ken3335

Hi, The Next task was to plank the waist deck. The planks supplied were 3x.5mm dark walnut, the wood was ok but I really don’t like the colour. I don’t understand any kit manufacturer thinking that this colour would be ok for decking as it looks so obviously wrong. I was stuck with it as the shops can’t supply an alternative at the moment.. I laid these planks, I didn’t darken the edge as pencil wouldn’t show up against that dark colour, I sealed, sanded and varnished with a satin poly.
 
I then started on the cabins. The instructions would have you put in place the upper decks first but this would make would make the placing and finishing off the deck planking quite difficult.
 
The cabins are made up from ply and were supposed to be covered with the 3x.5 strips. Rather than do this and then try and get a smooth finish for painting I decided to face them with very thin styrene sheet and then trim them to shape, it worked well. The doors and vent covers were also made from styrene, they painted up well, the windows, vents axes and rails were the added.
 
Ken
 
 

Ken

Hi, I managed to get a good sanding session done and I'm very pleased with the result. No filler was needed at all to get this to what I think is a very good first layer.
 
Ken
 

Hi,
As you know I was unhappy with the decking and was in the process of having another go at it. I had made the same mistake on my Royal William build so why I didn’t learn from my mistake I don’t know, anyway it’s now completed and I’m delighted with the result, it was well worth the extra effort.
 
I used a mouse type sander and sanded off all the walnut planking, the waist deck proved quite difficult and I only managed a slight reduction here, I also removed the skirting from around the cabins in preparation for the re planking.
 
Like most of you I have a small stash of wood left over from other builds but I didn’t have enough of the same type to complete the decks, I didn’t want to have to buy any so I used what I had. I had enough light coloured wood but it was of different types in different widths and thickness, four in all. I used my small Proxxon table saw and cut them to the same width 3mm. I was quite surprised at how clean it cut lengths of planks, the edges didn’t even need sanding. I didn’t mind the different thickness as once laid I could sand them down to a uniform height. I cut them into 8cm lengths for a four butt pattern. I tried some dyes on test pieces to see if I could get their colour and texture similar, I ended up choosing a light oak.
 
I had no problem laying the planks although it was now awkward working around the cabins with the upper decks in place, I used white PVA to fix them. I sanded them back, rubbed some walnut filler into the seams then rubbed in the oak dye. I find that the filler soaks up the dye like end grain, slightly darker and gives a very slight appearance of corking, enough to take the plainness off. I re fitted the skirting then finished off with a coat of sanding sealer.
 
I am now much happier with the look of the deck, I think it was well worth the effort.
 
Ken

Hi, I’m going to paint the hull as it’s displayed on the box, I know that it should have a red lower part but as it’s only for show at home I prefer the contrast that the white gives. I’m also going to leave the brass plating and ports as well as the rails unpainted and  leave them natural Polished brass as a feature.
 
ken

Hi,  Continuing, I’ve made a start on the second planking. This planking is done using 1x6mm lime wood strips, in my opinion far from the best wood for a good finish. I unpacked the bundle of strips and found that unlike the first planks they were of quite poor quality, they were very course grain and the edges were roughly cut and looked prone to splintering. To tidy them up a bit I sanded the edges, I held about six at a time in a sort of simple jig and sanded them as a block. Photo.    It’s a big hull and there are rather a lot of planks to do so being able to do many at a time helped.
 
I started the planks from the top of the waist deck and continued down. My fears about the edges splintering happened, a lot of very fine ones occurred spoiling what I had hoped would be well butted seams. The very rough grain was even more noticeable seen with many of the planks fitted, I’ve shown a photo of this, it really is bad and as this will be a smooth painted hull I can see a lot of work will need to be done to make it acceptable. At the moment I think that it would have been better left as single planked, just another challenge.
 
Ken
 

 

Hi,  Continuing, I’ve made a start on the second planking. This planking is done using 1x6mm lime wood strips, in my opinion far from the best wood for a good finish. I unpacked the bundle of strips and found that unlike the first planks they were of quite poor quality, they were very course grain and the edges were roughly cut and looked prone to splintering. To tidy them up a bit I sanded the edges, I held about six at a time in a sort of simple jig and sanded them as a block. Photo.    It’s a big hull and there are rather a lot of planks to do so being able to do many at a time helped.
 
