donrobinson

OC: I have since cut them down to 3 mm strips, I'll give these a good soaking then try again
Lawrence: Sorry about that Lawrence I've been busy lately and and not spent much time on the Stefano, this is about to change real soon

OC: I have since cut them down to 3 mm strips, I'll give these a good soaking then try again
Lawrence: Sorry about that Lawrence I've been busy lately and and not spent much time on the Stefano, this is about to change real soon

You could:
Make a lap joint, when glued then drill some holes in joint to add tiny dowels that would further strengthen joint
Mount pieces in lathe and drill holes in ends to accept a dowel, then glue together
Leave as is, with pin, glue several small strips (.5 mm thick) around diameter of dowel. Then if you wish wrap rope around it in different locations for added strength and looks 

OC: I have since cut them down to 3 mm strips, I'll give these a good soaking then try again
Lawrence: Sorry about that Lawrence I've been busy lately and and not spent much time on the Stefano, this is about to change real soon

Good Morning all, thanks for all the great comments, visits and likes. Since my last post there has not been too much activity in the shipyard but I have completed the planking on the port side. All went as expected and with no surprises. Unlike the first layer I did not bother to taper the planks resulting in having to use three stealers at the stern, these will be covered by copper plates so I was not that worried about this. I found trying to taper the .5 mm planks was just not worth the effort for something that was going to be either painted or covered with plates. So I guess I did do it the easier way in some ways . I could not resist putting a coat of wipe on poly to see how the beech would look, this will be sanded and act as my sealer for the paint and plates. I really like the looks of the beech and think it is defiantly worth considering for future builds.
 Not much to show but here it is: 

Putting in a stealer
 

Planking completed
 

Stern trimmed
 

Bow trimmed and coat of wipe on poly
 

Wipe on poly is still a little wet, if you look at the transom you can see some of the beech without any poly. Love how this wood looks

Thanks Michael and Mike and to all those for the likes and comments.
 The first planking is completed now, filled, sanded and sealed. The second planking has begun, this is done using .5 x 4 mm strips cut to a length of 120 mm. I am using a 4 plank shift. I am not sure what type of wood it is, I am thinking maybe cherry. Whatever it is I am going to have a hard time painting it as it is starting to look real nice.
 

Six strakes left of first planking
 

I was trying to get a picture while the filler was still wet, it looked real tasty when it was all pink!!
 
 

Here it is after the first initial sanding
 

Sanded and sealed, I use a thin coat of wipe on poly then sand when dry. For some reason I cannot find sanding sealer around here, maybe on the next dog sled that comes through. Lol
Marking of the waterline, temporary marking as below this is copper plated so the planks will not be seen and will not need to be exact lengths or properly staggered

Showing pre-cut(120 mm) planks, space between vertical lines is 30 mm (120/4 = 30). Syringe is full of Weldbond the little plastic container has ca in it the red handled tool with a needle in the end is used for applying the ca

Here I am showing how I glue my planks on. First apply the Weldbond then with the needle tool I'll spread ca between the lines of Weldbond. With this method no clamps are required and with careful application of the ca there is no staining of the wood.
That's it for now, a week or so of doing this and I'll be back.
 Take Care and Thanks for dropping in

Good Morning All, A big Thanks for all the compliments, for stopping in and for all the likes much appreciated.
 After 32 strakes and over 160 planks the starboard side is completed. I completed this with all strakes going from stem to stern with no drop planks or stealers . The use of short planks made the job much easier to complete. Other than the sheer size of this hull it has so far been the easiest one to plank for me to date. This could have been completed much faster by not tapering the planks and just slapping on planks. But then what would you learn from that. My process was to measure each bulkhead calculate how many strakes required and the widths of the planks at each bulkhead, After three or four strakes I would measure again then adjust as required then just repeated this until finished.
Enough of all this here are some pictures and a few explanations:
 
In this picture I'm showing the jig I used to keep the garboard strake straight

 
This picture is showing the taper required on the garboard strake as there is no rabbit line

 
Showing the last few planks, although it does not look like it in the picture the space left is quite even

 
The tools I use for sanding and scraping, nothing fancy but it works for me
 
 
And how she looks now before any filling

 

 
A little more fine tuning and it will be ready for some filler, but now it is on to the port side which has been already started
 
Have a good day, and Thanks for stopping in
 
 

