Stevinne

Well that’s the build pretty much done, now I need to learn about seascapes 

Part II: The Plankening
Never having done planking before, I turned to YouTube and found a number of videos instructing me in about as many ways as there were videos.  I looked for a planking plan, but didn't find anything so I decided to just wing it. I will say, the instructions come with a nice illustration showing about where planks bend and where to trim, so I had an idea of what it should look like.  The most important part was that the top four planks must be lined up and even as they will be above the deck.  So I did those four on each side.  The instructions said to put the planks in with brass nails, which will later be removed.  I see that on this forum a lot, but I had no success with that.  I tried with a hammer and the nail bent, I tried with a nail pusher thingy and the nail bent and the few I was able to get on took a lot of coercion and pain. 
 
I ended up abandoning the brass nails and went with gluing the planks on and holding them in place using the binder-clip trick.  I'm not 100% sure I was supposed to glue them, and in fact further steps indicate that maybe I shouldn't have, but I did it and it worked.  Another mistake was the plank bender.  I used the grippy one.  I ended up cracking some of the boards and with some pretty harsh bends.  I wish I had discovered the soldering-iron type which in later bendings worked much better.
 
But my progress slowed considerably at this point.  I would take out the model, bend a plank, glue and place it and then let it dry and then only when I was bored and had some time.  So my first planking took a few of years with on and off modeling.  Partly this was due to not having dedicated place to work.  I'd pull my rubbermaid container out, pull out my tools, bend a plank, and then put it away for a month or longer.  Then 2020 and the pandemic came along with telework, the result of which was much home renovation.  The last of the renovations included an office/hobby room for me and we were off to the races!  I managed to complete my first planking a mere 5 years and 7 months after starting the model.
 
 

A bit more work on the masts. I used a technique I learned wrapping the guides on my bamboo fly rod to make the mast wraps. The crows nests went together easily, the support pieces were white metal that I painted brown. The masts were stained with pecan stain. Nothing is glued in place yet. I'm waiting on some backing links for the chainplates, since the plates that came with the kit are too short. I'm not sure if I'll use them and the backing links or just create my own to use with the backing links. 
 
 

Tapering masts and yards is one of my least-favorite aspects of ship building. This time, however, I used a mini-plane that I purchased about a decade ago to get one of my Mom's doors to close when the wood swelled during summer. That really got the job done, with me then chucking the mast into my battery-powered drill and using some 100 grit sandpaper to smooth out the plane lines. The mast caps on this kit are cast metal, so there's little opportunity to widen the holes with a file. That's meant that the top masts are tapered at both the bottom to fit into the cap and at the top. I still need to work on the mizzen top before staining and adding some rope bindings. Tapering masts is so tedious, I took a break from my efforts to pick the first salad ingredients from this year's garden. Starting plants from seeds usually means my garden is running a little late each summer, but it gives me great satisfaction to grow my own. This is the first year I tried cherry tomatoes, but it looks like we are in for a bumper crop, so I'm pleased.

Added the stern galleries and the beakhead. I think the kit was missing some pieces, since they listed some parts for the back of the stern galleries that I simply didn't have, so I just backed the laser-cut forepiece with some walnut strips. The beakhead was made by covering a laser-cut piece with alternating strips of natural and black wood cut to give the diagonal effect. It took a little tweaking on my part while the glue was still wet to get them to sit right, and even then a stickler for perfection will note some problems. After having some health issues last August, I feel good that I'm at least at a point where if I were to keel over tomorrow, the kit is in a state where it can be displayed. Of course, that means that once I start adding shrouds - the likely next step - I'll need to complete the whole thing quickly so as to guard against the half-finished look if I can't complete things. 

Been doing more work on the kit. Have the rudder mounted. Getting ready to install the stern gallery and beak head. Materials are still an issue as some pieces appear to be missing.

The railings are on, and I'm not displeased with how they turned out. I also put together the stand, which gave me a chance to give her a place to rest while I cleaned up the workspace. I also painted some wood to make the black stripes that will adorn the beakhead. I feel like I'm making progress.

Been adding railings.
I'm happy with the height of the focsle railings.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do about the poop railings - whether I should end them at the end of the poop deck or extend them to the end of the outer planking. I decided to do the later, after viewing Ondras' amazing build log. He really has set the bar for me. Though I'm having trouble clearing it, he does supply inspiration and things to think about.
After installing the poop railing, I still feel it's about 1mm too high. I based the height on my little figure of Sir Francis Drake, who has been supervising construction. While the rail seems to fit Sir Francis just right, it looks a little too high for me. Also, the photo points out a gap to the support posts I hadn't noticed.
 

A little more work. Trying to get the run of bulwarks right. Stained the deck with "Bright Pecan." I thought it would be lighter, but I'm sort of happy with it. Also ordered a reference book and also "Sovereigns of the Sea," just because it sounded interesting. The "Sovereigns" book was used and came with an interesting book mark tucked inside.

Some progress with gratings. One thing I hadn't thought about is how much of the frames show through the openings. The break in the grating on the forward starboard side of the quarter deck will host a bitt, but if you look closely, the frame takes up much of the space and will be visible. I don't think I can remove the cross piece, as it supports the deck I probably can trim the white frame sections a little further back, but might settle for staining them a darker, less noticeable color. Also, I removed the molding at the front of the poop cabin as I realized that the opening I left for the door, while it fit perfectly, would have had the door jamming up against the pilot house in real life. I'm going to move the door a few millimeters over to starboard and redo the molding.
 

