Pieman

Many thanks for that. I think I will do what you suggest and do some measuring and marking of bulkheads to give me an idea of how the remaining planks will lie. Cheers, Jack

Well, I am continuing slowly with the first planking. I have been steaming the planks at the bow to ease them round the curve and using plank nippers at the stern to help get the planks tucked up below the stern cross member. Apart from the first three planks, I have followed the advice given in the Model Boats article and joined the planks lengthwise. I would have had real difficulties gettting the bow and stern bends correct and the correct distance apart on each plank without doing this. I am fairly happy with the stern but I think I am running into trouble at the bow! I have tapered the last couple of planks down to about half their width but I am struggling to get them to lay flat down to the bulkheads. As you can see in the photo I am getting a bit of the 'clinker built' effect. I am thinking that at some point I might be better to start planking from the keel? Any advice on how to proceed would be gratefully accepted! Cheers, Jack

Many thanks for the replies and 'likes'. Juraj, your comments regarding the full size William are very interesting. This is my first attempt though and I will be building the kit 'straight out the box' as I think this will give me the best chance of actually finishing! I stumbled across the Model Boats magzine after searching Gunboat William on Ebay. The article is much more than a review, more like a build log with plenty of pictures. It will be very useful. The first part of the build was straight forward, sanding the bearding line, assembling the keel pieces and adjusting the bulkheads for a nice fit on the keel. A little sub-assembly on the rearmost bulkhead was completed and the bulkheads glued in with Titebond. After fairing the bulkheads and adding filler blocks at the bow a start was made on the first planking. Laying the first plank took took a lot of deliberation and experimentation! The planking tutorials on here suggest to start planking from the keel, the kit instructions say start at the top and work down the hull to the keel. I opted to follow the instructions and after lots of messing about with different types of pins, small hammers, pin pushers (which I did not get on with at all) different size pilot holes etc. etc. I finally got the first planks laid either side of the hull. This, after adding a batten each side to stiffen the whole thing up. I will add more shortly. Cheers, Jack

Well, as promised in my new member introduction, I will start a build log for my first attempt at ship modelling. I chose the Gunboat William after plenty of deliberation, but a couple of things made me think it might be suitable. It seems fairly simple and straightforward with not too much rigging etc. But most appealing to me was its size. At 1:32 scale I'm hoping everything is much larger than on many of the models often recommended as a first choice. The main disadvantage I could see was that no complete build logs exist on MSW so I will be 'flying solo' and needing plenty of help and guidance as I progress! The manuals/instructions are excellent and I have found an excellent review written by Keith Julier in the March 2006 Model Boats magazine which will help no end. My progress will be slow and my first couple of posts will be 'catch up' as I started about ten months ago. As seems customary, I will first post a couple of photos of the box and contents. Cheers, Jack