shipmodel

Just a quick update - I glued the two halves together including the sheet in the middle.  No real problems except that I need to do more sanding.  When I look at the shape of the hull, it looks fine; but when I hold it a certain way under a light, I see a slight ridge near the keel.  That ridge must be removed.  I know that when I plank the hull, it will become obvious.  It’s best to solve the problem now.
 

A lot of progress to report.  The four lifts of each half of the hull have had their preliminary sanding and are glued together.  Both halves have also been sanded, although much more sanding is needed.  The hull looks like a boat.  Photos are attached.  I am going to use some plastic wood or Gesso to fill in the cracks between the lifts.  And I plan to have a sheet of 3/32 cedar down the middle that will form the stem and stern posts and the keel.
 

I’ve done a rough sanding of the port side lifts.  The stern area gave me some trouble, but once I was able to ‘read’ the various views on the plans, everything seemed to make sense.  The lifts  need more sanding, but I want to wait until I have the other side done.  The two sides have to match.  Then the final sanding will be done after the lifts are glued together.  I also have to decide on how to cut the deck hatches.  And, based on my research, whether or not I want to make a small stove in the forward hatch. Advise is always welcome.
 

Making the lifts has begun.  The four lifts are cut out, but more sanding is needed.  Each piece must be as close to the plans as possible.  That is the only way to insure that further sanding 
results in a properly shaped of the hull.
 
  

A small Speedwell update. The lower ratlines have been installed as well as the euphroe tackle and crowsfeet. On many models I see they appear oversize. At 1/4" scale though we should be able to approximate the 1" ratline and 3/4" crowsfeet diameters. For the ratlines I use Guterman polyester Mara 120 thread (dark brown). For the crowsfeet I used 6/0 Uni-Thread, dark brown. I tried 6-0 silk for this but it just kept fraying (such is the nature of silk). I must admit that making the euphroes with their numerous no. 78 drilled holes (there are nine in the main euphroe), setting up the euphroe tackle and rigging the crowsfeet was an exercise in patience (and frustration). I was so pleased with my first attempt until I realized that I had reverse rigged one hole and had to redo the whole thing.  Onward and upward (literally)!
 

The belaying pins are now installed in their shroud deflectors. That's a term I had never read before but that's what they're called according to Markquardt. Perhaps they're called pin rails only when affixed to the inner bulwarks. The deflectors have grooves filed on the outboard edge for the shrouds and lashings inboard and are surprisingly strong once attached.  At any rate, I was able to hone my lathe technique to turn out consistent pins. Next it's on to ratlines. Perhaps Archjofo would fly in from Germany to show me how he successfully duplicated actual practice when securing them to the outer shrouds. Personally. I believe he used Photoshop as this is not humanly possible to do.
 

First, thank you guys for comments and likes.  Keeps me going knowing someone is reading these posts.
 
Jason, who lives pretty close, I hope to get to hang out soon.
 
Mikiek I am contemplating your method of yellow/superglue for second planking. 
 
Dan/Shipmodel thank you for your responses and advice.  I am hoping to incorporate some bone details in this model, maybe a binnacle to start.  Baby steps...
 
In my last post I mentioned I was trying to power through finishing first planking.  I had a hit a bit of a rut trying to make everything perfect and it was time to move on.  So now I have officially finished first planking even if I resorted to wide planks.

I had left the counter planking unfinished so I could roll the stern planking upwards, trim the ends flush, and then insert the final 2 counter planks.  I thought that might be a better plan than trying to cut each stern plank individually.  I don't know how some people get such perfect straight intersections!
 
Below I used a compass to trace a pencil line parallel to the bottom counter.  I found it easiest to cut by hand along the pencil line with an xacto, going very shallow and deepening it repeatedly.  Then I used a 1/4" chisel to pare the waste away working down from the top.  Slow n steady.

I eventually cleared all the waste wood on the left side.

I found it easier to glue two narrower strips vs one wide one because the space I am filling is concave.  Below is both sides excavated, glued, and filled.

Of course it'll all be covered by the second planking but I think the stern plank/counter intersection looks tight which is what I was aiming for.
 
Next is sanding and more sanding and then some sanding to smooth it all out. 
 
In other news I managed a late entry into this year's Admiralty Workshops (someone cancelled and I was on the wait list) so I will learn how to make rope with Chuck.  At my usual glacial building pace odds are I will forget everything by the time I get to rigging but if I keep good notes maybe some of it will stick.  And at the end we get a tour with the curator of the Naval Academy Museum; that is just freaking cool!
 
well goodnight all and thanks for reading
 
Cisco
 
 
 

Hi Cisco - 
 
Just read through your build log here.  You are doing great, working your way up the steep and long learning curve of hull planking.  I love how you meet and solve the many problems and challenges that you have encountered.  Your creative solutions will stand you in good stead as you approach the second layer of planking.
 
Here are a couple of tips that I have learned by hard experience over 35 years of doing this:
 
1.  Fill and sand the first layer of planking till the shape is smooth and to your liking.  Paint the whole thing with a light colored water based paint.  Now you can draw the plank outlines on the hull in pencil, using dividers or tick strips to give you your initial layout.  Look it over critically and change the run of the planks by erasing and redrawing until you are happy.  Drop planks at the bow and stealers at the stern are much easier to figure out in pencil before you start cutting wood.  Then you can cut and taper your planks to match the pencil lines.
 
2.  Lay in the location of the wale first.  This will determine the bulwark planking strakes above and the hull area to be planked below.  Plank down from the wale and up from the garboard, as you did before.  The final opening will be closed with a 'shutter plank'.  When you get to that point, lay on a piece, or pieces, of translucent tape covering the opening.  Draw the outline of the shutter plank on the tape, then transfer the tape to a wider piece of planking material and cut to the line.  This should quickly get you very close to the final shape that you need.
 
