Chuck Seiler

I had some time off this weekend and had planned on doing alot of hull planking. It was 80 degree here yesterday and crappy weather has started to move it. I decided to spend some time outside while it is still summer....ooops sorry. My apologies to those getting snow. Here is a shot of the bow section after a little smoothing. I am happy with the hull, but not the photo. I tried several times to get a good, clear, closeup shot but was unable. I'll fire the photographer and see if I can get something better with good lighting. Same section previously...closer up....before smoothing.

Do you have a build log? I am unable to find.

I wholeheartedly agree with Kurt. Rough-fitting the top curve, then smooth-fitting the top curve while leaving a little wood at the bottom just in case is the way to go. It may be a little wasteful in the use of wood, but it results in a better looking model. It wasn't all that long ago that I would cut off a x/y inch wide plank from an x/y inch thick sheet and attempt to edge bend it into place. Most of the time I found the bow sections of the planks are narrower than amidships, so by tapering the correct side of the plank and some creative edge bending I could get close. I would just make the plank extra thick and sand paper would take care of the rest. ....but it showed. My friend and mentor, Mike Lonnecker, showed me what he was doing with his planking for his HMS FLY. I originally disliked the idea because it seemed a waste of wood. Now that I am doing, I love the results. Fine tuning the fit takes awhile, but is well worth the effort. The bevel: The angle IS important, but there is no rule of thumb. You just have to ease it in. If the angle is too severe you end up with a gap if you sand away too much of the surface wood, leaving the bevel exposed. I usually start by taking the inside corner off a little. Also I look at the angle where one plank meets the other and go from there....a definite SWAG. Make sure to go in and clean out any debris and glue as well. This could be the reason why you have gapping as well.

Steve/CHB, I think this is a GREAT model to learn spiling and planking. The small number of large planks helps...I think. That first one is a doozy however. That, and the width of the planks can be overcome as long as you aren't too worried about historical accuracy; make the planks shorter and thinner. Obviously by looking at the we see that they were not adverse to short planks*. Personally, I would be more comfortable with plank W+1/1 going only as far as frame 11 or 12. Similarly, placing 5 instead of 4 strakes below the wale would make the plans narrower; not historically correct for PHILLY, but not unreasonably narrow as planking goes. Again, the caveats here are (1) it will not be historically correct, (2) you will have to re-line the hull yourself and (3) you will have to plan a little to avoid overlapping butt joints. (1) The planking for this model is already historically incorrect. As discussed elsewhere, the two strakes above the wale in this model are only really one on the real ship. Unless you are familiar with the PHILLY plans, you would never know that there are 4 strakes below the wale instead of 5 and plank 1 is overly long. If the benefit is that you can plank better, you learn the process and you end up with a great looking model, it is worth it. (2) Easy. Measure the length of each frame from wale to bottom and divide by 5. * Historically, they planked the gundolas from bottom to top-just the opposite of the way we are doing it. I find it interesting that the FIRST strake (in their case) has alot of short planks and finally at the top the planks get longer.

W+1 and W+2 are the same as the markings. Because the bottom planking added some distance, that bottom plank is going to be very wide. After W+2, I split the difference (I hope) on all frames and remarked. My W+3 is a bit wider than the others and. frankly, a bit f a pain to work with. Not curving the bottom? Maybe that makes sense when you first cut the plank. When you initially fit the plank, soak/clamp/dry, etc, the bottom doesn;t make any difference. Once you mark the desired plank width, however, I don't see whee it WON'T have a curve. It may not be the same as the top curve due to widening or narrowing of the plank, but there will be a curve.

Installing first plank of third strake.

Extra wide planks drawn out on boxwood sheet.

Steve, I don't think you will regret your decision.

Steve, If you make your plank slightly wider ( I usually go about 1.25 the final width) than the desired finished width, you can micro trim the top without having to trash the entire plank. It definitely takes practice, particularly in the curve, since taking a wee bit from any area can impact the entire lay of the curve. Once all the planks are snug in place, sand until even and beyond...sand until baby butt smooth. I usually get down to 400 grit sand paper.

