Zarkon

Hey all, I've been able to get more planking done. I am almost done with the first belt on the port side. I believe it's looking pretty good so far. This is how I place the plank on the bow. First, after I use the jig to pre-edge bend the planks, I test fit it on the bow. I have noticed with the basswood strips, I don't really need to pre bend the planks in any another direction other than on the edge. When I test fit the plano, I do bottome edge bevel so that it sits as flush as I can get it to the previous plank. After test fitting, I darken one side edge and the end of the plank where it will butt against the next plank. I make sure to not have both edges darkened. There are 2 reasons for that. I don't want to make the edges too dark, and if there is a small gap between it and the previous plank after gluing, if you fill the small hole, it will look odd having the filler used surrounded by the black pencile lines. If you only darken one edge, the filling looks like it's attached to the plank that does not have the darkened edge. It looks a lot better. I hope that makes sense. When ready to glue, I first only glue the very tip of the plank. I don't glue the plank to the thicker bulkhead yet. After the glue dries (I use thin CA glue), I then glue the plank to the first bulkhead former. I then added some glue to the next bulkhead but a super small amount to the previous plank edge (only add glue to the space between bulkheads. This helps me make sure that I can get the planks to stick to the previously place plank below it. I then continue in this fashion, only gluing the plank to 1 bulkhead former at a time until it's all glued on. The pic above shows I have a problem. I wasn't able to glue the plank totally against the previous plank. That was my fault. To fix it, I mixed wood glue, some basswood shavings I sanded off the basswood strip I was using, and a few drops of water to make my own wood filler. Here is the wood shavings next to the glue. I mixed in a few drops of water to the wood and added a very little amount of the wood glue. I then filled the small gap between the 2 planks. After it dried, I lightly sand it with 220 grit sandpaper to even it out. I continue in this fading to the stern. For the stern, I overlap the stern plank with the plank next to it to give me room when I'm adjustmenting the stern edge of the plank. I then marked the stern edge as well. I then bent the plank to shape, especially at the stern edge as that has the most curve to it. I then use a sharp hobby knife to cut along the diagonal line I marked. I then test fit and modify the stern most edge of the plank to fit nicely against the lower counter. Once satisfied, it cut and used my disk sander to slowly shorten the plank so it butts against the previous plank with a nice fit. Once i am satisfied with the fit, I bevel the bottom edge to sit better against the plank under it, and darken one edge. Like the bow plank, I glued it onto one bulkhead at all time until it's fully glued onto the hull. This pic (above) shows how much CA glue I use when gluing to the lower counter. It's not much honestly. I then contiue the plank per bulkhead So here are some pics as to how far along I am on planking so far. Thank you for following along with me! Jeff

Hey all! Thank you for the likes! Just a quick update. My entire family has been sick and we had to deal with a leak in our shower that was coming down upon our kitchen ceiling. Yuck. So not too much time for modeling unfortunately. But I have a small update today. I have started planking the hull below the wales. Before I started, I read the instructions quite a few times. It's a lot to take in at once. @Chuck recommended in his instructions to read the book "Planking the Build-Up Ship Model" by Jim Roberts. I ordered this book from Model Shipways and it didn't take too long to arrive. This book, like what Chuck said, is highly detailed and is a great resource for planking. I read through a few chapters and noticed that some pics in this book, are also in the instructions of the USF Confederacy! Chuck's instructions does a good job summarizing what is in this book. Which is a lot of information. I did create the jig written in the instructions with the supplied laser cut curved batten. Here is a pic of it after i bent 3 wood strips. (Though I have already used 2 of then hah!) It's definitely helpful for edge bending 3 strips at a time. I was able to finish 1 row and started the next. Here are some pics of my progress. As you can see, it's just the beginning of the process. I will start to make steady progress soon. Once I complete 10 rows, I will then start the other side's planking. Thanks all! Jeff

