daveward

With the third row of planking, the ship is starting to take shape (I mark the positions of the bulkheads on the completed planks in pencil so that I will know where they are when I determine the plank widths for the second layer): Everything seems to be fitting together properly, and I think I'm maintaining the proper symmetry. So, at the end of my session on Saturday, after approximately 67 hours of work on this project so far, I had completed 6 planks (out of a total of 26). The planking process is going more smoothly than I had anticipated, and it's really rewarding to see the hull starting to take shape! I'm a little nervous about transitioning into the vertical planking at the stern and laying the garboard strake, but I'm going to take my time and do my best, so hopefully it will look nice. Based on my planking layout, I should not need any drop planks or stealers, which pleases me. Even though no one is going to see this layer, it is excellent practice for the second layer, and I'm learning what techniques are better than others for giving the appearance of a nice tight fit. I'll probably do some more work on the model this weekend. The process itself is fairly straightforward, but it is a little time-consuming. I find that I'm usually a bit nervous when laying the plank because I want it to look perfect, but I'm usually pleased with the results. I think it will look quite nice when it's filled and sanded. Anyway, let me know what you think, guys!

After repeating the process for the second row of planking, here is the second port plank: These next two photos shows how I leave the overhanging end of the plank at the stern/transom while the glue dries, then trim it so that it is flush with the transom: Here is the second starboard plank: Here's a shot of the symmetry at the bow: And a shot of the stern: And, finally, the underside:

Thanks for the kind words, guys! It has taken me a bit of time to post this update, as I've been a little busy lately. I started the planking process over the weekend, so the work I'm about to show you took place on Saturday. I did not get as many pictures of the actual spiling process as I would have liked, so perhaps I can document this procedure a little better next time. For this first layer, I decided to use a single plank per row instead of going with scale plank lengths, as I felt that it might provide a smoother surface for the second layer (which will be done in scale lengths). Anyway, I began by laying my painter's tape down along the curve of the bulkheads and over the lower edge of the bulwark. Using the edge of my pencil, I marked the bulwark's edge. I also marked the positions of each bulkhead edge. Then, I placed the tape down on a series of three index cards: Using my tick strips, I mark the width of the plank at the bulkhead positions. Then, I use my ship's curve to draw the other edge of the spiled plank. Next, I cut the shape of the spiled plank out of the index card material: I lay the index card plank along the hull to check the fit, and if I'm satisfied with it, I trace around the pattern on my sheet of German lime and carefully cut it out with my X-Acto blade (this results in a slightly wider plank that I can trim to fit): I make sure to leave some extra material at the bow and stern ends of the plank, which is trimmed off later. Once the plank has been cut out from the sheet, I use my sanding stick to smooth the edges and take off a little material at a time, performing multiple test fittings, until it has the proper width at each bulkhead position. This is the most time-consuming part of the spiling process. When I'm satisfied with the fit and the shape of the plank, it's time to bend it. My method for bending the planks is very simple (I have yet to use the plank bender since the lime planks bend so easily). I just run the plank under the faucet in my bathtub for about a minute or two, making sure the water is as hot as I can get it. While the plank is under the flowing water, I gently press on it with my fingers, gradually forming an inward bend at the bow end and an outward twist in the stern end. The spiled plank, which curves downward at the bow, naturally wants to assume the inwardly bent shape, and the wider stern end twists easily. Thus far, I have found no need to soak the plank for a long period of time or apply any further heat. After maybe 2 minutes (at most), I pat the plank dry with a towel and give it a test fitting on the ship. I adhere the plank to the bulkheads and filler blocks with CA glue, as it dries quickly enough for me to attach the plank while it is still quite flexible, and it is strong enough to hold the last-glued section of the plank in place while I incorporate small corrective bends in the plank to produce a better fit. I start at the bow, making sure the edge of the plank is butted up against the stem and flush (it is at this point that I usually perform the final trimming of the stem end of the plank, to give it the right angle against the stem). I glue this portion in place, allowing the glue to cure. Then, I move on to the next section, making sure that the plank is sitting as flush and snug as possible. I continue to glue each section and let it cure (which takes only seconds) all the way to the stern/transom. I leave the overhanging portion of the stern end of the plank until the glue is completely dry, then trim it off so that the plank is flush with the transom (the transom is planked with only the second layer of planking, and this layer is meant to lay on top of the edges of the first-layer hull planks). When that is done, I give the plank a light sanding to ensure that any edges are smooth and flush. I also run a sanding stick or a need file along the bottom edge of the plank to remove any waviness. Here is my first starboard plank (there is a small gap between the plank and the bulwark between bulkheads 4 and 5, which looks bigger in the photo than it does in person, due to the presence of sawdust elsewhere along the plank edge; this gap will disappear once I put down a layer of wood filler or drywall compound over the first layer of planking before sanding everything smooth when I'm done): Here is the first port plank: In this photo, you can see how the planks are fairly symmetrical at the stem: Here's how they appear at the stern/transom: And, finally, a shot of the underside:

