CiscoH

I use a hairdryer to twist planks and it so far works well. Another upside is the heat dries the plank and if anything shrinks it. I also have used hot water (heat a glass of water in the microwave until its hot to the touch and then just leave the plank in the water for 10 min). You have to clamp the plank in place and leave it overnight to dry. i always worry if it hasn’t fully dried it may shrink and open gaps in the future. But i’m working with holly which is very forgiving. regardless thats a nice planking job you did cisco

Good Thursday evening folks Thank you Dan and Chuck for the encouragement To celebrate the end of planking I decided to clean up my bench and sharpen everything pointy. Always feels good to organize. And now sanding the hull. I started in the basement workshop with all my various odd shaped sanding sticks and dowels. All the unequal thickness planking I had installed came back to haunt me; 220 grit was going to take months. And after a few minutes, unsurprisingly, I was generating way too much dust to stay indoors. This is what I started with: I changed my sandpapers to 100 grit and went outside. Way better as the breeze took the dust downwind and raking sunlight made it much easier to see progress. Here I am almost finished with 100 grit port side. And here is where I am now; both sides mostly finished to 100 grit. I have been trying to smooth out any waviness so further grits are getting rid of coarse scratches only and not shaping. The sun washes out contrast but it looks a darn sight better than where I started. And now more sanding. And after that even more. Have a great evening all cisco

your “heart to stem” connection is very realistic something to strive for great job

The sample chapter looked to be up to Grant and Seawatch's usual high standards; lots of close-ups and detail. Will be worth the wait I think

Peter- how did you transfer transfer your points from 1:75 -> 1:50? Did you just eyeball where each line crossed a grid? or maybe use a measuring device like an architectural ruler? thanks cisco

i am hoping to make some of my ship’s furniture from either bone or possibly Elforyn so i am following closely. thank you for posting

Here's another part of my previous post that wouldn't go through. It seems to be letting me post it in smaller bits so I apologize for the out-of-order chronology. Dan- I was aiming for symmetry so both side's butt joints matched, while following Chuck's Cheerful exterior planking plan. Someday I'll try to free wheel an exterior planking plan, but not on this model. I have the Dodds and Moore book, an amazing read, but not the Michael Ruhlman. One thing I don't ever skimp on is ordering more books, so thank you I'll get it. Aliluke- thanks for the enthusiasm. If i can get my AVS half as clean as yours I'll be happy. Here's the stem at present: and the stern: On the horizon is mounting and basing. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what would look best. I have always liked the carved dolphins that were used as bases a lot but felt that level of detail would look unbalanced, as there isn't going to be any carving on the ship. A while ago while browsing for a future project (I'm planning on a plank on frame) a picture of Rattlesnake by Harold Hahn (I think) on The Lumberyard's website had always stood out to me, both as a beautiful model but especially for the carved cradles. Nice sweeping c - curves. Both more appropriate to a simpler model like this than the feral-looking dolphins, and more in reach of my carving skills. I'm not sure about the baseboard yet; its going to wait until I'm finished the ship proper, but I want something very traditional. I personally like the very thin bases with inlaid tops, a strong mitered border, and small turned feet. So it'll be some version of that. Thanks for reading and to those of you who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving. Cisco

Here's my finished second planking. I still have to sand a lot off but I'm pretty happy with it. This is a test post to see if I can avoid the sql error thats been fighting me posting all day.

guys- today when I try to post I get redirected to some website called Securos for a sQL error. Does anyone know if this is through MSW or a spam hack on my end? thanks Cisco

Another AVS! While I abandoned Robert Hunt's practicum for most of the planking I've followed it for the rest. Keep up the good work cisco

are you edge gluing your planks or just to the bulkheads? and i really like the sheer of your garboard. it looks straight and not climbing up the stem (like mine wants to do). great job all around

that is the exact same way i planked my AVS. hopefully we’re both doing it right

thats a good looking pinnace Alistair. i especially like the smooth sweep of the paint on the hull. i hope your health issues have gone back to being background noise cisco

Happy Thursday night people. I drove back from the Admiralty Workshops Carving class this evening, held this year in Annapolis MD. Chuck showed a bunch of pictures under his Speedwell post of the group hunched over desks with magnifiers on. It may look like a sweatshop in action but was actually very educational and fun. Carving is still intimidating but maybe now a little less so. I didn't take any pics there but here are my efforts. Chuck laser-cut the blanks and then participants cut in the "swoops." The wreath on the left was my least successful effort. And it was a macro practice version; the real ones for the 1:48 ships were about half that size. I fared better in the middle on the acanthus spray. Its hard to see but the top one is the stock laser cut piece; the bottom is my version after cutting. It was an acceptable for a first try/minimum of tearout effort so I was happy. The far right is another acanthus/flower practice piece. These were all panels from David's Fubbs model, which is supposed be an upcoming Seawatch book. For anyone contemplating carving at this scale we found the Micromark gouges to be useless. They come spoon-shaped (why?) and are some sort of stainless steel so will likely never hold an edge. Additionally, I found in my pack one with a broken tip. I am way past the return date so I'm stuck with them. I did, however, like their micro chisel set and have been using them a fair amount. Mostly everyone used Dockyard tools which sharpen well and take an excellent edge. Greg and David run a friendly, encouraging workshop and I highly recommend them. This was my second year attending and I even convinced fellow model shipworlder Jason (JLong) to go too, but sadly he and his wife caught covid 2 days before the workshop so he missed out. My AVS progress was educational as well, if less satisfying. I was all set to add the next line of planking when I realized I had messed up my butt-joint spacing. See the below picture repeated from several posts ago. Above and to the right of my tick strip you can see the highest butt joint, then the main whale, then my topmost hull plank butt joint is clearly not in line. I think I put in the top plank and forgot to trim it back. To make matters worse I had done it again on aft end of the next line of planking. Obviously it would haunt me forever if left alone so I used some alcohol and chisels to work the two offending planks out. I was pleasantly surprised there was minimal collateral damage. After trimming the butt joints to their proper lines I made and installed new planks. I can't tell I did anything so although net 0 progress to me still a success. And thats it. Have a great evening Cisco

