Chuck Seiler

I believe that is where I got mine. I also got wipe on, but I like the spray on better. Only trick is to apply it like spray paint. Avoid windy areas (and dust). Ensure good ventilation. Several light coats using a sweeping action 6 to 10 inches from the work piece. I wait until I am just about done.

Instructions? What are they? :-( I do not recall 29 and 29A....I guess I blew right past that one. I'll check it out when I get home. I use DEFT Satin Spray Finish.

I was unable to access Keith's/Bear's pictures. Has anyone had success?

Mark, I would not recommend workin gon th einner planking first. The plans are a bit jumbled, but it sets the planking in to three sections; Top three strakes of the outer planking, inner planking, remainder of the outer planking. The instructions don't explain why it is this way, but I ended up doing it that way when I scratch built with out the benefits of instructions, so there must be a reason. For me, I found that laying the first three outer planks helps make th emodel more stable and less prone to snapping things off, while shifting to inner gave me access to the inner planks from both sides. I don't remember why that was important. Kurt Van Dahm says to add a block up in the bow to help support the inner planking. Otherwise it has a very small point of attachment to the stem and may break off. That block is attached to the outer planking.

Bart, I would have to double check my plans at home, but I believe the pieces you are talking about (29 and 29A) are the square pieces that run from the keelson out to the edges. They are there to support the inside floor planking not the inside bulkhead planking. Check out my post 116. It shows those pieces exposed. Is that what you were looking at?

I agree with John. I do both. I try and go with a standard length plank and cut the sheet accordingly. However, life is not perfect and I often have to trim here and cut some that are longer there. The other thing I find is that the narrower the sheet becomes, the harder it is to cut the loooong strip. Another issue is that if you are spiling correctly, some of your planks are not going to be straight. You will have to use a 1/4" wide piece (for instance) to get a curved 1/8" wide plank. The next one, because of the curve, might need to be 3/8" wide to start. I have not done alot of this yet, but I find I will cut out just enough (and a scosh more) than I need. It makes for a real patchwork of the sheet.

I'll be using the Golden Pecan for interior and Pecan for exterior.

Good point. For what it's worth, if I remember it correctly, the rule of thimb is that you don't want to put a joint on an adjacent plank/strake within 3 frames of the previous joint. (Remember, in the kit, each kit frame is about 2 actual frames apart.) Do not put a butt joint on the SAME frame within 3 strakes of one where ther is a joint. Hopefully somebody can word that better so it makes sense.

Doc, What you are talking about is the international call sign. For US Navy ships, you can find their hoist at a site called NAVSOURCE. He is the site for one of my old ships. http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/941.htm I am not sure where you would find this for civilian craft, but harbor masters at any local port could probably tell you.

Mark, Good question. Part of planning any project is ensuring you have enough raw material/resources for the job...and/or efficient use of existing resources to ensure they don't run out before the job does. In this case I would LIKE to say it shouldn't be a proble. ME usually provides plenty of material, particularly for the beginner and intermediate kits where they know the modeler may not be planning down to a gnat's ***. Having said that, it doesn't hurt to do some estimating. The interior hull planking will all be the same width, so I would set those all aside and make sure you don't use it for anything else. If I recall, the plans do not specify plank lengths or locations of butt joints, so you should be able to come up with a plan to efficiently use them. My plan is to make my interior plank lengths 6 frames long. By staggering them, you will end up with either the bow or stern (or both) plank less than 6 frames long, but that is fine. Are you familiar with the protocols for butt edge spacing? The exterior planking will be a little more challenging. The bow and stern planks of each strake will have to be spiled/shaped, so you will need to use a wider piece of wood than you need for width of plank. If I recall, the spile is not very severe. On the plus side, the top 3 strakes do NOT need to be spiled, there are only 4 strakes below the wale, the hull is pretty much lined off already and the butt joints are clearaly marked in the plans. I suspect there will be alot of discussion about planking as we get into it. I am right behind you and Steve is about where you are. I'm not sure how far along bart is.

Yeah, but now you are spending a fortune for coffee.

Thanks Pat. I'll look into it.

I have my cockpits pretty much planked and am doing some last minute sanding before planking. I have inserted some 'treenails' at some strategic points to keep the structure sturdy. I am a firm believer in supplementing glue joints with pegs. Bailing well cover in place. I will eventually drill a hole in each corner adjacent to the keelson and insert grab ropes to assist in lifting the cover off the well. Holy cow!!!! I need to do a better job at sanding that cockpit floor. (Yeah, I know in real ships it is called a deck. This is an army ship. Bratten calls it a floor...placed upon floor timbers.) Bailing well cover removed. shazaam!!! I am thinking of staining the cockpits before planking. Whadya think?

Mark, How long to soak? For a basswood plank that thick I would go 10 to 15 minutes. If you go to fit it and it doesn't bend easily, go a little longer. Avoid getting it waterlogged. How long to dry in place? Until it is dry. It's not meant to be a smart-@$$ answer....well maybe...but it will vary with conditions, such as temperature, humidity, how long you soaked it, etc. I usually let it dry overnight. That may sound excessive, but you haven't glued a plank in place when you thought it was dry and it turned out to be NOT dry (shrinkage). "Nice gap buddy." Some people use a hand held hair dryer. Others use an iron set at low. These have the advantage of heating the plank, drying it and helping to bend it.