3.  For the garboard, lay the lower edge of the wider planking material (1.5 times the width of the hull planks) against the keel rabbet and slide it forward until the front end begins to lift as the rabbet curves up the stem.  Pull it back just to that point and temporarily tape it in place.  This has been suggested before.  But now take a second plank (known as the first broad strake), place it on the hull above the garboard piece, and slide it forward until its lower forward corner contacts the stem rabbet.  Mark this point.  This is how high the garboard should come on the stem.  Cut the bow end of the garboard strake to fit the open curved triangle that has been marked out.  Now the lower edge of the broad strake will be straight, and you can work off it up the stem.    
 
I hope that helps a bit.  Feel free to ignore it if not.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan
 
 

Nice job Dan, particularly the detailed description of the process.

Hi Cisco - 
 
Just read through your build log here.  You are doing great, working your way up the steep and long learning curve of hull planking.  I love how you meet and solve the many problems and challenges that you have encountered.  Your creative solutions will stand you in good stead as you approach the second layer of planking.
 
Here are a couple of tips that I have learned by hard experience over 35 years of doing this:
 
1.  Fill and sand the first layer of planking till the shape is smooth and to your liking.  Paint the whole thing with a light colored water based paint.  Now you can draw the plank outlines on the hull in pencil, using dividers or tick strips to give you your initial layout.  Look it over critically and change the run of the planks by erasing and redrawing until you are happy.  Drop planks at the bow and stealers at the stern are much easier to figure out in pencil before you start cutting wood.  Then you can cut and taper your planks to match the pencil lines.
 
2.  Lay in the location of the wale first.  This will determine the bulwark planking strakes above and the hull area to be planked below.  Plank down from the wale and up from the garboard, as you did before.  The final opening will be closed with a 'shutter plank'.  When you get to that point, lay on a piece, or pieces, of translucent tape covering the opening.  Draw the outline of the shutter plank on the tape, then transfer the tape to a wider piece of planking material and cut to the line.  This should quickly get you very close to the final shape that you need.
 
3.  For the garboard, lay the lower edge of the wider planking material (1.5 times the width of the hull planks) against the keel rabbet and slide it forward until the front end begins to lift as the rabbet curves up the stem.  Pull it back just to that point and temporarily tape it in place.  This has been suggested before.  But now take a second plank (known as the first broad strake), place it on the hull above the garboard piece, and slide it forward until its lower forward corner contacts the stem rabbet.  Mark this point.  This is how high the garboard should come on the stem.  Cut the bow end of the garboard strake to fit the open curved triangle that has been marked out.  Now the lower edge of the broad strake will be straight, and you can work off it up the stem.    
 
I hope that helps a bit.  Feel free to ignore it if not.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan
 
 

Hi Cisco - 
 
Just read through your build log here.  You are doing great, working your way up the steep and long learning curve of hull planking.  I love how you meet and solve the many problems and challenges that you have encountered.  Your creative solutions will stand you in good stead as you approach the second layer of planking.
 
Here are a couple of tips that I have learned by hard experience over 35 years of doing this:
 
1.  Fill and sand the first layer of planking till the shape is smooth and to your liking.  Paint the whole thing with a light colored water based paint.  Now you can draw the plank outlines on the hull in pencil, using dividers or tick strips to give you your initial layout.  Look it over critically and change the run of the planks by erasing and redrawing until you are happy.  Drop planks at the bow and stealers at the stern are much easier to figure out in pencil before you start cutting wood.  Then you can cut and taper your planks to match the pencil lines.
 
2.  Lay in the location of the wale first.  This will determine the bulwark planking strakes above and the hull area to be planked below.  Plank down from the wale and up from the garboard, as you did before.  The final opening will be closed with a 'shutter plank'.  When you get to that point, lay on a piece, or pieces, of translucent tape covering the opening.  Draw the outline of the shutter plank on the tape, then transfer the tape to a wider piece of planking material and cut to the line.  This should quickly get you very close to the final shape that you need.
 
3.  For the garboard, lay the lower edge of the wider planking material (1.5 times the width of the hull planks) against the keel rabbet and slide it forward until the front end begins to lift as the rabbet curves up the stem.  Pull it back just to that point and temporarily tape it in place.  This has been suggested before.  But now take a second plank (known as the first broad strake), place it on the hull above the garboard piece, and slide it forward until its lower forward corner contacts the stem rabbet.  Mark this point.  This is how high the garboard should come on the stem.  Cut the bow end of the garboard strake to fit the open curved triangle that has been marked out.  Now the lower edge of the broad strake will be straight, and you can work off it up the stem.    
 
I hope that helps a bit.  Feel free to ignore it if not.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan
 
 

Hi Cisco - 
 
Just read through your build log here.  You are doing great, working your way up the steep and long learning curve of hull planking.  I love how you meet and solve the many problems and challenges that you have encountered.  Your creative solutions will stand you in good stead as you approach the second layer of planking.
 
Here are a couple of tips that I have learned by hard experience over 35 years of doing this:
 
1.  Fill and sand the first layer of planking till the shape is smooth and to your liking.  Paint the whole thing with a light colored water based paint.  Now you can draw the plank outlines on the hull in pencil, using dividers or tick strips to give you your initial layout.  Look it over critically and change the run of the planks by erasing and redrawing until you are happy.  Drop planks at the bow and stealers at the stern are much easier to figure out in pencil before you start cutting wood.  Then you can cut and taper your planks to match the pencil lines.
 