fascinating Peter add another follower

Good Sunday afternoon Model Shipworld Fellows I am plugging away at the port side second planking. Its not going fast, but it is going smoother. I learned a few things from starboard planking. The first 2 planks below the main wale I made by copying from the starboard side. I figured out widths using my small drafting compass. The reason I didn't initially use tick strips to divide up my band like on the starboard side was my small brain. The first stem plank is a 1 plank expanding into 2 planks (stealer? I think) and I initially overlooked this meant at the stem there are 5 planks, while at the stern there are 6. Not a hard concept but it caused me some serious confusion, discarded tick strips, and a lot of erasing on the starboard side. Second thing I did was pencil lines on the hull where my planks will butt. Previously I tried to wrap a tick strip paper across the hull and pencil onto each individual plank where its butt joint should be, which was awkward. I was worried there would be too many lines on the hull after the 5->6 tick strip confusion but I think I'm ok so far. So now that the top 2 planks were in I took the time to divide up the remaining space into 4 planks. No confusion here; 4 at the stem and 4 at the stern. I also had the genius idea (not that genius I guess) of labeling my tick strips 1,2, 3, etc and writing the same number on the hull. Thus I could tell which strip went where in case I wanted to double check down the line. For this line of planking the stem plank is very short; only to the first station line. It still curves so I learned you need to either spile, or bend your plank, unless your hull is to be clinker, which this isnt. Here I used my travel iron to bend the plank, then with files fine shaped it. There is springback but even so I had to sand the curve flatter some. The final thing I learned on the starboard side is patience. Holly bends really nicely with soaking but it has to be DRY before you glue it otherwise it will shrink and suddenly you have gaps. I haven't figured out a good method using heat to put the sharp bend the plank needs to fit around the stern. One thought I had was getting a heatgun and using it to heat the plank up and then while its still hot clamping it to the shape I want? The hairdryer I have doesn't have enough oomph for the job. So I resort to water, which even though it makes the wood swell up some has the advantage of not risking me burning myself or the house down. Here is the stern plank soaking in cold water for 15 minutes. This was plenty of time to become pliable. Then I clamped it to the hull. No splintering or breaking, worked well. The plank is also a bit wider than what the final will be so I can sand it to fit after its dry tomorrow. Bending on a weird sideways curve makes the plank distort a fair amount and I haven't found I can completely clamp it into submission. But it gets it pretty close. Sorry my camera focused on the clamp and not the stern but it was a juggling act. I also dipped the stem plank in water and clamped it in place to dry. This has been the best way I have found so far to deal with curves in 2 dimensions; heat for 1 bend, water for the second. The stem plank is fairly thick because I made the stem rabbit wider than optimal and I don't want the dreaded (well I dread it anyway) stem - plank gap. In this case its snug enough to be tight, even if it means the rest of the plank is thicker than necessary. Easy to sand down even in the future. Tomorrow or sometime next week I will do final fitting and glue both planks in place. Then fit the middle piece in place. Thats all I got today. Hope the weekend treated you kindly. thanks cisco

I’m (very) slowly building Model Shipways Armed Virginia Sloop which also has 2 layers of planking. While its a pain to plank two times the first layer was good practice and contained more mistakes than the top layer. As others have commented on there are many ways to deal with the curving and tightening at the bow; I followed Chuck’s planking method (his videos are on this site under Planking I think). Watching the videos and then actually planking with them helped me a lot. in short the planks narrow up to 50% of their width AND have to be bent in a curve to avoid the clinker effect. Here i think the point of the first layer is to Practice and to Provide a smooth solid base for the 2nd layer and it looks great to me

very interesting, thanks for posting Steve20

18th century longboat by model shipways. basic planking and rigging, its small, and usually 50 bucks. excellent instructions too

Beautiful Thukydides!

thats some nice planking François

great job Roger. youre moving fast and it looks excellent. i went from the 18th cent longboat to another model shipway’s kit, the Armed Virginia Sloop. its a step up in complexity but not a 74 or something really crazy. Directions are definitely dated though; you have been spoiled by Chuck’s clear directions for this kit.

Great start Roger. this model is harder than it looks (small not = easy) but will give you an intro to every skill you need. also everyone breaks off the top of the stem.

guns look great and thank you for the clear explanation Thukydides

simply amazing Matthias!