Jackson7

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep it in mind.

The countdown continues. Two left. I will have to sand the planks currently on the hull to make the last two fit at the bow and stern. But that should be relatively easy. Out of an abundance of caution, I will leave that task for tomorrow when I am certain the glue has had a day to set.

At last, I've started putting planks on again. Cutting the final one to shape went perfectly. The trick was not to cut it with the X-Acto knife, but to whittle it up to the line. Cutting it in one stroke has a tendency to split the plank. Everything else should be a matter of gluing and minor sanding to get everything to shape. Hopefully my preparations will be enough to make the process smooth.

I have finished sanding my final spare hull plank to form. If all goes well, I can attach it today, then put on its counterpart on the opposite side. The process over the last few days has been slow, but I think it gives me the best chance of making the bottom hull perfect. In the meantime, I left the plank for the front forecastle in a thermos of boiling water for about two hours, then removed it, bent it, let it dry for a day, then glued it on. It worked very well. It's always tricky to bend that ultra-dramatic curve.

Three of my last four hull planks are now bent to shape. I might have to do one, however. The X-Acto knife slipped, and I've cut a small crack into it. However, I plan to hold back on making that call because I only have one spare plank. If nothing worse happens in my one remaining plank that needs planing into shape, I should be right on track.

I'm starting to wonder if the Greyhound is an intentional attempt to combine the convenience of a kit with the difficulty of a scratch build. Could Corel really have made such a bad instruction book by accident?

This isn't what it looks like. Although I've tacked the plank in the picture to the side of the ship, I haven't glued it on. The plan is to measure what I need to measure while it's on the ship and the proper shape, then use that knowledge to cut my final plank on the port side into the proper shape. After that, I will do the same thing on the other side. Hopefully, that will give me a good fit.

In the last day or so, I've only been sanding. I'm attempting to fit the last 4 planks perfectly to the hull as much as I can before attaching them. This plan will help me glue them without much need for pressure, making it possible for me to do these planks without leaving nail marks. As of now, two seem about right. Of the final two, both are still in need of much more shaping. With a little more work, everything should come together beautifully.

Thanks! That sounds very helpful too.

Thanks, the videos answered my problem. A bunch of the links on planking on the database are defective.

I'm working on the Corel HMS Greyhound. It's also my first real build. At this point, I have done every plank except the two between the garboard and the rest of my work. I've attached pictures below. How do I get the last two on without leaving unsightly nail marks? Is it about making them perfect beforehand? Just using nails and covering up the evidence? Or is there some other way? I have a few theories of my own, but it would be far from wise to take this final leap without expert advice. Thank you all!

Almost done with the hull. Four planks to go. Everything seems to be fitting together well, but the last four will likely be very challenging to put on without inflicting damage. If anyone has some advice on how to attach them without leaving a bunch of nail holes in the second planking, I'd be grateful to hear it.

Today was just a lot of sanding. I didn't get the chance to attach another plank. But I'll go into my sanding process so people can know about it. Before I put on each plank, I sand the facing toward the deck to be thinner. I don't sand it to a point, but rather just enough that it begins to resemble something approximating a blunt chisel. This surface will allow it to fit more closely to the plank immediately above it. After that, I cut the bow tip of the plank to fit smoothly into the main curve of the bow planking. After I get the right angle, I sand the front plank as thin as I can get it so it can fit down onto the bow. While I'm doing these things, I brace the plank against a solid wood surface. After attaching the plank to the ship, I make a mark on the outermost edge of the plank using a ruler to indicate how thin I want it to be. I use an X-Acto knife to carve away wood until it's approximately the right shape there. Then, I use the same knife to cut a smooth line that tapers off roughly four frames along the hull (But this is a very inexact measure. Right now, I'm cutting up to the place where all remaining planks can fit together onto the ship. Finally, I use a thin metal file to sand the plank for precision and smoothness. This method is slow, especially when sanding planks that are already on the ship. But so far it has worked fairly well.

Six more planks to go. I'm so close! The plank I just put on will be my second-to-last 2mm plank in the bow. The next will be 1mm. The final pair will require great care and creativity, however. I shall have to hope I can pull it off.

Today brings with it new choices. At its thickest point, the Greyhound's hull needs 4 planks and about 1 mm on both sides. That 1 mm is a very rough estimate, given that one side is slightly different from the other. To fix the gap, I fitted a pair of shims, glued them on, then sanded them to a perfect fit. The plan had a few hitches, but nothing a little sanding and shimming couldn't fix. Here's the end result. I am now eight planks from completion. Here's the plan. I will sand all four remaining planks into shape to fit the hull and stern perfectly. In the bow, that will require one 1 mm plank, two 2 mm planks, and one carefully sanded plank to try and perfectly fit the last 2ish mm. In the stern, it will require one 3 mm plank, two 2mm planks, and one plank sanded to fit. The middle will either work perfectly or require sanding on the last plank.