2.  Lay in the location of the wale first.  This will determine the bulwark planking strakes above and the hull area to be planked below.  Plank down from the wale and up from the garboard, as you did before.  The final opening will be closed with a 'shutter plank'.  When you get to that point, lay on a piece, or pieces, of translucent tape covering the opening.  Draw the outline of the shutter plank on the tape, then transfer the tape to a wider piece of planking material and cut to the line.  This should quickly get you very close to the final shape that you need.
 
3.  For the garboard, lay the lower edge of the wider planking material (1.5 times the width of the hull planks) against the keel rabbet and slide it forward until the front end begins to lift as the rabbet curves up the stem.  Pull it back just to that point and temporarily tape it in place.  This has been suggested before.  But now take a second plank (known as the first broad strake), place it on the hull above the garboard piece, and slide it forward until its lower forward corner contacts the stem rabbet.  Mark this point.  This is how high the garboard should come on the stem.  Cut the bow end of the garboard strake to fit the open curved triangle that has been marked out.  Now the lower edge of the broad strake will be straight, and you can work off it up the stem.    
 
I hope that helps a bit.  Feel free to ignore it if not.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan
 
 

Hi Cisco - 
 
Just read through your build log here.  You are doing great, working your way up the steep and long learning curve of hull planking.  I love how you meet and solve the many problems and challenges that you have encountered.  Your creative solutions will stand you in good stead as you approach the second layer of planking.
 
Here are a couple of tips that I have learned by hard experience over 35 years of doing this:
 
1.  Fill and sand the first layer of planking till the shape is smooth and to your liking.  Paint the whole thing with a light colored water based paint.  Now you can draw the plank outlines on the hull in pencil, using dividers or tick strips to give you your initial layout.  Look it over critically and change the run of the planks by erasing and redrawing until you are happy.  Drop planks at the bow and stealers at the stern are much easier to figure out in pencil before you start cutting wood.  Then you can cut and taper your planks to match the pencil lines.
 
2.  Lay in the location of the wale first.  This will determine the bulwark planking strakes above and the hull area to be planked below.  Plank down from the wale and up from the garboard, as you did before.  The final opening will be closed with a 'shutter plank'.  When you get to that point, lay on a piece, or pieces, of translucent tape covering the opening.  Draw the outline of the shutter plank on the tape, then transfer the tape to a wider piece of planking material and cut to the line.  This should quickly get you very close to the final shape that you need.
 
3.  For the garboard, lay the lower edge of the wider planking material (1.5 times the width of the hull planks) against the keel rabbet and slide it forward until the front end begins to lift as the rabbet curves up the stem.  Pull it back just to that point and temporarily tape it in place.  This has been suggested before.  But now take a second plank (known as the first broad strake), place it on the hull above the garboard piece, and slide it forward until its lower forward corner contacts the stem rabbet.  Mark this point.  This is how high the garboard should come on the stem.  Cut the bow end of the garboard strake to fit the open curved triangle that has been marked out.  Now the lower edge of the broad strake will be straight, and you can work off it up the stem.    
 
I hope that helps a bit.  Feel free to ignore it if not.
 
Best of success.
 
Dan
 
 

Greetings fellow Ship Modelers!  The heat here in Delaware finally relented and we could go outside again without heatstroke.
 
Went to ModelCon last weekend which was fun but brief as I had my 7 year old son with and he was hot and bored bored bored.  Thank you to the 2 guys who entertained him for a few minutes while I met/talked to Chuck - great guy, very social, and he dealt with a complete stranger walking up acting like I knew him with remarkable calmness.  I suspect it happens often.  I brought and displayed for a few hours my 18th Century Longboat (you can see it in one of Chuck's photos looking forlorn between 2 enormous model battleships) and while it didn't draw a crowd hopefully someone(s) appreciated it.
 
Then my son and I toured the battleship New Jersey,  pretty cool, and went across the river to tour the Olympia and the submarine whose name escapes me before deciding it was way to hot for humans and heading home.
 
With my AVS I had an epiphany and changed gears some.  I realized that if don't make more progress I risk bogging down and never finishing.  Its not a race but without some forward momentum she might become an unfinished hull in a box in a closet somewhere.  And THAT would be tragic.  So I stopped trying to make perfect planks mimicking the second planking and instead decided to fill in the rest of the first planking with wider wood strips to make it go a bit faster.  
 
So far I have been using yellow GorillaGlue which has good tack but has to be clamped.  I know many use and are happy with superglue but my previous background in woodworking really regarded superglue as a method for tiny repairs but not to be trusted for actual gluing.  Maybe I'll start experimenting but not for this build.  Clamping has been problematic at this center area of the planking because nothing easily reaches and the gap is small.  And so far I have resisted screwing or pinning into the bulkheads as some do.  So the one thing I did discover this post is pretty simple- putting something on the deck to provide a bearing surface for the spring clamps works really well!  In the pic below I put 2 clothes pins on the deck against the bow planking and they provided a perfect grippy area for the spring clamps.  Without them the clamps just sproinged out of position and it was getting very frustrating. 

Here's the outside shot; you can see its an awkward place to clamp.  And my metal spring paperclip things I used for the other planks now won't fit in the narrow space.

Its hard to see through the clamp forest but the last 2 rows are with wide planks but again this is first planking so no one will ever see it.
 
Hope you all are well!  Thanks for reading
 
Cisco
 
 
 

Happy weekend!  My update today includes absolutely nothing about my AVS and starts with this book:

Pretty good, not too deep, entertaining.  I bought it and then saw it at my local library the next week.  Mr Dolin includes a substantial bibliography for his many quotes.
 
Next up, assuming nothing happens between now and tomorrow morning, I am attending my first ever ModelCon in Philly.  And to up my stress levels I am participating by displaying my first ever (so far my only ever) shipmodel, Model Shipway's 18th Century Longboat.  I initially made a substantial base with 2 levels and an ogee border which in hindsight totally overpowered the model.  So last 2 days I have been making a newer small base more along the lines of the box picture.
 
