EJ_L

Well, I did it. I pulled the stern apart and cut away all the filler on the aft bulkhead so that it would more closely resemble actual framing. I realized to do the cabins the way I want to there was no way it could remain as designed. In fact, a lot of the aft portion of the ship may be getting redesigned as the decks and the cabin windows are not lining up properly. I am still trying to determine if the error is just in the supplied layout for the windows or if it is in the structure itself. I hope it turns out to be in the window layout as I am scrapping that one anyway to make my own. The reason for this is that the supplied layout is for a 5 window configuration and I am going to go with the 6 window configuration as seen in the below picture. While I do not know for certain which is correct, I like the look of the 6 window and the balcony layouts as well as the quarter galleys make the most sense to me this way. After viewing a lot of pictures of models built both ways as well as the various prints of her stern, I think I have settled on this.  
 
Ok, now to figure out how to build it.... Good thing there are a couple of holiday weekends ahead of me!

So I have found these pictures of the various cabin layouts on SR. I am hoping that someone may know where a clearer scan of these plans may be at as the writing is blurred to where I cannot read what it is saying. I am going to post this in a couple of places and hopefully someone will be able to help. This isn't something that is critical to construction but is more for knowledge. Thanks!

I got a lot done tonight and the great cabin takes on more life! Exterior bulkheads are up, doorways to the quarter galleys cut in and built a couple of bench/storage lockers. Next up I am going to try to build a table and a couple of benches and then I will be ready to run the wires to the lights. I plan on trying to design a couple of small hanging lanterns for the lights to go in. I bought flickering LEDs in hope to simulate candle lighting. We shall see. 

Light bleed through is another reason why I am building the interior walls before planking the hull. Once the walls are in place, I plan on sealing off any and all cracks/gaps in the wood work and then I will paint the backside that will be in between the planking layers black. That is what I do on model buildings for my railroad that have lights and it seems to work great. Last thing I want is to turn on the lights and have a glowing ship!

I have not tried the meet in the middle approach but it might be something worth trying.
 
As for being able to see inside the cabins, S.R. has large rows of windows on her stern that will allow people to look inside. Combined with the LED lights that I will be placing inside you should be able to see most of the details fairly well. The real challenge to see inside will come when/if I decide to case her when she is done. Being able to get up close and look will make things easier but if you are several inches away due to the case, I do not yet know how well you will be able to see the interior. I will play around with this as the build progresses and for the next couple of years this will not really be an issue!

I have always planked from the keel up on the lower hull. The upper hull I usually do first from the lowest wale up. (See my La Couronne build log) On S.R. I had to do it a little different though due to the extensive modifications to the cabins. With needing access to the interior to run wiring and to install the bulkheads and furniture, I had to hold off on the planking. While I do see the advantage of starting from the top down in that you can hide screw ups on the bottom of the ship, if your layout is drawn in properly and you take your time, either way works fine. I do think that if I was trying to do the planking in a single layer I would go from the top down.
 
Thanks for the compliments Popeye! Hopefully they will only look better as they go! The best part of modeling the interior is no one really knows what it looked like. There are a few sketches of the interior dimensions and layout but as far as decorations and the actual furniture I have not yet found anything. So here I can definitely take creative liberties and design the spaces as I think they possibly could have looked.

The planking continues to go on and on and on but, it is growing as the port side has now reached the lower gun deck. This is a good place to be as at least on that side there are no longer any crazy curves to deal with.
 
The real story of this weekend though is that I have started to build the interior of the great cabin! In order to run the LEDs before the hull is closed up I had to know where they needed to be and in order to figure that out I had to have cabins to put them in. Also, it is far easier to build the cabins now while the hull is open and I actually have room to work. I had though about just leaving the stern off and working the inside from there and while some final details and touch ups may need to take that route, the floors, bulkheads, and many of the other details I want to add can go in now.
 
Thankfully S.R. has a lot of windows on her stern to allow people to see inside her and combined with the lights, I have hope that all this work will not be completely wasted. If I'm wrong then at least these pictures provide proof that I am in fact partially insane.

Popeye, right now the ship is around 34 inches long and I believe her finished length will be close to 44 inches. This has been the first ship that when I am planking I either have to shift the ship left and right in order to plank both ends or roll my chair back and forth! All of my previous ones I could just angle differently for the ends. Her size is admittedly taking some adjusting and getting used to. It will be nice though later for the detail work. I keep thinking that many ships are built in 1:48 scale. My S.R. is 1:77 which is already quite big. In order to build a 1:48 scale version of her, she would about 59.5 inches long or just short of 5 feet! I am 5-11 so I would be only about 1 foot taller than the model if we were laid side by side. Now that is a crazy thought that now I actually kind of want to try out...  
 
