mikiek

OK - working on a couple of fronts. 2nd layer portside is done. I'm now working on finishing the starboard 2nd layer. In addition (for some bizarre reason) I have also begun the 3rd layer planking. I laid the wale stick and then the couple of rear strakes (not sure of the proper term) above the wale. This turned up a new problem that will likely screw up all my plans for layer three. According to the specs - the limewood sticks used for the 2nd layer were supposed to be 6 mm in width. I found that claim to be unreasonable, as the sticks I measured were more like 5.8 - 5.9 after some lite sanding to square up the edges. The 3rd layer walnut sticks are also supposed to be 6mm, but from what I have seen they're not even close to that. I measured 6 sticks out of the bunch and the widest was 5.8mm. This is a total joke. Truly pathetic! In the image you can see the upper edge of the (3rd layer) walnut strake way under the limewood 2nd layer. Those are supposed to be the same width. They are off by a significant amount. A truly pathetic offering. I have had sticks be way off on width. Also way off on thickness which requires a ton of sanding. My 12 year old could have produced better sticks. Shame on PanArt!

2nd layer portside is complete. It did bring out a few problems that I will have to deal with on layer 3. The most important, I had a few gaps in between strakes, especially the strakes that required a lot of shaping. I'm going to have to be much more accurate with the final layer. Still need to finish the starboard side. I have been debating whether to just match the portside planking or try to do a better job which will likely mean strakes at each end don't match up. As always, nothing matters on this layer. With some better strake shaping, the ugly curve at midship is smoothing out. It turns out I didn't need any sort of filler piece. Here's a few shots of the final planking. Big curve is smoothing out. Still need 3 full sticks to fill the widest space. This is what made me go to 3 final stealers rather than 2 stealers plus one full stick. 2 sticks left to fill in. You can see the bulge in the middle of this stick. This filled in the ugly curve in the planking. Space for 1 more stick. Port side finished! As you might see, I have already begun opening up the rabbet and the sticks close to it. Hopefully allowing the 3rd layer sticks to fill in to the rabbet edge. G'nite.

I have hit a little bit of laziness the last few days. Just didn't feel like bending and shaping sticks for the final few strakes portside. I did make 1 executive decision - it's going to have to be stealer mania for the rest of this side. Both stem & stern. I did manage to work up the gumption to get those carved out and in place. The job was far from perfect, but as I keep saying, no one will see any of this layer. It was good practice. So I will end up with 5 stealers at the bow and 3 at the stern. Way more than I have ever had to use. The one lesson from this is to pay close attention to the curve mid-ship early on. Up to now my use of a stealer has always been a reactionary decision. One of those "Oh crap" moments. I think on the final layer I will be aggressive with stealers from the get-go. I'll lay 1 full width wale and the next strake will be a 1:2 stealer. That should start that mid ship curve downwards. Back to the moment, I have laid all the stealer starter pieces. Just need to lay the sticks in between them. And of course, repeat on starboard. Here's a few images. To figure out how long the stealer piece should be, lay as many scrap pieces as needed in the area. Slide those pieces forward/backward until they will not move any further. Your stealer piece needs to extend that far. Oops - missed the width a little bit. Stern & stem stealer pieces in place. In the last image you can see the mid ship bulging curve has been reduced somewhat. This was due to some aggressive shaping - leaving the stick full width at the curve and quickly narrowing down each end.I think a few more repetitions of this will fill in what could have been a big space after all the strakes were laid. Thanks to all that are following!

Seizing was a way of "clamping" down a rope. Typically this was done by hand by certain seamen who were allowed to carry a small knife in their pack. Understandably, this was a limited few. So the seizing rope (sometimes twine) had to be thin enough to manage single handedly, but also strong enough to hold against sometimes awesome force (think the ropes holding a gun). It had to be thin enough to be easily cut, but also easily applied. You may be on the right track checking someones sewing basket. Another option many use is fly tying line. It's probably closer to scale for 1:64. That's what I use, but you must be careful of what you buy. Some tend to fray badly. I use UNI-Thread 6/0w. It comes in quite a few colors. Just be aware that it is not much thicker that a hair (which is probably about to scale). So make sure you have a good seizing process.