Hey all! Finally finished tree nailing the hull! That sure took a while to do. It took a total of 6327 tree nails. Whew! I completed this step by re-staining and varnishing the hull. Now, this is the first time I've tried to both tree nail and varnish a hull. I can see spots where I can clean it up and bit; but I learned quite a lot doing this. Doing 3 inches at a time was key to not get overloaded with this step. Here are the pics of the hull as she stands now. You might have to zoom in to really see the tree nails. I won't be tree nailing below the wales. I might take a day or two off before starting to plank the hull. Thanks all! Jeff

Congratulations! You have done an excellent job! I think it looks cool that you stopped at the main mast cap. It gives a unique look since not many modelers stop there. Here is looking forward to your next build! Cheers! Jeff

Thanks Bug! Like the instructions say, focusing on 3" segments really helps me get through this process. I hope she will look better with these tree nails! I also can see why this is one of your favorite kits. It has been very fun so far and the instructions are excellent. Ill check out your joint build log! Also, if you decide to make a build log of her later this year, I would be interested in following along! Jeff

Hey all! I know it's been quite a while between my last post, but I've been super busy with my Confederacy build and currently in the middle of tree nailing her. But I finally was able to give my Cheerful the quality time she deserves. First, I have to admit, I measured twice and cut once with making my strips, but I guess my eyes were tricking me! I thought i was milling 3/32" strips, but instead, I was making slightly thinner than 1/16". This was too thin. I had to create a new jig to measure out 3/32" and mill more strips at the correct width. It always hurts knowing I milled the wrong sized strips. I then had to remove all the strips I had glued on her. Believe me, that wasnt a.... Cheerful activity. Yes. Bad dad joke. To remove the strips, I used Bob's CA unglue and that worked remarkably well. Though I had to still be very careful removing the whale strips. This was disheartening, but it's best to fix things now than being in a much worse place later. I have since glued on both rows of the first layer of the wales. I then glued on the molding strip right below most gunports. This molding strip needs to be 1/64" below each gunport except for the first port. The best way to figure out where to place the molding at the bow is studying the plans. To make the 1/64" between the gunport and strip, I created a small jig to measure out that width. I would hook this over the gunport and push the molding strip up against it. At least this way, it will help to keep a more even and consistent width between the molding strip and the gunports. Soon, I will continue planking the gap between the molding strip and the wales. Thanks all! Jeff

Hey all! I know it's been a while. I got sick a few times since December. I swear I caught everything that was going around. Anyway, it's taken a long time to tree nail! I'm almost done with the starboard side of her. I am counting every tree nail I make, so if you guys want to guess how many tree nails it took me for the starboard side, be my guest! I'll leave a few pics as to my progress. As you can see, I only have a small portion at the stern to finish. I know it looks like a mess right now. But I'll clean it up and stain/varnish this side before moving to the other side. I will have to touch up the black painted whales a little bit too. Anyway, this is a short update and I'll continue tree nailing! Thanks for following along! Jeff

Nicely done! It's coming along very well! Jeff

Hey all! So I have decided to tree nail the hull from the wales upward. But only the hull section that's not painted black. This is a pretty slow process and I'm trying to refine how im doing it. Like the instructions say, I first started on the side with the exposed hull section. I tried to line up the tree nails with the bulkheads as best I could. Here are some pics of my process. I first drill the holes. I place a piece of tape down to match where the ribs are, then I place a square next to the tape to try and make sure it's straight. I manually drill one column at a time until I have completed 3" of tree nails. It's hard to see the drill holes unless I have lower light. I then lightly sand the holes with 400 grit sandpaper just to clean up the tops from loose wood. I don't have enough an awl, so instead, I took a T pin to each of the drilled holes lightly touching just to make sure the holes are round. Afterwards, it looks like this. Then comes the messy part. I fill in each hole with natural wood filler (the kind recommended in the instructions) I then sanded it down to remove the excess. I hope you can see some of it. I have to sand more of the excess off. Sometimes it's really hard to tell if I sanded enough, so I have to take a very lightly damp cloth and rub the hull for the tree nails to appear. I had to do that with the pic above, but i can tell it needs more sanding. I do think it will look really nice once it's done. This will be a very labor intensive timely process. I will try to give update as to how its going in a few days. Wish me luck! Jeff

