tkay11

Next up was shaping the margin plank strips. This was done with a compass set at 4mm as shown in the next photos. Tony

I then placed the rough cut-outs round the edge of the deck and overlapped them to find out where I’d be cutting them for joining. Since the width of the margin would be 4mm, the point for the join would be where the two planks on meeting would have a minimum width of 4mm. This is shown in the next photo. Tony

OK, now for the deck planking. It might have been easier to put the spirketing on after the planking as that would have made the edging at the bulwarks a bit easier. On the other hand, it would have been harder to paint, and in any event I’d be doing some shaping anyway. So the first decision at this point was about the margin plank and waterway. I reckoned that I could do without a waterway as it would essentially look just like a concave groove between margin plank and bulwark and I thought that would be very fiddly for someone with my lack of experience. So I went for having a margin plank 1.5 times the width of the normal planking which meant I bought 6mm x 0.5mm maple strips to match the maple strips for the 4mm x 0.5mm maple decking supplied with the kit. To get a rough idea of how to curve it round the edge, I pressed some paper onto the deck and drew an outline (next time I’ll trace the outline of the ply deck before fitting it to the bulkheads). I then realised that I could not achieve a 6mm margin plank as cutting the curves out of the 6mm strip meant I had to go for a 4mm margin. This I did by drawing a rough 4mm edge round the outline, then taking strips of the 6mm maple and cutting rough lengths. You’ll see this in the next picture. Tony

Now for the deck planking. I became a bit muddled here. I probably hadn’t made up my mind about spirketing. So I went ahead and painted the inner bulwarks. Then I thought about the spirketing and tried to establish a good height for it. Part of the problem is the range of heights of the gunports, with one near the bow being very high. I had seen reference to this before, and some modellers adjust the height of the gunport by planking it over then cutting lower. I now wish I had done this since the spirketing is supposed to come up to the lower edge of the gunport. When I tried variable height spirketing, it looked ridiculous, so I settled for a 3 mm high plank to act as the spirketing. I cut this from a spare 4mm x 1mm walnut strip that came with the kit, then glued this to the already painted bulwarks. On reflection, I should have done this with 3mm x 0.5mm planking as that is probably nearer the scale size. You’ll see this in the photos. You;ll also note my plank bending tool which is an old Ikea cabinet fixing screwed into a bit of MDF. I soak the planks in water then gently bend round the fixing. Tony

Now to show the tapered planks I put at the top of the bulwarks bow and stern. I couldn’t mimic the outer planking of bending the planks to the curve of the bulwarks, as that would have left a really awkward fill by the deck at bow and stern. I therefore planked the first three planks parallel to the deck, and cut rebates in the 3rd plank at the top to allow some stealers at stem and stern. This is of course nothing like real life, but I reckoned that it was all going to be painted and that the joins of the stealers would be relatively hidden under the rail that goes on top of them. The last picture is of the bows, showing just how badly I have done in achieving any kind of symmetry. Still, it’s all down to the learning, and I’ll keep you all posted as I go along so you can put me right rather than trying to figure out very poor solutions for myself. Tony

Just some more views of the general build now that the inner bulwarks are planked. Tony

And now we have the famous holes for the pedestals. After drilling into the keel with a 3mm bit (the keel is 4mm) I didn’t get it quite right and opened up the side. I thought if I tried filler, I wouldn’t be able to continue with the idea of a pedestal. Yet I was reluctant to give up the idea since I had put effort into fitting the nuts in the hull (even though they were only some old nuts and bolts I found in the cupboard). Eventually I thought I’d have a go at chiselling out a rebate of 5mm in the keel and inserting a patch of 0.5mm walnut. I knew the woods would not match, but reasoned that (a) I was going to give the hull a walnut varnish; ( that the pedestal wood surrounding the bolts would cover the keel; and © I was going to paint the bottom white – so that any joins would would not be seen through the pedestals or the paint.

This demonstrated to me how hard it is to hide mistakes. At the sharp curvature of the bow, my plank snapped. I cut it away and inserted a short plank. If I hadn’t chosen to have full length planks for the bulwarks it might have been ok. However, this is the only length now which has a butted end in it.

These photos show the planking meeting the stern. You can guess which side was done first.

These are just general photos of the build at an early stage, along with my work area. Not so much the green baize card table used by Underhill as a green cutting board.