Cornwall Models for sure. Yes it is a Euro outfit. But the prices of the Euro made kits (which many are) can be almost half of the same kit bought in the US. You will pay a little more for shipping, But I have found the total cost to still be much less than the same kit bought from a US vendor. I haven't bought anything in a while, but I do remember their turnaround was impressive. I could order a kit Saturday nite and it would arrive by Weds. the next week. I've never found any US shop that could match that. As I said, I haven't bought any new kits is a while, but they were my go to vendor for any of the Euro made kits.

Thank you Cisco. I did some of what you described on the last stick I showed. It's full width at that bend, but narrows down considerably towards each end. It did pull out a little bit of the curve

With a stealer at both ends this is now taking quite a bit longer. Each plank has to be shaped to fit at both ends with the goal being to close down the widest area (just a bit forward of mid ship) and still fit in at the bow & stern. I've showed a lot of pix of the final result of each strake installed. But have not yet shown a shaped strake before gluing. So here is the next stick, shaped but not yet glued. Here's where it needs to go. And here it is in place. At this point, the widest space is 3 1/2 sticks wide. Still thinking I will need a convex shaped piece to fill in any remaining space at that point. Will wait to see how things fall out.

As claimed earlier, this is getting interesting. I did a little measuring. The widest unplanked area will require about 5 1/2 sticks to fill. The stern (and about 4" ahead of that) only has room for 3 sticks. The bow has room for about 3 narrowed down sticks. So I will have to continue the stealer routine at the bow (probably 2 more stealers and one shaved down stick) and also begin stealers at the stern. I am still using the same 1st stealer pieces at the bow. The stern will have a much longer stick that offers the same 2 to 1 ratio. A total of 3 sticks with the stealer fitting about 4" from the stern. Sorry if that sounds confusing. Hopefully a few pix will help. There is still a really nasty curve mid ship. I am thinking maybe to make a convex shaped piece to fill that in a little bit. I have been bending each strake to fit that curve, but it isn't going away. Bow stealers. Stern stealer. More to come. Thanks to all that are following....

I wanted to get the port side caught up with starboard. Second verse, same as the first (just in reverse). Both sides look a little odd because the stealer piece is some walnut left from the 1st layer. Those sticks are a little wider than the 2nd layer limewood (7mm vs. 6mm) so it gave me a tad more to work with - I'll take anything I can get. The final layer is 6mm walnut and I have 1 stick of the 7mm walnut left. It will be close, but least it will all match. I've been doing this all by eyeball. No real plan and the dividers are out the window on this layer. I will need a better strategy for the final layer. It's about to get interesting. The widest remaining space for this layer is about 5 1/2 sticks. No way that's going to fit at the bow. Will have to continue the stealers - at least 2 more plus 1 final whole stick. The stern will be even wilder. There's a pretty narrow space about 3" up from the stern. Then it widens a little at the edge of the stern. Some serious shaping to come. Pardon me if this is not all that interesting, but I am kinda making notes to self so I remember everything when I begin the 3rd layer. I will say I am pretty happy with how the 2nd layer is turning out. The hull is much more solid now. It was pretty scary at the end of the 1st layer planking.

Thank you Cisco - if you could see the 1st layer up close you might think differently😀 I didn't bend any planks on that layer and I think that was part of the problem. The other problem was trying to glue walnut sticks together using CA. It just didn't work, meaning I was having to glue and then pin sticks together with white glue. Then wait for the glue to dry. CA has always been my "nails" during planking. The 2nd layer has really straightened out and the hull is a lot more solid now. Thanks for looking in.

OK - so we are now really into stealers. Magically combining 1 stick into 2. There is a huge bulge just forward of mid-ship. Also very limited space at the bow.The bulge has to be filled without maxing out sticks at the stem. Once again, sorry for the poor focus, but I think you can see where this is headed. I'm getting down to some major shaping on the next few strakes. As can be seen here. I am starting to consider a short filler plank to even out the gap. Unfortunately, it could take 2 to really do the job. I am whittling down the count of sticks for this middle layer of planking. As long as there is no other requirement for these sticks, I should be OK. Crossing fingers 🤫 I am planning on repeating the identical planking on the other side, before finishing out this band. I have made a bunch of the single stealer starter planks to hopefully duplicate what I did on the starboard side.