Yes, she will be double planked as well. The nice thing with that is while yes, I do have to plank this large hull twice, the second time is usually much simpler as the hull shape is made and I just have to keep the planking in alignment. Still, lots of work and lots of hours. I rather enjoy it though so no problem there.

Ugh, the sanding part.... yeah, I'm already looking to see if I can use my electric palm sander to hit the really rough stuff then finish by hand. That is one of those jobs suited for sitting on my back porch with a few adult beverages while I sand and sand and sand and sand and sand.....
 
Thanks for the compliment Zoltan and to all the likes! No matter how many times I see them it always feels good to see that others are enjoying the build with me.

20 strakes are now completed on the port side and I have to admit I am much happier with the way this side has give compared to the other. Now it is time for another break in planking to go work on La Couronne but up next is where I have to start making some bigger decisions. The next push will take the planking up and over the two false gun decks which by itself is not a big deal however, with the modifications I am wanting to do to attempt to detail the cabins, I need to finish figuring out how to build them.
 
I am also debating on if I will add any planking or other details that could be seen down through the gratings to the lower decks. Also the false deck for the weather deck still needs to be set in place and I would like to plank it over before the sides are up. I need to set the foreward most bulkhead at the bow so I can shape the hull planking to fit that angle and there are many other little details and things that I keep thinking of doing before the planking closes off the interior. 
 
I have a feeling that that there will be lots of hours coming up soon of test fitting and research  more that actual building. On the plus side, this log will start to get a lot more interesting as more than bad planking will soon be shown! 

Michael, after looking at the model and the picture, I'm not completely sure what is going on and what is correct or incorrect! The shape of the hull on this ship at the stern has admittedly been somewhat of a challenge. Her stern is a wonky combination of the narrow sterns found in smaller ships and the wide, flat sterns typical to ships of this era. To make matters worse, I do not have any clear pictures of the stern on the plan sheets. I do have lots of pictures of paintings and "fictionalized" images or guess work but those focus more on the decorative elements and less on the hull shape itself.
 
As to the break you are referring to, I am guessing it is a combination of bad fairing, a miscalculation of the bend of the planks when planking and false imaging in the picture. I know I make mistakes so I will not rule that out and this area was tough to fair due to the extreme curve in the framing but it does look a lot better in person than it does in the picture. However, I am going to keep looking at it and may re-plank that area if needed. One thing I like about pictures is that it can take something that while in person looks great but when seen in a picture with a different perspective and lighting, can show the bad areas clearer. 
 
I have not had much time to work this week due to the new puppy but I have been getting a lot of research and reading done as that I can do with one hand while playing with the pup with the other. I hope to get in some good build time this weekend and get the planking up a little higher. We shall see what reality allows but that is the plan.
 
P.S. Well done to the Admin team on the upgrade going smoothly. I like the new layout and design in so far as what I have seen. More user friendly when I get on it on my phone too.

I just read that as well as I received my copy of that book on Friday and have been reading through it over the weekend. It is much easier to read and play with the new puppy then it is to try to plank when she is awake and full of energy.
 
Yes, I will be doing extensive sanding and patching/fill work before the second layer of planks go down. I am not completely sure what happened in that spot or more accurately, what I was thinking when I bent the planks the way I did.  With plank on bulkhead builds I am glad for the double layer of planking as it allows me to cover up the bad spots on the hull. While I try to run the planks as they should be, due to the spacing of the bulkheads that can be difficult. I could always run them as one long plank as they would be covered up but I like doing it piecemeal as that gives me more practice and makes me think more on what is going wrong and what I need to fix to make sure the second planking is better. This is especially important to me so I can see of the shape of the hull affects the wood as it bends and twists to make the shape. Where does it widen, narrow and what illusions are created that can throw off my perspective on alignment.
 
If you look on my La Couronne build, I ran the first layer of planking in the same manner and had bad spots in it. After fill and sand I was able to lay down the second layer to look very good. While not perfect, I am very happy with the overall outcome. I hope to do even better on S.R.. 

Hello! I have not been completely idol on my build but with finishing the fore top mast on La Couronne and especially training my new mate (new 2 month old puppy), my build time has been severely limited. Still, I did manage to complete the next 10 strakes on the starboard side this weekend and I have started the next 10 on the port side. When done I will have 20 strakes completed on both sides and still will not have reached the lower gun deck. It is really a wonder when one stops to think about the sheer quantity of lumber that would have gone into building these massive ships. Just the planking alone would be a small forest and then you still have the framing, blocks, misc. bits and pieces and decorations. Not to mention what would have been needed for the fires to make the iron works. It is no surprise that Europe's forests were severely wiped out during the 17th and 18th centuries.
 
Anyway, enjoy the update and hopefully, puppy willing, I can get some more done this week!

Back to work on S.R. this weekend and I have started to build the Admiral's Cabin. Obviously this one will be fancier than the Great Cabin and therefore a lot more wood work will be installed. I am hoping to build in some actual furniture such as tables, chairs, a bed and possibly some cabinets. There will of course be another LED lantern to illuminate the interior so all this fancy work doesn't go to waste.
 
Surprisingly, I have found myself really enjoying building these interiors. a large part of that is I think due to the freestyle nature of it. Other than the layout of the bulkheads, there is not much to tell me what kinds of decorations or furnishings would have been in her or where. So, as long as I can keep things looking like they would belong in the early 17th century and are things that would be found on a ship, I can pretty much let my imagination run free. After spending so many hours checking, double checking and repeating those checks again and again while rigging Couronne, this freedom of building is rather refreshing.
 
More to come as I have just gotten started so enjoy the update and I will have more in the near future!
 

My first planking goal has been reached. I now have 20 strakes, 10 on each side of the keel complete. You can start to see how much it takes to plank these large ships of the line when you realize that although I have already gone up 10 strakes on a side, I still have not gotten out from under the bottom of the ship! Something to think about if you are new, watching this build and considering a large build. I have spent 25 hours planking and still have very little to show for it and remember, this is a double planked hull so I get to do it twice!
 
As you can see my planking can still has room for improvement which is a why I like double planked hulls. Gives the extra practice and allows the 2nd layer to cover the bad spots. Still, I want people that are learning to take note of a few things that may help them. Remember, these are my tips and methods not rules and certainly not the only way. I am constantly learning new ways to improve myself. One thing that I see that gets asked all the time is how to measure the widths of the planks at the stem? Since you do not have a bulkhead there that runs all the way from the keel up like you have for the other locations you have to measure this differently. What I do take a long piece of plank and draw the known taper angle across the face from about 4 to 5 bulkheads back. Start by measuring the distance from the stem to the first bulkhead, then 1-2, 2-3, 3-4 etc. and mark those spots on your plank. Then mark the width of the plank at those locations. This will give you a line of dots that you can then connect with a straight line. Extend that line past the first frame to the end of the board and this will give you the width at the end of the plank where it butts to the stem.
 
Now draw a straight line across the bottoms of the frames where they meet the keel and extend that line straight out to the end of the stem. This is the line for your garboard plank. To make life easy, I cut a small scrap board to the width if the plank at the stem and laying it against the line from the garboard, I trace out the next line and repeat until I have the same number of marks down my stem as I have on the edges of my bulkheads. See the below close up of the bow. Then when you plank all that has to be done is to make the plank fit within the space you just marked. Note: My garboard strake is wider than the first space. This is because the garboard is wider than the rest of the planking and this is where it tucks into the rabbet or in my case just tapers into a fake rabbet. 
 
Something else to look at is the fairing on the bulkhead edges. Planking should lay flat and even across the edges with no sharp corners showing or gaps between the plank and the frame. Mine mostly do but I know there is a gap at the first frame. This will need to be shimmed up. By making sure the edges are properly faired you can make planking lot easier as the wood will lay down smoother and have a stronger connection. 
 
I also went ahead and built a cradle for her to sit in. My normal vise that I use for this stage of building is too small for her. I need to build an adjustable build board just have not gotten around to it. 
 
So since I have reached my goal, it is time to take a break from S.R. and return to La Couronne to build her fore top mast and continue on with rigging. When I return in a week or two I will plank the next 20 strakes which will bring me up to just below the lower gun deck on both sides. Before that I will need  to establish the wiring pathways I need for the L.E.D.s. Seeing her up on the cradle has given me a clearer picture of where and how I want to run them, just need to test and see.
 
No idea why the pictures did not stay in order but they are all there!

Quick progress update. I have completed the first 10 strakes on the starboard side and have now started the port side. Garboard strake is in place and strakes 2 and 3 have begun. Planning on getting a lot of work time in this weekend as we have an ice storm headed our way. Good time to just stay inside and build.
 
My plan is to go 10 strakes on both halves of the hull and then I will stop again to switch back to La Couronne. While working on her, I will start figuring out where I want to run the wiring for the cabin lighting down and out the bottom. I am also going to look into the cradle design I want to use and make sure I can hide the wires either in it or in a place that won't be easily seen. I needed the bottom of the ship planked but not very far so I could still get inside to run the wires. I am having to do a lot more forward thinking on this one since I am changing the build so far outside the instructions. Adds some more excitement!   

If I was, I would probably bleed out before I noticed it without the glaringly obvious red spots on white wood!
 
Now that you mention blood wood though, I do have some out in the wood shop. I may look at ripping some down to use in lieu of red paint. I don't need a lot for this model so it might be worth it. Something to think about. Now if only trees produced royal blue wood....

Welcome Sjors, good to have you with us and don't worry, you are not too late as this is a slow moving build. Glad you brought that popcorn machine with you, I think people are starting to get hungry.
 
The curves at the stern of S.R. have been much more interesting to build than I was expecting. The hull goes from a nice smooth gentle curve quickly into a rather extreme narrow curve on the last two frames. This has caused some interesting challenges and shapes in my planking. The more I complete the more I believe that once done, everything will look alright but till then?.... 

Great Cabin interior is complete! Built the tables and benches this morning and after finding some airline tube for an aquarium while out buying toys and treats for the puppy I managed to finish up the lantern this evening. While it is a little oversized for the scale, I am rather happy with it as I am working in only about an inch of space!
 

 
In this picture I am holding the stern windows in place. This was the template that came with the kit however, this is not the configuration I will be using. I will modify this to have a 6 window layout with two of those spaces acting as doorways to the balcony. I just wanted to see how much visibility I would have of the interior when it is closed in. I think with the light in there I will be able to see plenty.
 
By the way, the light does flicker to simulate a flame and not just a steady light.
 
Next I am moving upward to the Admiral's Cabin. To do this I need to install the false main deck which covers the entire length of the ship. So before that happens I need to blacken in spaces below gratings or plank them, (yet to be decided), and also install a conduit through all the false decks for the wiring to come out the bottom. This is kind of a crucial step in that once I start planking in this cabin, I do not want to take off this deck again so I need to make sure there is nothing else that needs to be below it. More to follow soon though I may use this as a stopping point to go back and do some more rigging on La Couronne. I will see how quickly the plans for the next steps take shape in my mind.
 

The window framing, hatching and casework I will make out of wood piece by piece. Slow, meticulous and a pain in the rear but that is simply model building. As for all the decorative pieces in between the windows, I do not know. The ones provided were cast in metal and as with most kit fittings, they are not the greatest so even my modest carving abilities should be able to produce something at least on par with what I had. I am considering making molds to cast my own resin pieces but with the scale being what it is, I do not think I could really make a mold that would hold good detail. Unless a better idea comes to me, I plan on just carving my own pieces to the best I can.
 
Haha! Yeah Michael you are right I do stay fairly busy. I enjoy way to many things that there is just simply not enough time for all of them! It is a blessing and a curse as I get to enjoy many things and am rarely bored but I have to prioritize and let go of many areas of interest for the sake of sanity! These last two years have really allowed me a lot of free time for models with the Admiral in graduate school and a clinical internship so I am left to fend for myself a lot. Also a few things like the train are on hold till I finish setting up the new room for it. I am reaching the limits though of what I have time and energy for so I am starting to pick just a few of my favorite hobbies and concentrate more on them. Being a jack of all trades is fun but I think I have reached a stage in my life where it is time to start mastering a couple. 
 
The puppy is starting to take care of herself though I wish the potty training would hurry up! Those occasional libations just make everything a little less stressing. Speaking of, I think it may be time to pour a glass and settle in to see what the next stage will be. 

Back to work on S.R. this weekend and I have started to build the Admiral's Cabin. Obviously this one will be fancier than the Great Cabin and therefore a lot more wood work will be installed. I am hoping to build in some actual furniture such as tables, chairs, a bed and possibly some cabinets. There will of course be another LED lantern to illuminate the interior so all this fancy work doesn't go to waste.
 
Surprisingly, I have found myself really enjoying building these interiors. a large part of that is I think due to the freestyle nature of it. Other than the layout of the bulkheads, there is not much to tell me what kinds of decorations or furnishings would have been in her or where. So, as long as I can keep things looking like they would belong in the early 17th century and are things that would be found on a ship, I can pretty much let my imagination run free. After spending so many hours checking, double checking and repeating those checks again and again while rigging Couronne, this freedom of building is rather refreshing.
 
More to come as I have just gotten started so enjoy the update and I will have more in the near future!
 

Welcome back to MSW! Hopefully this time around you will be able to fully enjoy the hobby. Best of luck to you on your build of the Bounty. I would recommend checking some of the great build logs of her on here for some ideas and guidance and then start up your own log so we can follow along and be there when you need help. Again, I wish you good luck and I look forward to seeing your build!  

Hey howya goin mate, welcome

I was registered at this forum a long time ago, but back then I was way younger and had a lot of other nonsense and sense in mind. Now I finished my studies in Naval Architecture and think I found some time to start modelling ships again.
I look forward to a fine time modelling and hope for some tips from you. My first project will be the HMS Bounty by Airfix that I already started. After that there's a lot of other stuff in my stash.
 
 
 

Amazing work, Steve. Your rate of progress is also impressive. Like your use of the lead putty knife - very appropriate for constructing galley windows!
 
Cheers,
 
Graham