Jolly Jo

That sounds reasonable on a real boat but, as I see it, in this case the second planking is most of all intended to cover the naked lime wood from first planking with walnut for a nicer appearance. Therefore, as it visually wouldn't really make a difference when painted, I skipped this step.

Hello all, Easter business kept me away from the shipyard so I couldn't make much progress. Nevertheless I painted the inner bulwarks green (instead of planking them with 0.5 mm walnut) and decided on the deck planking pattern. I thought a two step would be a little clunky for the long and slim deck so I went for the three step version. Furthermore I choose to lay just one pair of king planks for the same reason. Later I looked at the deck plans of Chapelle's "Baltimore Clippers" again and dropped the idea of wide waterways with staunchions, again due to the narrow deck. Happily planking away I realized that I didn't adjust my planking layout accordingly so I ended up short with some planks. As I didn't want to rip the deck apart I glued two stripes together to form a wider plank (impression) on the tips of two planks which I thought would be a plausible solution. The planks butt at the stern and nib at the bow as I've seen it on many deck plans in Chapelle's book.

Today I received my copy and I love it! Shipping costs are quite high (33€ including the ridiculous DHL handling fee) but as the price of the magazine itself is a steal I think it's still worth it. As international shipping has been quite abusive to the magazine`s spine and covers, maybe one can implement an extra option for sturdier envelopes into the ordering process. I would have paid for it, so it doesn't reduce the margin. Anyway, thanks a lot for your time and effort sending out this helpful publication 🙂

Oh no! Get well soon! I'm sure the hull will be waiting patiently.

Nice, clean hull. Very well done. Good luck planking and don't fall down the hatch

Phil, thank you very much for your help! In the process of learning I sometimes feel foolish but you're absolutely right, mishaps and misconceptions are inevitable, especially for a newbie. I'll upgrade the mock up cardboard deck with frames to figure out the planking pattern.

When I went to bed last night I realized I made a fool of myself. Laying out the whole deck, then joggling the planks and after that building the covering boards accordingly would have been the right way. that's what I will do. Oh dear..

The hull looks great, very nicely done!

Last week was slow as I continued painting, or was learning to paint... I put on a paint job in the evening, let the color dry over night, corrected an error or part I was not satisfied with and so on... In the end I learned a lot and I'm finally okay with the result. I was happy to finally get to planking the deck but first I had to think how it should look like. The manual just said to simply butt the planks to the bulwark and glue a stringer on top. As I already deviated from the width of the planks which I think are too wide I want to go for a more realistic approach and add more details. Therefore I will use two 4mm stripes as king planks (regular planks are 3mm), add covering boards and staunchions like on Mosquitobit and Flying Fish shown in Chapelle's book and on on Pride of Baltimore II. How to make covering boards was a tough nut to crack... First I cut a template of the deck out of cardboard and wrapped some tape around it to test fit the planks. Then I cut a 4 mm covering cardboard as mock up I traced the cardboard to an oak stripe and fit it to the bulwark. Port side fit best so I continued accordingly. Next step was to place sandwich paper over the stripes to determine how to joggle the ends. I read that joggling would be done if a plank joins the covering boards at an angle wider than 45°. Afterwards I cut the sandwich paper, traced it to the cardboard, cut the cardboard and traced that to the oak stripe. I guess it was a step many many but it felt safer... Last thing was to cut some test staunchions from scrap wood to loosely test fit and I like it. I know on Mosquitobit and the other ships the planks did / do not go directly into the covering boards but in a separate margin plank next to it but I have to compromise on that. Their planks are considerably thinner so I think it looks best as it is.

This is an amazing diorama, I love every part of it!

Ist ein bisschen spät hier zu schreiben aber vielleicht hilft es für zufünftige Vorhaben: "Lupus Brünier Gel" ist gut zum brüniergen von Zink, Messing, Kupfer oder Bronze. Das Ölbad nach dem Brünieren ist wichtig, am besten so 8-12 Stunden einwirken lassen. Ich nehme Ballistol. https://lupus-pro.de/c/waffenpflege/brueniergel-brueniersets/antik-fuer-kupfer-messing-bronze-und-zink (It's a little late to respond but I think it might help for future builds: A very good product to darken zinc, brass, copper or bronze is "Lupus Brünier Gel" It's important to soak the pieces in oil for about 8-12 hours to complete the process. I use Ballistol )

geht doch (it does work after all)

Nope, indeed I didn't. Thanks a lot sir!

The PAINt job really is a bottleneck as I'm afraid to screw up so I take my time. After trial and error the first color came out well *phew That's when I realized the wale at the starboard side sat to high and wasn't flush with the lower end of the transom. I have no idea how this has evaded me so long or didn't I care? Anyway, last chance for a correction before applying the next color. Therefore I had to unglue the piece. First I slightly sanded the surface and then I applied water to scratch off the acrylic primer. I kept on watering the wale and its adjacent sides with a cotton swab for about half an hour, then applied heat with a heat gun. Moving the gun steadily along the wale, always applying water in between turns, it came off nicely. I then stripped away the layer of walnut planking where the wale had to sit and covered the empty space with scarp walnut I kept from tapering the planks. After spraying on new primer she is ready for the black layer.

At least it sounds like a happy ending. It is quite hard to step away when one is determined to finish something or make progress of some kind. Especially getting one's mind off the subject afterwards... Have a great new day! I'm looking forward to seeing how you progress.