Thanks, Ian! I am still not completely sure about whether I want to try scale plank lengths for the first layer. In practice spiling runs, I have found it very difficult to get an accurate curvature at the point where the bow section meets the mid-ship section. My spiled plank always seems to want to curve down and away from the edge of the bulwark at this point. It might be that the tape is simply not sitting properly at this point, but it has happened just about every time I've practiced with it. Cutting a longer plank would likely only exacerbate this problem, which is why I was leaning toward using shorter scale plank lengths. I will likely try a full-length plank and see how it goes before making my decision. Anyway, the shaping of the last three stern filler blocks was a lot easier than I thought it would be! I took a few pictures to document the process, even though everyone already knows how I do it. Here's the shaped aft block: And here is the next block, properly curved and fitted: Here are the layers of balsa in the remaining space between the bulkheads: And here are the results, displaying what I believe to be decent symmetry: The process only took me about 3 hours, which brings me to a total of 61 hours spent on this project thus far. I am hoping to find my electric plank bender in the mailbox today, so hopefully I can get started with my spiled planks tonight. She's looking better and better, and I can't wait to see her with that first layer of planking on her hull!

I'm finally back to making some progress on the Lady Nelson, so I thought I'd post an update. Last night, I finished the port side bow filler blocks. These ones went much quicker, as I am more comfortable with my little technique for creating these blocks. I started off with the third bulkhead space from the stem, creating my stacks of balsa: Next, I gave it a rough sanding until it was fairly close to the edges of the bulkheads: The last step was making sure the block was symmetrical with the starboard side block: Next, I worked on the space closest to the stem (again, there was really no reason to skip the middle space -- I just did it because I felt like it!): Again, I made sure it was fairly symmetrical with the starboard side: Finally, I created the last bow filler block and sanded it down. When I was done, I gave both sides a better sanding with 400 grit sandpaper until they were mostly flush with the bulkheads and symmetrical. Here are the results: So, she's starting to look more and more like a ship! In total, I have spent 58 hours on this project. I will try to finish the port side stern filler block tonight. After that, I will move on to the first layer of planking, which I will be doing in scale lengths, for practice (and to make the spiling a little easier). My electric plank bender should be arriving any day now, so the timing is perfect. I'll keep you guys posted!

No worries, Seventynet! I'm glad that my log can serve as a place for people to supplement their knowledge of model ship-building. It was educational for me, as well!

Good advice, NMBROOK. I already picked up sheets of both lime and walnut so that I could completely replace both layers of planking. I will do some test bends with the walnut to see how easily it breaks. If I find that the results are not satisfactory, I will consider switching to a different wood for the outer layer. Hopefully everything goes well!

Thanks, guys! I really appreciate all the support!

Good advice, Gunther! I'll do a little more sanding on the filler blocks once I get all of them made. Some parts of them will serve as the bonding surface for the planks, as a few of my bulkhead angles were more extreme than the angles that the planks will take. Bill, I look forward to meeting up with you again! Hopefully I'll make some more progress on the fillers before then! In other news, the electric plank bender that I ordered from Model Expo was supposed to arrive a few days ago. I received the package, but to my surprise, there was a waterline marker inside instead of the plank bender! I realize that mistakes happen, so I made a call to Model Expo, and I was told that the bender would be shipped out tomorrow. The man I spoke to apologized for the inconvenience, and told me to keep the waterline marker, so it looks like I'll have a nice clean waterline when the time comes! I haven't made any further progress on the Lady Nelson yet. The only thing standing between me and planking is getting the last two filler blocks made, but since I'll be waiting for the plank bender to arrive, I have some time. I'm not particularly looking forward to it, as I'm pretty sure that it's going to be slightly more difficult since I'll have to ensure that the port side is symmetrical with the starboard side. However, I'll try to be careful and make my way through it as best I can. I think I'm going to use scale lengths for the first layer of planking, as it will help me practice for the second layer, and it will make the planks easier to cut and shape, since I won't have to try to get a perfect curve along the entire length of a long plank. I have found that any slight change in angle early on can get out of hand as you get further along the length of the plank... I am convinced that planking will be the hardest part of this build! Nevertheless, I will get it done, and hopefully the results will be aesthetically pleasing. As always, I will keep you guys updated on my progress as I move along. Stay tuned!

