NMBROOK

Just popped in for a catch up Bob  Excellent work
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Just popped in for a catch up Bob  Excellent work
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Absolutely wonderful work Amalio    
 
May I ask how the lining planking is fastened to the mould to allow latter removal?
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Just popped in for a catch up Bob  Excellent work
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

I've now completed planking of the main deck (other than treenailing). The planking is holly strip, with pencil caulking on one side and end of each plank. The pattern follows that shown in AOTS and uses the lines previously drawn on the subdeck for joint positioning. The waterway-margin planks were sanded down, as necessary, to meet the deck planking.  I also added the additional section of raised planking at the mainmast and a quarter round waterway piece at the base of the quarterdeck bulkhead.
 
Prior to doing the planking, I had to make and install the two mortar pits, since the planking had to be laid up against them. I used the kit's walnut parts to make the pits, but used boxwood strip to plank the outer housings. The assemblies were finished with multiple coats of Wipe-on Poly and ringbolts were added before installation.
 
I am now going to do the treenailing.
 
Bob

I have chosen to defer the second planking of the lower hull in favor of doing work on the interior. so far, this has involved adding view blocks behind the rear ports (as per the suggestion of Joe V), adding the quarterdeck bulkhead and adding waterway-margin planks on the main deck. 
 
The view blocks are simply black painted pieces glued in place to prevent viewing through the hull at the rear ports.
 
The quarterdeck bulkhead presented some uncomfortable decisions for me. The kit provides walnut pieces to support curved panels in slots precut in them. These kit pieces were virtually unusable in the manner intended. The kit also provides black decals to be applied to the curved panels. I didn't like the look. Joe V and Timmo had painted the decoration on the panels, in lieu of the black decals, and did it beautifully. My attempts at this didn't look so good. AOTS shows an alternative bulkhead consisting of plain planking .With this "official" sanction, my lack of artistic talent and the state of the kit pieces, I opted to do the alternative bulkhead. I planked it with beveled boxwood planks to make the curved surface and painted it red to match the bulwarks. A cowardly solution, perhaps, but better in my mind than something that I would have been totally unhappy with.
 
After completing that work, I penciled in lines on the sub-deck to mark out the deck beam lines for the deck planking joints, as shown on the AOTS deck plan.
 
The last item of work was to make the waterway-margin planks from holly sheet and strip.The kit plans do not show them, but they clearly appear in the AOTS drawings, which I chose to follow. The bow sections were cut from holly sheet, using card stock templates. The remainder were made using holly strip bent to shape.The waterway-margin planks were made from thicker stock than that to be used for the deck planking, and were sanded to provide a slanted profile from the bulwarks down to meet the planking height, as shown in AOTS.
 
Next will be the deck planking, which will also require that work be done on the mortar pits before the deck planking can be installed.
 
Bob

After some time up north with family, it was back to work on Granado. I've done a few things: I added the stern post, cut from holly sheet; I planked the counter; and lastly, I planked the second layer of the wales. The counter and wales were done with boxwood strip. In doing the counter, I omitted using the kit base piece, as it seemed more trouble than useful, and used thicker planking material.
 
After the planking was done, I painted both the wales and counter black. While I carefully taped the top of the wales prior to painting (using Tamiya tape) I left the bottom untaped, since any paint will be covered by the lower holly planking to come. This accounts for the sloppy appearance and excess width of the wales in the attached photos.
 
I'm still deciding today whether to next do the lower planking or do some interior work.
 
Bob

The port side upper planking is now completed and treenailed. It was done exactly as previously described for the starboard side.
 
Next up will be the second layer of the wales and the counter planking.
 
Bob

Work is now well underway on the upper hull planking. I have done the starboard side and am working on the port side. The work has consisted of planking to completion above the wales and adding the three strakes of base planking for the wales.
 
The planking is being done with boxwood strip from Crown. The caulking is simulated using pencil on one side and end of each plank. Where necessary, the planks were bent using soaking in boiling water. Most of the planks are beveled on one edge to assure a tight fit. Treenailing is simulated using the drill and fill method, using walnut filler in #75 holes. Both the planking layout and the treenail pattern generally follow those shown in the AOTS Granado book.
 
I expect to be working on the port side all of this coming week.
 
Bob

I've done the initial work on the interior. This involved cutting off the bulkhead extensions and sanding the tops of the  bulkheads; adding the sub-deck; planking  the interior of the bulwarks; lining the gunports ;and painting the bulwarks and gunports.
 