The editor went nuts, hopefully this will get posted. Continuing the 2nd of 3 plank layers for this build. As I have previously mentioned, the good thing with this layer is it will not be visible at all. This does give me opportunities to try things that I wouldn't do on an outer layer. My first screw up, after completion of the 1st band there are some pretty big misses midship. On the bow & stern the strakes landed exactly where I planned. However midship, there is almost a full plank (6mm) shortage. That is going to have to be filled somehow. Fortunately the dividers will help recalculate that space. The bigger screw up is not paying attention to the spacing at the bow. As you might see, midship will still require about 9-10 strakes, however at the bow there's room for about 4-5. Can you say filler planks? I did a prototype to turn 1 stick into 2. I apologize for the poor focusing, not sure what happened, but you get the idea. As I said, this started as a prototype but I may well just glue this into place and then extend additional sticks to the stern from there. I did make identical copies of the 3 pieces so I can do the same to both sides. Most likely there is going to be at least 2 sets of these needed. I have also taken one new step (at least for me). I am using Chuck's videos on planking a bow to handle the bow curvature of this build. Amazingly I have never needed to do this. With previous builds I have always been able to "strongarm" the planks/strakes into place. I missed this with the 1st layer and given the only gluing option was edge to edge (nothing glued to the frames) created a real mess. So on the 2nd layer I am actually bending strakes per the videos. The 2nd planking is looking a lot better. I probably could have done the same for this build, but given the limitations of the 1st plank layer, something needed to be done to improve the structural integrity of the hull. So I will not go into detail (view Chuck's planking vids for that) I did start edge bending at about the 9th strake - in hindsight way too late. There's gonna be some major adjustments before this layer is completed. Fortunately I can learn from it and no one else will see.

Rereading some of my old posts - Joel, I miss ya man, I Miss Ya Man!

First band on both sides is complete. As mentioned above, the result did not fill out the entire band. The stem & stern worked out precisely, but mid-ship came out short. I am still gonna blame this on how much I had to sand each stick to get a consistent edge. Each stick started at 6mm (at least somewhere), other spots measured more like 5.8mm. After sanding to even everything out the first band came out short. Not a big deal yet. I think I will lay a couple more strakes under band A, and then put in a few sticks above the garboard and then re-figure the bands at that point. Here's a few pix - nothing special to see other than the poor job I did on the 1st layer. As much as I gripe about having to do 3 plank layers for this build, this middle layer has allowed for some experimentation. Given that nothing I do on this layer will be visible in the end. It does help with coming up with a strategy for the final layer.

I may finish the upper band of the 2nd plank layer this evening. Fortunately, the CA seems to be working now. I'm not a big CA fan but for planking it is very helpful. I can run a long line of white glue with a spot of CA at both ends and that kinda "nails" the stick - quickly allowing me to move on to another strake while the white glue dries. Progress has greatly improved. This layer is going on much better. I think the 1st layer was so tough because after the bottom band, you can't glue sticks to the frame. All you can do is glue the edges of the strakes to each other. This is because the frames will break out after planking. Actually, almost all the frames have broken out already. I will say the 1st layer came out hideous. I was embarrassed to even post any pix. The 2nd layer is limewood and is a little softer, so it is easier to work with. That said, I don't think I have seen any kit wood that was cut worse than this. The edges are all over the place and thickness is completely random. My 1st band will come out undersized because I had to sand so much to get a straight edge. What started as a 6mm wide stick probably ends up as a 5.8. However given that this layer will not be seen at all, I guess it doesn't matter that much.

One garboard on last nite. I've had to spend a lot of time widening and deepening the rabbet. It's been hard to get a file down in there to take out more material. I don't recall if the plans even called for a rabbet, but if it is going to have to accept 3 layers of sticks it needed to be a lot wider. I'm still having a hell of a time trying to get CA to stick to the walnut. It just won't. As a result I am having to use wood glue and it obviously takes a lot longer to dry, plus I have to pin the strake to hold it in place . So progress is very slow. I think I read somewhere that CA doesn't work well on acidic surfaces and walnut is a rather acidic wood compared to others. I did get some CA accelerator and will give that a try, but it seems like a hassle.

