JSGerson
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It is time to construct the 2nd half of the margin plank. The plank will continue from the 1st half all the way back to the parquet floor. A template is made as before but ¼” wide and cut the stock wood.
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As the planking approaches the margin plank, a notch is created starting from the 5th plank from the center. The plank is then trimmed to fit. After five rows on each side of the centerline, you are instructed to stop once again. The first image below is from the practicum.
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The margin plank is cut out and installed. The image below is from the practicum as I don’t have picture of my model at this stage.
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The template was cut 3/16” from the outer edge and transferred to the wood stock.
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A template is made of one half of the bow decking from the centerline of the beam to the center of the foremast in preparation of the 1st half of the margin plank. As the deck planking approaches the bow, the planks will cut into the margin plank.
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Deck Planking After establishing and marking the center line of the model, I noted where the deck beams would be using the Hahn deck plan. This was pointed out in the practicum because Mr. Hunt didn’t and pointed out the error of his ways. The deck beams are where the planking butt up against each other and they are not consistent. Starting at the parquet floor and along the centerline, centered side to side, the planks are cut to length as indicated in the practicum, coated on the edges with artist charcoal, and glued down. You will notice that there are four staggered rows each side of the center line and then it repeats. Just remember to open up the mast holes before they are total covered. At this point the practicum instructs you to stop and work on the bow.
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Then the whole floor was simply dropped in place and glued down.
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Once everything was glued solid, the excess strips were cut off leaving the floor piece in a checkerboard pattern. Because stained walnut was used, a number of tiles had to be touched up after sanding to smooth out the tiles.
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To create the checkerboard, the planks that were cut out will be glued to the plywood in such a way as to stagger the holly and stained walnut/ebony.
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First a 45 degree angle that ran approximately from corner to corner was drawn. A second line was laid perpendicular to this line so that it intersected the center line at the forward edge. These lines are the guidance to installing the first plank. This can be seen from an image from the practicum.
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The wood then glued onto the 4” x 4” in alternating strips and then squared up and trimming off the excess plywood. Using my Byrnes Machine table saw,3/16” slices were made 90º to the stripes.
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The walnut strips were stained with ebony minwax
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The Parquet Floor The practicum states there is absolutely no historical documentation to show that Rattlesnake had a checkerboard floor. Probably it didn't. It goes on to explain that the captain’s cabin in the HMS Victory, had a parquet floor of black and white checkerboard. Technically this is a former American ship whose plans were drawn up by the British. Who is to say it didn’t have a parquet floor when the British re-fitted her? Not only that, it looks like fun thing to do. First a template was made by making a tracing from the Hahn deck plan of the captain’s quarter’s floor and transferring it to cardstock. The cardstock was fine-tuned by fitting to the model. Based on the template, a piece of 1/64” plywood was cut and matched to fit the model. A second piece of plywood was cut to 4” x4”. Strips of 3/16” x .020” holly and walnut to-be-stained-black (did not have ebony) were cut to 3” long.
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Again the clamp was glued directly to the planking.
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The forecastle deck clamp has an extra added attraction – it’s curved due to shape of the bow. Using the Hahn plan, I bent the wood stock to conform to the shape of the bow. Also the notches have to be custom cut due to the curved shape.
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The reason for the “stop” was here was where the deck clamp was to be installed. By now, everything had been glued tight, sanded smooth, and coated with poly-wipe. Still not completely understand the complete consequences of my error I moved on and followed the practicum on how to make the deck clamp not realizing that it had to be modified due to the error. (There are those ripples moving out again!). I’ll get to that later. To make the deck clamp, I modified the side view template. The deck clamp is a 3/32” x 3/32” strip of boxwood with strategically placed and cut 1/16” x 1/16” x 1/16” notches. These will hold the cross beams for the deck above the stern and bow. I had a lot of difficulty placing the clamps on the model. As it turned out, I had the height almost right, but not the side to side position. It glued it directly on top of the bulwarks. In actuality, it should have been glued to the frames and bulkheads and the planking would have been around it. Visually it won’t be noticed by the novice viewer; but I know.