The first two tasks were straightforward: I used a side cutter to snip off the extensions and a chisel and sanding sticks to smooth off the bulkhead tops; I cut the sub-deck into two pieces to make gluing it on a little easier.
 
The bulwark interior was another matter. After wasting nearly an entire day trying to make the kit supplied bulwark pieces (precut walnut similar to the external gunport pieces)  fit properly, I finally just gave up and proceeded to plank the bulwarks with boxwood strip. It's simply amazing to me that using supposedly time saving kit parts should be that much more difficult than doing it the old fashioned time consuming way. It's little wonder that inexperienced modelers get fed up with kits and fail to complete projects. (end of rant  )
 
Now it's on to the upper outer hull planking.
 
Bob

After some time off for travel, I've now completed the first planking by doing the starboard side. Once again, this was simply a matter of getting a smooth covering without much regard to prototype planking patterns.
 
I've decided to do some interior work before doing the final outer planking. This will involve at least cutting off the bulkhead extensions and  adding the sub-deck and the inner bulwark pieces.
 
Bob

Hi Greg,I'm with Jaager on this.I read your post earlier and Cypress sent alarm bells ringing,but haven't had time to investigate.Somewhere I had heard that Cypress has an open cellular grain.Trolling the net doesn't confirm or deny this.However it's density and low hardness would say this is probably correct.I feel that the wood is swelling and shrinking at different rates as others have said.Due to it's characteristics,it could even be the moisture from the glue that is causing it.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Le Renommee update,... slow but steady progress. I'm more or less happy with the build as a whole but unhappy if I focus on specifics (if you know what I mean....). For example, I constantly struggle to maintain perfect symmetry when port and starboard are compared. The minor differences tend to disappear as I step back and appreciate my efforts......
 
JP

Hi all,
Here is some photo of first redesigned frameworks-Roter Lowe, HMS Prince and Gretel-these new designs include solid wood keel, precut gunports and etc.. I hope building of these kits will be more easy now.
Best regards
Daniel Dusek

Outstanding!
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

After experimentation and actually using this technique on my Mordaunt build,I decided I would post a small tutorial of this system I developed due to the interest it caused.
Whilst I am not reinventing the wheel,this is a variation I adopted on the common method of using black paper.There are disadvantages with using black paper,firstly,that it reduces the glue penetration in a joint and secondly,it can appear too thick at the smaller scales.Some may say,the strength is not an issue for planking on a false deck,fair point,but I wanted a system that could be used for all joints where some caulking or similar would be used.This would include scarph joints in the keel where strength is important.
There are many similarities in techniques between using paper and tissue,but there are small differences caused by the delicate nature of the tissue.
This is a pic of the lower gun deck on Mordaunt using this technique.The timber is Pear and the planks are 6mm wide max(the planking is tapered)

To demonstrate the technique,I will be planking a small deck section that goes under the main deck hatches on Norske Love.This piece doubles up as part of the structure and is made from 6mm birch ply.No camber is incorporated as this will be unnoticeable as the only real view is through a companionway.It does have some shear and this is conveniently catered for by the bow the ply has attained,being stood in the corner of the workshop for several months.
The planks are cut from 3mm boxwood sheet.Cutting from the edge of the sheet,using the thickness as the plank width,helps maintain consistency.I cut the planks @1.5mm thick.To me this is less important as the deck will be scraped/sanded smooth.All gluing is done using Deluxe Materials Aliphatic Resin.The black tissue paper is acid free and bleed resistant.I obtained mine from WHSmith in the UK and can be found in the present wrapping section.

A section of tissue was placed on a small piece of clean glass.Glue was added to one side and one end of the plank.The plank is placed edge down on the tissue,ensuring the tissue develops no creases and the plank is firmly down on the glass.I then slice the tissue with a new scalpel blade to form a 'finger' that can be curled up on the plank end.The process is repeated until you have a good quantity of planks 'edged'.
]
When the glue goes clear,but not fully set,slice through the paper between the planks.The individual planks will simply break off the glass with a little twisting pressure.The tissue should remain intact on the plank.Whilst the glue is still in the 'green' stage (a bit like cheese as it hasn't fully hardened),carefully trim the tissue flush with the plank faces.Keep the scalpel blade cutting toward the plank,not away as this can drag pieces of tissue off the edge.You can wait until the glue has hardened overnight,but I found this much harder and more time consuming.

Lay the planks in a conventional manner,ensuring to keep the tissue covered faces going the same way.I brush over the surface with a small wetted paintbrush.This consolidated any glue that has oozed out and is added insurance against the tissue dragging with the sanding and scraping.

