hamilton

If you go to the article downloads area, AEW has prepared a very useful plank length calculator.... hamilton

Hi John: Always been curious about this one and the Brittania - both are quite large, no? Looking forward to your progress on this one hamilton

Though I'm no expert, it would make sense that the ratlines would be left natural (though I've featured them as black on every model I've built save one), for the reasons noted above....this might be another area of heated debate between historical accuracy and modeller's preference..... hamilton

She's looking Gorgeous Bob! The details bring so much life to the model. hamilton

Wow - having built the Phantom as my first model I know how small these parts you've made must be! Magnificent work - I'm particularly impressed with the chainplates - I found those to be very finicky! Again - amazing work here! hamilton

Hi Meredith: What stunning work! I love the aging on the copper plates - looks very authentic, and you're right the quality of the hobby mill wood is FAR superior to what is supplied by OcCre - I replaced the deck strips, but only with lime sourced at my local hobby shop....An improvement over OcCre's materials but nowhere near as nice as yours. I've now just finished the first planking (have to clean it up now) - the 2mm strips were not very easy to work with, I have to say, and I'm a little worried about the material supplied for second planking.... in any event, your build is setting a very high bar for this model! Well done! hamilton

Hello there: First of all, sorry moderators if I've posted this in the wrong place....since technically it is a solicitation. Second, let me say that there are some great tutorials available on hull planking on the downloads section of this site. However, I feel there must be something I'm missing.... I've made several plank-on-bulkhead models over the last several years, but I have never been happy about the planking and never truly understood how to do it properly....my results have been ok, but for the most part I apply liberal doses of wood filler and paint below the waterline to hide my poor results...... However, every time I approach the planking, I feel like I make the same mistakes, and confront the same frustrations and end up just kind of patching it together and flying blind...despite following along with the several good tutorials I have found. It has been very frustrating and I would much rather approach this part of my builds with more confidence and better results - it would be nice, for example, to show a well-planked wooden hull at some point in the future... And so I'm making this plea - if there are any modellers out there in the greater Vancouver area who would be willing to spare a couple of hours to pass on their techniques and wisdom I would be very grateful - a bottle of your favourite wine or spirit, a case of your favourite beer, or if it's more appropriate some other form of compensation for your time and patience! Apologies for sounding (being) desperate! Though I'm sure I'm not the first hamilton

Beautiful work Doug! Love this ship and would love to build her one day - you've done an excellent job hamilton

Incredible detail and wonderful craftsmanship - I don't cease to be impressed by your metal work, Ian - and your modelling skills overall! Beautiful stuff hamilton

Hi Jason: A milestone indeed - I know what you mean about finding a rhythm to this part of the build - on a vessel like Snake there must have been a good number of clove hitches to complete these things - no small feat! hamilton

Beautiful work Jason, as usual - the Snake certainly makes an attractive model - even more so in such capable hands. And I'm supremely jealous of the Diana! I'll be following that build very keenly hamilton

Just repeating what everyone else has already said - WOW! Excellent work - Chuck's method of making the great cabin floor certainly produces wonderful results hamilton

Very impressive Bob - the beauty of the detail is matched only by the cleanliness of the work! Inspiring indeed hamilton

Beautiful work Mike - now you're on to the fun part! hamilton

Well there are no close-ups of the deck, but in the following shots you can see the blotchiness....Not happy with it, but I'm not exactly sure what can be done, and I know it will be covered up will all kinds of detritus to distract the eye....onwards, then, armed for the future with the insight not to do this again! In other news, I've spent a couple of days just focusing on fairing the hull and working out the installation of the long single-piece bulwarks. It's quite tricky to install these, but they were not nearly as finicky as the ones I installed on the Pinky. In the end, I think they went on well - I took quite a bit of time to get the symmetry right... Anyway, here are the photos - hope you're all doing well hamilton

Thanks Harlequin - whenever you're ready! Looking forward to seeing more of the Bellona hamilton

Love the Diana - hope to build this, too one day. Looking forward to your build hamilton

Thanks Bob, BE, Rich and Augie: I've now finished planking the deck, but I'm too embarrassed to show it.....I added nibbing to the deck planks at the bow and this worked out fine. But because of the size difference between the bow & stern margin planks (3/64") and the middle ones both port & starboard & the deck planking (1/32"), I had to sand the thicker ones flush. I thought (mistakenly) that using a heavy grain sandpaper (80) would be the best approach to getting rid of the excess wood. But when happened was that it left all kinds of unsightly scratch marks on the deck planks - almost like someone keyed my deck...no amount of sanding with lighter grain sandpaper worked to get rid of these..... Then there was the staining....I decided to lightly stain the deck with Minwax golden oak, slightly diluted. I did this with my Glad Tidings and I was really happy with the results. However this time it turned out quite blotchy - only later did I read (somewhere on this forum) about applying wood conditioner before staining and now I'm kicking myself.... I'm sure it will be fine after all the deck fixtures are installed, but at present it is quite unsightly.....I may post some photos later as a warning to those who dive into such things heedlessly......for now, I'll sign off hamilton

This is a really ambitious project! Looking forward to watching it come together - will you be able to get it out of the workshop when it's done? hamilton

A bit of progress on Fair Rosamund: The deck - came in the same rather disappointing ply as the bulkheads - kind of fuzzy and messy, but a little more solid. Had to fix the bulkhead extension slots to fit the framework - no big deal. Marked the deck up for planking (centre line & positions for the deck planks. Here are some photos Margin planks - not featured as part of the kit - I borrowed this feature from Meredith, who included them on his build. I may have cut mine a little wide, but they'll eventually be partly thinned by the inboard bulwark planking. I guessed at a measurement of 7mm by looking at Meredith's build log and judging the width of his margins relative to the sub-deck. I decided to make the margins in 4 sections, scarfed together. I made templates using bristol paper and transferred these onto 10mm x 3/64mm lime - unfortunately I only had enough of this material for the first 2 planks port and starboard and the plank across the stern....my local wood supplier only had 1/32 or 1/16" sheets, so the last 2 planks on both sides are 1/32 - eventually I'll sand the others down to match. Here again are some photos of the process - the same process was used for each of the margin planks Next steps - fairing the frames & deck planking/finishing - fun times ahead! hamilton

It means "personal message" - it's like a private email sent directly to a forum member - you can send a PM by clicking on your own user name at the top of the page (in the blue banner) where you'll see an option called "personal messenger" - or if you scroll over or click another users name, you will see an option to "send message". This is a much more secure way to share information with other users that you might not want floating around.... hamilton

Well it seems I'll have to give it some thought. I added treenails to my 1:25 scale Glad Tidings pinky schooner, but at that scale they looked appropriate. At 1:53 (a little smaller than 1/4) it might not be doable. I certainly want to avoid a pock marked deck....at the same time, if I can fashion a small enough treenail and if, once the deck is finished, they blend in well, I may go for it....I'll probably do a series of tests before finalising the decision anyway. Thanks all for the input and for the nice photos! hamilton

Hi Russ: Thanks for the response, but this doesn't really solve my issue - are you saying there are no trunnels (or treenails) visible anywhere on deck or that the scarfs should be trunnelled the same way as the joints between the deck planks? Sorry if I'm being thick - I've just seen many modellers adding treenails to their decks.... hamilton

The coppering looks great! A lot of painstaking work but it really pays off in the finished look. Well done hamilton

Hi there: I'm installing a margin plank in several sections, scarfed together. My question is whether there would have been visible trunnels at the scarf joints on the margin plank and if so, how they would be arranged. This is for the Fair Rosamund, 1831... Thanks in advance! hamilton