Here is the original base (after I had already sawn off the posts holding up the ship so there has been some damage).  Its made of walnut.

I wanted a lighter wood but I felt the kit block of basswood was too light and flimsy.  So I cut out a piece of holly I had been saving for years that turned out to be not dried properly so it spalted and turned a greyish cast.  Useless for planking but a good test subject for making a base. 
 
The pictures in the Longboat instruction manual looked like there was a small rabbit or bullnose on the edges of Chuck's base.  How he did this wasn't covered in the text so I did my best.  This detail is very shallow.  Initially I made a scratch stock but it tore out on the crossgrain.  So I cut the borders of the fillet with my mortise gauge:
    
The I cut the fillet with my rabbit block plane with a piece of wood clamped on as a fence
After cutting all 4 sides I started the roundover with my chisel

I found if I removed most of the crossgrain material first with the chisel there was little tearout when using the scratchstock to finish the roundover

Home stretch.  I finished the base with waterbased polyurethane wiped on with a papertowel.  This was a practice run for when I plank the AVS with holly as I wanted to try a finish that doesn't impart any colour change to the wood.  It worked  great.  I smoothed off nibs by rubbing the dry surface with a papertowel.  In the future I may try a synthetic pad as well but it was getting late and I had to get this done by tomorrow.

 
I remade the posts next.  Previously I had tried to form the tapering posts by chucking them in my drill and shaping with files.  The finished products looked kinda squat and didn't exactly match.  This time I used a dowel from the kit, cut simple holes in the base with my drill and friction fit the posts.  I drilled holes into the top side of the posts and used cut-off wire nails to reinforce the post/ship connection.
 
Version 1 was too tall

Version 2 looked better to my eye so I used a touch of epoxy to connect the ship to the posts, touched up the white paint, and called it a night.

And thats it.  Hope to see some of you at the ModelCon tomorrow!
 
Cisco
 
 
 
 
 
 

I was posting comments on a build log and the author asked if I had my own log for the AVS and I said "yes," and then I realized I hadn't posted in weeks.  Work goes knuts once the summer starts and takes more and more of my energy.  But enough whining lets have at it-
 
So I haven't been happy with my port side first planking.  As you can see lots of gaps at the prow which for some reason didn't seem to occur on the starboard side.  Whenever I clamped at the prow the plank would slide upwards and leave a gap and each time I thought I had pushed it back but once everything was dry there it was.  I am at the end of this band of planks so I wanted to get my head back in the game and fix it for the final band. 

And I didn't want a gap forming at the stern end where the plank curves up into the counter, which it always tries to do.  You can see in the pic below I had to add a tiny wedge to close the gap in the last plank.  There will be a second planking on top and I already work at the speed of Government Bureaucracy so I am not alcoholing off my mistakes but I want to get my technique better.

My method of getting the steep bend in the stern plank is to leave the tip of the plank in water overnight and the next day very slowly bend it around and clamp it in place until it dries.  The problem with this plank is it needs to bend sideways AND backwards, a 2 dimensional bend.  When I have pre-bent it sideways (a la Chuck) and then put it in water to soften it for the backwards bend the water undoes the first bend.
So this time I tried wetting and clamping in place a much wider plank than what the final dimension calls for so I could trim it down.  Below is the plank after drying, it splintered a bit due to the extreme bend.

BUT when I lay it in place there was enough extra plank so i could shape the sideways curve by strategic wood removal instead of bending it into place. 

To keep the gaps from opening up I tried using wedges and the little brass pins that come with the kit.  That worked great.  Here the stern plank is in place after after shaping and narrowing.  The glue has already dried; this was a post-op demo shot.

 
And here is the stern plank, with 2 wedges,

And the final result, no gaps that I could see
  and the stern

I call that Good Enough.  I haven't sanded yet so it'll look better I promise.  6 planks in the final band, after I add the plank below the strake which also has a tight curve to navigate.  I worry my stern wood removal technique wouldn't work in wood with a strong grain lines, like the alaska yellow cedar, because you would see the grain runout.  But I'm planning on my second planking being holly, which conveniently doesn't show grain. 
 
Thanks for reading, I apologize for the myriad close ups of basically 1 plank but hopefully it will help someone else including Future Me when I've forgotten how I did this.
 
Cisco 

Well its been a while.  Work went bonkers, kid obligations, all the usual excuses.  But the last 2 hours have been full immersion staring beady-eyed at my AVS, planning like crazy even if I didn't actually build anything.
 
So first a review of my previous efforts planking:
 
Front, I mean bow area

Few small gaps, the closeup makes it look rough but overall I'm happy.  I haven't sanded yet so the different thickness plankedges cast shadows that make it look worse than it is.  I left a deep rabbit along the stem to fit both this first planking and the second thinner planking.  It was hard getting the bow tips of the planks flush with the rabbit but I hope to fill the remaining rabbit with the second planking.  I may have to widen the rabbit in areas if the remaining gap isn't equal the entire length.
 
Next the stern:

This area has been giving me fits trying to figure out landmarks.  The practicum adjusts the first layer of planking so its not at the same level along the gundeck as the kit instructions and I got all sorts of confused.  Having glared at it for a long time over several days I think I have it figured out, more below on that.  BUT the planking it pretty tight here which is what I was concentrating on.
 
Now to plank the other side and do it a little closer to the kit plans.  I am not really following the practicum at present so any mistakes are all Me.
 
Here's a pic of my stern with the kit planking picture.  Keeping in mind the kit picture shows the final planking not the underlayer, I can see that my garboard strake tip curves upwards, while the kit plans show it, well, not curving upwards.  I realized when I bent the bow end of the port garboard strake to fit into the rabbit it had the unintended effect of bending the tip upwards as well due to Obscure Geometry.  So of course all the subsequent planking follow this upward curve.