 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Quite simply outstanding Michael    
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Stunning work Mark!!!
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Stunning work Mark!!!
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Thanks Edwin!
 
A little more progress to report. The lower windows are made up of 6 pieces. After drilling & filing out the window areas I CAREFULLY bent the pieces to fit. Then I painted the window frames white,the surrounding areas with Vallejo light sea blue,& the columns gold. After gluing them in place I think they look ok. I will use the liquid window maker to simulate the glass after all the glue is dry. The windows across the back slant outward pretty close to what the plans show. The joints between the windows fit good,so I didn`t need to use any filler - just a couple of paint spots to touch up.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Hi all thanks for looking in. Progress has been slow due to outdoor activities but I did manage to get the transom support finished.Now on to the lower row of windows.
 

 

 

 
Mark

Hello my friends!
 
It´s time for a new update!
 
Last time, I asked myself, whether I should start to plank the deck or finish to plank the hull. I decided to first plank the hull. Unfortunately I had some problems to get new wood stripes. This is why I changed my mind and start to plank the deck. 
 
I knew that it would not be easy to do, because this time I first built the gratings on the deck. In fact, it took my much longer to plank the deck. But I think I managed it quite well and I am glad to say, that I am happy with the result.
 
As you can see in my pictures, I used my "old" technic. That means I first lay the wood stripes with a little slit between them. Then I fill the stripes with my black wood filler. After scraping and sanding the planks I seal them with varnish. 
 
Now I start to finish the hull planking!
 
Greetings and best wishes to all of you!
 
- Heinz -
 

Nigel - thanks so much for your kind post and continued interest in following along. This build has been improved by following, and learning from some of your excellent ideas - (:-)
 
Frank -  As always thank (:-) PS: as you know your Alert is so beautiful 
 
And thanks mates for the kind "likes" and also just dropping by.
 
Cheers,

After experimentation and actually using this technique on my Mordaunt build,I decided I would post a small tutorial of this system I developed due to the interest it caused.
Whilst I am not reinventing the wheel,this is a variation I adopted on the common method of using black paper.There are disadvantages with using black paper,firstly,that it reduces the glue penetration in a joint and secondly,it can appear too thick at the smaller scales.Some may say,the strength is not an issue for planking on a false deck,fair point,but I wanted a system that could be used for all joints where some caulking or similar would be used.This would include scarph joints in the keel where strength is important.
There are many similarities in techniques between using paper and tissue,but there are small differences caused by the delicate nature of the tissue.
This is a pic of the lower gun deck on Mordaunt using this technique.The timber is Pear and the planks are 6mm wide max(the planking is tapered)

To demonstrate the technique,I will be planking a small deck section that goes under the main deck hatches on Norske Love.This piece doubles up as part of the structure and is made from 6mm birch ply.No camber is incorporated as this will be unnoticeable as the only real view is through a companionway.It does have some shear and this is conveniently catered for by the bow the ply has attained,being stood in the corner of the workshop for several months.
The planks are cut from 3mm boxwood sheet.Cutting from the edge of the sheet,using the thickness as the plank width,helps maintain consistency.I cut the planks @1.5mm thick.To me this is less important as the deck will be scraped/sanded smooth.All gluing is done using Deluxe Materials Aliphatic Resin.The black tissue paper is acid free and bleed resistant.I obtained mine from WHSmith in the UK and can be found in the present wrapping section.

A section of tissue was placed on a small piece of clean glass.Glue was added to one side and one end of the plank.The plank is placed edge down on the tissue,ensuring the tissue develops no creases and the plank is firmly down on the glass.I then slice the tissue with a new scalpel blade to form a 'finger' that can be curled up on the plank end.The process is repeated until you have a good quantity of planks 'edged'.
]
When the glue goes clear,but not fully set,slice through the paper between the planks.The individual planks will simply break off the glass with a little twisting pressure.The tissue should remain intact on the plank.Whilst the glue is still in the 'green' stage (a bit like cheese as it hasn't fully hardened),carefully trim the tissue flush with the plank faces.Keep the scalpel blade cutting toward the plank,not away as this can drag pieces of tissue off the edge.You can wait until the glue has hardened overnight,but I found this much harder and more time consuming.

Lay the planks in a conventional manner,ensuring to keep the tissue covered faces going the same way.I brush over the surface with a small wetted paintbrush.This consolidated any glue that has oozed out and is added insurance against the tissue dragging with the sanding and scraping.

 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Quite simply outstanding Michael    
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel