AnobiumPunctatum

One other way to make moldings/rails scrapers.  I like to use stiff backed razors, shaped as mentioned above with thin grinding wheels set up on my lathe or can be done with a Dremel or similar rotary tool.   I make them as needed and save them for future use.  I never found a problem with any shape or size.   If small, several shapes can be cut into one blade. 
Allan

I'm back again,  managed to get a couple or three hours today, and finished making the gundeck stanchions, glued knee patterns to the wood ready to cut out next time. 
Started planking the gundeck and placed gun carriages at the gunport to check for size, I think they are ok.
Till next time 
Cheers 👍😃
Thanks for likes  and dropping by.

This kit is designed as a teaching aid.  IMHO, the best teaching aid also teaches the teacher.  And this one reminded me that photographs will often find errors that the eye will not.  So even if you have no intention of posting your pictures, they can be very helpful modeling aids.
 
Look at the above picture.  You can just barely see that there is a concavity in the planking at Frame 5.  This was a lot more obvious in the picture than in real life.  Looking more carefully, the problem is not that Frame 5 was sanded down too much.  Instead, I did not sand Frame 5a enough.

My only option was to remove the involved planking and reshape Frame 5a.  The smudged ink is because I used a lot of isopropanol to dissolve the glue.  When you find it necessary to remove planks, do not even attempt to reuse them.  It will never look right.   


The result was worth it.


The build log is caught up to my construction progress.  The NRG conference is next weekend in New Bedford Mass.  I will be hosting (hostessing just sounds stupid) a round table on hull planking.  Hope to see some of you there.  Construction will continue upon my return home.

With the deck planking being 1/16 x 1/16" strips there is a definite need for a sub-deck to avoid sagging between bulkheads. Balsa pieces were cut to fit between the bulkheads and this should give a much better base for the narrow strips. I have also decided to trim off the bulkhead extensions from the plywood bulkheads. They are very hard, yet crumble easily. I figured with them having to be shaped and beveled on both sides it will be easier to replace them after the planksheer is installed. This will also give me some wiggle room in placement of the planksheer. 
 
 
 
 

A milestone today....I finished the planking on the port side.   That feels good!!!
 
I still have 9 strakes on the starboard to go.  I am happy with the results although as always you always tend to spot and focus on your mistakes.  I am very happy with how the cedar looks on such a large subject.  I will let you guys decide if you like it as a good wood to use on such projects.
 
I have only used wipe on poly...I decided not to use the gel stain after seeing how the finish looks.  The wales are a mess and will need to be cleaned up but I will wait until all of the planking is done.  I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel...BUT then there is the treenailing.....Ughh!!
 
Comments and questions , dont hesitate. 😊
 

Bedroom´s bulkheads in lower hold.

Thank you guys,
little progress. Now I am ready to start the wotk inside the hull.

After thinking about the hawse liner again, I decided to do it right, and trim the old maple piece down as if it were the planks coming to the bow:

Then I could make the hawse liner as it was actually constructed, a thick piece with a rabbet in the lower edge for the thicker black strake to come through. I will overlap it a tiny bit onto the ends of the real planks, for a clean connection. The final shaping of this hawse liner, including the fit to the cheek below, will await the installation of the cheeks themselves.

 
I should have done it right like this the first time. Does one ever learn that shortcuts hardly ever turn out to be shortcuts? 🙂
 
Mark
 
 
 

Hello again,  it's been a few weeks since I've done anything on this build, but my small piece of 6mm pear has arrived so I've cut out the forepiece out. 
I have cheated a bit,  in such as it is in two parts instead of eight because I made a right hash of my first try at cutting all the parts separately. 
Also I finally found a place to get my planking from in the uk. 
Now I know Chuck is planking the Winnie with Alaskan Yellow Cedar and it looks very good,  so when I found the store here in the uk stocking AYC I decided to get it for my Triton as I'm getting slightly bored of walnut as hull planking. 
The  store is online and is The Balsacabin.co.uk
Cheers till next time 
 

Still hanging! Build is still on my work bench, along with several others. I always thought that when you retired you had a lot more free time ...... well not true. Its really  less time.. for one you move slower and more people want your time!