Stern shot with the kit planking picture:

1) my fashion piece doesn't come down low enough. 
2) I brought my hull planking up way high on the counter.  This was a bit on purpose; I plan to place the final lower counter planks after i plank the hull and use a scalpel to trim across to get a good fit.  But I brought the planking up about 1 counter plank past what I had planned because of my confusion over landmarks.
3) the kit shows the stern planks coming into the bottom of the counter at about a 45 degree angle.  My planks come in at about 60? degrees which made it hard to fit against the sternpost.
 
And now to the starboard side to try and Do Better.  The kit instructions divide the remaining space into 3 belts.  I measured off the plans with strips of paper to get ballpark locations of each belt, then tried using tape to smooth out the lower belt line.  I tried using a thin batten for the upper belt line; I think the batten gives a better run but its harder to keep still.

After a lot of measuring and dividing with tic strips I got to a pretty good place.  You can see below my proposed stern planking is more 45 degrees where it meets the counter.  The pencil line across the stern is the final future lower border of the counter. 
 

And below's my final marking for the bands.  It doesn't agree perfectly with the kit, especially at the lower stern planking with the 2 stealers.  But I'm going with it for now.  I will do the lowest band next, then re-evaluate for the other 2 upper bands.  The practicum has you make the garboard strake wide at each end and thin amidships for reasons that escaped me, which is what I did on the this side.  In the future I plan to leave the garboard wide its entire length so its more like the kit plans.  I also trimmed the bow end of the garboard strake so it doesn't curve upwards, so hopefully I will have a straighter run of bow planking on this side.

And thats it for today.  I was sorely disappointed to not attend the Northeast ship model show in CT this weekend but my wife said I would much rather attend the yearly fundraiser for my kid's school tonight, which she had a part in organizing.  Next year I guess.
 
Enjoy spring, those of you in the Northeast USA, and thanks for reading
 
Cisco
 
 

Sunday night, wife and kids upstairs playing a board game so I have time for an update.  I'm on my third adult beverage so please excuse any typos...
 
I am almost finished with first planking on the port side! 
 
My plan for this side was to not get buried in details and concentrate on learning how to plank without huge gaps while having some degree of symmetry.  And then learn and make the starboard side better.  I have a tendency towards paralysis by analysis and I don't want to never finish because I was afflicted with Perfection.  So here goes:
 
My planking reached the sternpost using 1/4" full width planks.  But the angle was wonky; you can see in the pic below that the planks ended up almost parallel to the sternpost, instead of at 45 degrees.  This made it really difficult to fit and I had to add slivers of wood into gaps.  I didn't download a good pic of this, will do so next post.
 

 
I decided to split most planking runs into 2 planks.  Clamping techniques had to evolve as spacing got cramped.  Using clothespins as wedges worked pretty well but man does basswood like to dent.
 

 
And then I was down to one last row.  Obviously (I mean its obvious to me now) if you have 1 row you have to fit both sides of the plank which is harder.  I decided to divide this last row into 3 pieces.  The first piece towards the bow had some slight gaps due to oversanding- the strip wouldn't fit so I would sand it some and re-fit; after a while I got tired of constantly refitting and trying to wedge the piece into the gap and so would sand more aggressively and then => gaps.  So you can't be impatient.  The gaps are tiny but definitely there.  I conveniently forgot to take a pic of this as well.
 
So for the middle and third piece I went slower.  Having shorter pieces helped too.
 
Below is the middle piece.  It went much better.  I first fitted the top of the strip until there were no gaps.  Then I used my compass to measure at each bulkhead width (plus about 1mm) and marked it on the plank.  Then slowly sanded down to the mark.  Still too big as I was about 1mm too wide.  So starting at the fore end I sanded a little, trial fitted, still too big, sanded a little more, trial fit, and kept going removing just a tiny amount each time until I could wedge it in place without too much effort.  Then I started sanding at the mark for the next bulkhead, constantly refitting until it finally wedged in.  I found sanding the sides of the plank so it was wedge-shaped (in cross section) instead of 90 degrees helped with fitting.  Once it started to just slip into the space I sanded the edges to make them 90 degrees, aiming for a finger pressure fit.  
 

 
Below is the middle plank glued in place.  It wanted to lift up at the back end so I had to do some interpretive wedge/clamping.
 
But... no gaps.
 

 
And finally here is the last 1/3 of a plank fitted the same way.  You can see its an oddball shape.  I haven't glued it in yet.
 

 
And thats where I am at present.  My planking is very slow because I like yellow glue so everything needs a night to set up.  I know superglue is faster but I am comfortable with yellow glue and Change is Bad.
 
My next post will examine what I did right (and wrong) planking the port side and ways I can improve on the starboard side.
 
Have a great night and thanks for reading.
 
Cisco

I managed to go 1 week between updates!  This is only because the wife and kids are away until tomorrow on an end of the year ski trip so I have that thing called Free Time.  Gotta take advantage while it lasts...
 
This week I followed Paul Le Wol's advice and instead of filling in the remaining port side planks willie nilly I busted out the tic strips and planking fan, my first experience using them.  I followed Chuck's Cheerful instructions, free to download, chapter 4, which includes the planking fan.  It so far has gone easier than I anticipated, words that may come back to haunt me.
 
First I measured the widths I wanted to plank at the stern, amidships, and at the bow.  Pretty simple - lay a strip of paper across the width and mark it.  (The below picture is a re-enactment as I had already marked it so pretend the tic marks on the bulkheads aren't there).  Since paper strips are flexible they will follow the contour of any curves and measure the true width.
 