Thanks, Elijah! I recommend giving Naval Action a shot. I really enjoy it! I spent last night making the stern filler blocks for the starboard side of the ship. This was pretty tough, as there is not a lot of space to get in and do the required sanding. However, I think it came out alright. I began by using a needle file to adjust the bevel on the kit's "filler block," which was a bit to steep: Once that was done, I used the same technique of fitting balsa wafers in the space between the bulkheads and sanding them down: The first filler block came out looking pretty good (it was difficult to get all the angles smooth, though): I skipped the next section (for no particular reason -- I just felt like it), and began work on the next block: Here's what it looked like when it was done: Finally, I filled in the remaining space: After sanding the final block down, I used some 400 grit sandpaper to finish things up and try to get them to "flow" into each other. These are the results: Overall, I think the blocks look pretty good. It was much more difficult to create these blocks, as it's hard to get a feel for what angles they should have. With the bow blocks, it was just a matter of bending a spare plank around the bulkheads and seeing how it sat on the blocks. In the stern, however, it's almost like I have to have a spiled plank in order for it to lie properly so that I can check it. Since I can't spile the planks well enough without the filler blocks, it's a bit of a catch-22. From what I can tell, planks seem to sit fairly well on these stern blocks. There are a couple of uneven spots here and there, but I think the planks will still look good once they are glued in place, and I'll be added filler to any uneven spots anyway. I'm still really worried about the sternpost and keel areas once the planking is complete. I just don't think this kit was designed for the planks to be flush with these pieces. I am giving some serious thought to doing some careful tracing and measuring in order to cut some facades or veneers for the sternpost, keel piece, and stem out of my walnut sheets. If I could attach these to the port and starboard sides of these pieces, it would thicken them up enough so that they create their own false rabbet joint, hiding the edges of the planks. It's just an idea, but it could work (in theory). I'm still trying to figure out how to space the butt joints for the planks on this ship. If you guys have any thoughts on this matter, please let me know! Anyway, that's my progress for now, with a total of 55 hours of work done on this build thus far. Now comes the hard part of replicating what I've done on the starboard side for the port side! Feel free to tell me what you think!

Antony, I play on the first U.S. PVE server under the name David Ward. You should start playing! It's very fun! As for my build, I have finished one of the stern filler blocks. I'll post some photos tomorrow. I am really becoming concerned over how the planking will look at the sternpost and keel. Since these pieces are so thin and there was no real way to create a rabbet joint, I don't know how the planks are supposed to be flush with them. One layer of planking is already thicker than the sternpost and keel piece... There's only so much sanding I could do before the planks would just break because they'd be too thin. I'm not sure what the kit designer expects the builder to do, as the planks are flush in the plans... Something doesn't add up here. What do you guys think?

Well, I don't have any updates for today, as I spent the whole weekend engrossed in a video game (Naval Action). If you play computer games and haven't heard of this one, check it out! It's all about trade and naval combat in the age of historic sailing ships. You start as a Midshipman on a cutter and work your way up through the ranks, taking command of larger vessels of your choice, such as privateers, brigs, frigates, and ships-of-the-line. You can battle pirates or ships from other factions, or board and capture trading vessels carrying contraband goods. The game is still in its developmental stage, but it's looking great so far. I am a First Lieutenant on a U.S. light frigate at this point. You can even build your own ships! I was particularly interested because the cutter that you start with looks almost exactly like the Lady Nelson -- it's almost like they based the game's cutter on the wooden model that I'm building! If any of you happen to play this game, let me know! It would be fun to team up with people from this forum! Anyway, even though I had a lot of fun with the game, I am eager to get back to working on the model. I'm a little nervous about taking on the filler blocks for the stern, as I know that they will require some tricky angles. I was confident enough to glue the bow block in before trimming it to its final shape, but I think I will leave the stern block unglued until the very end, in case I make a mistake. I hope to have the rest of the filler blocks trimmed and in place in the next few days. I will be sure to update the log with more pictures and progress reports as I continue through the process. Thanks again for the kind words and support, everyone!

Thank you so much, Joe! You're too kind! It's really great to have a place like this where I can discuss the hobby with such friendly people. I wouldn't call myself a skilled shipwright just yet, but I'm doing my best! I'm glad you're enjoying the build log. Writing it up and adding all the pictures is almost as time-consuming as building the ship itself!