Happy 2025 everyone! I finally felt better enough this week to make some progress. I have completed the other side wales and decided to put the molding on like the other side. I already described how I complete the wales and molding in previous posts, so I'll just post some pics of both sides finished. Oh, I have to note. I 3D printed a new holder for the ship while she is upside-down. I made the design in Blender after measuring the ship and where I wanted the supports to go. I made 4 support points. Each connection joint is a different size so that the holder only fits in 1 way. It took quite a while to print as each piece must be able to be printed within the size limitations of my 3D printer. Whew! Finally those steps are completed! I would like to start tree nailing, but I'll wait until tomorrow to start. Thanks! Jeff

@Wawona59 Hi John! Thank you for following my build log! I apologize for not replying sooner. I caught pretty much everything since before Christmas and I'm finally starting to feel better. Like you, I had my Confederacy kit sitting away for years before I felt mostly comfortable to start her. It was fun just looking at the box with anticipation. Haha! Thanks for following and I hope you and everyone have a great 2025! Jeff

@wernerweiss Thank you for your thoughts. I do appreciate the critiques, especially from someone who has finished The Confederacy! By the way, you have a great build log of her and you did a fantastic job. Your Confederacy is excellent. Jeff

@wernerweiss Hello! I wanted to let you know that I have not glued the cap rails on yet. Gluing the cap rails is on page 118-119 in the instructions and I'm on page 42. I wanted to make sure that the molding strips would be at the correct placement, so I cut out a cap rail and a volute laser cut piece and test fitted them to the model. I also placed (not glued) the 1/16" strip ontop of the waist as well to check the lower molding strip. This next pic shows the cap rail in place along with the waist piece. This pic is where I have overlapped the volute piece over the top of the cap rail and ontop of the molding piece I glued on earlier. It seems to line up with the molding very well! I think I have the molding pieces glued into the correct position on the model. On page 39 of the manual, it states that finishing the wales/molding/painting is optional at this point of the build if the builder wants a break from planking. I sure wanted a break from planking! Haha! So that's why I continued with the optional steps before continuing to plank the hull. Thanks for your feedback! Jeff

@wernerweiss Hey! Thanks for the feedback! I did check the instructions too, and it does specify to add the molding first next to the waist. I did check the laser cut cap rails to see how far back they are cut to match up with the molding pieces. The instructions say, to place the molding pieces correctly, place a 1/16" strip ontop of the waist and make sure the molding strip sits evenly with it. I also checked the instruction photos and it also shows the molding strips sit slightly back, not up to the edge of the waist. I think you have a good idea of adding the channels along with the molding strip to make sure it has a nice curve. Also doing so won't make you cut out the molding strips where the channels will go. I might do this with the other side, but i haven't decided yet. I can be a little clumsy and if I have channels sticking out from the hull, I might accidentally knock them off! Haha! Thanks for your input! Jeff

Hey all! Happy holidays and new year! I added the molding strips to one side of the hull and wanted to share some pics. I tried my best with it. I did stain them first before gluing them on. Now into the other side to repeat the entire process! Thanks all for reading! Jeff