 
Next figure out how many planks will fit in these spaces.   I measured each width and did some math.  For this first layer of planking the practicum has you use 1/4" wide basswood planks, so I divided the measured widths (1" at the Bow, 1.5" amidships and 1 3/4" at the stern) by 1/4" and got 4, 6, and 7 planks wide.   And I assumed I wouldn't want to narrow the planks at the stem to more half the original plank width, which would be 1/8", so I divided the original widths by 1/8" and got 8, 12, and 14.   So if I want single planks without stealers that don't taper more than half their width I can do between 7 and 8 planks.  That led me to trying to use 7 planks total, each of which would be the full 1/4" wide at the stern, and taper to a little more than 1/8" at the bow.  I hope I didn't mess up that math.
 

 
Next I took each tic strip and laid it across the planking fan to create 7 planks.  Just like reading a hematocrit.
 

 
Then I laid the tic strip back across the bulkhead and transferred the marks.  I used a separate strip for each bulkhead unless it was really close to the previous one.
 

 
Next I used a compass to measure each bulkhead mark and transferred it to the plank.
 

 
 
 

 
I connected the marks and cut off most of the excess plank to make bending easier.  The next plank was going to be from the stern -> forward and I had previously soaked it and bent it in place to dry over the transom.  The transom upwards curve this far inward is not nearly as pointy as the outside planks so this one bent fine and didn't try to splinter.
 
And here is me test fitting the new plank.  You can see it tapers some as it gets amidships and I left it a bit long to make it easier to bend.  I sanded my bevels to make it fit tight, trimmed off the excess tip, and glued it in place. 
 

 
 
 

 
For the next round I need to leave the plank a little fatter so there is enough width to bevel the edges.   Also I am running out of easy clamp room.
 
Thats all for tonight.  Happy modeling and thanks for reading
 
Cisco

At last!  An update.  Work has been out of control and very stressful and the Shipyard has suffered. 
 
So.  Planking the lower hull.  I have planked only 1 hull before, Chuck's Model Shipways 18th century longboat.  On that build I planked the upper strakes, then the garboard, then filled in the middle.  There was a lot of bending in the prow planks above the garboard and I felt like I was missing something even though it turned out fine, possibly because the lower part was painted white so you can't see the lower runs of planking well.   Like many before I am using my first layer of planking on the AVS as practice for the second layer.  Making life a bit more complex is too many sets of directions.  The instructions that come with the kit go over spiling.  The practicum also uses spiling for the first layer with soaking in water/ bending but its different enough to be confusing.  (I don't know what the practicum uses for the top layer - I haven't read that far ahead yet.)   And like many I have been using the Chuck heat/mini iron method more and more. 
 
After some thinking I decided to follow the practicum order of planking.   But first I had to remove the lowest 1/8" strake I accidentally thought I was supposed to add (in this post I didn't take a pic of this strake before removal).  The practicum directs you to add 1/4" sequential strakes that sharply bend upwards around the transom.  Eventually these 1/4" strakes should cover the transom from the lateral wale strake to the sternpost.  My pencil indicates the line that marks the top of these strakes. 
 

 
I had purposely not filled in the lowest transverse transom plank so that I could bend the hull planks around the tight curve of the transom, glue them down, then trim them all together.  
 
The next thing I figured out is I couldn't use heat to bend the 1/4" planks around the transom- it was too tight of a bend and the wood just broke.  But leaving the plank end soaking for a few hours in water softened it up enough that it would bend without heat.  I clamped the ends in place - it turns out that a dowel clamped across the transom works the best to hold things in place until they dry.
 

 
The next thing I figured out is the angles involved mean a hull plank will not bend around the transom perfectly so that it lines up with the previously bent plank.  You have to trim it some which makes the end of the plank narrower.  The below pic hopefully makes that clear-er.
 

 
This means it will probably take more than 5 planks to reach the sternpost in the middle.  Which is fine.
 
Which leads to the next question- making the hull planks have a regular run without a ridiculous number of  stealers or planks dying into each other.  For this lower layer there is so much to learn I am not using paper strips and battens, as I said, but I will try and eyeball it.  The practicum directs one to spile each plank.  This leads to each plank having varied widths all along its length, taking the place I suppose of using tic strips.  But its not very clear what the end result should be.  I have been leaving the hull planks full width along the body and tapering them about 50% at the stem, paying attention to not allowing anything to cup upwards at the hard stem curve.  This leads to bending in 2 dimensions the traditional Chuck way which works very well here.
 
I did the first hull strake as a single piece of wood which was unnecessarily challenging.  The next ones I am breaking into 2 or 3 pieces to make it easier to fit.  I am avoiding having the breaks be in a vertical line at the same middle bulkhead.  
 
And the final topic- Garboard Strake Anxiety.
 
There is not a whole lot of information on how to do this properly.  When I built the 18th century longboat the directions said to end the garboard just past the stem/keel joint.  I did that but in all the subsequent pics my ship didn't look like Chuck's and the above strakes had to be sharply bent downwards.  I'm still not sure i did this correctly.
 
The planking primer on this website has the cryptic note that "many beginners let their garboard strake go too high up the stem."  But it doesn't say how you determine what is too high or low so not much help.   
 
After much time lost in analysis I decided to go with Less Think More Do.  The practicum has you spile it, making the middle section narrower than the ends, which I did on the starboard side just to practice.
 

 
This was glued down after some shaping.
 

 
The port side I used a full width plank, spiled only on the tip, and glued that down. 
 

 
I plan to finish the inner planking to figure out which I like better.  It is dawning on me that there is, relatively speaking, a narrow space for the plank tips at the stem, medium space amidships, and a lot of space at the stern. 
 
