Ronald-V

Personally I find working with scaled planks easier than a plank as long as the hull (or at least shorter lengths). For example in my Sphinx build I used 12cm long planks. On the back I put a few narrow stripes of PVA with empty spaces between these stripes spread over the plank. In the empty spaces I put a small drop of CA. This way you can work accurately and calmly with the glue without having to work on the model. After I have applied the glue to the plank I still have more than enough time to position the plank. Hold it for a few seconds and it stays perfectly in place. Everyone develops their own way of working that suits them...find your way

Good to see you starting a build log 👌

Beautiful work!

I don't have experience with a spray. But I know people use washes in that way you describe. So applying a diluted grey or something like that and take the residu off with a cloth. Maybe start a new topic with that question...you will get more answers and even some examples maybe

Thanks Nearshore! And great to hear you are happy with the DB250. Not really tested it yet, but that will come. Having a education in working with a lathe and mill (worked with steel and plastic though) it's fun to have these little machines at home

Thanks Loracs, yes sometimes patience is the hardest thing 😆

Very nice deck! I like there is a bit of variety, but that's my personal taste

Small update: I have the main gun deck finished as far as planking is concerned. I am now busy sanding it...first with grid 180 and then with something finer to finish it off. I will be busy with this for a while. It does feel like a bit of a milestone again, that I have completed the two largest planking jobs of this ship. With the sanding it seems like you are losing the caulking between the planks a bit. I know that this is temporary and will come back later with the WOP (just like with the hull). But I couldn't resist taking a peek at what is under all that sanding dust by wetting the planks a bit (the same effect as the WOP will have). I have to say that I am certainly pleased with what I see! It is a pity that it will take a while before I put the deck in the WOP. After I have finished sanding I will place the spirketting (and maybe the waterways) and follow the manual from there. That means continuing with the outside (quarter galleries etc.). Placing the deck in the WOP is only done after I have placed the coamings etc (at least...this seems to me the correct order? If anyone has a better idea, please let me know) And I bought some new toys. I'm happy with them! I'm aware of the limitations of the table saw compared to its bigger brother. I've done some research in the past few days to find out what suits me and my budget at the moment. This saw perfectly meets my requirements for now. I've played with the saw this morning and it's more accurate than I thought! I could saw 1x1mm strips from a large board without any problems. And it stayed true to size These tools will make some things easier for me.

I think that's a good choice, you will definitely learn from the experience

Really nice planking! And a nice cutter tool I use the cheap one from Amati, which cuts straight in width, but the cut is always a bit slanted if you know what I mean. That's why I run each board along my disc sander

That looks fantastic, and a reasonable price also

Welcome! And have fun with this enormous monster the quality of the kit looks great. As a beginner, one of the biggest challenges is the shear amount of work building a ship of this magnitude implies, and how to deal with that. Personally I think the difficulty is quite steep yes, but as you already discovered...the manual is really good and Chris his designs are really great. But...I wish you a lot of succes with this one You can always pause the build and do a small ship in between, to refine you're skills... would that be nessecary.

Same here...it would feel like too little control to me. With sandpaper grid 80 or 100/120 it comes off just like that, especially such a small hull. But if you like it better with a machine, go for it

Very cool! The design process fascinates me also By the way...cool profile picture James

Nice planking! I experienced the same with that gap at the sternpost

Looking real nice! And indeed good to see you back at it

That's a lot of space! Nice

What a nice result! And the figures bring it really to life. Congratulations on finishing it

Maybe you've tried this already, but it looks a bit in the picture as if you can place the spacer upside down on the other side? So the R spacer in the L side of the ship and the L spacer in the R side. But then the spacer upside down (letters towards the bottom)

That looks like a nice piece of art with the framing and black background Well done! 👌

That's a nice finish! Love the white background in the pictures...it shows so much more detail this way. Beautiful result

Your welcome! Glad it can be useful Thanks everyone for the nice compliments and likes!💫

It's pretty complex planking compared to some more traditional hull shapes! Quite the challenge but fun I asume

Ok...a little photo report on how I approach it: 1) The rules for "Hooked scarph" planks are as follows according to "Wolfram Zu Mondfeld" in his book "Historic Ship Models". If it's 100% accurate? I don't know and don't care, I'm not that of a purist and if 1 source says it's this...it's okay for me. 2) First of all I have already made the first plank according to the above rules. 3)Then I take a plank that is a bit longer than I ultimately need and mark the 2 intersection points of the plank with respect to the margin plank. The bottom of this plank I naturally let rest in the pre-formed plank that is already on the deck. 4)Then draw a line between the two points. It doesn't have to be super precise because you are working towards the right shape. As long as you have a rough shape/angle. 5)Personally I use my disc sander for the first part...but whatever you prefer. The important thing is that you don't sand all the way to the line right away. 6)And then it's just carefully working towards the right angle. Here you can see that I'm sanding it down and fitting it, where the angle seems right, but needs to be sanded down a bit more to fit it completely. This is just done slowly, taking a little bit off each time. Sometimes you take too much off the angle, which creates to much space, but then you sand a little off the blunt point again, and that's how you play back and forth between the two. Sometimes everything works with the disc sander, but sometimes it also removes material too quickly and I take a sanding stick so that I have a bit more control. That's just finding out for yourself what you like. But that's why you need some extra length...because it will not always be in one take and you need to sand a bit of the point, which makes the length shorter. 7) Another example where a bit too much has been taken off at the top left of the beveled side and the front needs to be a millimeter deeper. So here I try to sand the beveled side a bit straight until it fits nicely. 8 ) Like this... 9) Then you have the most important thing ready and you have to mark the board according to the rules. So the board that goes in here again has a minimum width of 1/3 of the normal width. In my case about 1.4mm (say... I'm not too strict about this myself) 10) Then you mark the rest of the board and cut away the vast majority first with a knife (or sanding). What I found out after cutting is that if you try to cut the last piece crosswise it breaks off since you have no meat on the slanted side, so I do that last piece myself with a fine saw 11) Sanding stick to get to the actual needed size. 12)And the very last part of the "corner" I do with a sharp knife so you get a really good sharp corner. Personally I can't do that well with a file or sanding stick...so a knife works better...just make sure you cut off very small layers, because too much force and it breaks off. 13) Voila... By the way...I don't know if this specific plank above that will go under the frames and doors, that it went like that in real life...but that doesn't really matter to me because it will be practically invisible when the upper deck is going to cover it. It will all be in the dark. But for me it is a good exercise so that I will have it in my fingers for the upper decks later. I hope my explanation is a bit clear...not really a special method, but it works fine for me

Starting to look like a ship now!