SkiBee

@cbeckenb You have done a fantastic job on planking!!!! Mine looks like crap compared to yours, well done. If you haven't solved your sheer stake problem yet, I would look at taking the total distance from the #9 plank to the top of the deck and divide by 2 to make two planks (a new plank 10 and a new sheer plank) to replace the sheer plank. Good luck

Finishing the Planking Finally, was able to get back to planking this past week and I have finally finished it. Planking this boat has been a challenge and my key recommendation to everyone is to take your time to bend the planks to help reduce gaps. The Sheer Plank, I had to wet the sheer planks a few times to get the right vertical bend as well as to form it at the aft end. When I was forming them one of the challenges was the top of the plank kept wanting to bend over the edge of the deck which made it difficult to get the plank to butt up tight to the other plank and not gap at the deck interface. My recommendation is to take your time and use some left over wood to keep the elastic band from bending the sheer plank over the deck, see pic’s below. Also, you can see the gap at the aft end that I finally had to hold around the aft end while the glue dried. Also make sure you have enough glue coverage on the deck edge to bond the sheer take to the deck. I then used my knife to trim the sheer plank down to the deck. As I was trimming the plank wanted to split along the grain, you can see some areas where the sheer plank dips below the deck a little which was caused by this split. Even being aware of the grain, I still had a few areas that dipped below the deck. Started to sand the hull as you can see the results of my initial rough sanding below. I would like to sand the hull smoother before resorting to using putty, but concerned of making the planks to thin. I will have to use putty to fill in at the bow and stern, see below. I’m going to rough sand some more and will upload pic’s before I start to putty the gaps and depressions.

Side Note: Most of us refer to our workspace as our Ship Yard, I was lucky enough to work in the Washington DC Navy Yard for a few years before I retired. It was really interesting working in one of the old buildings that had been preserved, as well as walking around and looking at all the old buildings and reading about them and what they were originally used for. The Yard also has a great museum that the public can access and I highly recommend to anyone to visit and just walk around, but first look up the history of the yard.

The aft end of your planks look really good, much better than mine. I like the way you used a combo of rubber bands and clamps. I wish you had started your build before me, Great Job

@niwotwill thanks, I really appreciate your input!

@Bob Keeler please fell free to ask me about this build or message me directly

Will start mine when I’m done with the lobster smack, look forward in learning from your experience.

Planking Life requirements got in the way of enjoyment of building models this past month, but I’m back to work on the planks. Planking this model continues the learning challenge, but I am gaining more knowledge that I can apply to future builds. Planking at the Bow end; the challenge with garboard plank at the bow was getting the bend in it and fitting it in the rabbet. To get the bend, I soaked the plank in hot water then clamped it down on the frames and let it dry. After the plank was dry, I dry fitted it in the fwd end and then started gluing the garboard from the bow to the aft, 2 or 3 frames at a time, holding the plank in place with clamps like I did when setting the bend. I ended up with a small gap between the plank and the stem / keel doublers, it appears to be caused by not having enough bevel on the spine for the rabbet. Thus, the rabbet was more like a grove which was difficult to get a smooth transition in. So, take extra time to get the spine bevel smooth for a good transition. The other area that was a challenge was the smooth transition from the stem to frame 2 to frame 3. As mentioned before frame 3 was not faired enough or frame 2 was faired too much, more than likely both. ‘druxey’ recommended removing the plank and sanding frame 3 down with sanding sticks, unfortunately by the time I read his post I had already glued a few more planks on. However, I noticed that the depression lessened as I progressed and was essentially gone by plank 4. If needed I’ll fill it in with wood putty since as you can see the gap between the planks and stem will need to be filled. The other key problem was the aft plank transition of planks 3 to 7 between frame 8 and 9. You can see by the below pictures a number of issues from gaps and depressions. I believe the problem resulted from trying to bend/form the planks at that curve and fitting flush on the stern post doublers and reinforcing piece ‘D’ on each side of the aft spine. The dent was probably due to putting to much pressure on that spot as I was forming and then gluing the planks. I tried rewetting the planks to get them to relax but that only helped a little. I really did not notice the degree of depression until I was gluing plank 8, thus I did not want to remove all the planks and start over, so I’m going to wait until I am done planking and sanding to see if I need to fill in the depression. The lesson learned is to take more time forming the planks until they fit better without a lot of forcing prior to gluing them in place.

@GGibson I regard to frame 6, it looks like the port side is flush with the keel but the starboard looks like the bottom of frame 6 is not flush with the keel. if that is true, that could contribute to the problem. I did fair the top of my frames to try and help smooth the deck as it went from frame to frame. In the pictures below, you can see that on the port side, frame 6 sits a little higher too. As I mentioned in my build log I wished I would have spent a little more time fairing the tops, but I think in the end all will be good. Lesson learned.