And thats enough for tonight.  Stay tuned as Planking Optimism meets You Shoulda Read the Directions Better.
 
thanks for reading, Cisco
 

Happy Sunday, I don't watch football so time for an update. 
 
Work progresses slowly in the dockyard .  I have been adding planks up the bulwarks at one a day pacing.  I know a lot of people use superglue but I have Trust Issues and still rely on regular glue- at present the yellow version made by gorilla glue which dries only faintly yellow and has a great initial tack.   But you still have to leave it for a couple hours to dry. 
 
Following the practicum I added 3 strips of planking up the bulwarks with overlap into the cannon ports that will be trimmed later.  Curved bending for the prow planking was done with my trusty dachshund mug.
 

 
Once I got ready to add the top bulwark strip that would form the "lintel" of the gunports I found an issue- At the fashion piece the planking ended up different heights on each side and overall swooping up way too high.  I used a compass to measure from the top of the cabin down and roughly drew a line in pencil, which you can see below on the top plank just forward of the fashion piece.
 

 
On the port side the planks came up even higher; per the practicum the planks should be roughly parallel with the roof of the great cabin; my version is almost diagonal.
 

 
So after roughly drawing a straight line I clamped a strip even with the top of the planking next to the tiny quarterdeck and cut along it with my xacto which worked surprisingly well.
 


 
Then I cut out the triangle and test fitted the lintel strip.  I had to sand some to remove a small hump but it looked better and more parallel to the roof.
 

 
Then after bending the strip to fit I used every small clamp I own to hold it in place. 
 

 
Ands that drying as I type.  I am doing the same procedure to the other side tomorrow.
 
Speaking of clamps.  I have been trying different ones; the black spring Bessy clamps work really well.  The reversed clothespins also work well.  The brass ones in the pic above are only ok; they adjust fine but are heavy and don't have any "spring," so its easy to leave them either too loose and they fall off or too tight and then you got dents.  The squeezy clamps work well; I like the dewalts better because the head doesn't move when pressure is applied.  The irwins, which are cheaper, have some play in the head which makes it hard to clamp using the tips.
 
I ordered the below black metal screw clamps which are not so great; too big and heavy and hard to screw.  And I'm afraid to oil the screws because I know all the oil will end up wicking into my model.  They had another smaller size which in hindsight I should have gotten instead. 
 

 
Thats it for updates.  Thanks for reading.
 
Cisco

Been a while!  I took the kids sledding so they're crashed out in their rooms, wife's away riding her horse, time for an update. 
 
First off, based on a MSW recommendation,  I got Legacy of a Ship Model by Rob Napier and it is simply stunning.  He documents taking apart and repairing the model HMS Princess Royal which is owned by the Naval Academy.  Its dense text but just un-put-downable if you have interest in the construction of the original models.  One very surprising thing he documents is the original builders often made complex parts out of 1 single piece of wood, where any (sane) modern modelist would build up pieces.  Especially decking, which was often a large single very thin piece of wood with planks scribed on and outlined with ink, and some crazy bulkheads that had entire doors, paneling and all, scribed on.  I have been skeptical of some kits that have lasered planking and bulkheads burned on as a modern shortcut, but apparently I am way wrong.
 

 

 
Back to the AVS, humbe as she may be, I decided to fix the cracked stem (see last photo of my last post).  I had glued it on with Titebond II and although I read these glues are reversible I had never tried it myself.  Turns out its remarkably (scarily) easy.  I applied some alcohol with a qtip, blowdryered for a minute, and the glue softened and I could remove the stem piece no problems intact.  It turned out the top 1/3 of the curved stem wasn't actually touching the bulkhead former and the glue hadn't stuck there so maybe its doubly good I removed it. 
 
I traced the outline of a new stem from the original walnut stem the kit came with onto my holly piece and filed and sanded to try and get a tight fit.  It was challenging; I made the bottom half first and could go back and forth sanding, test, sand, etc, but once it was glued on fitting the top half was a lot more work.  But its pretty tight now and I call good enough, move on.
 




 
It was very easy to round the edges of the scarf joins and make them fit perfect on one side and be big and gappy on the other.  Learning curve.  The stem still needs to be thinned some but I'm sure I'll ding it over time so will wait until planking is done for a final sand.
 
Next I fitted the fashion pieces which took a lot longer than planned due to worry I would remove something that later shouldn't have been taken away.  The Practicum shows the fashion pieces essentially flush with the entirety of the sides of the quarterdeck while the instructions from the AVS kit definitely shows a small gap between the fashion piece and the outside of the Qdeck at the top dorsal portion.  After some hand wringing and studying pictures over and over I proceeded as per the AVS instructions.  First off I cut then sanded my excess transom planking to shape.  If I had followed the Practicum the curve of the outer edges of the transom, which essentially follow the lateral sides of the windows, would have been much closer together at the top. 

 
Then I put a very slight bend in my holly stock pieces so they fit the gentle curve, hard to see here, of the lateral transom and glued them on. 
 

 
Then I added the lower curvey fashion pieces, sanded then so the ventral part was even with the curved counter, and trimmed the bottoms so they are level with future wale.  Once planking is done I will sand them thinner; for now I'm leaving them thick so when I inevitably ding them it can be sanded out.
 


 
And thats where we are.  Next up is continuing the first planking.  Hard to believe I have done what i feel to be a ton of work and still not done with Chapter 2.  Five? more chapters to go I think. 
 
Take care y'all, thanks for reading, Cisco
 

I am way overdue an update, although it doesn't look like I did much.  First off I had to fair the bulkheads and it seemed like every other one needed shimming.  I kept laying a batten longwise and comparing, trying for a smooth rounded "bulge" as opposed to the accordian-like ripple I started with.
 

