petehay

Simon,

I used Danish oil applied with a small paintbrush on my Midwest dinghy. I was very pleased with the results.

Pete

Welcome Jake,

Here is a picture of my progress on the Virginia so far, but I swear I'm going to finish this little lifeboat first.

Matthew - I promise I'll start my own build log and stop jumping in on yours.

Pete

Thanks Frank. I wouldn't have gotten started without your help.

Here she is with the ribs in.

Pete

...and off the jig.

Planked!

Some planking started. There will definitely be some caulking involved.

Pete

How did you decide on the length of the deck planks?

Pete

Playing with some false battens to try and get feel for the plank shapes. The framework is very fragile once you start sticking pins in it. The ribs started as 1/16th square but after fairing they are a bit smaller in places.

I originally bought this kit for planking practice before I started my AL Virginia 1819 sloop but I might need to go the other way and plank the Virginia as practice for the lifeboat.

Pete

MRWESQ,

No, I haven't started a build log for the 1819 Virginia (although I sort of hijacked yours) - I will post some pics of my progress so far in the next couple of days. I've hit a brick wall with my little lifeboat build, so maybe we can build this model in tandem and learn from each other.

Pete

Marvin,

Just to be clear - I'm not the builder doing the fine work posted here. I am just starting this model and have gotten to the point of  assembling (and fairing) the false keel/bulkhead/false deck structure.  If I understand your answer correctly, I can hold off on the deck planking as the kit has me leaving a 5mm gap between the top plank and the deck to allow for the placing of the bulwark piece.

Any more thoughts anyone? Will this leave me anough room to trim and sand the edge of the deck planking?

Pete

Does anyone who has built this kit have an opinion as to why the instructions have you do the finish planking on the deck BEFORE you do the first planking on the hull? I can see no reason not to reverse the order to avoid scuffing up that ultra thin deck planking in the process of planking the hull. Am I missing something?

Pete

Framework is faired and I'm ready to start planking. Instructions have me planking the transom first. Wish me luck.

Pete

Popeye,

How thick were the basswood planks? (And what scale is your model?)

Harvey,

Don't know if it's really plywood or veneer. It would have to have some pretty thin layers being just 1/64" overall. Being so readiliy available I was wondering if anybody has ever worked with it. I cut a couple of 3/32" planks from it and it didn't seem too bad.

Would like to find 1/64" basswood but my only luck so far was "scale lumber" at the model RR store. This was pretty expensive (but I do plan to use it to plank the deck).

I have tried gesso over balsa in the past and ended up with too smooth a finish for my taste. I am trying to somehow keep the semblance of wood grained planks with weathered paint for the hull. 

Pete

I'm thinking of planking my build of the Smack by going over the balsa with 1/4" strips cut from Revell 1/64" birch ply that is available at Micheals. Has anyone used this material? I will be painting over it so the finish isn't an issue but I do want the planking to be obvious. 

Pete

Worked great on the iPad. Both sound and video

Adding the Sheer(s). I hope I'm doing this right.

Keith,

There are (a bunch of) intermediate frames that are glued in after removal from the former jig.

BTW - After watching your Swift build, I hope to enlist your help when I get to the actual planking.

Pete

Keel assembly sitting on frames. Nothing glued yet.

Frames sitting in building board

Trying to go minimalist and only use the pad while at home.

The next step is to create the four main ribs by bending and attaching to the numbered forms. The instructions say you can soak the 1/16" strips in water for 15 minutes and they will be pliable enough to make the curve. My attempts at this just ended up with a lot of crimped wood.

I resorted to the Midwest procedure of adding ammonia to the soaking water. I then used tiny clothes pins and medicine bottle caps to form the half circle. This was much better.

Pete

This is the first construction step (and the one I had so much trouble understanding in the instructions) gluing the 1/16" square stock to the keel and continuing up the stem.

I seem to have solved the upside down image problem and can now proceed. The original images are the kit "in the bag", an attempt to show the small size of the pieces, and a shot of the keel, transom, bow, and strip wood all stained with Minwax Jacobean stain. Let's hope I have better luck formatting my next post.

Pete

I don't seem to have the option to use full editor on my iPad.