I started the planks from the top of the waist deck and continued down. My fears about the edges splintering happened, a lot of very fine ones occurred spoiling what I had hoped would be well butted seams. The very rough grain was even more noticeable seen with many of the planks fitted, I’ve shown a photo of this, it really is bad and as this will be a smooth painted hull I can see a lot of work will need to be done to make it acceptable. At the moment I think that it would have been better left as single planked, just another challenge.
 
Ken
 

 

Hi,  Continuing, I’ve made a start on the second planking. This planking is done using 1x6mm lime wood strips, in my opinion far from the best wood for a good finish. I unpacked the bundle of strips and found that unlike the first planks they were of quite poor quality, they were very course grain and the edges were roughly cut and looked prone to splintering. To tidy them up a bit I sanded the edges, I held about six at a time in a sort of simple jig and sanded them as a block. Photo.    It’s a big hull and there are rather a lot of planks to do so being able to do many at a time helped.
 
I started the planks from the top of the waist deck and continued down. My fears about the edges splintering happened, a lot of very fine ones occurred spoiling what I had hoped would be well butted seams. The very rough grain was even more noticeable seen with many of the planks fitted, I’ve shown a photo of this, it really is bad and as this will be a smooth painted hull I can see a lot of work will need to be done to make it acceptable. At the moment I think that it would have been better left as single planked, just another challenge.
 
Ken
 

 

Hi,
As you know I was unhappy with the decking and was in the process of having another go at it. I had made the same mistake on my Royal William build so why I didn’t learn from my mistake I don’t know, anyway it’s now completed and I’m delighted with the result, it was well worth the extra effort.
 
I used a mouse type sander and sanded off all the walnut planking, the waist deck proved quite difficult and I only managed a slight reduction here, I also removed the skirting from around the cabins in preparation for the re planking.
 
Like most of you I have a small stash of wood left over from other builds but I didn’t have enough of the same type to complete the decks, I didn’t want to have to buy any so I used what I had. I had enough light coloured wood but it was of different types in different widths and thickness, four in all. I used my small Proxxon table saw and cut them to the same width 3mm. I was quite surprised at how clean it cut lengths of planks, the edges didn’t even need sanding. I didn’t mind the different thickness as once laid I could sand them down to a uniform height. I cut them into 8cm lengths for a four butt pattern. I tried some dyes on test pieces to see if I could get their colour and texture similar, I ended up choosing a light oak.
 
I had no problem laying the planks although it was now awkward working around the cabins with the upper decks in place, I used white PVA to fix them. I sanded them back, rubbed some walnut filler into the seams then rubbed in the oak dye. I find that the filler soaks up the dye like end grain, slightly darker and gives a very slight appearance of corking, enough to take the plainness off. I re fitted the skirting then finished off with a coat of sanding sealer.
 
I am now much happier with the look of the deck, I think it was well worth the effort.
 
Ken

Hi,
As you know I was unhappy with the decking and was in the process of having another go at it. I had made the same mistake on my Royal William build so why I didn’t learn from my mistake I don’t know, anyway it’s now completed and I’m delighted with the result, it was well worth the extra effort.
 
I used a mouse type sander and sanded off all the walnut planking, the waist deck proved quite difficult and I only managed a slight reduction here, I also removed the skirting from around the cabins in preparation for the re planking.
 
Like most of you I have a small stash of wood left over from other builds but I didn’t have enough of the same type to complete the decks, I didn’t want to have to buy any so I used what I had. I had enough light coloured wood but it was of different types in different widths and thickness, four in all. I used my small Proxxon table saw and cut them to the same width 3mm. I was quite surprised at how clean it cut lengths of planks, the edges didn’t even need sanding. I didn’t mind the different thickness as once laid I could sand them down to a uniform height. I cut them into 8cm lengths for a four butt pattern. I tried some dyes on test pieces to see if I could get their colour and texture similar, I ended up choosing a light oak.
 
I had no problem laying the planks although it was now awkward working around the cabins with the upper decks in place, I used white PVA to fix them. I sanded them back, rubbed some walnut filler into the seams then rubbed in the oak dye. I find that the filler soaks up the dye like end grain, slightly darker and gives a very slight appearance of corking, enough to take the plainness off. I re fitted the skirting then finished off with a coat of sanding sealer.
 
I am now much happier with the look of the deck, I think it was well worth the effort.
 