 
I had to finally stop fairing before I sanded away the entire model.  Next up was the framing for the stern transom.  Oddly enough in the practicum Mr Hunt did taper the 2 innermost stern frames; luckily this was noticed and addressed  by enough MSW buildlogs that I remembered.
 

 
I made a spacer the size of the window frames and used it to keep the stern frames the same distance apart.
 

 
After adding the stern frames I the upper wing transoms and the lower filler blocks, along with whatever the blocks of wood on the sides of the transom are called. 
 

 
Then I carved and sanded the transom/counter area so it was round from the side view, and flushed the side transom blocks trying to keep a nice sweep by laying my batten along the sides.
 

 
Finally I added the window header and sills.  Something about the parallelogram windows placed on an upward curve has always looked off to me.  The windows supplied by the kit are slightly different; the inside ones seem to have more of a tilt than the outside ones.  I am going to try and scratch my windows as the kit ones look chunky to me, and I'm sure there will be some adjustment in placement, but that is Future Cisco's problem.
 

 
And thats it for tonight! 
 
May your holidays be full of comforting family drama and no real drama.  Cisco
 
 

One thing I didn't anticipate is how long, or more importantly how much energy, it takes to type and upload pics.  Competes for my "reading of other people's updates" time.  Here's this week's slow progress; first off I shamelessly copied someone else's great idea, and I'm sorry I can't remember who it was, of making curved sanding sticks for leveling the dorsal bulkheads.  I glued some thin strips of walnut i had laying about not being productive, then attached 150 grit sandpaper with double sided tape.
 

 
I found out that you tend to use just the last 2 inches of sandpaper so it has to be changed pretty often, but worked well.  I made another thinner and more curved sanding stick to get closer to the bulkhead extensions.
 


 
I then was faced with a quandary- how do you make sure the tops of the bulkheads are level?  I don't have an exterior frame built yet to hold the ship at 90 degrees to a base so what to use as a reference surface?  So I tried drawing lines 90 degrees to the keel with my square; it was awkward but worked.  Kinda.
 


 
Then I glued in the beam supports for the tiny quarterdeck referencing it level from lines I'd drawn above it.
 

 
Then i added the quarterdeck, which seems big enough for maybe 1 person at a time.  Once that was dry I leveled the main deck with aforementioned curved sanding sticks.  I quickly gave up trying to make sure everything was 90 degrees to the keel; it was just too hard to compare both sides of each bulkhead.  So instead I used the short end of my LeeValley square, measuring across 4 bulwarks at time to level them, adding strips of wood where things were low and sanding high spots.  You don't initially appreciate how much more challenging having the deck shaped like a banana with each end up, in addition to the bulwark's downward camber towards the rails, makes this whole process.  Well now I sure appreciate it.
 

 
But finally I got it as level as it was easly gonna get and glued on the maindeck.  Which is presently drying.  Next up is sanding the bulkhead edges for planking.    Per the practicum this should take 15 minutes a side.  I am skeptical its gonna be that easy.  Thanks for reading, off to enjoy a deserved adult beverage.  Cisco
 
 
 
 

3rd update!  I managed to add my SuperCool avatar picture and downloaded Adobe Photo Express (its free and so far intuitive) to edit my photos.  Searching MSW the sideways pictures problem shows up a lot and is possibly due to large file sizes so I decreased the bytes or pixels or whatever and heres hoping they stay upright.   If you didn't guess I don't like computers and they don't like me.  But a necessary evil.
 
I finished gluing in the bulkheads with yellow glue which seems to get everywhere but is very solid.  Per the Hunt Practicum next step is to add the very thin aft/poop subdeck.  First I leveled the top of the bulkheads by filing them flat; one I had to glue a strip from the subdeck "sprue" as it was too low.

 
Next I had to attach the subdeck to the curved surface of the bulkheads.  The practicum has you push tiny pins through the top of the subdeck into the bulkheads, then pull them out once the glue dries.  I tried a different approach- overbend the subdeck and hold it in place with rubber bands.  So first step is bending the subdeck.  When I built the Model Shipways LongBoat I spent so much time bending the planks by soaking them in warm water for a while, then rubber banding them to cans or glasses to impart a curve, and leaving them overnight to dry.  They would usually end up curved like I wanted but took forever to dry, and whenever I clamped them no matter how dry they seemed they were always still a bit wet and would dent.  Then they eventually dried out and shrank and left a gap. 
So I decided to try the Chuck technique of minimal water used mainly as a heat transfer device and let heat melt the lignins.  The thin subdeck is very flexible so bending it is easy.  After spritzing both sides with a small amount of water spread evenly with my finger I used some string to tie the subdeck bent around a coffee cup.

Then I attached my blowdrier to the workbench (actually my woodworking sharpening station) with spring clamps, turned it on Low Heat and dried the water off.  After the top part was dry I took off the strings and the back was still wet so I dried it by just holding in bent in my hand.  As long as the heat isn't directly hitting your fingers its not bad and took about 10-20 seconds each side.  And presto, dried with a nice curve.  And I didn't have to leave it overnight.  While this was a very thin piece of wood compared to some of the planking strips I hope this is a prelude on how much easier this method is.

Now that the subdeck was bent (overbent on purpose) I did a test run with rubber bands and that seemed to hold it in place pretty well so I forgoed using the tiny nails.  Once fitted in place there were some tiny lift-ups that I added pencils to direct downward force and it all seemed to work pretty well.



And finally here are 3 pics of my finished MS LongBoat.  Lighting in the basement is from the ceiling so it shadows the lower parts of the hull, another thing to work on.  I felt that many model ship bases were too short, running from the stern to the prow, with the bowsprit sticking out waiting to be caught on something, so I made my base extra big.  Maybe too big in hindsight it may overwhelm the model some. 
 


 

 
Thanks for reading.  Have a great night, Cisco