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Here is where I made a big mistake and did not discover it till later on, too late to redo over. The practicum says STOP when you reach the 5th row. In my enthusiasm I didn’t see the STOP sign and completed the planking.
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Bulwarks Planking and Deck Clamps Depending on what bulwark method used determined the thickness of the planking strips. In my case, it was 1/32” x 3/32” swiss pear. Staring from the stern and staggering the joints, the planking was installed.
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The Bulwarks The practicum stated that Mr. Hunt’s first inclination was the most obvious one; simply apply the planking to the framework. But because the practicum addressed two construction approaches, he thought there might be some who would like to use the wood supplied in the kit on their bulwarks. This wood is very thin and applying it straight to the bulwarks will make it very difficult to sand and keep the planking even between rows. He offered a non-standard solution that was to give a nice looking bulwark area. And since the model was not a plank on frame model he felt that the solution was a good one. The solution was to use a very 1/64” plywood veneer against the framework first and then apply a thinner plank on top of the plywood veneer. Alternatively, the kit instructs the builder to add additional false framework to support the planking. I elected to follow the plywood approach. Cardstock templates made from file folders and used to form the plywood pieces. Then they were glued in. Once the bulwarks were installed all of the openings for the gunports and windows were cut out.
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CHAPTER 3 – Internal Planking In this chapter I make mistakes, some big due to my inexperience. This after all, my first real POB model as I explained earlier. So forgive my inexact results. Usually I didn’t discover the errors until it was too late (for me at least) to go back and do over. The Waterway The Waterway is a thick plank that is beveled on its face in such a way that the bulwarks planking will meet the bevel on the top and the deck planking will meet the bevel on the bottom. The waterway also conforms to the angle of the framework. This is an angle that tilts slightly inward from the bottom to the top. Its cross section looks like a skewed pentagon. To install this I had to make sure all the false frames and cut down bulkheads were all even. Then they was installed in lengths of about 4” along the complete length of the deck on both sides
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Aft Side Windows Again the side view template was used to locate the aft windows on each side of the model. Small pilot holes were drilled and then expanded and finally cut and filed to shape. Four pieces of boxwood was used to create the window frame and glued on the inside wall. At this point they exactly like gunports. Bowsprit Hole It was at this point that the practicum instructed how to remove the keel extension in the bow that was done earlier. The one thing that hadn’t been done was to create the hole for the bowsprit. This was now done. Fine tuning this opening will be done latter. This ends Chapter 2
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Planking above the Main Rail One row of planking was added above the Main Rail aft of the center three gunports and also forward of them. Another railing was then installed aft over the last row but this time it’s made of swiss pearwood. Finally the last four rows of swiss pearwood planking were added aft; and it was time to treenail again.
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The trick is to keep the razor blade 90º to the stock as it is repeatedly drawn the cut profile until the desired molding is complete. This is not easy. Once done, you can’t sand it smooth or you wipe out the molding. I was somewhat successful having never done it before. The molding wasn’t as sharp as I would have like it, but I was afraid I might break it if I continued. It was then installed. Sorry no pictures at this stage.
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The Main Rail The mail rail is a molded holly strip that is light in color and is added before the remaining planking is completed. Making the molded profile was a completely new technique to me. After purchasing some “super thin separating cutting discs” from a company called International Inc., a profile of the molding is cut into a razor blade The width of the profile must be the same as the stock piece of wood that is to be drawn through it.
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Stern Transom Planking Because the ends of the stern planking need to be covered by the side planning, the stern planking was started at this point. Once more I was reminded that something was amiss because in the practicum, only one row of planking was needed to reach the bottom of the window opening. In my model it required two. As the successive rows were added on, the window openings were carved out. The second picture was taken before I had sanded and cleaned up the flaws so it looks a bit rough.
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