Moving on to the gratings. On the plus side, the kit provides a lot of grating material. On the minus side, it's probably the worst grating material I've encountered, with lots of the pieces bent or broken and others really badly cut with lots of whiskers and half-done cutouts making it difficult. I'm happy Mamoli is under different management since I purchased this kit, because while I really like the subject, the materials on this one definitely have a bottom-of-the-barrel vibe about them.

Started painting the doors and windows and noticed something odd. While most everything is cast white metal, the small window frame at the bottom is black plastic. I'm not sure what is the reason for the change. My guess, with the paucity of spare wood that came with this kit, is that Mamoli was cutting corners where ever they could at the time I purchased it. I also decided to paint the gilded pieces, which aren't shown here. Good thing I did. As I started painting, I noticed that on many of the pieces the gilding was unevenly applied with the white metal showing through in spots. I'm debating whether or not to paint the doors tan/black to match the decorations on the ship or just leave the brown. I'll probably try one, see how it looks and then make a decision. My plan is to highlight the scroll work on the now brown gilded pieces in white or red to add a little color. 

Making progress. I've completed the decorative strips, cap rails and railings over the cabins. I've ordered some very thin strips of walnut from Model Expo and am considering adding some trim around the edges of the decorative strips to maybe cover up that black line. I've experimented on the leftover bits of cardboard to see if I could sand or use colored marker to cover the black line, but I haven't been happy with the results. I'm currently sanding the stem piece to the figurehead to slide on. I'm happy I thought to test fit the figurehead before I got too involved in installing the beakhead, since the opening on the figurehead is considerably narrower than the stempiece. I've been sanding intermittently all morning and am finally beginning to see some progress. I do plan on painting the lion before he takes his place. 
 

Added some decorations to the hull. I was concerned about getting the decorative strips to line up, but it actually was easier (at least on this side) than I had anticipated. The vertical stripes at the very rear are actually strips of 4mm wood, which allows some wiggle room about the the card positioning. Thanks to Aon for advice on what glue to use. I still need to add caprails and to remove the strips across the gunports in the waist, as well as some decorations for focsle.

Been adding wales and cutting the upper gunports. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to paint below the waterline white. I want to see what she looks like once I add the decorative strips and she's a bit more colorful. I also have to do more sanding on the gunport edges and cut the sections of wale that runs across the top. But I want to keep them in place for the time being to provide support to bulwark as I work.

More progress on the deck planking. Have to start on the little deck near the beakhead. The planks look a little overscale to me.

Getting ready to plank the deck. The first step is removing the supports from the frames and then making sure the stubs are flush with the false deck. I found my sprue cutter did a good job clipping the wood nearly flush and then I used some chisels of various head shapes to remove whatever wood was left. I was happy that I took extra pains when installing the hull planking to ensure no glue was anywhere near the supports, since when snipping them they easily came away from the planks.

More work on the starboard side. For some reason, I've found planking this ship to be a real chore. Happy that most of it seems done. I've also noticed that most of the photos I shoot for this log seem to come in upside down. I eventually figured out that's because I'm left-handed, so I use the shutter button on the left side. When I flip the phone and take pictures with the shutter button on the right side, the photos come in right-side up. 

I haven't watched any of his videos, but it sounds like I should. I haven't encountered any issues with shrinkage yet - at least with the second layer, but that could just be luck. I have had fit issues with my first run of planks, but I've always attributed that to my lack of skill with an Xacto knife and pencil. Maybe there was more to it than that. Thanks for the heads-up.  

Unfortunately, I'm not planking anything right now. I usually soak my second layer wood before working with it, because I feel it makes it easier to cut and to also to bend. My plank shaper is basically a soldering iron with a big metal bulb in place of the soldering point. I got it on Model Expo many years ago. It came with a wooden jig for bending planks off the ship, but I usually don't use it.  When placing the second plank I apply the glue while the wood is still wet and then run the heated bulb back and forth over it until everything dries. I find it forms a solid bond. 

I usually use a combination of CA and carpenter's glue on the second planking. I use a small amount of ca at points to start the attachment, then a run of carpenter's glue. I run my plank shaper over the glued section once it's in place - it speeds up the drying process. Then I will use another dot of ca, some more carpenter's glue and continue the run. I find that for me, this works well, especially when I am trying to line up the planks along the curves of the bow and stern. One issue I find with CA and the second-layer is that if you get any spillover onto the exterior, it is very difficult to remove without staining the wood.
 

Thanks @flying_dutchman2 and @Baker.
 
My son just sent his photographic interpretation of my pinas-wreck:

Hope you like it as much as I do...

someone missed the crew:
 

I haven't watched any of his videos, but it sounds like I should. I haven't encountered any issues with shrinkage yet - at least with the second layer, but that could just be luck. I have had fit issues with my first run of planks, but I've always attributed that to my lack of skill with an Xacto knife and pencil. Maybe there was more to it than that. Thanks for the heads-up.  

I haven't watched any of his videos, but it sounds like I should. I haven't encountered any issues with shrinkage yet - at least with the second layer, but that could just be luck. I have had fit issues with my first run of planks, but I've always attributed that to my lack of skill with an Xacto knife and pencil. Maybe there was more to it than that. Thanks for the heads-up.