Hello All, Thanks for stopping and for your likes and comments.
 Well a week has gone by and I don't have that much to show, For some reason I thought I would have had lots more to show, but I have started on the planking and all is going smooth. At this stage Stefano is 810 mm long so I suppose this is maybe why it is going slower than I thought. No matter there is no rush. The transom has proven to be a little bit of a hair puller outer but fortunately with my already thinning hair there was not much to grab onto and all worked out 
 
The first row of planking installed at top of bulkheads, no tapering done on this strake. The bulkhead extensions are to be removed later on, therefore there is little glue applied to these points of contact with the planks. It is necessary then to pay special attention while installing the first four strakes and be sure there is adequate glue applied to their edges and proper clamping is applied.
 

 
The new shipyard aka dining room
 

 
And here Stefano is beside the Pegasus, the Pegasus is 500 mm in this picture 310 mm shorter than the Stefano. Pegasus is 1:64 and the Stefano is 1:63

 
 This week is the Trabaccolo,
 
See You All Later

Here are some of the plans, first one is an overall, second one showing how to build masts and spars and the last two are all about the rigging these are just for the foremast. The plans are all scale size so any measurement can be accurately taken off of them , I believe they are 35" x 50" and there is 14 of them. The main mast has three dedicated sheets and the mizzen has one. One sheet is all about the sails and the rest are the construction of hull and various items required. The instruction book is 36 pages which may seem small but with all the information you need on the plans the instruction book is more than adequate. It does an excellent job of outlining the various steps and is easy to follow.
 




 

Finally caught up to you and your new build, Bob. I now have this one on "the list" so I'll be watching!!

Finally caught up to you and your new build, Bob. I now have this one on "the list" so I'll be watching!!

Finally caught up to you and your new build, Bob. I now have this one on "the list" so I'll be watching!!

Finally caught up to you and your new build, Bob. I now have this one on "the list" so I'll be watching!!

Finally caught up to you and your new build, Bob. I now have this one on "the list" so I'll be watching!!

All these details are so cool. Nice job on the wipers

Hi Mike: You are right I have seen that before, probably on your log. Not so sure how good it would work for edges bending a 1,5 x 7mm walnut strip almost 90 degrees. My first few attempts have not gone so well but will try again to day.
Samson: Thanks Samson, you are more than welcome to join along there is always room

Thanks Dave. Yes I have a mill also they are both Sherline the lathe is a 4400 and the mill is a 5400, if you are thing of buying get one of their packages that come with accessories. I also highly highly recommend getting the digital read out at the same time, it really helps with accuracy and is a real saviour when it comes to repetitive cuts.  

Good morning everyone, I hope all is good and you are ready for another day of modelling. thanks to all for visiting.
 Well another milestone has been reached. Planking is finally complete! After approximately 1200 individual planks, two layers on hull and two layers on deck, this part of the build is now behind me. I opted not to simulate caulking as I usually don't really care for it, however, with my deck I am realising maybe I should have. Looking at my hull I thought there was enough definition between the planks but for some reason the deck is not so. It is very hard to see the butt ends and it almost looks like it maybe one solid sheet of wood. At any rate I am not about to tear it up. As of now it has two coats of wipe on poly and I will put on another two or three.
 The next step will be installing the covering board or waterway which will entail laterally bending a 6 mm plank to the shape of the stern, so we'll see how that works.
 Installing the planking
I used Weldbond glue, ca glue is not required for this step.  Weldbond, with a little burnishing, adheres in seconds proving to be adequate as I had no lifting of the planks after installation.
 Here are a few pictures:
 

Here is my new found plank shear, works great for cutting long angles. I recommend for those of you who have admirals to wait until she is gone before using this tool
 

And here it is in place, well that is not quite true as the one shown above had the glue applied to the wrong side!!
 

This is the burnishing tool I use. Simply just apiece of 13 mm (1/2") square stock. Doing this helps spread and level the glue and flattens out the plank. Sanding and  scraping was so much easier, I think I spent a maximum of 20 minutes of sanding the deck. Well worth the effort to try this if you are not doing it already.
 

 
 As you can see there are no real defined planks or butt ends, but trust me when I say it is a four plank shift and all shift lines are straight 
 
 That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you soon

Hey Mike get it down, it is real good stress relief!
 