First mistake: I followed the instructions and stuck the stem, keel and stern posts on before planking. As a result, you'll see from the photos how much scratching there was on these. I filled all the bulkheads with balsa wood (not just bow and stern) and sanded down. That, at least, proved to be a great blessing. First layer of planking went well, though the garboard planking was done by shaping the wrong side. All the planks seemed tightly fit. A big problem at this stage was the stern where it met the transom. Looking at other builds I saw most had the same problem. With a bit of sanding, though, it didn't seem too bad and I thought it would become clearer what to do later. For the second layer I bought 0.5 x 5 mm walnut as well as some lengths of 0.5 x 10mm walnut for the garboard planks. This time the garboards went in very nicely (for my standards, anyway). The 0.5mm planking was used because I foresaw problems with edging the planks at bow and stern, there being no rabbeting left after the first planking. Also, the 5mm width planks went up nicely enough at the stern. I still have great difficulty in understanding how spiling can work because when starting top and bottom, working towards the middle, and when taking into account the effect of stealers and jogging planks, the concept of equal breadths of planks seems to go astray. All the same, it worked reasonably enough for the planking to follow some kind of curve. I bought 0.5mm x 4mm planking for the bulwarks, because it seemed from the plans that the main wale was exactly 16mm from the top all round. So I thought that 4 planks of 4mm would work nicely as an edge for the wale. These 4 were bent laterally after stencilling the cutouts for the bulwarks onto an old strip of pine, soaking the planks, then holding them to the jig using mapping pins. The pins have an 4mm radius, so were perfect for holding the planks perfectly flat whilst settling into their new curvature. And back to that stern/transom join. All I could do was to put a stealer each side, as will be seen in the photos in the next post. So far so normal. The next posting will show what happened next. In the meantime, I have been reading Underhill’s excellent 2-volume ‘Plank-on-Frame Models and Scale Masting & Rigging’. These cost £50 as a set from Amazon UK, but they are certainly worth every penny and more. Thanks to all those on this forum who have touted these books as invaluable. I have also read George Bandurek’s book ‘Super-detailing the cutter Sherbourne’. The photos of his build on this forum provide a kind of preview for this. Finally, of course, I am indebted not only to those who have produced such wonderful build logs of the Sherbourne, but to all those who have directly or indirectly given me tips in the past couple of months. === These photos show: 1. the general side view showing the extra stealer at the transom end, along with the poor drilling into the keel for those pedestal bolts. The way I fixed that is coming up in another post. 2. the difficulties with the last bulkhead and transom. I wondered whether this was because the bulkhead was not quite perfectly square. I’m waiting to see how the wales turn out.

The following is the reconstruction of my build logs for the Sherbourne following temporary loss of the Model Ship World Site in February 2013. First posted May 6th 2012. === It started with a birthday present in January of £200 from my daughter. What could I possibly want that would have some meaning over the year? I suddenly remembered that as a younger chap I had really enjoyed rigging plastic model ships, and had had a long-time yearning to work with wood. So on to the web, find out about ship models. Amazon for books, found 'The New Period Ship Handbook' by Keith Julier. It didn't give much (any) detail, but I thought maybe the Lady Nelson would be good. So researched that. Found this forum. Many days reading the variety of experience. Asked questions, thought about the Chatham as well, tried to get it but it was out of stock, so bought the Sherbourne Kit. My plan was not to go for the perfection of the other builds, but to get a basic understanding of the whole process, as I knew I would be making some frightful mistakes, and likely to be a bit messy as well. How right I was! Read all the planking advice on the Database, how to make filler blocks etc, then plunged in. Bought the kit, checked all the parts, stuck the tiddly little ones into the bags in the photo, put the frame together. Thought I'd be a clever little so-and-so and follow Danny's suggestion of inserting nuts in the hull to take pedestals at some future date. Even lined the bolts up with the bulkheads and epoxied the nuts in -- ensuring no glue was caught in the threads. All well and good ... so far.

Yes, I certainly do, Carl! But before ordering one I thought I'd have a go with the hand drill I found at home. I think I'll be getting back to those revolving centres now! Thanks a lot for the repost and for keeping me in mind. Tony

Looking forward to the continuation. Quietly watching, as usual, but letting you know! Tony

Thanks for reposting this (at least I think it's a repost). I was hoping for it as I was looking for the details about the 'tailstock' and this was an excellent idea. When I tried something similar with the tailstock made from an old hand drill chuck I didn't get the alignment quite right and it didn't work well. I've been looking on eBay for old drills but none quite cheap enough yet! Tony

Just to add to the welcomes and let you know I'm delighted to have your logs back on. Tony

Very glad you can reconstruct this. I was following it with great interest. Thanks Tony

Great, Sjors. I've just posted to Anna that it's good to see you both back again with your wonderful skills and pleasurable writing. Tony