mrshanks

Hmm... I've never had success with the boiling or microwave way of bending.   I soak and then use a curling iron... rinse and repeat as needed.   I tried Chuck's method and some woods worked well, others, not so much. Plus, I don't have space to work with the heat of a heat gun.  My workshop is pretty packed.
 
The key is to heat until it's pliable and then bend and lock into position until cool.  

Brian, Joe, Don & Mark,
 
Thank you for your thoughtful advices.
 
Yes, I did the original "first" planking in this area but it was as much a hassle as I am having now and the seams are not finish quality. I could not achieve really finish grade seams.
 
Pictures that I displayed a few posts ago show where I was headed this time with the final planking and the results were not suitable.  With the first planking, glueing the couple of inches closest to the stem was done with medium viscosity super glue. It seems like every place I did that there were black seams. Probably a coincidence. Additionally, the seams were not furniture tight. I was fighting the wood.
 
I have been scouring You Tube videos for the past two days to no avail. Thank you for the Chuck related videos. I just saw that post and will look. I soaked some planks in alcohol all night then wrapped one in a wet cloth and microwaved it, first for three minutes with no good results, then for five minutes. No help.
 
I tried hot air and it did nothing on either of the two types of wood that I have. In the photo below you'll see a piece of the wood used for the first planking that I experimented on with hot air this morning and broke it.
 
I made a jig with the approximate shape that I want and by putting the smaller part of the jig on top of my plank I was able to keep the planking from twisting as I forced it into the concave shape of the jig. I ran hot air over it later to try to dry out the wood. I'll leave it for awhile before releasing the clamps.
 
Could it be that this wood is of so little mass that it does not retain interior heat after trying to steam it in a wet rag inside the microwave oven?
 
I am thinking next of trying boiling water for an hour or longer.
 
Here is what I just did. You can see the tape pattern beside it and to the side is the piece I broke when I tried hot air.
 

 
Respectfully,
John
 
 

I fitted the stem, keel and stern post to the model.  The problem with AL kits is that adding those parts at this point makes clamping them in place correctly impossible!  I decided to use small brads to hold the parts in place when the glue-up happens.  I pre-drilled holes for the brads, used double-sided scotch tape to hold the stem and other parts in place and tapped the brads into the plywood central keel/profile former.  Since I plan to fit a false keel of rosewood all of the nail holes on the keel will be hidden.  The rudder will hide the 2 on the stern post so the only hole to be worried about is the one in the forward surface of the stem.  Some pear sawdust mixed with white glue should make a putty that will make the repair inconspicuous.

I just use sanding blocks, nothing special.  I use a combination of 'hard' blocks where there is no give, and padded blocks that allow the sandpaper to form around the piece a bit, just depends on what I'm trying to do.  If you look at the instructions from Chuck (you can download them from his site - http://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/revenue-cutter-cheerful-1806.php) he explains it, but there really isn't anything special to it except sanding by hand and taking your time to make sure that the planks will flow smoothly over the ends of the bulkheads no matter where the plank is placed from the bottom to the top.
 
At the very front where everything has to flow into the rabbet at the stem, I did it mostly with handheld sand paper folded over on itself to make it stiff.  It's really just a matter of eyeballing it, placing a plank on it to see where it needs work, and then sanding some more until it all just flows.
 
Edit: It's important to use blocks that extend across multiple bulkheads at a time, I think that's probably the most important thing because you are trying to get a smooth flow across all the bulkheads.

I installed the inboard bulwark planking and cut out the gun ports and scuppers.  Next is to install the stem, keel and sternpost.

Nope. Go right ahead.

Question, guys....if I paint and decal this model in the historical paint scheme, it will have a swastika at the bow and stern deck areas. Is this a prohibited photograph on this forum? If so, I shall photograph the model before applying the decals and flag.

Now, the bridge. I know the photos show some paint missing but I intend to fix it up afterwards. The ships open bridge, I used bits of both Pontos and Flyhawk, plus North Star for the fittings as the resin binnacle and compass directors are second to none. It all went on fairly easily.
 
The Compass platform just plonked on ad the Flyhawk stuff was a much better fit.
 
A final addition was the Sephamores. No one has added these but it is referenced everywhere and a little bit of scratch building.  
 
And finally for scale, you cannot drink coffee when doing this.

These photo etch frets are included with the kit.
 

 
Here are detail items being added to the kit contents.
* A Cyber Hobby photo etch set that includes railings
* Artvox wood deck
* Set of brass gun barrels from Poland
When I said some of this photo etch stuff is small, a photo of three different AA guns used on the model. The tiny photo etch parts that can be seen must be folded to represent ammo racks. In reality, these may prove too small for me to work with. Building each of these AA guns is a chore as the parts are so small.
 