Very interesting tips/tricks, guys! I have experimented with mixing sawdust and Titebond III, and the results were pretty good. I used it to fill a small gouge that I made in a spare piece of wood, just to see what it would look like. I hope that I won't have many spots to fill when I get done planking, but if I do, I'll try some of your methods! I went out and picked up some 3/32" sheets of balsa yesterday, and I made some filler blocks for the bow of the ship. My build log for the Lady Nelson contains a detailed description of this process, but since some of you may not follow my log (or care to know every detail of my block-making process), I'll post a shorter description with a few photos here. I basically cut a bunch of balsa "wafers" that fit into the spaces between my bulkheads, making sure that the "wafers" were longer than the bulkheads themselves. I stacked these on top of each other and glued them together to form my blocks: When the pieces had been bonded, I took my sanding stick and started shaping the block by hand, carefully following the curvature from one bulkhead to the other. Here is a photo of the block, roughly sanded: I continued this process for the next bulkhead spaces. After a lot of sanding, checking, and repeating these were the results: Everything looked and felt smooth, so I was pleased with how it turned out. I decided to make another attempt at spiling a plank in order to see if I could get better results with my new filler blocks. I was quite pleased with how everything turned out! I used two different spiling methods, to see which I preferred... The first method involved tracing the bottom edge of the bulwark with my painter's tape, and the second was using a compass to trace the curvature onto an index card laid across the bulkheads (I'll be showing this method, although both worked for me). One thing I learned was to always transfer the traced curvature to an index card and cut it out for test fitting so that I wouldn't waste any of my precious sheetwood. In this photo, you can see the index card with the traced curve cut out: This photo shows the curve transferred to my sheetwood, with the curvature of the other edge also marked, according to the plank spacing at each bulkhead: This was just a rough practice run, so I simply cut the plank out along these lines without allowing any extra clearance. I wanted to give my spiling technique the ultimate test, to see how closely the plank would fit based solely on my tracing, without any additional tweaking. I didn't even bother sanding/filing the edges, and soaked the spiled plank immediately in hot water for a few minutes (I found that the lime softens very quickly after only a short time in hot water). I am awating the arrival of a plank bender, but since I don't have it yet, I simply bent the plank around the bulkheads and held it in place for a few minutes. It came out looking like this: In this photo, you can see how well the spiled and bent plank hugs the curvature of the hull: You can also see how the bottom edge of the plank no longer creates the clinker effect, sitting flat against filler blocks: Finally, here's a photo of me holding the plank in position (pretty nice fit for a rough-cut practice plank, right?): I have only created one bow block thus far, but I'm quite pleased with how things are looking at this point. I know that the stern blocks will be tougher to shape, but I'll give it my best effort. Thanks for your help, everyone!

I decided to make another attempt at spiling a plank in order to see if I could get better results with my new filler blocks. I was quite pleased with how everything turned out! I used two different spiling methods, to see which I preferred... The first method was with my painter's tape, and the second was using a compass to trace the curvature of the bottom edge of the bulwark onto an index card laid across the bulkheads (I'll be showing this method, although both worked for me). One thing I learned was to always transfer the traced curvature to an index card and cut it out for test fitting so that I wouldn't waste any of my precious sheetwood. In this photo, you can see the index card with the traced curve cut out: This photo shows the curve transferred to my sheetwood, with the curvature of the other edge also marked, according to the plank spacing at each bulkhead: This was just a rough practice run, so I simply cut the plank out along these lines without allowing any extra clearance. I wanted to give my spiling technique the ultimate test, to see how closely the plank would fit based solely on my tracing, without any additional tweaking. I didn't even bother sanding/filing the edges, and soaked the spiled plank immediately in hot water for a few minutes (I found that the lime softens very quickly after only a short time in hot water). I am awating the arrival of a plank bender, but since I don't have it yet, I simply bent the plank around the bulkheads and held it in place for a few minutes. It came out looking like this: In this photo, you can see how well the spiled and bent plank hugs the curvature of the hull: You can also see how the bottom edge of the plank no longer creates the clinker effect, sitting flat against filler blocks: Finally, here's a photo of me holding the plank in position (pretty nice fit for a rough-cut practice plank, right?): I have only created one bow block thus far, but I'm quite pleased with how things are looking at this point. I know that the stern blocks will be tougher to shape, but I'll give it my best effort. Anyway, this is the result of approximately 50 hours of work, in total. Let me know what you think! One of the things I'd like to do is use scale plank lengths. They are more historically accurate, and they will make spiling easier because curves tend to become less accurate as the length of the spiled plank increases. However, I'm a little lost as to how to set up the staggering for the butt joints. I've seen butt joint guides for deck planking, but I'm not sure how easily that would translate into hull work. Any suggestions, guys?