Seems to me that this topic popped up a few weeks back. Bluejacket and Amati were mentioned. Check out "Ages of Sail", a sponsor/vendor on the front page.

I am watching a friend build the FLY (SWAN class sloop) using David Ansterchel's construction method. He claims that this is as close to actual construction methods as you can get. Based on what I see ALL else (POB, solid, Hahn style POF) are all short cuts. So be it. As others have said, enjoy what you like and make th ebest model you can.

Some day I am going to have to take a course in "The French Curve". I can never seem to get the right curves matched up.

Mark, Yes, the bottom hull plank should connect to the outer most floor/bottom planking. You would be correct in beveling the bottom to match the curve in the hull. Apparently when they built the Philly, they started at the bottom and worked their way up; cutting off whatever frames (and eventually stem) that stuck up above the last strake. With the model, we start from the top and work down. Chances are good that the bottom strake will extend past the floor and will need to be sanded down...but that's okay.

Brian, Understood. Keep in mind that I have been doing this awhile and this is my second PHILLY. As I find things out for my build, I am explaining hat I am doing and passing it on to other builders. They can do what they wish with it. I am hoping that by doing this, builders can better understand the build and may be able to upgrade/bash their model. With this in mind, you might be prompted to use the two strakes, as indicated in the plans, but not to caulk. Good luck. The model out of the box is pretty terrific.

Go with the dimensions on the plans. If I recall correctly, the sheer strake = 3/16" and second = 1/4". When combined, this pencils out to just under 1/2 inch. .

Off on another side trip, for reasons explained below. I rough faired the frames and test fitted the top strakes. Reading BRATTEN, I got a strong impression that the Model Expo plans were incorrect and there was only 1 strake above the wales...it was the width of the two strakes ME used. Specifically, he refers to the wale as being 'directly under the sheer strake. Also, when discussing exterior planking he says there are five strakes and a wale. Clearly there are four strakes below the wale. I consulted Dave Yotter. He said to go with BRATTEN. Why did ME go with two strakes above the wale? I don't know. Perhaps with a wider strake you would have to spile and they wanted to avoid that. I went with a wider piece of basswood, slightly wider than what strakes 1 and 2 are combined. It appeared to go in very well. I intend on going with the single. I will keep you advised. For those going two, I recommend NOT caulking between them The reason I went with dry fitting the planking a little early is because I needed to fit the deck beam for frame 12. Once I had cut away alot of the bulkhead, the frames got relly springy. I had marked where the beam SHOULD be and I was pretty sure of the length of the beam, but I didn't want any surprises come planking time. I set the planks and fitted the beam to those dimensions.

Dave, Absolutely. He gives a good overview of the military and political situation in order to set the stage. "Benedict Arnold's Navy" goes into greater detail, but as a single source, Batten is pretty complete. He then burrows down a bit and talks about building the fleets. He has a chapter on each. other chapters include the lead up to the battle and one on the battle and its aftermath. The mother lode is/are the two chapters on "construction" and "artifacts". There you get alot of details. If you are going to bash the kit or build it using ME plans, this is the way to go. If you want to build a full on scratch, also get the Smithsonian plans.

The following few sections include modifications to the kit. Some of these were planned/considered before I started. Some were a result of revelations after reading BRATTEN a little more thoroughly and consulting with Dave Yotter. Because they are modifications to/variations from the kit plans, I feel it is important to include the "why" as well as the "what" and "how". Once again, a major shout out to Dave Yotter and his 1:16 Philadelphia. He is using the plans from the Smithsonian which were a DIRECT result of the survey. While the plans are too brittle to bring to the meetings, he has shared info with me. It's not like they are original plans, or anything. He has just been working on it for a longtime. Rumorhas it that he actually consulted with Benedict Arnold to get info on some of the original construction techniques. Just sayin'. Floor planking of the port side of the aft cockpit. Pretty straight forward. Here I planked the aft bulkhead of the aft cockpit. Dave's Philly has the top plank removed. I ill stick with the kit on this one. Oh, that's right, the kit doesn't plank the cockpit bulkheads. Fore and aft bulkheads of the aft cockpit are both planked. Moving over to the strboard side, we see alot of changes. I was reminded that the keelson sits on the floor timbers. at this point it would be a real pain to cut away that part of the keelson, so I removed the wood piece attached to the right side of the keelson and inserted a piece of wood 1/32" thick painted black, cut the wood piece I just removed and replaced it on the floor beams. BRATTEN indicates there were limber holes in each floor timber, on either side of the keelson. Looking at Dave's Philly, the bailing well is the entire length of the aft cockpit. I decided to go with the kit dimensions. It makes it harder to see the painted slot "under" the keelson. BRATTEN indicates that there was probably a lid on top of the bailing well, but floated away when the boat sank. That kind of makes sense. A continuous flat surface would create less of a trip hazard. All these still need to be smooth sanded.

Yes, it is a massive beastie.

No need for a stand for the ship. It's flat bottomed. However, its not to early to be thinking about a display stand. See my post about that.