Hey guys! It took me a little bit of time to decide what to do next. I decided to do things are little out of order. First, I placed painters tape where the lower molding strip will go and made sure it was a good even curve. Then I marked it with a pencil. I then took the tape off and re positioned it slightly below that line. I hope the pic comes out ok. The reason I placed it below that line, is so that the black paint will overlap the molding strip so it will look even. I then proceeded to fill any gaps ( there were 2 very small gaps) and sanded it down smooth. This was done for the planks above the tape. After this was complete, I pained the planks black above the painters tape. During this process, the wood strips arrived from Model Expo! So I knew I was going to complete the main wales next. There was a slight problem though. I accidentally wrote down the wrong number of strips. The main wales are 4 rows of 2 planks each. So that's 8 planks total. But I like 2 extra strips just in case. My issue was, I wrote down 10 strips when I needed at minimum 16 strips. Yup. My bad. But Model Expo was quick to take my order and deliver the 10 strips free of charge. So that was super nice of them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the other strips I need to finish the main wales. I'll figure it out. Anyway, I then started the main wales on one side of the ship. I'm the first to admit, I'm not that great with putting painters tape down and not having some paint run through the tape. So before I placed the top main wale plank, I rounded the top edge then pained mostly just the top edges black. This should hopefully make for a much cleaner look than placing the top wale strake on first. This allowed me to not have to worry about painting the top edge and accidentally painting the black strake. I continued down the 4 plank rows. Since these will be pained, I applied some filler to smooth out any small gaps or ubeaven surfaces. As i was planking the wales I noticed my lower counter tree nails weren't great. What I mean is, I did not sand enough of the wood filler off the counter so it looks sloppy. So I sanded the entire lower counter again to get off the extra wood filler. Once all this was completed, I taped up the side for painting the main wales. I then proceeded to pain the wales. This was the result. That was satisfying to see it with the wales pained. I then decided to stain and varnish both sides of the ship. This will include the channel wales, Blake strake, and the lower counter again. I wanted to do both sides because it seemed like the right thing to do. But before doing this step, I had to get the molding strips ready. I followed the directions in the instructions using the provided molding scraper. This is how it turned out. This third picture was important because to make a good clean run of the molding, the bottom most requires 2 molding strips. You have to be careful when picking and sanding both strips. Some of the molding strips were wider than the others. So you have to choose 2 which had the same width or it will look off when glued on. Then last night, I stained and varnished both the ship and the molding pieces. I stained/varnished the molding pieces before placing them on the model. Here is what it looks like varnished. It's currently drying so I can't work on it tonight. The last thing I will need to do is add the molding strips. Whew! That was a lot. Let me know what you guys think! Thanks! Jeff

@CiscoH You are right. I'll have to get used to edge bending. But at least it's only for the wales, for now! Thanks for the kind words! I'm trying to take my time and not rush anything. Since my last update, I still have not heard back from ModelExpo about a few more 5/32" x 1/16" needed to start and complete the second layer of the main wales. I guess I haven't heard back yet because of Thanksgiving. I hope to hear from them soon. Because I don't have enough strips for the main wales, I instead added the channel wales and the black strake. I have been able to finish adding both! Here are some pics. I first completed the channel wales. After the channel wales, I then added the second layer black strake. This was a little tough to try and make the strake run nicely down the hull. I feel it's easier to spot a misaligned strake on bigger models than smaller ones! Here are some pics of the ship after I added the black strakes. I'm not sure exactly what to work on next. Should I continue with the molding strips; painting/varnishing, then tree nailing? Or wait for the wale strips and start planking below the wales? I'm leaning towards adding the molding strips and paining / varnishing. I really don't want to starting planking lower down the hull until all these steps including the wales are completed. Thanks everyone for your likes! Jeff

Hey all! I completed the first layer of the wales and the first rows below it. Here are some pics of my progrssion: I hope you can see this in the photo above, but the last wale strake and the strake after that both go under the lower counter. I hope this is correct. I had to start edge bending the planks as i I got lower onto the hull as they would not fit correctly near the bow. This was more prevelant on the last wale strake and the one below that. Here is an example: Hopefully this comes out clear, but if you look at the bulkhead that is in focus, the top plank does not lay flat on the bulkhead at all. Instead it juts out. This causes a massive issue with trying to place the next plank above it as it will cause the next plank to form a gap between both it and the previous row of planks. No amount of sanding can fix this issue. To fix this, I removed the badly placed plank. I then laid a new plank on top as shown below. I then marked where the center of the biggest gap was on the new strake and edge bent it using the mark as the center point. After placing it back onto the model, the curve now looks like this: Notice the top of the plank sits against the bulkhead. Whew! I continued and finished both sides. These next pics I thought was just cool because it shows off what we will never see again as we continue to plank. The underside of the gundeck and bulkheads and supports. Finally, here are a few pics of it placed upright. I hope it looks alright! Lastly, I need to say I ran out of 5/32" x 1/16" strips! I literally have 1 full strip left and some left overs. I did not throw any out. I used all of them that were provided in the kit. So I have contacted Model Shipways ( Model Expo) to see if I can get 10 more strips so I can finish the second layer of the wales. I did fill out their ordering form using their instructions. We shall see! So what I CAN place on next are the 5/32" x 1/32" strips used for the channel wales and black strake. So I will start on that soon while I wait for the new strips. Thanks all! Jeff

