mrshanks

That's some impressive detail for a ship at that scale.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Next is applying the forcastle so I can add the fairleads. Once that is complete I can replaced the deadlights that fell off and a couple of eyelets, then it is ready for painting, but I will start off other stuff first. Back to work this afternoon so delays expected.

As you can see I have also added the kits supplied scupper pipes and replaced the two big ones from the Pontos set. I have not attached these yet as they will get in the road of the painting. 

Moving along with the hull, I have placed the degausing cables. You are given two options, one closed and one open. I used the open one as it looks better and I suspect Tamiya got the idea from the photos of the wreck but I suspect the keyboard warriors are correct when they say the covers have rusted off. Still, looks nice..
 

 
So all up there is about a metre of it, which at 1/350 is a lot.

I haven't found one I truly understand yet, must be me being just another bl**dy foreigner

I saw an excellent tutorial in hull plates on utube

Ahhh, Greg but I have the OLD TOOL :D so you had torture, and I get a mere whipping , although, looking at the kit, I might have preferred the torture ...

You will share my pain with the hull!

Guys...nothing like pressure, eh?  Seriously, I don't think I could do the work you're doing.  I'm in total awe...  As for keeping me busy...  I'm currently buried.  
 
So.. I'll take any abuse like being called "chicken" .

No doubt it's all about packaging and shipping fees. Just would have been more simplified on a zig zag patter along panel lines, meh, too late, move on. Its a nice kit limited only by my own ability. The putty syringe seems to have solved it and nothing masking and overspray can't fix. Don't blame the tools etc. any faults will be my own.

Bugger me, it worked! I expected having to spend days fixing this, but it was just a couple of hours work.
 
I threw the old tool hull together so you can see the comparison. This swill be my practice piece for painting. Given how much I have spend on this thing so far I think it is worth having a mistake zone.

Finally some days off! The hull is now joined up, but I have no idea what Tamiya were thinking making the upper hull in 5 pieces as the gaps are huge. Given the size of the ship, it needs a LOT of glue, and it requires a fair bit of spot glueing with off cuts of PE to slide into the gaps. The centre deck area (I'm sure the ex mariners will have a name for it), comes in three pieces which join up to the hull nicely with some thin PE.

In a moment of inspiration I found a syringe which I filled with Tamiya putty and ran along the gaps which will hopefully avoid a lot of sanding to avoid loss of molded seams. This is backed up by the prodigious use of masking tape

Quite a few of the dead lights have fallen off due to this handling but can easily be replaced. Once all the seams are fixed up I can add all the drain pipes on the side, drill out the stanchion holes and fix up everything I can before even thinking about adding the forecastle and rear flight deck.

Thanks, guys.
 
Don:  I first cut the taper and cut the plank to rough length, leaving it a bit long.  Then comes the edge bending, and once the plank fits flat, I trim it to final length.  A little cumbersome, but it works.  My planks are 1/32" thick, so they don't edge-bend on their own very well as they would if they were typical veneer thickness.

The Holly looks real good Dave. Just out of curiosity, do you edge bend your planks before or after cutting to length? 

Great work!  Glad to see you don't 'forget' the Independence.

Thanks, Bill!
 
I completed the first 3 strakes of planking below the wale using holly.  I am planning treeenails, but not at the location of every single frame that would appear on a set of plans.  Too busy looking.  I'll add the treenails to the locations of the bulkheads only.  Stylized, but still giving the effect I'm looking for.
 
The toughest part of the planking is about done.  To this point the upper hull planking, wales, and first three strakes below the wales have had to be applied to the extreme bluff bow - almost semi-circular in plan view.  Below this point, the hull starts to approximate a more conventional bow shape, like the AVS.  To this point the planks at the bow require significant edge-bending  downward to fit flat.  I did that with a clothing iron.  Much less of that coming up, although tapering will be necessary for nearly every strake at the bow.

Nice neat start

Many thanks for the replies and 'likes'. Juraj, your comments regarding the full size William are very interesting. This is my first attempt though and I will be building the kit 'straight out the box' as I think this will give me the best chance of actually finishing!
I stumbled across the Model Boats magzine after searching Gunboat William on Ebay. The article is much more than a review, more like a build log with plenty of pictures. It will be very useful.
 
 
 

 
The first part of the build was straight forward, sanding the bearding line, assembling the keel pieces and adjusting the bulkheads for a nice fit on the keel. A little sub-assembly on the rearmost bulkhead was completed and the bulkheads glued in with Titebond.
 
After fairing the bulkheads and adding filler blocks at the bow a start was made on the first planking. Laying the first plank took took a lot of deliberation and experimentation! The planking tutorials on here suggest to start planking from the keel, the kit instructions say start at the top and work down the hull to the keel. I opted to follow the instructions and after lots of messing about with different types of pins, small hammers, pin pushers (which I did not get on with at all) different size pilot holes etc. etc. I finally got the first planks laid either side of the hull. This, after adding a batten each side to stiffen the whole thing up.
 
I will add more shortly.
 
 
Cheers, Jack

Well, it would be if I had anything to update other than work and life in general keeping me out of the hobby room (although I did use the room for some non-ship related projects for the house).
 
I'll get back to it one of these days for sure, but no promises on timing, since I don't know myself.

Time for an update, Brian!  

Dave,
What a beautiful build! love the wood choices as well. Also very clean!!! This is an excellent tutorial
 
 
Bill

Thanks, guys,
 
Mike:  The yellowheart can be a bit splintery, but I think it can work for smaller parts. I think the color is perfect for the Morgan's bulwark planking!
 
Don:  I use East Indian rosewood, and select for pieces that are dark brown to purplish-black in color..  Even lighter pieces will age to a dark, dark brown.  The pores are actually quite small and the grain pattern hardly noticeable if the color isn't terribly variegated.
 
Scott:  Yep!  The planking "fans out" after the final bulkead.  The hull measurement there is significantly smaller than at the absolute stern, hence the need for a couple of stealers.  I have to decide where to put them, but I suspect they'll be in the lowest of the three planking belts.

Looks real good Dave, I really like the rosewood and surprised it worked out so good given the larger grain it sometimes has. You keep giving me all these good ideas, I think it's about time you gave me some memory so that I can put these to use someday  

Really beautiful work Dave.  Your approach of painting with wood is very inspiring. I love the approach of using holly below the wales - I'm thinking of a similar approach on my La Renommee.
 
How did you like working with yellowheart?  Is it at all splintery or can it be used for small detail parts?  I have some that I'm considering using for the ochre areas on my Morgan per your suggestion

This ship has a very odd shaped hull.  I drew lines for three bands of planking.  At the bow, the hull measurement is significantly less than amidships.  This is fairly typical.   Using tapering and edge-bending with heat, I should be able to fit all the planks without any trop planks.  The stern is different.  At the level of the last bulkhead - right where the stern post is, the hull measurement is only slightly (about 1/4") longer than amidships!  But from there to the stern, the hull "flares" quite a bit.  It will take at least one and maybe two stealers to accommodate the widening, but they won't be very long!  We'll see how it goes.