jbshan

Here's about the earliest one, clamping a batten for the sheer.  The top and bottom blocking for the ports is in.  The kit is the standard 'egg crate' construction.  It is a square tuck stern so pretty simple back there.
I learned building Niagara by Model Shipways to block in the ports between the frames.  It locates them securely and really stiffens things up.  I ran battens for the top and bottom lines of the ports then measured for locations fore n' aft.  One each side needed the frame to be cut right out, about midships.  The third back needed the frame cut, but had blocking adjacent on the fore side to support the edge.  The forward ports had to be at an angle because of the curve in toward the bows and that angle had to be allowed for.
I make the blocking proud of the frames, then sand back to a smooth surface.  The blocking makes putting in the port lining much easier later on.  This vessel has the plank basically following the ports, but I would think this method would help with those where the plank does not line up, and easier than trying to measure each port out and cut already installed planking.
I may remember more as we go but this is it for now on these pics.

I have a series of pics taken while work was in progress which illustrate techniques I have not seen in other logs.  I also have not seen, even after a search of the site, this particular model.  I would be happy to post these pics, with comments of course, in sequence if others think it would be helpful.
 
Past this point, I have built tops.  There is also a scratch-built yawl, visible on deck, done in a novel manner.

One gent took a stock kit of a destroyer (USS Kidd, I believe) and turned it into a multiple blue-winning model by adding features and detail.  That's pretty epic.

The square stern makes it less likely you will need any blocking, but check things out there before you get a bunch of plank on.  If there's a really big gap between bulkheads and/or transoms, you might consider some.
I just looked at the photos in the destructions and it looks well-supported there.

If it's 2AM and you're running low on clamps,  try cutting rings off PVC pipe and then cut the rings to form a "C".  A 10ft length will provide ~200 x 1/2" wide clamps, or many 1/4" wide clamps.  You can also nibble the 'jaws' with diagonal wirecutters to a narrower profile if needed.

No, I think you have the right of it.  But this is a first layer of plank, yes?  The second layer will develop a true rabbet or a simulation of one.  You still need to cut your plank pretty precisely, if nothing else, for a good fit and maximum gluing surface.

As I read the instructions, the topsides were double planked and the underwater body single planked.  The second layer was beveled down to meet the thickness of the first layer at the wale, which, when added on top concealed the meeting place.  It also shows quite short plank lengths in the second layer, pp 17, 18.

Gentlemen, I think you will find that, going into the rabbet, the plank will need a 'point' with the longer side to the inside.  This can help keep the hood ends snugly into the rabbet, but things need still to fit properly.  I would suggest not trying to go full length with the planks, but keep them to the region of 20 feet or so, to fit the spacing of the bulkheads.  You will need to have the width changing, wider in the middle of the hull and narrower at the ends, and it is easier to do this with shorter planks.  Also, when you reach that point, if you have to fit a plank into both a stem and sternpost rabbet, working from the ends toward the middle is about the only way to go.  There are some threads on this forum covering the process.  Just use the search feature.
Perhaps again OBE. 

Gentlemen, I think you will find that, going into the rabbet, the plank will need a 'point' with the longer side to the inside.  This can help keep the hood ends snugly into the rabbet, but things need still to fit properly.  I would suggest not trying to go full length with the planks, but keep them to the region of 20 feet or so, to fit the spacing of the bulkheads.  You will need to have the width changing, wider in the middle of the hull and narrower at the ends, and it is easier to do this with shorter planks.  Also, when you reach that point, if you have to fit a plank into both a stem and sternpost rabbet, working from the ends toward the middle is about the only way to go.  There are some threads on this forum covering the process.  Just use the search feature.
Perhaps again OBE. 

I keep my small change in my parse.
Queen Charlotte, if I have my time line right, was built in partial response to the US building of Oneida, which was a pure warship.  Oneida was, yes, on Lake Ontario, but the British boosted things to a higher level on Lake Erie as well.  The Provincial Marine was a quasi-navy service that performed the government's business up and down the lakes, but also was available to carry civilian merchants' goods and personnel when Govt. business didn't fill up the vessel.  You should perhaps think of a cross between the mail packet service and the East India Company that was well-armed but with fair cargo capacity and owned and operated by the Govt.
Detroit, Lawrence and Niagara were all launched in 1813.

I keep my small change in my parse.
Queen Charlotte, if I have my time line right, was built in partial response to the US building of Oneida, which was a pure warship.  Oneida was, yes, on Lake Ontario, but the British boosted things to a higher level on Lake Erie as well.  The Provincial Marine was a quasi-navy service that performed the government's business up and down the lakes, but also was available to carry civilian merchants' goods and personnel when Govt. business didn't fill up the vessel.  You should perhaps think of a cross between the mail packet service and the East India Company that was well-armed but with fair cargo capacity and owned and operated by the Govt.
Detroit, Lawrence and Niagara were all launched in 1813.

Nice camels!
Queen Charlotte was built at Amherstburg specifically as a warship, for the Provincial Marine.  She was launched in 1810, a 'Corvette Brig to carry sixteen guns'.  She was built to a draught of William Bell for a ship rather than as a brig.  Robert Malcomson, Warships of the Great Lakes, quoting original documents.
She was somewhat smaller than Detroit and the US Brigs, and on the day carried 16 guns on the broadside plus one on a pivot.