Ken

well this is going better than planned
 
good evening everyone
 
quite glad i have gone ahead to try and salvage this build, having planned a way ahead the stern and midships are now taking shape, I started on the bow tonight and that is the worst mess to sort out, god what the hell was i doing when i started this 12 odd years ago
 
Stern i just used sheets of balsa to allow some reshaping of the sten to get the balcony to fit, having said that it is nearly there, as it is all fitting better, not pretty, but i am not either
 
 
midships 
between the bulkheads i have put some balsa sheets it, to try and minimise any damage when drill the portholes, wether it works i will let you know
the deck chamfer is not catered for, between the bulkhead, and as i have cut some of the false deck they also needed something to be secured to
Bulwarks, this was worrying me, as the bulwark supports were cut out before deck planking last time so i never had a height, but i salvaged to two made last time and used the height from them


 

Looks like the repairs are going well Kevin - well done.

Hi Kevin, Thanks for your kind comment about the hull, I’m sure your the same as myself and find that these comments motivate you. I can understand you stopping your build, it really is a daunting undertaking, hopefully you’re fired up for a second go at it, good luck with that. It looks like we’ll be doing our builds in unison so I’ll be keeping an eye on yours.
 
Ken

Hi, The Next task was to plank the waist deck. The planks supplied were 3x.5mm dark walnut, the wood was ok but I really don’t like the colour. I don’t understand any kit manufacturer thinking that this colour would be ok for decking as it looks so obviously wrong. I was stuck with it as the shops can’t supply an alternative at the moment.. I laid these planks, I didn’t darken the edge as pencil wouldn’t show up against that dark colour, I sealed, sanded and varnished with a satin poly.
 
I then started on the cabins. The instructions would have you put in place the upper decks first but this would make would make the placing and finishing off the deck planking quite difficult.
 
The cabins are made up from ply and were supposed to be covered with the 3x.5 strips. Rather than do this and then try and get a smooth finish for painting I decided to face them with very thin styrene sheet and then trim them to shape, it worked well. The doors and vent covers were also made from styrene, they painted up well, the windows, vents axes and rails were the added.
 
Ken
 
 

Ken

Hi,   I have recently started the Amerigo Vespucci, 1:84 scale from a Panart kit. I quite enjoyed the interaction I got from members on my Royal William log so I’ll again share my build with you.
 
 
 I bought the kit off Ebay for a good price, it is an early version about 20 – 25 years old and differs quite a bit from their current version, I think for the better. Lime for first planking, not balsa, etched sheet brass for the plating not ply, planked deck instead of printed ply and 12 sheets of plans many 1:1, but poor badly translated instructions instead of the step by step guide.
 
 
Although old everything was in very good condition, straight keel and bulwarks, which were very well laser cut, matching the plans perfectly, the strip wood is very nice, straight cleanly cut and still flexible enough although has hardened quite a bit. There are hundreds of castings and machined brass fittings all nicely bagged, these will need a serious cleaning as they have become badly tarnished. A very comprehensive and well presented kit.
 
 
I admire many of the builders on this site for their skill, painstaking dedication to detail and accuracy but I’m afraid that’s not me. My build will be as simple as I can make it, mostly straight from the box with just enough detail to make it a nice looking well made model that will not take me years, with the chance of getting fed up and quitting.  
 
 
I wanted to start the build by first preparing the mounting. I want to mount it on brass pedestals on a large mahogany plinth so needed to do the preparation for this prior to planking rather than risk damaging the model at a later stage by turning it upside down. My first problem is that due to the lack of availability of stuff due to the Covid restrictions I can’t get anything, the wood yards are closed and even popular online modelling suppliers have run out of anything I want, glues, sealers wood strip and my columns.
 
 
I started by joining together the three sections of keel, I reinforced the joins then beefed up the area where the pedestals will be fixed with rods, I drilled them out and hope that they line up later.
 
 
I dry fitted the bulkheads, they only needed the lightest of sanding before becoming a perfect fit. I made up a keel support out of scrap, not very neat looking but works well enough.. I glued all the bulkheads into place, I added extra support on the outer edge of the front three and stern bulkheads. I usually infill these areas with balsa but the lines of the hull are so friendly that I didn’t think that it would be needed. I spent quite a bit of time fairing the frames making sure that they were as perfect as I could make them. I have now started the first layer with the 6 x 1.5 lime planks provided, so far so good.
 
 
That’s me starting my journey please feel free to join me.
 