Mark, How do I get the planks to butt up against each other???...alot of practice and alot of reworked hulls. Bottom line is that it is a matter of 'attention to detail'. You have to plan where everything is going to be. The first strake sets the tone for the rest of the hull. When fitting the next plank (under), once the basic form/curve is achieved and it has been soaked/clamped/dried, it is a matter of micro-fitting the plank and mating it to the one above. The inside bevel is important as well, or else you will ALWAYS get that gap. It takes time. It took the better part of a day to get W+1/1/S (1st strake under the wale, plank 1, starboard side) fitted in. The rest are coming a bit faster...but by no means with blazing speed.. Chborgm, Ya gotta be kidding me? This has got to be WAY easier than CONFEDERACY. There are only 3 strakes below the wale and the hull is pre-lined. That first plank below the wale is a *&$%! because it is so long. In mind, that allows problems to creep in. Once that one is done, the rest are much easier.

Mark, Looking good! That exterior planking is harder than it looks, eh?

Once you get that first curve, it becomes easier. My starboard template ended up fitting the port side fairly well once it was soaked and clamped properly, so I should be able to crank that out today. The aft-most plank being shorter, looks easier to form as well. Things should speed up from here.

Progress Continues..... I transferred the upper curve to a piece of boxwood sheet. I measured about 1/8 of an inch over design plank width and cut it out. I didn't get a picture, but you probably don't need one. I will need to plan my layout so as to avoid too much wastage. Once the uber plank is cut out and sanded to the lines, I fit it in place. It was nearly perfect. Soak, clamp in place and let dry. Once dry, dry fit it into place. little touch up here and there and bevel the top inside....fits like a glove. Now I have to come up with the finished width. I had previously marked the plank at the frame locations. With a compass, I now take the plank width measurement from the hull (from the lining off process) at frame 9 at one end of the plank... ...and mark it on the corresponding spot on the plank. I do this at each location all the way to the bow and the 'hood ends' marked on the rabbet. Now connect the dots. It is actually pretty easy. The plank is the same width from frame 9 to frame 14 so I can just run the compass down the plank to that point. After that it widens. I sued a ship's curve to connect those dots. A French curve will work as well. We are not quite ready to glue in place yet. Remember, the bottom curve of the plank is the same as the top curve of the plank below it. Rather than have to do the whole song and dance previously done with the tape and the card stock to get the curve, I just lay the plank on a piece of boxwood sheet and trace the curve. Ta daaaaa!!!!

With the exception of a couple short planks low in the bow/stern, I have completed planking the interior ceiling planking. Length view of the interior. Close up view of the bow where the planks meet. Note missing plank on lower left. This turned out pretty well, but there is room for improvement. It looks alot better in real life and this portion of the planking will be pretty much obscured by the forward gun. Close up view of the stern where the planks meet. This turned out much better, mostly because I found the right and to start off with and miter cut (rather than sanded) the angle on each piece before wetting and clamping. There is still much fine sanding to be done. I want to hold off on that until the exterior planking is done so that any clamp marring can be removed at that time.

Most of this was done a week ago...it just took time to get around to posting. Here is the faux plank/template fitted its entire length. I show the template because I still have not cut the final plank. I plan to do that this weekend. This shows a closeup shot of the bow/forward portion of the plank. Note tight fit. The final width of the plank is marked but I did not cut because I want to use this as a template on the other side as well. Middle portion of the plank. Aft portion of the plank. Here is the plank mounted on one of the 3/4" thick basswood strips. The ruler increments do not show well, so I marked the 1/2", 1" and 1 1/2" points (green) as well as the limits of the plank (red). Once the plank was smoothed, fitted and sitting correctly, the bend was not as severe as originally thought, but much greater than 3/4"...slightly over 1".

Magnificent!!

Will do.

I'll be happy when I can get to the shorter planks.

You are correct...the curve is a bit too severe, by 1/8 inch. Easily fixable. I could edge bend it into place, but that defeats the purpose for which intended. The bottom strake does, indeed, have a butt at frame 9, but checking the planking diagram I see that there are joints also at frames 12 and 15. The only plank close to that same length is the after most plank on W+1 at 10 inches. Checking the planking diagram, I had previously checked to see if maybe a joint was obscured by the anchor (sheet 5). However, if you check sheet 6 you see that it does not. Plank 1 of W+1 IS 13 inches. Pressing on..