Doug and Mike: Thanks guys

Hello everyone, I'm hoping you are all having a good day and your shipyards are active.
 I have been busy planking the hull and now the deck, two layers, for what now seems a eternity so yesterday I decided to turn my attention to something required further on in the build.
 The aft cabin has a rail on top of it that needs to have stanchions, these are made from 3 mm dowel and then shaped accordingly. Although nothing real fancy or anything, I thought you may want to see how I made them.
 

3 mm dowel in chuck 
 

First cut is made, .100 from the end and .021 deep
 

second cut made, .460 from the end and .01 deep
 

Shaping is done using a sanding stick on the backside
 

 
Final shaping done and parting groove is cut at .560 from the end. Final parting was done with a razor saw, with lathe turned off
 

Culling out the rejects, on the left
 

Length when parted from lathe is .560 inches or approximately 14 mm, which allows for 1 mm to be sanded off each end to arrive at a final measurement of 12 mm. When I tried to make these at the exact length the 1 mm collar would chip or break so making them longer prevented this. I used a Byrnes disc sander for sanding the ends which made this part of the job very easy.
 As you can see nothing out of the ordinary but it was lots of fun, and Doug(Heronguy), if you are reading, this is the reason you NEED a lathe
 For anyone considering buying a mill, having a DRO(digital read out) really helps for something like this when there are repetitive cuts. It saves on mistakes and time, I would defiantly recommend buying one when ordering a mill.
 
 You all have fun and enjoy the weekend. It's snowing here now so it looks like I'll be storm stayed for the weekend , luckily enough the food and refreshment fridges are both well stocked!!

Good morning all, thanks for the comments, likes and visits.
 Since my last post the hull planking has been completed. I stained and put a coat of wipe on poly on the starboard side to see how the beech would look, I'll let you be the judges. Next was removing the bulkhead extensions, cleaning up the freeboard(bulwarks), then carving out the stern area down to deck level. 
Here are the pictures:

Here is the beech stained and a coat of wipe on poly. I used a water based stain and only one coat of it. another coat may have improved the look or possibly a coat of sanding sealer. Overlooking the obvious glue stains you can see it does not take stain very evenly. My conclusion is that beech looks better without a stain, should be left clear or painted, which is coming up soon 
 

Removing the bulkhead extensions using a veneer saw. These came off quite easily and posed no problems, the veneer saw is defiantly the tool for this job.
 
About to start the removal of the stern filler block
 

Filler block removed, filler was later applied to floor and sides. The important part here is to maintain the curvature and rise of the deck, this simply done by laying a plank along the bulkhead tops and watching how it is lays. Much the same as you would do when fairing a hull.    
 

These last pictures are showing the cleaning of the freeboard, they will be eventually painted, and the fairing of the bulkhead tops. When fairing the bulkhead tops it is again important to maintain the curve and also to have a consistent height from the top of the bulkhead to the to of the freeboard.
 
That's all for now, next is the first layer of planking on the deck.
See You soon 

Hi Mike, thanks for your comment it's much appreciated. Below is a picture of Amati plates(left) and the MarisStella plates(right). As you can see the MarisStella ones are slightly larger but do have the rivets also. I'm thinking both plates should be much easier in the long run to install versus having to punch the rivets.

As you can see they are not quite as bright as the Amati ones, they have a little more weathered look which is fine with me

Mike: I've been slowly trying to bend these pieces since last week but to no avail. I am going to accept defeat on this one and try a different approach. The biggest problem with bending this wide of a plank is the wood on the inside of the curve has no where to go and "bunches" up. I tried cutting kerfs in it, as you would a 2" board, but with this scale the pieces in between the kerfs chip away. I was not too confident in this method but thought I would give it a try. That's all good, lots of options left yet.
Ian: I am surprised you did not hear my description in Calgary, it was defiantly loud enough . As I mentioned to Mike bending is not an option for something this size and scale. Not to worry we will conquer this beast!! 
Doug: I have thought of that, and would have been done this by now, but I am saving that as a last resort. I would really like to complete this build with kit materials if possible. If it does come to it I will have no shame in using that method 
Zoran: that was my next thought, I was a little worried about the looks but it will all be covered with the grated deck and the joint could be hid under a pin rail. I will make a bending form first then cut some strips and give it a try.
 

Lawrence, so good of you to stop in. It really is a great kit, at the moment this is MarisStella's top of the line kit and it's full of goodies!!.There are so many things for me to learn with this build it's going to be a real gem to build, the materials are all excellent.