 

 

 

Welcome back. My favorite stain is Minwax Golden Pecan. It is oil based but I prefer that. However, you really need to test it on your wood to see if you like it. You can see what it looks like on my build logs. I have used it on The USS Constitution as well at the Eagle. 
 
One other thought as you choose your stain. A couple of things I have found to be nice on my models. First, stain all your wood the same stain (other than if it is painted white, black etc). Just like a painting, it gives everything a tonal unity. I also spray a matte finish once everything is dry and before I add rigging.  I just like the look. 

John,
For this, you're choices are spiling or bending... or a bit of both. 
 
Chuck's system works very well...  I checked Youtube and he must not have loaded it up there.   He basically heats the wood until pliable and then bends it using clamps to a table top and let it cool.   I do it a bit different in that I soak the wood for a bit and then use an old curling iron to bend and shape.   Lots of ways to get the same place. 
 
Edit:  Found them...
 

 

 
These really need to be put some place on the site.....   
 
Edit of the edit... I just posted these to the Planking sub-forum.   I hope they help.

Thanks for the likes and comments. All the pre fab done for the bridgework but now work is in the road again.

Next is the range finder, spare anchor and screen to the W/T and hawser reel. The spare anchor is after market, and I need to find and add another anchor yet to go near the stern searchlights.. Finally the stern rail and search lights. and the final product.
 
Next will be the bridge.

Next, the flag lockers. Pontos does not address these at all, but Flyhawk supplies 5 open boxes. A few open source photos from the net show the details.. I considered getting individual cotton threads of different colours to represent the flags, but it would be just a bit too much. I used WEM grills cut and folded into the open boxes and some painted foils to represent the covers.
 
I already added several belaying points for when I rig her out for flag halyards.

Next is the fore 12 pdrs, search light screen covers and ammunition hand up hatches.
 
Then the 4 search lights on the Admiral's walk. 2 are electronically controlled and 2 are manual, so I placed flywheels on the manual ones.

Now the belaying is done, I can add the Admirals walk and Cabin.I used the Flyhawk one as it fits better and looks a bit more natural than the Pontos one whichrequires you to use the kit supplied roof which would be problematic fitting under the lip of the fore funnel.

Moving right along, now the boat deck. I attached and rigged the funnels. Some of the lines belay to the towers so will have to come after.

The bow of this boat is flat.  There is no center keel sticking out to carve a rabbet into.  I glued a piece of 1/8" wide stock, 1/32" thick (my hull planking will be 1/32" thick) to the inner curve of the built up stem to form a rabbet when it's glued in place.  I will do the same for the keel and the stern post.

I like the picture you posted of doing it that way.  It will be a lot of work getting the planks to flow together perfectly where they are actually two different pieces and maintain the waterline like that, but if you nail it, the effect is great!
 
Seems strange that none of the plan sheets show the waterline at all.  I'll have to keep that in mind if I ever consider an AL kit.

On the plan you posted: Is it possible that the bottom on the plan is the correct horizontal; which means that it can be used to draw the water line?
But Brian is right; there should be at least a mark on the stem and stern to use a reference points.
And I also agree that it's not easy to make a water line from two different types of wood.
Keep us posted.

Welcome back, Elijah.  Now knock off the loafing and get back to work on that model!     

John: Did your initial planking go on ok? If so what has changed, because I think you had it right the first time. In my kit the planking is the same as the deck planking bundle which to me looks like Sapelli( not sure about the spelling) it takes stain and finishing well. Mike S. is an expert on finishing so any advice he can give is well worth listening to. Dave(docblake) knows his stuff too I just want to stir the pot between these two   

Brian, I am enroute to checking out Chuck's edge bending right now - thank you.
 
Don, you are very observant - because the ship is upside down I put the plank on the wrong side of the line to make photography better. Repositioning it will not make the kind of change necessary. Can you please look at your kit Don and identify the wood I am using?
 
Respectfully,
John

John,
 On your initial planking you didn't have this problem and in going back in your log I think the wale would have been the fourth(again without measuring) strake. it laid nicely as did the ones above it. So this is telling me you had things right to this point, what happened is you did not taper the fifth strake and following ones thus causing a problem, again I am just going by what I see in the pictures and manual and not the plans.
 I will leave you alone now and quit being a pain in the .....

Hi John, too bad about the planking but if you are happier than that's what counts. Looking at your pictures and the manual I think you have your plank positioned wrong. It looks like to me you should have it at least two or three strakes lower than the plywood bulwarks, try lowering your plank so the top edge of it is at your line marked and not the bottom edge. This should help as the stern is so much higher I don't think any drastic edge bending is required, and if there was Chris W. would have mentioned it in the instructions.
 Hope this helps
 
P.S. I have not checked the plans, I am just going by the pictures you have and the manual