Kurt, What am I missing? My planking diagram shows the bow planks to the strake under the wale (W+1) as running from the bow to frame 9. That is over 13 inches long.

Second attempt at spiling the exterior planking. This time I took a relatively fresh file folder and cut off a couple inches. Unfortunately, that puts the hinge somewhere in the middle, since it is over 14 inches long. No worries. I flat mounted the card stock as best I could for the length of the plank. Clamped in place. Next, I rubbed along the lower edge of the plank above so it was properly marked. I rubbed in a little pencil so it would be better visible. The resulting edge is pointed out by the arrows. I cut along that edge and remounted the card stock. It should have been a close fit. What should have been and what was were two different things. Fortunately card stock is cheap and plentiful, so I marked it again, ensuring it was flat, and pressed on. Here is how it turned out. I fitted it against the hull and it fit great. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture....I thought I had. In theory, it should fit the other side of the hull too. It fit okay, not great, but I can work with it. This picture has it mounted on 3/4" strip stock with the top edge running along the top edge of the strip. This is well wide of the mark. I estimate it would take at least a 1" wide strip to do t this way. I am not sure how to do it with what is provided in the kit. Mount it cockeyed? Edge-bend it? Make it shorter? Kurt, any thoughts? Close up of the overhang Fortunately, Micheal's has 3" x 1/16" stock. I transferred the curve to this stock and measured a working width of more than what is needed. I won't mark the final dimensions until the top of the plank is PERFECTLY fitted. About 1 1/4" More to follow.

I checked out Kurt's article in "Ships in Scale" again to see if he had any insight to this. He refered to the instructions and plate 2. I wasn't too wild about those instructions. They might be good for anything towards the middle of the hull, say frame 3 to 13, but completely misses the mark (in my opinion) for the bow and stern areas due to the extreme curve. Kurt also references a couple good books on the subject. The planking instructions here in MSW are pretty good too.

Thanks Steve. Just think how much mo better it will be when I actually get it right?

Come to think of it, I don't do MANY cuts under 1/8". I look forward to hearing more.

Now I have to make/shape the plank. The desired result will be a plank that fits flat to each frame for the entire length of the plank AND fits snug to the plank above it, without gaps, for the entire length of the plank. Here I am running a batten along the hull at the points marked on the frames. Using my finely calibrated laser beam eyes, I fine tune the batten so it runs smoothly. It is glued in place with little dabs of glue. It will eventually be removed. I then mark the frames and any support pieces indicating the bottom of the first run of planking. If I make the plank correctly, it should fit snugly in between the wale and the batten. Any wagers? Here I am running a length of tape over where the plank will run in order to find its true shape. It is critical that this runs exactly flat and straight. Unfortunately tape bends easily and stretches. I would prefer to use paper, but this plank is over 11 inches long. Perhaps I should get some legal length paper. I purposely left the batten in place in order to see if I could get good plank width from it. Normally, you get the curve of the upper side of the plank, then use your measurements from the hull-line-off to get the width at various points (each frame). Use a French curve or ships curve to connect the dots. You can see by the stretching that the plank will be wider than needed, The tape 'plank' is taped to a section of 3/4" strip stock. I will eventually use boxwood, but I did it this way to: (1) See if I can fit it on the provided stock and (2) Make a decent template before going full boxwood. Ideally, the upper left hand corner would start along the top edge of the strip, running with the top as long as possible before it dips down. Doing it that way requires more than 3/4" width. I compromised by setting it sideways. Batten removed and plank soaked/clamped in place. It is slightly off and there is a slight gap, but sanding should fix that. The red line is the lower limit of the planks as defined by the batten. Oooops. Wait a minute. Closer inspection reveals the plank is not sitting flat to the frames at it approaches the curve. Let's see what happens when I flatted it out. POOP! That forces the bow end to bend further upward so that the red line (bottom of the plank) is almost at the point where the top of the plank should be. This attempt was unsatisfactory. It is not a failure, however, unless I do not learn something from it. Back to the drawing board.