Hi all, 
Chad  I've given treenails a go, using tape and drawing a straight line on it, I think if I keep practicing I'll get the hang of it, but I have struggled filling them, I used toothpicks.
Now the treenails have been sort of done🤔 I have given the lower deck a coat of matt varnish. 
The main mast bits are only dry fitted as is the test stanchion,  the next job is the hanging knees and then planking the gundeck.
Thanks to everyone who has looked in and for the likes👍
Till next time 
Cheers 
I have just noticed a mistake on the planking but it stopping there now🤔

Hi all,
@GrandpaPhil thankyou 👍
@ChadB(GROAN)😂 I have to admit it was after looking at your Eagle build and how great the oiled wood was that made my mind up!! Thank you for your support as I muddle my way through this.
 
So now to a bit of the muddling through, I have planked just over half the lower deck. I used maple for the deck planks and beech for the water thingy against  the  hull. I'm still undecided whether to do treenails because if I don't do them well they will depress me but then again perhaps I should use this build as practice, I'll think on it.
Still working on the gundeck, there's a few more ledgers to fit although the lodging knees are cut and fitted (only 1 edition needed this time round😃)
Next time I shall cut out the hanging knees.
Till then 
Cheers 
 

Afternoon Quickie 
A 'Ship Sloop Of War' and a Cutter on patrol in the Napoleonic era.
Watercolour 10” X 7”

Progress continues,
 
The former has been cut out and the rabbet strip attached.
 

 
Next is to cut out and assemble the stem knee assembly and keel.
 
Here are the parts laid out on swiss pear.

 
Here is the  stem knee cut out and ready for fitting all of the pieces together.
 

 
The fun is just beginning!!!!!
 
 

Double planked hulls usually dont have a rabbet.  That is problematic.   Double planked hulls as said were done because the MFG usually cheaped out on the number of bulkheads.....
 
If your kit has few bulkheads and is single planked that would be a huge problem....
 
If you have a lot of bulkheads or frames......Why would you plank twice if you take your time and do it right the first time.
 
If your hull is painted or plated,  why plank it twice?
 
If it is not and you dont know how to plank,  then it doesnt matter if you you plank the first layer poorly because chances are that the second layer will also be poor.
 
Best to plank it once and plank it correctly.   Single planked hulls force folks to learn proper planking techniques as well.
 
My advice would be to start a log and post some photos.....also ask a lot of questions.  Its not easy to plank a hull and it requires some practice.   With lots of failures along the way.  

Hello everyone:
Well I have finally got some time to get back to the shop and made a little progress in the last couple of days.  Got my build board set up & ready to go. 
I made the braces using left over plywood from the bulkheads.  I got the base board from Menards, it was a bookshelf that was damaged on one end.  Cost all of $2.49 and it works perfect for this job.

The rabbet strip has been installed on the bulkhead and I also got the stem assembled and about ready to go.  I have yet to sand down the former to meet the rabbet strip.  That is next on the list. 
Then on to getting the rest of the keel assembly attached and finish up a few little details.   
Then hopefully move on to all of those bulkheads in a few days.  Looking forward to that....👍

 

In order to keep the planks from becoming to wide aft, a stealer will be required.  This extra plank "steals" some wood from one or two adjacent planks, hence the name.  There are two types of stealers: half-checked and quarter-checked.  With a half-checked stealer a notch one-half the width of the plank is made in the plank below the stealer; in a quarter-checked stealer a notch is made one-quarter the width of the planks above and below the stealer.  I hope the drawings clarify this.

