Peter S

Thanks Jeff. Was thinking I might have to go this route though was hoping that there was some magic solution that I hadn't yet found 🙃. Appreciate the feedback!

Think I have made a bit of mistake. I have stained and then varnished the top half of the hull before attaching the wales on either side. Am having a great deal of difficulty getting the wales to stick to the varnish. I have tried PVA and also CA gel but with no success to date. It seems that the varnish does not like to be adhered to! Any suggestions?

Finally decided that I had applied enough coats and pulled off the masking tape. Unfortunately in doing so it has peeled away some of the varnish. Not happy about that. Will not use that masking tape again. Even though it was a reputable brand specifically designed for use in painting! Will attempt to apply another coat of varnish to see if that improves the look.

Been a while since my last post but have been busy with a few outside projects, namely moving and packing up the house. Have now moved permanently to the South Coast of New South Wales and loving it! Finished off the sanding of the hull and was reasonably happy with the result. Had decided (right from the beginning) that I would follow the AL painting scheme and had bout the relevant AL paints, though as the stains were out of stock I have been purchasing what I need from the local hardware retailer. Fortunately I could get reasonably small batches. (I had been worried that I might have to get 500ml to 1000mls!) Stained and varnished the upper hull as per the instructions. (Sorry no pics) Then marked the waterline. Found this to be a lot harder than anticipated. Found it difficult to get pencil marks on the varnish. Eventually marked and then taped the waterline. Sanded the lower hull to remove the stain and varnish and started applying the paint. Have so far applied around 10 coats of the AL white paint (using a paint brush). Am definitely not happy with quality, am finding it very thin and runny. Not sure if that should be expected but I just keep adding coats trying to get a consistent colour across the hull. Has anyone else experienced this or do most airbrush. Has been a real learning curve with painting and think for the future I will look at the Vallejo paints as they seem to be popular and have good comments. Adding all these coats has certainly slowed down progress as I really can't do too much more until the hull is finished. Will post some pics once I decide that have applied enough coats!

Thanks Jeff. The advice has been great and extremely helpful. Agree about fairing. Took me quite a while to realise not only how important it is to do properly but also to figure out just what to do. Doing the planking shows what needs to be done and what should be done. Will hopefully put this newly gained knowledge into practice for the next model. But still have quite a bit to do on this one yet. The planking took a lot longer than I had anticipated but that's OK. As they say patience is the name of the game. Now it is sand and sand and sand again 🙂

As you can see above I was also experimenting with using some wood filler, just to see how it works out. As mentioned the main planking is now complete with sanding started. Seems like once I think it is nearly ready I realise that more sanding is needed. However it is starting to look a lot better. Apologise for my photos. Am not good with the camera

Well! It has been quite a while since my last post and so much as happened including selling the house! Finally placed and glued the "whisky" plank today (though the whisky will have to wait until after dry July! Not good timing 🙂 ) Learnt so much in doing this planking. Some planks were really good and others are very ho-hum. The important thing is that I learnt heaps, had lots of fun and generally took my time. Typically each plank would take 2 days. First day was spent trying to get it bent into the right shape. Mostly this was achieved by soaking the plank in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes and then fitting the plank to the frames. The hardest part was trying to hold the planks into the correct position with clamps and anything that I could find. This was not always as successful as I would have liked especially when there was little space to put a clamp in place. But I never used any pins and only ever used wood glue and not super glue. Once clamped left the plank to dry for 24 hours and then glued it in place. Found that I still needed to clamp whilst the glue dried but generally the plank had the correct shape. Of course bending around the stem was challenging (as many have mentioned). As much as I wanted to plank the "proper way" as per Chuck's instructions, I really need to spile a number of planks but did not have the material to cut them out, only having the planking provided in the kit. So in the end I did need to put in a couple of "filler" planks. These ended up working really well and was very pleased the results albeit not proper boat building! But it did teach me a whole lot of techniques on shaping planks to the shapes I needed. Some pictures below. This first batch are some I tool a few weeks ago showing the planking progress

Had a short week being able to work in the dry dock again. slow progress as it takes 2 days for each plank. First day is getting the plank bent to the right shape and second day waiting for the glue to dry. Don't want to rush the project so whatever time it takes is what will happen. Have now installed the first 4 planks on each side and the top sheer plank. It is definitely going to be a challenge to clamp the planks towards the end. Also know that I will run out of room at the stem to fit all the planks so will be following the AL plans to manage that. Getting the planks fixed at the stem has been a struggle but getting a better handle on what to do now. I know that I will need to do some remedial work with filler once the planking is completed. Glad I decided to paint the hull for this first model! The learning process is steep but rewarding. Some pics below showing progress. Can see that the port garboard plank is sitting too high at the stem but hope by the time it is sanded back it will look

Got another 2 planks installed (no pics yet). Going away for another few weeks so not much will be happening until I get back. Think I have a better handle on what I am doing. That is until I hit the next hurdle 🙂 Really enjoying the process and learning heaps. This really is a good model to start with as you are forced to learn a whole lot of techniques!

Thanks. I was worried about how that support was sticking out. I have sanded it back already but now that you have mentioned it, I will sand it back even further so that it meets the frames. I am a little worried about the bow, but have lined it out even though the plans don't do that. am narrowing the planks as they run to the bow (and stern) The plans show the topmost planks running to the bow and then when the stem has no more room they cut short the planks. Not ideal which is why I am trying to get all the planks to the stem if possible. At least I am aware of this and will try to work through the issues. Running into these issues on this model is really helping my learning and teaching me how to remedy them or even better avoid them in the first place. At the moment I am happy to moving ahead with planking 🙂 Cheers Peter

While waiting for the glue to dry, thought I would start work on shaping the oars. Pretty happy with how they turned out, even though they aren't completely round. Still to be painted. Not sure what colour scheme I will use for them.

Have been making some progress this week. After re-reading a lot of logs and watching quite a few videos, I "think" I now have a much better appreciation of what is entailed in fairing. I followed Kev's lead in generating a batten from some cardboard. Works a treat. Will make some more. It definitely helps in the fairing process and also where to lay the planks. I have now laid the garboard and broad strake planks on both the port and starboard sides. Have made an error with the port broad strake (cut it too short! Oops!). Am hoping it will be fixable. It is not too bad. Have found that it is very hard to get the bend right at the bow and have little contact to glue to. Tried to use super glue but that still didn't hld. Might try adding a bonding pad which I have seen on other logs (Ken_2).

Thanks Kev. Appreciate you looking in on my log and your advice. I have read your log (and all the others that I could find!) and have gotten many useful tips and suggestions which will hopefully lessen some of the mistakes I will undoubtedly make along the way. Cheers Peter

Hi Craig, what a good idea. Already have a couple of quality stainless steel rulers, so can definitely add the sandpaper. Thanks for the tip! Peter

Hi Craig, Wow! That is an amazing project with some fantastic video. I have been enthralled by what I have seen so far. It is fascinating to see that a lot of the techniques that are suggested in model making are actually used in building full size craft. Thanks for passing that on. Only trouble is I am hooked into watching the entire project 🙂 Seems that I need to get some thin batten material for assisting with fairing. Think that would help me a lot to get the right shape when fairing until I can work it out just by eyeballing (if I ever get that advanced!). I saw that other people have used the second planking material from other models but given this is my first model just not sure where I can get something similar. Really appreciate the link and comments. Tks Peter