 
Ken
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi, The Next task was to plank the waist deck. The planks supplied were 3x.5mm dark walnut, the wood was ok but I really don’t like the colour. I don’t understand any kit manufacturer thinking that this colour would be ok for decking as it looks so obviously wrong. I was stuck with it as the shops can’t supply an alternative at the moment.. I laid these planks, I didn’t darken the edge as pencil wouldn’t show up against that dark colour, I sealed, sanded and varnished with a satin poly.
 
I then started on the cabins. The instructions would have you put in place the upper decks first but this would make would make the placing and finishing off the deck planking quite difficult.
 
The cabins are made up from ply and were supposed to be covered with the 3x.5 strips. Rather than do this and then try and get a smooth finish for painting I decided to face them with very thin styrene sheet and then trim them to shape, it worked well. The doors and vent covers were also made from styrene, they painted up well, the windows, vents axes and rails were the added.
 
Ken
 
 

Ken

good afternoon Ken
 
she looks great, the hull came out very nice
 
i have just restarted mine after it being on the shelf of doom for 12 years, it has been in the rubbish bin more times than i can remember, but the initial cost stopped me from trashing it completly
 
i have reordered a couple of the part kits, plus ply for the decks and 3mm lime strips for the decking planks , i also hated the kit produced wood, once the hull is back together, i will start to scratch a lot of the bits as they are pretty naff, as for the future i am looking forward to the rigging and hope to have a majority of sails set
 

Hi, The Next task was to plank the waist deck. The planks supplied were 3x.5mm dark walnut, the wood was ok but I really don’t like the colour. I don’t understand any kit manufacturer thinking that this colour would be ok for decking as it looks so obviously wrong. I was stuck with it as the shops can’t supply an alternative at the moment.. I laid these planks, I didn’t darken the edge as pencil wouldn’t show up against that dark colour, I sealed, sanded and varnished with a satin poly.
 
I then started on the cabins. The instructions would have you put in place the upper decks first but this would make would make the placing and finishing off the deck planking quite difficult.
 
The cabins are made up from ply and were supposed to be covered with the 3x.5 strips. Rather than do this and then try and get a smooth finish for painting I decided to face them with very thin styrene sheet and then trim them to shape, it worked well. The doors and vent covers were also made from styrene, they painted up well, the windows, vents axes and rails were the added.
 
Ken
 
 

Ken

Hi, I managed to get a good sanding session done and I'm very pleased with the result. No filler was needed at all to get this to what I think is a very good first layer.
 
Ken
 

Hi,  Kevin, our kits are quite different, it doesn't have half of what you're showing, mine is a much older version.
I’m making quite good progress on the planking. The first layer has been completed without any issues, it went on quite easily and looks like it will be a good base, in fact I could almost get away with just this one layer, the stern looks a bit of a mess as I built it oversize, the strips butt up tightly and are well fixed to the frame, it all just needs sanding. I’ll wait until I can do this outside, too much dust for inside the house.


 
Ken

Hi,   I have recently started the Amerigo Vespucci, 1:84 scale from a Panart kit. I quite enjoyed the interaction I got from members on my Royal William log so I’ll again share my build with you.
 
 
 I bought the kit off Ebay for a good price, it is an early version about 20 – 25 years old and differs quite a bit from their current version, I think for the better. Lime for first planking, not balsa, etched sheet brass for the plating not ply, planked deck instead of printed ply and 12 sheets of plans many 1:1, but poor badly translated instructions instead of the step by step guide.
 
 
Although old everything was in very good condition, straight keel and bulwarks, which were very well laser cut, matching the plans perfectly, the strip wood is very nice, straight cleanly cut and still flexible enough although has hardened quite a bit. There are hundreds of castings and machined brass fittings all nicely bagged, these will need a serious cleaning as they have become badly tarnished. A very comprehensive and well presented kit.
 
 
I admire many of the builders on this site for their skill, painstaking dedication to detail and accuracy but I’m afraid that’s not me. My build will be as simple as I can make it, mostly straight from the box with just enough detail to make it a nice looking well made model that will not take me years, with the chance of getting fed up and quitting.  
 
 
I wanted to start the build by first preparing the mounting. I want to mount it on brass pedestals on a large mahogany plinth so needed to do the preparation for this prior to planking rather than risk damaging the model at a later stage by turning it upside down. My first problem is that due to the lack of availability of stuff due to the Covid restrictions I can’t get anything, the wood yards are closed and even popular online modelling suppliers have run out of anything I want, glues, sealers wood strip and my columns.
 