Update :
 
here we have the captain, just behind the the stb. bridge bulwark. He is proudly watching his baby plough the Atlantic, as the bow wake browses by. This little figurine, together with the gentleman and the two lady passengers in conversation two decks below, I`m proud to posess. They are a gorgious gift from MSW member "TLC", who saw that I was on the look for certain figurines in scale 1:144 or 1:160 N-gauge, specialy  the captain, and he so kindly merged the make of these with a young Bulgarian artist, who was producing miniature dolls and dollhouse articles. She herewith, first time attempted, custom made,  to do a long time searched for captain for the KWdG, and I know she did a top job on it.
Many thanks again at this ocasion to "TLC" and the young artist...
Now is the time to have these figurines boarding and placed on board at exponated positions.
 
Also today I received the etched brass wheels from "M.Z. Modellbau", Manfred Zinneckers webshop and they are correct in size and look top, so the telemotors could be completed, installed, and the hydraulics connected thereto. The bridge crew is now complete and doing its job...
 
Nils
 

Captain in scale 1:144 with moustarch and in his Norddeutscher Lloyd uniform....
 

the litte group of passengers, two ladies in their 1900- 1910 fashions in conversation with the gent at the railing on the forward promenade deck
 

one of the two telemotors after completion...
 

the little Revell color can for scaling
 
 

the nautical crew at work, hopefully they bring her safe to the port of destination
 

 
 

 
 

WOW...............................

Regards
Gerhard

Hi Chuck,
 
I would suggest the use of sharp gouge and chisels finished off with flexible sanding sticks.  If the deck is low or lacks camber, you can build it up as shown below.  You will find more pictures on carving and working with solid hulls in my Brigantine Newsboy of 1854 build log here at MSW.
 
Regards,
Pete 

!

Nice camels!
Queen Charlotte was built at Amherstburg specifically as a warship, for the Provincial Marine.  She was launched in 1810, a 'Corvette Brig to carry sixteen guns'.  She was built to a draught of William Bell for a ship rather than as a brig.  Robert Malcomson, Warships of the Great Lakes, quoting original documents.
She was somewhat smaller than Detroit and the US Brigs, and on the day carried 16 guns on the broadside plus one on a pivot.

Well, Charlie, actually, since I believe that the Niagara was raised in 1876 and sent to Philadelphia where her exhibition building burned around her, all the original wood went up in flames.  There may be a few token pieces of the hull that was raised in 1913 on board (I heard as part of a door in the Capt's cabin) but nothing of any significance, and in any case that hull I believe to have been Queen Charlotte.

Just a little side note.
This ship is noted as being the first with four funnels.  She indeed held the Blue Ribbon for a while.  It seems the folks wanting to emigrate would so much rather sail on a ship with four funnels as being a 'better ship' that some ships were built with a false fourth funnel to attract ticket sales.  As an example, the fourth funnel on Titanic was used to exhaust gases from the galleys.  An additional function on Titanic was to improve her righting arm by virtue of the weight of the funnel tube high up on the structure.

Other than size, I would think you'd want to find a way to dull the white line a bit.

Nice camels!
Queen Charlotte was built at Amherstburg specifically as a warship, for the Provincial Marine.  She was launched in 1810, a 'Corvette Brig to carry sixteen guns'.  She was built to a draught of William Bell for a ship rather than as a brig.  Robert Malcomson, Warships of the Great Lakes, quoting original documents.
She was somewhat smaller than Detroit and the US Brigs, and on the day carried 16 guns on the broadside plus one on a pivot.

Nice camels!
Queen Charlotte was built at Amherstburg specifically as a warship, for the Provincial Marine.  She was launched in 1810, a 'Corvette Brig to carry sixteen guns'.  She was built to a draught of William Bell for a ship rather than as a brig.  Robert Malcomson, Warships of the Great Lakes, quoting original documents.
She was somewhat smaller than Detroit and the US Brigs, and on the day carried 16 guns on the broadside plus one on a pivot.

Nice camels!
Queen Charlotte was built at Amherstburg specifically as a warship, for the Provincial Marine.  She was launched in 1810, a 'Corvette Brig to carry sixteen guns'.  She was built to a draught of William Bell for a ship rather than as a brig.  Robert Malcomson, Warships of the Great Lakes, quoting original documents.
She was somewhat smaller than Detroit and the US Brigs, and on the day carried 16 guns on the broadside plus one on a pivot.

I've been watching for a while, Nils.  Wooden sail is more my area than steel and steam, but maybe I can make a comment from time to time that is helpful.
Magnificent work, a Grand Old Dame, even if she does have a man's name.

Just a little side note.
This ship is noted as being the first with four funnels.  She indeed held the Blue Ribbon for a while.  It seems the folks wanting to emigrate would so much rather sail on a ship with four funnels as being a 'better ship' that some ships were built with a false fourth funnel to attract ticket sales.  As an example, the fourth funnel on Titanic was used to exhaust gases from the galleys.  An additional function on Titanic was to improve her righting arm by virtue of the weight of the funnel tube high up on the structure.