@GGibson The way I looked at the pictures in the instructions from page 15 to 17, the gap between the bulkhead frame and the deck is for the coaming and cabin sides to fit down into. I have not install them yet. The key thing is that you want the deck to go to the outside of the frames to eliminate sanding the frames down to be even with the deck. You can see the small gap I left between the deck and frames below. It was a lot of work to sand the frames down even wit the deck.

@GGibson I built the Model Shipways 18th Century Longboat Wooden Model Ship prior to this model. The planking was easier then this model and I learned some good basics on planking from it. Overall the Longboat was easier then the lobster smack.

Not being a sail boat expert but an engineer; a sheave is just a pulley. They can be hooked up exterior of the mast or imbedded in the mast or spar. On my pram, I painted the inside of my sheave cut brass to simulate a pulley and put nail heads on the side to simulate the pulley axel.

@Cousin Teapot I sent you a message and some Pic's of the Stern Transom and Knee. The above picture is the bow transom. Good luck

@druxey I agree, the planks between the bow stem and frame 3 do have some strange curves. I'm not sure if frame 3 is too high or frame 2 is too low, I think it is a combination of the two. The strange curve continues in the 2nd & 3rd plank, by the 4th it starts to lessen. I do use flexible sanding sticks, but this time I used non-flexible sticks and blocks. I think you might have hit on the cause, so next time I’ll use flexible sanding sticks more.

Received the new hull blank today, I'll restart this boat once I'm done with the Lobster Smack which has been a challenge in many ways but appears to be a good learning experience.

GGibson, you have done an excellent job on this model. I built it a few months ago and had a number of problems that you have seem to overcome with ease. Keep up the great work. By the way, I kept a log on this model. Norwegian Sailing Pram by SkiBee - Model Shipways - Scale 1:12

Fairing the hull: As you can see in the pictures above, I had a number of frames that stuck out past the deck. Since the top plank appears to abut the top of the deck on the outside, I had to reduce the frames. For the frames that stuck out, I first used a knife and chisel blade to cut some of the frame down to the deck. I started the cut just down the frame enough so at the end the frame was vertical, no curve to the frame. This was a little tricky since I did not want to cut the deck. I then started to fair the frames, I ended up using an 80-grit sanding block. Fairing Frame 1 and the spine was difficult, trying to get a smooth transition from the spine to frame 2. I used a combination of the 80-grit sanding block, a course sanding stick and some 80 & 150-grit sandpaper wrapped around a ¼ inch dowel. Getting the outside parts of the spine faired like the instructions say was very difficult. I kept sanding groves in the spine. I did end up with a small step between the outside spines and the center piece of the spine. Fairing the aft frames was just as hard, especially the outside spines. I wonder if it would not have been easier to fair the port and starboard spine pieces before gluing to the center spine piece. I cannot see why it would not work and I think I would have ended up with a smoother transition to glue the planks to. I used the ¼ inch dowel on the curve parts of the aft frames, next time I would have a couple of larger dowels to. Since there is no scale schematic of the model to determine the relation of the fwd and aft spine fairing; to the stem, keel and sternpost; to the planks – I would recommend dry fitting the stem, keel and sternpost with some of the planks to see how the fwd and aft end of the planks fit in the rabbet formed between the faired spine and the stem, keel and sternpost.

Gluing the deck halves was a real challenge trying not to have a big gap between halves but still have the outside deck edge out to the edge of the frames. I decided to glue the middle area first then work to the bow and stern, this way I could try and get some bend in the deck halves where it was a little narrower. I did have to wet the deck to glue the middle section, but did when I moved to the bow and stern. The deck did not overlap the transom as much as the instruction’s pictures indicate, so I think I’m going to sand the transom vertically to the deck. I did think about filling the edge with wood putty but I think sanding vertically will work and look better. Lessons Learned; I thought I had glued the frames perpendicular to the spine and without tilt, port and starboard, but I would even take more time in the future. Also, take a little more time to fair the top of the frames. I think both of these would have helped reduce the amount of the frames I’m now having to sand/cut down.

Ed at Model Expo wrote back, “The transom pieces were changed a bit after I built my model because the tabs weren't right, but the sizes weren't changed. You have to make them flush on top.” I did clarify he meant the transom should be flush with the spine. I needed to remove almost 1/4 inch from the top of the transom to be flush with the spine. I used a sanding stick since I was concerned about breaking the top of the transom using anything else. It took quite a long time but I got it down, see below pictures. I would recommend cutting the top of the outside part of the transom down prior to gluing it to the other side of the transom. I would try and dry fit the frame 10 and two transom pieces to the boat to determine how much to cut it down. @JohnN mentioned, looking at the bottom of the transom in relation to the other frames and spine. You can see mine is skewed to the port, I needed to check it better before the glue set. Then I faired the rest of the frame tops to get an even surface over a few frames at a time to ensure a smooth deck. My frame 6 was noticeably higher than the frames around it so it took some effort and time to get frame tops to have a smooth transition across the top.