A big question is where to put the stealer.  As a rule, a stealer would be placed where the arc of the run of planking no longer parallels the wale.  The fore end of the stealer extends as far as necessary to maintain a smooth run of planking.  Look at the picture below.  This nothing more than a piece of thread with a knot tied in it and secured to a random frame.  The lower leg is along the border between the lower and middle planking belts.  The upper leg is paralleling the arc of the wale.  On the deadwood, in pencil, are evenly spaced marks for the ends of the planks of the lower and middle belts (four planks in the lower belt and five in the middle because of the stealer).  Play around with the fore end of the string (lengthwise and vertically) to decide where the stealer should be located.  Now look at the surrounding plank butts and make sure that the tip of the stealer is at least one row away from a plank butt.
You will probably find that the tip of your stealer will land between frames.  I glued a spacer between Frames F and G for this reason.  The following pictures show a quarter-checked stealer drawn onto the spacer with and without the string.  My other models were made with a quarter-checked stealer; this one will be made with a half-checked stealer.  No reason other than to do it differently.  The quarter-checked stealer is actually more difficult to make and the description of making it can be found in the kit manual.


 

Looks really nice. You're on a good way

Looks really nice. You're on a good way

Hello all, thanks for looking in and the likes 👍
So just spent a stressful couple or four hours cutting, shaping and sanding only to scrap them and recutting  and reshaping!!  Welcome to the quest to produce eight reasonably similar hanging knees, I think I've managed it  and have fitted them to the underside of the lower deck.
Also fitted gunport sills and dry fitted lower deck centre supports. 
The frames need a bit more fairing on the outer side  but I'll do that next time.
Dry fitted gun deck beams and cut the beam arms. 
That's it for this post.
Till next time 
Cheers 

Since this is intended as a model of "Olympias" rather than an updated attempt to model an Athenian Trireme, I shall stick to the Olympias Ram. As a parallel project, I am also working on a software simulation of the maneuvering of oared warships, which I am validating against the sea trials of Olympias. One of the original ideas was to use this model for testing to find some of the coefficients for the software simulation. Must admit that I got a bit carried away with the model. Rather more detail than would be strictly required for a tank test model... I (sort of) justified it to myself on the basis that If I built it to the full size drawings, from wood of the same density, then the weight distribution would be about right.... But there are easier ways of doing that. Probably also easier to use Computational Fluid Dynamics Software to derive the coefficients. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to see if I could build an accurate enough model of Olympias at this scale and fit a rowing machine in it.
Haven't yet decided how I will make the ram...
John Coates "Plan No 20 Trieres Ram" drawing shows details of the wooden structure (which I have used for my model as you can see from the whole ship picture at the beginning of the blog) but does not detail the construction of the "Ram Sheath" other than to say that is based on the Athlit Ram as described in the Mariners Mirror , August 1983. The views in the drawing suggest that it is fabricated from plate. 
 
 
Ill need to do some more research...

Just letting you guys know that I have been steadily making progress.  Planking is not something that can be rushed.   No matter how well you make all of the other fittings and parts on a model, if your planking is bad that is all anyone will ever notice.   So go slow and keep it clean and neat with tight joints.   

If you see yourself going off your lining off tick marks with a  strake, no need to worry.  Then you should correct it with the next strake or two in order to get back on your marks.  Keep flipping the hull "right-side-up".....as you should check your run of planks every strake or two and make adjustments when needed.   Below you can see the tapered planks along the tuck and the transition of the planks onto the stern post rabbet.  Note the plank in the corner where the ends transition from the counter to along the rabbet strip.  The cedar is working out nicely and I think the color looks good on a model this size.  You guys can of course judge for yourselves but if you are building a frigate or other larger subject, this is a good choice.  Its a bit soft bu once you get accustomed to using it,  it really looks good.   I have only used a bit of wipe on poly on the planking.

I have completed two belts on the port side and am finishing of the second belt on the starboard.  Once completed I will reverse direction and start planking from the keel ....upward in order to finish up the hull planking.  You can see my planks entering the stem rabbet below.

 
Questions and comments are always welcome from the group.
 
Chuck