Landlubber Mike

Finally finished the first planking of the lower hull. Ended up coming out really nicely I think - I might not have to use any filler at all, except maybe around the stern area with that turn up into the counter. I still need to clean up a bit around the stern and bow, which I'll need to do by hand, but I used a palm sander outside today to sand the planking down. Wow, does that make life much easier! Was so quick to sand the hull, I still remember doing the Badger by hand and it taking forever. I'm now a big convert to bow and stern filler blocks, they really help! A big thank you to Pete who suggested using them in his build notes. One thing I started wondering is whether even if you're doing a POB kit, whether just adding filler blocks through the full area such that you don't even have to bother with a first planking would be quicker and easier than going through the first planking, sanding, filling, etc., and then adding the second (essentially, converting it to a solid hull). Guess it depends how easy it is for the person to do filler blocks. Some pictures of where I am: One issue that has been bothering me is the fact that the kit provided different wood for the stem/rudder versus that for the keel. The stem/rudder I believe is walnut, and the keel might be ramin. The color difference between the two is too striking for my liking: I was originally thinking of painting the lower hull white which would have made this a non-issue, but given how far I'm pushing on this build, I think I'm going to leave the hull natural. I don't want to chance using a stain to even the colors out, because then I would have to use stain on the planking itself which leads to more chance of something looking out of place. So, instead, I think I'm going to buy new wood for the stem, rudder, and lower hull planking. I dropped the hull while planking it a while back and the stem snapped right off, so I think taking it off again should be ok. The keel is a bit of a different story because I drilled the pedestal holes into it, and it's secured into the false keel by brass rod. So, what I'll likely do is laminate the keel with thin walnut, and then maybe try darkening the very bottom a bit to avoid any oddities (people shouldn't really be able to see the bottom of the keel though). Going this route will also be helpful in that I think I would like to spile the full hull as a challenge to myself (for my Pegasus, I only spiled planks up to the copper plating line. Jason from Crown Timberyard is back up and running and has been very helpful in answering some of my questions. He sells both a dark walnut and mahogany. I want the upper hull to be lighter in color than the lower hull, and I found a nice lighter cherry veneer that should do nicely. I'm leaning towards using Jason's walnut over the mahogany as I think the colors will work better together. Mahogany looks beautiful, but as a chocolate/orange/rich brown, I don't think that using cherry for the upper hull will work well. Walnut and cherry though seem to complement each other nicely, at least what I've seen in other build logs. Certainly welcome to any thoughts, ideas or suggestions! Next, I'm thinking of working on the gun deck - planking, hatches, etc. A nice respite before having to go back to planking the hull.

Dave, it's been a while since I last visited your log but wow, wonderful work! Very cool to see you involving your grandkids like that too

I'll echo Chris, that came out very nicely. Do not paint it I like the effect you achieved with the alternating colors of the planks. Very striking!

I bought those too, but haven't had a chance to use them yet. Glad to hear that they work great!

Nice work Maury!

Really nice work Al, well done!

David, that's gorgeous planking! You should be giving us advice!

The one thing I learned the hard way is that while it seems like you can get away with tapering closer to the stem, you really should be starting your tapers much further back as Spyglass suggests. If you start tapers too close to the stem, you will get that clink effect as you are bending your planks laterally against their width. Even a slight bending will cause it. You won't notice it at first, but after about three or four planks you realize you have a problem. I spiled the upper hull planking on my Pegasus. It was really a worthwhile exercise to set up the hull in planking bands and run calculations along each bulkhead. It gives you a good idea of where along the hull, and how much, the planking narrows (it's not consistent across all sections). The stern area for example tends to be wider than the middle section of the hull - but, in some cases, there is a slight narrowing of the hull about 3/4 of the way back. So, you run into a situation where if you are using long planking strips, you taper at the stem, no taper in the middle of the hull, start a taper just beyond the middle of the hull, and then run the full plank to the stem (with stealers). Conceptually I got the bigger concept, but it wasn't until I went through the exercise that I really understood how the curves of the hull really come into play.

Looking good!

This is an absolutely incredible model in every detail - your father is quite skilled! It's a nice story that you are helping to finish this and complete his vision. I wish I could help with the sails...but just wanted to say thank you for sharing this immaculate model. Good luck!

Amazing work as always Igor. The amount of detail you can put in at such a small scale is incredible. Nice job!

Take a look beginning here on my Pegasus log - you can see how I started getting a little of the clinking at the stem and stern. Things got better at the stem when I started tapers further back and that big drop plank, while they got better at the stern by using stealers. In the end, this is just the first planking, so with filler and sanding, you should be fine. Just wanted to save you some of the extra work at the end of the first planking if you take some basic steps now. Here is a link to my LAR - I'm a little further along than the log, but you can see how the planks at the stern post are laying much more flat by using stealers rather that trying to get each plank to line up against the plank below it. Same principle applies at the stern counter where you are. The key to remember is that the planking bands change size along the hull - usually narrowing at the stem and expanding at the stern. At the stern, if you don't use stealers every few planks but instead force the planks to lie against the plank next to it, you end up bending the planks laterally against their width (took me a while to truly understand what this means). My current approach with the first planking is to soak the planks, pin them in position, and let them dry. Then I glue them into position. I find this helps avoid cracking and gaps between the planking if you glue soaked planks. Another tool I started using is this bending machine from Micromark - not sure I paid anywhere close to this, but it really helps start a nice curve in the plank without using nippers or jigs or anything (you wet the plank, then roll it in the bender a few times - the tighter you make the distance between the two cylinders in the bender, the tighter the curve in the plank): https://www.micromark.com/Bending-Machine It's a bit pricey, but you could always use something like this which I also have which works nice (the bending machine I find works much easier and faster for planking, though putting a particularly bend in thicker materials, the jig below works very well): https://www.micromark.com/Plank-Forming-Jig For the second planking on my Pegasus, I spiled my planks. It's amazing how well it works to let planks lie naturally. The drawback though is that it takes a lot of time to spile planks - but, you save time on the back end. My Pegasus log has lots of pictures of how I created spiled planks. Hope that helps!

