Haliburton

I did finish up the first band and began on the second. Then decided I better lay some planks on the other side. Very strange, for some reason the CA wasn't setting. I literally held down on one frame for 5 minutes. Lifted my thumb up and the stick popped right up. Reapplied the CA held it down for a while let go and it popped again. Arrow just about went airborne at that point so I'm calling it a night.

Oh, and as for the divider, make sure the needles are replaceable.
Now back to the build of the Gunboat - Mike take over.

Mark - everyone has their own process for planking, this is just one more. I'm sure there are situations where the dividers may not be helpful but so far they have been a real blessing for me.
 
Right on Per!  Many of the cheaper dividers are plastic with no real points on the ends. Mine are made by Alvin and are machined aluminum. When I bought them they were $65 now they are $125. But I would still pay that for them.
 
Dividers can also be useful for transferring measurements from plans to wood. They are also used to scale things up or down.

Mark,
It's worth to spend some extra money for a good quality. Don't settle for a divider under 60 dollars!
I did and sent it back.
Second one is made in England and I spend 90 dollars instead.
Nice quality and nice protective box too.

After seeing this mini tutorial, I guess I need to get some dividers after all.   Thanks for posting it.

Don't use brushes! Here is a talk by the owner of Badger Airbrush. Great info!
 
 

Hi Mike, a great update and as Per said a really well done tutorial on how you use the dividers.  Scott

Scott, I appreciate that. Hope maybe some day it will help

Hi Mike, a great update and as Per said a really well done tutorial on how you use the dividers.  Scott

Hi Mike, a great update and as Per said a really well done tutorial on how you use the dividers.  Scott

Per - thanks for the feedback. I'm glad it made sense.
 
One thing I forgot to say, the kit supplied planks for the first layer are too short. They don't reach from stern to bow. I had to start/stop them at the first frame piece on each end. I don't think that will matter. The second layer planks are longer.

Mike,
Thank you for that tutorial, you broke down the whole part perfectly to a basic.
I have no questions at all and you were lucky with the numbers!
This planking is going to go fast for you.

Trying to spread my efforts across all my projects - so it's time for Arrow. I decided it was safe to begin hull planking. The kit has wood for 2 plankings. As Niagara was a single planking this is my first build with 2. Honestly, I still don't see the need - just do it right the first time . To each his own. I will do the 2 layers just for the experience this time.
 
So hull planking - time to break out the proportional dividers! There's an ongoing thread about these in one of the forums. Some like them. Some don't. I wouldn't plank without them. I decided to do another how-to so this post will be rather long. Hope it helps (or converts) someone. Arrow is a very easy hull, almost flat bottomed with a simple bow & stern.
 
I had already glued the wider wale plank at deck level and done 2 strakes below that when I realized (or woke up) I would need to thin down the ends of the strakes.
 

 
There is no real planking plan with this kit, so I had to calculate the bands on my own. At the frame piece with the longest distance between the keel and the last hull strake, I laid a strip of paper to determine that distance.
 

 

 
As luck would have it, that distance was 36mm and the planking sticks are 3mm wide - perfect! That's 12 planks to complete the side. I decided to break up the distance into 3 bands. Here's where it gets cool. Not sure what the part on the dividers is called but I set it to 3 (for 3 bands).
 

 
Then with the long end of the dividers span the distance between the keel edge and the strake edge.
 

 
The short end of the dividers is 1/3 of that span.
 

 
Using the short end, you walk the dividers over that same span and make a mark at each step.
 

 


 
Yes there is a slight space after the last step. Nothing done wrong, it's just the fact that I am doing a linear measurement on a curved surface. This is not a big enough discrepancy to worry about. You'll see why in a minute.
 
So here are the band marks for this frame.
 

 
From here it's just repetition. Move to next frame, measure the full distance, then make the marks for the bands. Lather, rinse, repeat. Usually you will find that the frames in the middle have the same span. As you move to the bow or stern the measurement will get smaller. Don't skip any frames - do them all.
 

 
Now get your plank, lay it where you will be gluing it and mark where it contacts each frame.

 
Now it's time to focus on a band. I'll do the one next to the existing strakes. If you remember the original calculation was 12 strakes / 3 bands = 4 strakes per band. So set the dividers to 4.
 

 
With the long end, measure the span between the band mark and the edge of the last strake. This is the total width of the band.
 

 
The short end of the dividers is that span divided by 4 (4 strakes in the band). I started on one of the middle frame pieces - the widest overall span. On this frame the strake should be full width (3mm) and by golly that's what the dividers tell me.
 

 
So there is no width adjustment needed on the strake where it crosses this frame. Continue this pattern, measure the band width on the frame, put the short end of the dividers across the plank and eventually you will hit  the  point where the distance on the short end is less than the width of the plank.
 

 

 
I just stab the divider pin into the plank to make a mark. NOTE: some of the cheaper dividers don't have pins on the ends. I would recommend getting some with pins if you can. Here's the plank afterwards. From the holes upwards will need to be removed.
 

 
You can cut with a knife or just file/sand. I'm almost done here. I've sanded the plank edge down to the holes. I left the holes just for demonstration. The trick is to sand the edge until the holes just disappear. Your plank will be the correct width at that point.

 
The finished strake. At this point if you were doing short planks to make up a strake you could cut them now. Since this is a first planking I will not.

 
I glue the strake 2 or more frames at a time. PVA along the long edge of the plank with CA at the frames. Be careful not to get them mixed - they don't play well together. Of course you can glue them any way you want.
 

 

 

 

 
So much for that strake. 3 strakes left in the band. For the next strake you go thru the same process except this time (and subsequent times) the span to measure will be the from the edge of the strake you just laid to the band mark AND before you start set the dividers to 3 since you have 3 strakes left. When done with this strake repeat again after setting the dividers to 2.
 

 
The beauty of this is that it doesn't matter if you screw up a strake - maybe a little too wide or narrow. Since you remeasure the remaining span after laying a strake the dividers will correct any errors.
 
 
I hope this makes sense. Once you do a few repetitions, hopefully you will see the pattern and understand the process. Essentially you are measuring some distance and letting the dividers divide that measurement into however many portions they are set to. The nice thing is you don't really care what that span measurement is. You just let the dividers do their thing.
 
 
Whew - good night all.....
 
 
 
 

Very nice, congratulations Pierre. Scott

I've installed the bulkheads and the sternpost.  Some of the bulkheads were very snug and I had to do some sanding to get them to fit properly.  They went together quite nicely.
 

Ah I see the compulsory lego shot no build gets off to a good start without this

Yes Steve, you can't start a build without a shout out to Lego 

Hi Mike, wow you are making great progress on this. I recall in another build log some discussion about the fact that there are no oars. Are you going to scratch some up? Scott

Mike, I will definitely check out that book you mentioned. I'm guessing it will give some mention of the Hamilton and Scourge.

Hi Mike, I've been looking at this one too and agree it's pretty neat. I'm going to follow along if that's all right. There is one other build of this on the site and there is a build log on modelshipbuilder.com that might help. Scott

Mike, maybe you can experiment with a different stain or a stain pen to even it out a bit, or maybe some surface sanding to lighten the dark areas? Scott

Do you have a scroll saw? I wonder if that would be easier. Scott

Haven't made a lot of progress.  I added some bracing over the joints of the keel, market the bearding and rabbet lines and started cutting the joint.  It's going fairly well.  I got one side done but will give my hand a rest before I start the next side.
 

 

Here is the Eagle as she sits in the dock today. The upper mast sections for the foremast are still to be done. On the spanker mast I decided to go with 12 rings. This was based on the Model Expo Niagara. It was slightly less than what I had calculated but given the boom and the angle of the gaff was well within the tolerances. Since the Niagara was what Dr. Crisman used as his basis for rigging, this is the rig I turn to when questions arise in my build.
 
Once the foremast is complete, I will start on the bowsprit assembly. The masts are currently just lightly wedged in place so ignore any misalignment. The final angles will be set with the shrouds. The mast sections are also not glued together. I plan on rigging the masts in place. Of course, as always, my plans are subject to change!
 

 

 

 

The chainplates with eyes now installed.
This was trickier than I thought.

 
I cut out some material so the chainplates got a more natural flow.