Those gunports look really good. Cutting out the top of the gunports isn't easy and I'm glad you took your time with it. Well done! Jeff

@glbarlow Thank you for your advice about sanding the tops of th bulkheads. What I actually ended up doing was to sand down the boxwood gunport frames that protruded higher than the bulkheads. I sanded these at an angle to give more material to the next adjacent bulkhead. I just didn't want them protruding and somehow getting stuck on something. Because knowing me, that would happen! I looked at your build log and you have done a fantastic job! I'm looking at your placement of the wales too to help gadge if mine are alright. Thank you for the advice! Jeff

@Erik W Thank you very much for linking to your log. You have done a fantastic job on your planking! The seams really came out well and the square tuck looks really good! After comparing, I think mine looks ok but I feel maybe not quite enough curve at the bow. But maybe it is enough. Maybe I'm being too much of a nitpick. Concerning the stern, I might make a copy of the stern from the plans and tape it on the model to see if I think there is too much of a curve. I'll also look through your and others build logs to conduct more comparisons of the stern and bow. The last thing I want is too much of a curve on either. That would mess up quite a bit of the planking. Thank you for the advice Erik! Jeff

Hey all! I need another set of eyes. The first plank is the most important to lay the rest of the planks. I have placed the first wale strakes on one side of the hull and would like to ask of you guys think if looks like it's in the correct place. If it looks good, I'll continue with the other side's first strakes so I can make sure they look as even as possible. If not, I don't mind taking these 2 pieces off and adjusting. Fixing the planking now will save a lot of headaches later. Thanks!! Jeff Houston

Ross, you have done amazing work! It looks fantastic! I really like how the decking turned out. Nicely done! Jeff

Thank you Ronald! I agree I really like how the edges are turning out! I looked at it again today and noticed the stain has lightened some. I think that's great! Because later, I will need to add in all those tree nails and stain/varnished again. I was a little worried that if I stained again, it would be too dark. I'm going to take a break from her for a few days to allow the stain/varnished to finish drying and stop smelling. In the meantime, I'll be working on my Cheerful build starting tomorrow. Going to start planking the first layer of the wales! Thanks all! Jeff

Thanks all! So I finally finished planking the other side of the hull. This step takes so long as each piece must have the correct angle and length. Whew. This feels like an accomplishment! Here are some pictures of the other side finished. What I also did, was to make sure at the stern, the tops of the hull planking were as level as possible for both sides. This should help make the ship look much more even when installing the cap rails a lot later in the build. What I did, was to take a wide strip of boxwood (since it's heavier and harder so it won't bend with a level on top) and place it on different sections of the hull planking and sanded down the tops of the planks where needed to make it as even as possible. After that, I tried my best to sand the hull as smooth as I could with 220 grit sandpaper. This took a little while as there were lots of small spots to try and even out. According to the instructions, the next part was to stain and varnish the entire portion of the hull that was planked! I took about 30 minutes to setup my stations. I first used a pre-stain wood treatment coat. I then wiped off the access after 5 minutes. As it was drying, i mixed together a 1:1 ratio of Minwax Golden Oak stain and clear polyurethane varnish. I needed to thin out the golden oak stain to try and keep from blotching as much as possible. After putting on the stain and varnish, this was the result. In the pic above, there was some blotching near the top above the first few gunports. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think quite a bit of that will be painted black a little later in the build. So I'm not too worried. What I was surprised by was how well the pencile edging came through! I made sure to only pencile one edge of the planks. I am glad I didn't darken both plank edges that meet or it would be too dark! Please let me know what you guys think! It will look different once it's painted and the wales/ molding strips are added. But I do feel I finished a huge step in the build and it feels very good! 😀 Thanks all for reading and for your comments and likes. I do appreciate them a lot! Jeff