks like you are doing great.

Thanks all. George, I do hope to get to scratch building in the future, but for now I have at least one more kit I want to do. Maybe someday I will do an admiralty model like EdT's or Dan V's, but that will have to wait until after I retire. Some more boring planking progress to show. I filled the port side and ended up with some thin planks along the back edge and transom, and a couple of hook scarfed planks along the sides. Not bad, but I am trying to do better on the starboard side. I am measuring the remaining gaps more often and adjusting the tapers as I go, which so far is yielding much more consistent plank widths. I am still going to have the hooked scarf joints along the sides so they will match port to starboard. I continue sanding the planks that are already in place. I filled the gaps along the forward hatch coamings that run athwart ship by first painting on some thinned white glue then mixing in basswood saw dust and pushed this into the gaps. I scraped it with a razor blade and will sand it after it dries. It filled the gaps nicely and I am hoping that after sanding I can still get even staining when I stain the deck later. Finally, another view into the gun deck through the main hatch, just for fun. There is some dust getting down there which I am not happy with, but I will take of that after the spar deck planks are sanded. The hatch coamings help to keep dust from falling into the hatch, but I am going to have to carefully blow the dust out later.

Looks good J. I wouldn't sweat the planking - whatever works for you is fine. Your father will love it I am sure. One suggestion I would make is before you copper the hull, prime it where the copper will go, as it helps the plates stick better than to bare wood, and paint above the copper line and overlap it so you have a nice clean paint line above the plates. Maybe you were already planning to do that, but I didn't on my first model and I never did get a good line above the plates. Oh, and fill and sand the hull under the copper, as gaps between the planks will show.

Good to see you back at work to her, Max.

Congratulations Ed and a hearty Thank You for taking the time to educate those of us that want to improve our skills in this great hobby.

The planking along the port side was getting a little wonky, so I stopped and remeasured the remaining gaps at each bulkhead and came up with a plank count and width for the planks that will go all the way to the transom. I did end up removing a few planks to redo them with less width in places.The tricky part, I found, was setting the tapering jig to these widths, but I eventually just cut a plank by hand using a straight edge, then used that plank to set the taper jig angle and distance from the saw blade. This worked well and I was able to cut a bunch of planks using the saw. I dry fit all these and adjusted an area that was a bit too wide by sanding each of the planks, then glued them in place. Time for some wedges: In between planks, I continued working on the hand rails for the stairs to the berth deck. I first blackened the supports I made using Birchwood Casey and they blackened nicely, even in the solder areas. I was able to remove the ladder from the hatch with a little tug, then I glued two hand rail supports to the sides of the ladder at an angle, like this picture from the current ship. I tied some line to the supports and glued the ladder back into place. I then drilled holes in the hatch coaming and glued the two top supports in place. When these dried, I tied the lines to them using a little glue to hold the knots. Now I have to make four more posts for the ladder from the spar deck to the gun deck.

Those cushions look very realistic.

Steamahs - a butter delivery system, best served just before lobstah

Thanks George, Tim, and Bill, and the likes. Jay - thanks for the picture and I see what you mean about using the blocks. Somewhere back in this log I show a clamp I made out of two pieces of angle aluminum to hold a plank at an angle so I could taper it with a plane or sanding block. It worked OK, but the tapering jig on the Byrnes saw works the best for me for these deck planks. I completed the bow planks on the spar deck and gave them an initial sanding. I have to add the tree nails to them give them a final sanding, but I will probably wait until all the deck planking is completed then do them all at once. I continue planking the port stern side and reached the edge of the main hatch coaming last night. I came up about 1/32" short of the corner, so I will have to notch the next plank to get a tight fit at the corner. I totally spaced on the hand rails for the two ladders I will be showing, so in between planks last night I experimented with making stanchions for the hand rails from brass. I silver soldered pieces of brass tube to a thin brass rod, then used the belt sander and files to thin down the brass tube and remove excess solder. They still need more cleaning up and either blackening or painting, then I have to figure out how to rig them and get them in place. The ladder from the gun deck to the berth deck is accessible through the main hatch opening, but it is still going to be tricky. Silver soldering is the way to go I have found. I have tried this sort of thing with soft solder, but it is usally a pain to get teh solder to flow nicely and the joints usually don't hold up well to lots of work on them afterward. These joints held up through all the sanding and filing no problem and the soldering itself was fairly straight forward. I used the solder that comes with a bottle of liquid flux with a butane pencil torch, and as long as you use the flux the solder flows nicely. I do have to learn to not use too much solder though, as you can see in the pictures. I did redo a couple of joints that were heavy on the solder.

Yes, I would suggest painting the hull before adding the cooper plates. This way you will get a nice crisp line at the top of the copper. I didn't do this when I built this model and was not happy about it at the time.

Those guns look fantastic, Bill.

Back at work this week after a week off at the lake. It was a nice vacation. Still planking the port side bow and added a few planks to the port side stern. I cut planks at the stern to the edge of the main hatch coaming and it looks like I have another good fit there, as I did on both sides at the bow. I haven't tapered these planks yet at the stern but it looks like my tapering scheme will work out. I have to thank Danny for the idea to use these hair clips as clamps. They work super in certain situations, such as this. I have also seen others use them by bending them into different angles and shapes. Planking continues...

Nice job on those barrels Bill. How did that file from Amazon work out?