Hmmm - I posted my return to this build about a week ago but it appears to be gone now. Anyways I'm going to give this build another chance. I got really frustrated with my first plank layer. It came out really bad. Almost to the point where I was considering trashing the build. It sat on the work bench for quite a few months. The good news is in the end, not much of that layer will be seen so I've elected to at least continue with the 2nd plank layer. I was considering trying to plank as called for in the plans. There's a photo of this back a few posts - very strange. Honestly, I don't see how it could be done so I will continue using my regular strategy with bands and the proportional dividers. As this will be the 2nd of 3 layers it will not be visible at all so I can get away with a lot. One concern I have is, as I mentioned, the frames are designed to break out. You then add some faux ribs on the inside hull. Most of the frames have already broken off so the hull is already not exactly the shape it was designed to be. This will only get worse after adding the next 2 plank layers. I'll have to see how that goes. Playing this one by ear.

You didn't mention if you have cut a rabbet in the keel for the garboard. Even if the plans don't call for it I highly recommend it. It will give the gb something to bite into when you go to glue it. Yes, gb's may bend and twist all over the place. At the stern it may lay vertical, amidship it will likely be horizontal and somewhere in between at the bow. Try to pin yours in place first. Then take a second stick and lay it on the gb upper edge. Look for large gaps between them and also see if the gb is adding any curvature to the 2nd stick. This is what you are trying to avoid. If you see either then the gb needs more shaping. In a perfect world the upper edge of the gb would be totally flat. You can sometimes see this by looking down the upper edge from bow to stern or stern to bow. Don't look at it from the side as it will never look straight from that angle.

Looks like fun!

Hey Richard - thanks for the support. This things has had it's moments so far 🤔

Scott, Bob - As I have mentioned on every multiple layer build I have done - I HATE IT!!! 😬 Just do it right the first time! I have always wondered about reducing layers designed into a kit. While I have never tried it, I have had knowledgeable sources remind me that a lot of the placement of other parts down the road, on say a 3 layer planking, is dependent on those measurements. If I went from 3 layers to 2 (or 1) caprails would be too wide. Who knows what else. This one even gets more bizarre because you can't glue the upper 2/3's of the planks to the frames because the frames are going to be torn out. It leaves IMO a very sloppy first planking because try as you might, you will not get a snug fit of the unglued planks around the frames. As I finish the last few planks of the first layer I have a very ugly fit around the frames. I can only hope with that the 2nd layer (which is limewood instead of walnut) things will start to firm up somewhat. And if you think about it, the limewood layer is not even going to show up anywhere. I believe because of the small actual size of the boat and the relatively big scale, they had to add more beef to the planking to make it look right. Trying to cut back to 2 layers would have meant 2 layers of extremely thick walnut sticks. They were hard enough to work with as they are right now. Ehh - just a challenge I wasn't expecting 😒

You might want to lose fit your masts with the dead-eye shrouds included. I remember it was an extremely close fit between the shrouds running up and the stanchions. Make sure they are not going to run into each other.

The material for hammocks (if you're going to show them) should be a course linen. Something that would look like canvas. Dyed a dingy tan. I would have to go back and see what I used. Are you planning on displaying them all in the open or draping some sort of covering over them? If displaying them, you will need upwards of 150 of the little buggers. FYI - If I recall, a regulation hammock was 7' long. They were typically rolled longways, lashed and folded in half when hung out on the stanchions. So whatever you do they should be 3 1/2' scaled down to 1:64. If you go that route check my log as I documented rolling and lashing them. That task was almost as rough as rigging 20 guns with all the tackles.

Holy crap Elijah - pardon the French but you have amazed me in so may ways. I remember when you first signed in - working with your build and what seemed like some school on the side. Now graduating (congratulations), getting a job and still finding some time for "leisure work" . You are truly an amazing young man! And the build just keeps getting better and better. You are a model for kids your age to aspire to be.

John - this is how Chuck says to do them https://modelshipworld.com/topic/11840-us-brig-niagara-by-mikiek-finished-model-shipways-scale-164-first-wooden-ship-build/page/5/ post #144