texxn5

Hello Piet, we just tipped a Leffe Blond in your direction toasting a very Happy Birthday again. Wish we were there to share such a monumental event....Proost!
John & Diane

Happy Birthday my friend! May you have many more. Sounds like you're keeping busy...
John & Diane

John - re: the fan, while the big shop fans are a good option my problem is this. I will likely have a garage door opened at both ends. The lights will be on in the garage. Once it starts to get dark outside, every bug for miles around will be headed towards the lights.
 
There is 1 window in the garage. I came across some window fans that fit in like the window AC units. Running one of those on reverse might suck out a lot of the hot air. I had considered one of those AC units but I couldn't leave it in the window - the POA would be all over me. Beside it's a 3 car garage and I doubt if a window unit has enough power to cool that down.

I'm kinda waddled into the house a little while ago. Two long days on my shop stool and my back is not happy. Wow, yesterday was  one of those days you wish would go on forever. Perfect temperature, light breeze. My shop is my garage (no climate control) so I opened the front an rear doors and let the wind blow thru. Good music. Niagara on the workbench. Close to Nirvana!
 
I was stumbling around Friday nite and early Saturday with my stern and how it transitions with the hull planks. Never seen a tall ship in person and most pix don't show the stern. I'm planking from the wale downward and just could not visualize how the first few strakes joined up with the counter planks. With some help here and an illustration in a book, the lightbulb finally came on.
 

 
Not sure why that was so difficult, but it's history now. So with that image in my mind, substantial progress was made. First I added the counter planks and butted the first 2 hull strakes against them. These strakes come straight back - no twist.
 

 
The twisting begins at strake 3 and that's where I was having trouble. My corner blocks were not tall enough to support the plank and that's right where the twist starts. So I extended the blocks a little.
 

 

 
I also soaked 2 planks and put a twist in them and let them dry (see my previous post). This was very effective. If we can put a bend in them, why not a twist? The planks at the stern literally fell into place.
 

 

 

 
I did have one of my "shake your head in disbelief" moments. I don't know how many times I measured band A before I got started. Well, I didn't actually measure, I got a string and stretched it from the top of band A to the bottom at each bulkhead, following the profile of the bulkhead. Similar to a tick strip. I transfered those lengths to the actual bulkheads so I knew where band A was supposed to stop. At strake 6 (band A has 8 strakes) I looked right on track to finish at my mark. For some reason, I decided to go thru the string thing again. My measurements for bulkhead A & B were off. My original marks were too long, so had I continued, band A would be too wide at the bow. Well I sure ain't gonna rip off everything and start over, so beginning at strake 6 I did some tapering to the bow planks. I'm still a little wide, but I think it can be managed in belt B.
 
Other than that I'm really happy with the outcome. My transition at the stern came out quite nicely - a nice, smooth curve into the horizontal position. Band A is done!!!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Back to the garage for a minute. As nice the weekend was, I am already wondering how to manage in another month, when it's 95 degree's in there and the mosquitos are out. It's not going to be pretty. I'm going to have to start looking into those giant fans that they run in some shops. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.
 
 
 
 

Totally agree with you on the inner filler block - a lot needs to go. That is a real long story, the gist of it is I left it  for later - which is now.
 
I also found an illustration in the book Fully Framed Model - Swan Class V2  that showed the 'junction' of the first few strakes under the wale with the stern counter planks and also the rest of the strakes. I understood that junction of the strakes that twist and then butt up to the inner counter plank.  It was the junction of the first few strakes that did not twist that I couldn't visualize. Interestingly, I started searching for stern pix but found very few. People shoot a lot of pix of boats but I guess the tail end is just not too interesting.
 
I did add a little elevation to the corner blocks. That is just what was needed. That hull plank rolled right over it, just as smooth as can be. With the proper edge beveling there is hardly a gap between the strake edges. As I mentioned earlier, I was trying to get a 90 degree twist of the strip in less than 1/2" and the strip just wouldn't do it. 
 
I have learned one lesson in this exercise - as we build, wood just wants to do it's thing. If you help it along the results can be beautiful. If you fight it, you will have a mess on your hands.
 
This is a little optimistic but I am hoping to finish band A by C.O.B. today.   I'll post pix then.

Yes, I see it now.  The light wasn't making much of a shadow.
The planking butts into the stern post, so terminates the rabbet.
When you try laying some plank in there, I think you'll find only the teeniest forward most part of that aftermost bulkhead needs to be there, the rest needs to be sanded down some more to allow the plank a clear run at the counter timbers.

The bearding line has been there although it is tough to see with primer sprayed on it. The keel has a rabbet - stem to stern. The garboard edge is laying in it.
 
I have not yet glued the stern post - although it is about time to do so.  My thoughts were that doing this would complete the vertical part of the rabbet at the stern. I was under the impression that the stern post did not receive much shaping?
 

 

 

Not to add to your work, but you're going to have to very soon get your bearding line and rabbet cut on the stern center plate.  It's in your instruction book, and I think maybe on the plans, as well as lightly covered in the link I posted most recently.  That'll also help you to understand the shapes you have to deal with.