 
I started by joining together the three sections of keel, I reinforced the joins then beefed up the area where the pedestals will be fixed with rods, I drilled them out and hope that they line up later.
 
 
I dry fitted the bulkheads, they only needed the lightest of sanding before becoming a perfect fit. I made up a keel support out of scrap, not very neat looking but works well enough.. I glued all the bulkheads into place, I added extra support on the outer edge of the front three and stern bulkheads. I usually infill these areas with balsa but the lines of the hull are so friendly that I didn’t think that it would be needed. I spent quite a bit of time fairing the frames making sure that they were as perfect as I could make them. I have now started the first layer with the 6 x 1.5 lime planks provided, so far so good.
 
 
That’s me starting my journey please feel free to join me.
 
 
Ken
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi, I managed to get a good sanding session done and I'm very pleased with the result. No filler was needed at all to get this to what I think is a very good first layer.
 
Ken
 

Hi, I managed to get a good sanding session done and I'm very pleased with the result. No filler was needed at all to get this to what I think is a very good first layer.
 
Ken
 

Hi,  Kevin, our kits are quite different, it doesn't have half of what you're showing, mine is a much older version.
I’m making quite good progress on the planking. The first layer has been completed without any issues, it went on quite easily and looks like it will be a good base, in fact I could almost get away with just this one layer, the stern looks a bit of a mess as I built it oversize, the strips butt up tightly and are well fixed to the frame, it all just needs sanding. I’ll wait until I can do this outside, too much dust for inside the house.


 
Ken

Hi,  Kevin, our kits are quite different, it doesn't have half of what you're showing, mine is a much older version.
I’m making quite good progress on the planking. The first layer has been completed without any issues, it went on quite easily and looks like it will be a good base, in fact I could almost get away with just this one layer, the stern looks a bit of a mess as I built it oversize, the strips butt up tightly and are well fixed to the frame, it all just needs sanding. I’ll wait until I can do this outside, too much dust for inside the house.


 
Ken

Hi,   I have recently started the Amerigo Vespucci, 1:84 scale from a Panart kit. I quite enjoyed the interaction I got from members on my Royal William log so I’ll again share my build with you.
 
 
 I bought the kit off Ebay for a good price, it is an early version about 20 – 25 years old and differs quite a bit from their current version, I think for the better. Lime for first planking, not balsa, etched sheet brass for the plating not ply, planked deck instead of printed ply and 12 sheets of plans many 1:1, but poor badly translated instructions instead of the step by step guide.
 
 
Although old everything was in very good condition, straight keel and bulwarks, which were very well laser cut, matching the plans perfectly, the strip wood is very nice, straight cleanly cut and still flexible enough although has hardened quite a bit. There are hundreds of castings and machined brass fittings all nicely bagged, these will need a serious cleaning as they have become badly tarnished. A very comprehensive and well presented kit.
 
 
I admire many of the builders on this site for their skill, painstaking dedication to detail and accuracy but I’m afraid that’s not me. My build will be as simple as I can make it, mostly straight from the box with just enough detail to make it a nice looking well made model that will not take me years, with the chance of getting fed up and quitting.  
 
 
I wanted to start the build by first preparing the mounting. I want to mount it on brass pedestals on a large mahogany plinth so needed to do the preparation for this prior to planking rather than risk damaging the model at a later stage by turning it upside down. My first problem is that due to the lack of availability of stuff due to the Covid restrictions I can’t get anything, the wood yards are closed and even popular online modelling suppliers have run out of anything I want, glues, sealers wood strip and my columns.
 
 
I started by joining together the three sections of keel, I reinforced the joins then beefed up the area where the pedestals will be fixed with rods, I drilled them out and hope that they line up later.
 
 
I dry fitted the bulkheads, they only needed the lightest of sanding before becoming a perfect fit. I made up a keel support out of scrap, not very neat looking but works well enough.. I glued all the bulkheads into place, I added extra support on the outer edge of the front three and stern bulkheads. I usually infill these areas with balsa but the lines of the hull are so friendly that I didn’t think that it would be needed. I spent quite a bit of time fairing the frames making sure that they were as perfect as I could make them. I have now started the first layer with the 6 x 1.5 lime planks provided, so far so good.
 
 
That’s me starting my journey please feel free to join me.
 
 
Ken