I installed the cockpit floor and seats, but I made a mistake in not catching that I did not install the floor flat, mine curved up as it went aft. This led me to install the side seat risers flat (low) instead of wider side vertical. The below picture shows the results, at first, I was going to leave as is but as I looked at it more it did not look right to have the side seats slope fwd. I used some alcohol to loosen the glue on the floor, seats and risers. I could not get the risers loose so I decided to shim the seats once I re-glued the floor. As I was trying to loosen the risers, I broke the model in half at frame 8. Glued the model back together and reinstalled the floor and side seats with shimming. Looks better. In picture below, you can see that the spine and stiffener C stick out above the center cutout of the rear seat back where the tiller goes. The instruction picture on page 7, shows this flat. I’m concerned that this issue will interfere with the tiller/rudder assembly. So I used a knife and trimed the stiffener/spine level with the cutout. I then started to fair the top of the frames/spine so I could install the deck. First, the instructions on page 7 say, “… sand the top of the transom until it is flush to the top of the spine at the center …”, also see the pictures on page 7, it shows that the spine is much higher on the transom than mine. But when I installed frame 10/transom it is significantly above the aft spine compared to the instructions. I would have to take off a significant amount of transom to make it level, see the above picture on the left. I believe I installed everything correctly, is this an issue due to change in prototype vs production kit. I wrote back to Model Shipways/Expo to see what there take was. I don’t mean to be a broken record but if there was a to scale schematic of the model included in the instructions like it is for the Grand Banks Dory, it probably would answer my questions.

I’ve installed all the bulkhead frames, a couple of points on my approach. The shims worked well on all the frames except 1, 9 and 10. On Frame 1, I should have fit checked it prior to gluing, the shimming was a little to thick for the frame and I broke off one side of the frame. I still think you should shim the frame if you had the same problem that I did but fit check more as you go in case you have to thin the shims. Frame 9, the frame only comes into contact with a small space at the top and bottom of the spine. I only shimmed the top, but when I glued it in, I did not align the bottom correctly so the frame was off line from port to starboard. So, either shim both top and bottom or be careful to make sure that the frames is level. (I should have taken a picture prior to installing frame 10. Frame 10 did not need any shimming, it fit as supplied on the spine.

JohnN, Yes I had to shim all of them except frame #4. Edit: I did not have to shim Frame 10 and I shimmed Frame 1 a little to much, see below.

Have been exchanging emails and photos with Model Expo over the past number of days. The parts manager built a pre-production version of the Lobster Smack and did not have the problems I did, all his frames fit fine. Below is a pic of his left-over laser sheet from the frames, he said it resulted in a frame gap of 5/32 and it fit ‘OK’. Below are pic’s of some of my frames, I put them back into the laser sheet. You can see that I measure 3/16 inch, which resulted in a 1/16 inch total gap. He did say that the frames should fit next to the spine without a gap. Model Expo did offer to send me new sheets but he was not been able to measure the current gap width at this time, so I decided to just shim the frames with some left over 1/32 inch strips. I glued some 1/32 inch strips to the spine then glued frames 3, 4 and 5. The shims worked great and the cutout adjustment that I made on frame 4 worked out just a good. So, I’m moving on.

@JohnN THANKS for the input, I was going to do what you recommended with some left over 1/32 in strips, but I wanted to hear from Model Shipways if the frames are suppose to be gapped at the bottom or not. I also thought about reducing reinforcing piece B, but I was concerned if there was a reason it was the width it was or not. @jlefever THANKS for info, I knew I should have bought a pair of 'jeweler's' needle nose pliers.

Bulkhead Frames The only problem with gluing the reinforcing pieces was the ‘B’ piece on the starboard side interfered with the hook of the brass rod at the center board which prevented the full operation of raising and lowering the center board. So I had to cut out a 1/16 inch notch in the ‘B’ reinforcing piece. It took some time and looking at all the pictures in the instructions to identify the bulkhead frames. The etched numbers were missing on some of the bulkheads. If the instructions included a scale diagram of the model frame like many other models, it would solve a lot of wasted time figuring out how parts go together. I had the same issue with the Norwegian Sailing Pram. Bulkhead Frame #4 problem; as you can see in the below picture, the notch pre-cut into Frame #4 was not deep enough to go over the ‘B’ reinforcing piece. I had to deepen the notch by 3/16 inch, I used a jeweler saw and knife for this. As I was dry fitting frame #4, the top of the frame prevented the center board from coming completely up, not sure this is a problem once the keel pieces are glue on the model. The next problem I noted when dry fitting bulkhead frames #3 and 5, is the bottom cutout is wider than the spines. The 3 parts of the spine are 1/8 inch thick when glued together, however the cutout in the frames is 3/16 inch wide so the frames don’t touch the spine in this area. I looked at all the pictures in the instructions and it looks like the frames are supposed to touch the spine in this area. Since there is no clear picture of these frames, I don’t know if there really is a problem. I’m concerned that the bottom of the frames will float until the planks are installed. Again, a to scale schematic of the model would answer this question. I sent Model Expo a question on the fit, will wait to see what they say.