Sounds like my blocks are "out of synch" with bulkhead Q.  The hull planks are beginning a very nice easy twist at Q. But another 1/2" towards the stern and the blocks are expecting the plank to be fully twisted. That's more twisting than I want to do in that small amount of space. Doing so leaves no way to get the plank edge flush with the edge of the previous strake.
 
I think the blocks need maybe another 1/8" of height. And then as you say, a more gradual rounding of that outer edge.
 
Back to the garage......

Let your hull plank run long, then sand it back to match the counter timbers as you come around the corner.  Visualize the counter planking laying over the ends of the hull plank along that same curved surface.  A round tuck stern, which this is, is not the easiest way to go, but many, many ships had it.
You'll see when you get there if the corner blocks need a bit more roundness to bring the hull plank nicely to lay on the angle of the counter timbers.  That is where the plank should change from hull to counter.

Yeah - I use those troughs for soaking and to store wood.
 
Interesting!!   The first wood strip in my experiment has a real nice twist to it. I cut replacement pieces for the 2 I just removed and they work very well. About 5" pieces and there is about a 90 degree twist. With the proper edge beveling they need almost no coaxing to go from vertical to horizontal. Two lessons learned:
 
1. Do your edge beveling before the soak & twist.
2. You'll need some strips with a clockwise twist for the port stern and a counter-clockwise twist for starboard.
 
Sorry I couldn't get a better pic of the plank. Same plank in the 2nd pic is just sitting there - not yet glued - but you can see it is ready to lay down right there.
 

 

 
 
Also on the newsfront, I have been complaining about the red paint that came with the kit. Way to garish!  We had a good discussion about this on Jaggy's Syren build log as well as this one. I was looking for an alternative and was pointed to Tamiya Hull Red. I'm trying to stay with Tamiya products so this sounded good. Ordered a couple bottles. BAD IDEA. Hull Red gives me this vision of the rusty red/brown I see on the oil tankers running the ship channel here.  In reality the Tamiya offering is the darkest brown I have ever seen. So I went to the mixing bucket - Flat Red 85%, Hull Red 10%, White 5%. I've got a color I think I can work with. So far I have come up with Evil Black, Dijon Yellow and this will be Chili Red (the dish not the pepper).
The color in the pic really doesn't show correctly but it is browner and darker than the original red. I have committed to repainting all the red areas.
 

I agree with George....ouch

Sometime you might consider a wallpaper trough for soaking planks, the wetter they are and with a little heat, they'll shape right up.

Sounds like you're right on track....no hurry just make sure each is how you feel like it's good, then move on. Then you'll need to sand it to your liking and move on. Keep it up my friend.
John

Keep it up you're on a roll....looking good....fun?

I ran into a little bit of trouble on the beam plan. The Revell foredeck did not place the mast in the same position as the deck beams I was planning. So I scanned the underside of the deck and superimposed the plan onto it. I then lined up the mast partners. I think this will work. I now have a pattern to make the beams and may even be able to do it off ship (i.e. no holes in the bulwark as previously planned) and can glue the beam structure to the lip on the Revell model. This plus stanchions should secure the structure to hold the rest of the build and rigging in place.
 

Actually I think it makes me slower. I have to think through things 5 times before trying - at least on my build. I have been slowed down a lot lately. Nice to hear from you. Thanks for checking in.
 
PS...anything new your way? Gonna' be hard to top that last one.
 
Dave

Sometime you might consider a wallpaper trough for soaking planks, the wetter they are and with a little heat, they'll shape right up.

Sounds like you're right on track....no hurry just make sure each is how you feel like it's good, then move on. Then you'll need to sand it to your liking and move on. Keep it up my friend.
John

Keep it up you're on a roll....looking good....fun?

Hey John - I would say "one plank at a time" but I am seeing it's more than that. Thinking one plank ahead in the strake and also how the plank from the next stake will contact that one I'm focusing on.
 
The extra time seems to pay off (even though it's only the 3rd strake) as the planks are fitting together well.

Joel - she is scantily covered in the rear. I have 3 hull strakes below the wale right now. At the moment they extend past the transom, but I assume they will be cut somewhere.
 

 
I have also pulled the rear plank on the 3rd strake p/s . My corner blocks may not have enough elevation. I found I should have begun twisting those planks to transition from the vertical lay to the horizontal. According to the plans, that is early. Should be more like the 4th strake and even then just beginning to twist.
 

 

 
You might be able to see I have a garboard pinned in. What a wrestling match that was! Those hull planks I pulled seemed to really fight back as well when I tried twisting them. Is that normal?
 
Experiment in progress: I soaked a plank, gripped one end in a vise, gave the other end 2 twists and stuck that end in another vise. Will let dry and check the outcome.

Mike, you've got basically no planking below the wale, either on the sides or the counter?  Just to see where to begin with my invaluable free advice.

One thing I forgot to ask last nite regarding the transom. The underside of the horn timbers will be planked. I believe they are called counter planks? These planks run 90 degrees to the keel. They will also intersect with the first few hull strakes.
 
How is that supposed to happen? Do the hull planks butt into the counter planks or vice versa?  It seems either way, the result will be an ugly joint.

Some planking tips are here:
 
http://modelshipwrights.wikispaces.com/Planking+Tips