Nice start. Be careful with the clinking at the bow, try to let the planks lay as flat as possible. If I remember correctly. the planks start to sweep up so by trying to flatten them out and pull them down into a more horizontal position, you are going to get the clinking that you see. Sanding and filler will be your friend. Better to start your tapers at the stem further back. I think what is a little more concerning is the sharp bend at the last full bulkhead. Again, it's better to let the planks lie as naturally as possible (and you may need to fair them a little more). Rather than try to align each plank against the one above it at the stern, plan to use more stealers. I think by forcing the planks into the unnatural orientation you are ending up with the cracked planks and the sharp bend at that bulkhead. I offer this just as a bit of experience on my Pegasus. You can see I had similar issues, but I soon figured out to start tapers earlier at the stem, and leave room for spacers at the stern. The one thing I've learned in planking my Morgan and LAR is that the bow and stern filler blocks really help with the planking. Without the blocks, it becomes a lot more of a strategic exercise to figure out where to stop the planks so that they end on a bulkhead. With the blocks, much less concern.

I would also say that it boils down to whether by "best" you mean from a practical usage perspective or from an aesthetics perspective. Folks know a lot more about this than I do here, but when I look at British ships, I see workhorses. When I look at French ships, I see pretty ships. Kinda like a Honda versus a Ferrari - the Ferrari is much nice to look at, but will always be in the shop.

Great work as always BE. I agree with Jason, the metal black is really sharp looking.

Really great work Don. Love the blocks, nice job! Any movement on your Pegasus? I need to turn back to mine, maybe after I finish the planking on my LAR and Morgan.

You've done enough models that I don't think you need to look at the instructions. There really isn't any complicated framing or anything that needs to be done. I think you can just stick with the plans and proceed with the construction in the steps as you see fit.

Good choice David, these kits are wonderful and the subject beautiful with lots of resources out there. Welcome to the Swan club! BE’s Pegasus log is the gold standard we all try to reach. Hope you don’t mind me following along!

Looks great Mark. Just out of curiosity, did you laminate the front and top of the stem or just the sides? I’m wondering if I need to do something similar on my LAR for a better match if the woods...

Wow, your model looks absolutely perfect. Very nice work!

I went with the RB guns for my Pegasus as well. I think I pretty much piggybacked off of BE's research and decision to do so. The Chuck guns seem a bit too skinny for my taste.

It's a really nice subject and Euromodel does a nice job with their kits. Go for it!

Joe, thanks very much for that. Really appreciate the benefit of your experience with it. Sounds like my current mill size at 10” should be just fine. God help me if I ever work on pieces that are five feet long! Mike

Very cool wefalck! I wish I had the space to put something together like that. Right now I'm using two work benches put back to back for a "work island" so to speak. But, after adding my table saw, disc sander, thickness sander and mill, I don't have much room left for anything else if I want working space for my model. So, the lathe and certain other tools are on shelving units I am jealous of folks that have the room for separate work stations with different tools on them!

Hi again guys, thanks for all the thoughts and insight. I think I was able to locate the inch to metric conversion kit for the mill, which is about $126. Certainly cheaper than buying a new mill. I thought about selling the mill, and converting my lathe to a mill with the vertical attachment to save space and it would be a little cheaper (for example, I think you only need on DRO set up). Looks like the milling area would be really small though, so the option would be to buy a separate milling table and share the power system between the two machines. That saves a bit of money, but results in the same amount of space as two separately powered machines. So, probably not worth it. I took a look at my lathe, and saw what people mean by the tailstock getting in the way. I suppose I could always upgrade to a longer lathe if that ever becomes a real problem. I don't really have the space to accommodate a 3 foot lathe though with my current work space... So, probably keeping what I have makes the most sense at the moment. So, after all this, I think I'm back to where I started as to whether to buy a new mill, or just outfit my current one to metric. If I bought a new mill, it would only make sense if I got one with a bigger table. Is there any reason for ship modeling to upgrade from my current 10" table to a 12" table? I see that they also offer an 18" extended table for another $200. I'm guessing that the 18" bed might be nice to have, but it's not really necessary (and would take a lot of space)? Thanks again for all the input on this thread, I really appreciate it! I have to say that after all this recent research, I really am impressed with how Sherline makes things standardized as well as modular to adapt for various circumstances and budgets. I didn't quite get all that when I bought my mill and lathe.