druxey

Good idea. Sometimes the double sided tape is difficult to clean up.
 
Thanks!

More planking progress:-
 
As you can see below this is the 8th row (and final row) of parallel planks.

I decided to do a bit of measuring. Firstly I placed a pins, equi-spaced from the keel, about 1/6 of the length from bow and stern. Between these pins I stretched a taught line. I then used this line to place a series of additional pins.


I then measured the curved distance between the line and the 8th plank at 3 positions - front pin, maximum beam and rear pin. I then worked out the ratios of the measured distances.
 
At the front pin the length was half the length at maximum beam, so I concluded that the planks needed to be tapered to half width towards the bow.

At the rear pin the curved distance was circa 2/3 the measurement at maximum beam and hence I concluded that the planks needed to taper to 2/3 of their width at the stern.

Before continuing with taper planking I decided to reinforce the planks in the area of the engine room. The engine room interior walls appear to be steel (inner surface of hull plates). I therefore needed to hide the planks anyway. The interior side of the planks can just be seen in the next shot.


I cut strips of 1/32" ply to fit between the frames.


Having cut all the ply strips they were glued in place using PVA glue.

That's all for now friends.

Lovely gratings, Alan. As long as the finished look is right, no-one will notice any little cheats along the way!
 
I prefer to rubber cement my sandpaper to a flat surface rather than tape.

That looks very sweet indeed, Mark! You might want to varnish or paint the lead to prevent future deterioration.

Looking really nice, Chuck. Your progress is amazing and the ship looks aesthetically pleasing, at least to my eye.
 
As I recall, when I did the scuppers on Cheerful, I started with a small diameter drill that was large enough to get the point of a round needle file inside. Then I just rolled it to increase the hole size. Once the hole size was close a final drilling to even out the taper worked nicely. Like I said, as I recall. To be honest I'm not 100% sure.

I had completed making all the Orlop deck gratings (image below). From what I could find they ran along both sides of the hull , full length, and this was called the carpenter's walk. There was also a run along the bow from port to larboard (starboard) and three central gratings.  The topside of all were flush with the top of the beams. The first task was to lightly sand the top of the grating battens to be flush with the grating ledges as mine stood a bit proud. I set my sandpaper down onto the small repurposed pastry marble slab with some double sided tape to keep it secure and had at it (image below).
Installing the gratings was, at first, an overwhelming challenge. The grating ledges were to be set into notches cut into the deck beams and carlings. Aligning these notches properly was impossible, and occasionally splitting the beam corners off unavoidable. To alleviate this, I simply cut (chiselled and scraped) the corner edges off of the beams and carlings that the grating ledges were to rest on, and then I sanded the underside corners of the grating ledges that were to rest on those beams and carlings (image above). Applied a little dab of white PVA glue and plopped them into place. When looking down at it you cannot tell the complete beam corner is gone, plus it will be deep enough below other decks that seeing anything will draw attention away from such a small detail.
In the image above I only have the three central gratings installed.   I did not install the floor, lower futtock or second futtock riders. The second futtock riders pass through the Orlop deck and up to the underside of the Gundeck clamps. In doing so, these run alongside the deck beams and pass through the gratings in those areas. That is why some beams haven't knees in between bracing them. When installing those gratings I notched them out to allow the passage of the riders. I have no intention of adding the riders... they won't be seen or missed.
Once all the gratings are in I will install the Orlop standard knees above the floor beams. Then I move up to the Gundeck.
I am further along than these photos suggest but still will need a couple of nice days to finish them off. Yes, I am back outside working on the ship, so nice weather is a must. Yesterday was rainy, today is a bit cruddy, and the next few are forecasted to be wet!

That looks very sweet indeed, Mark! You might want to varnish or paint the lead to prevent future deterioration.

Oh dear. No one has complained about this, but the trestle- and cross-trees really were just too big. I looked at the plans in Longridge’s book about HMS Victory, and they are shown as tiny. That’s not right either - I worked out the dimensions using Steel’s figures, and I needed to make them about 2/3 of the present size. That was possible, though the cross-trees are now too small to be drilled for the rigging. Anyway, the revised ones don’t look too bad to me, though of course a photo brings out all the imperfections. Please remember that the maximum dimension is three quarters of an inch. Despite them being small, they seem strong enough, thanks to the Bahia rosewood. I think it’s very important to avoid making things oversize if possible; I’ve seen too many photos of models where this is a fault. The topmasts are not yet fixed in place, but I put them in just for the photo. The view through the window does not, incidentally, reveal just how unbelievably wet the garden is.
On a different topic, I had asked earlier if anyone knew what had happened to the modelships.de site. I found the answer on the web, and it’s a sad one. The owner of the site died, and that meant the end of it.

Work proceeds, if slowly, on the rigging. Tiny deadeyes are fiendish to thread, but I'm now on the mizzen topmast, so nearly done. I’ll leave photographing until the standing rigging is more-or-less complete - at present there are still too many loose ends etc., and it looks a bit messy.
In between rigging the model, I thought I would have a go at the ship’s boats. Various ways of making them occurred to me . I could approach my eldest grandson, and ask him to make the basic shells with his 3D printer. He’s very clever with it, and has even made a model of a fighter aircraft with folding wings, but I’d rather do the work myself. Milliput might be a possibility. Or I could carve them, but that’s not easy as they need to be so thin. It then occurred to me to try using a balsa wood former to make a papier maché shell. The problem was, of course, that the paper strips, inundated with glue, would stick to the balsa wood. Greasing the mould with some Duckham’s car grease, bought in the 1960s and still usable (the tin alone worth much more now on Ebay than it cost when new and full), made it a bit difficult to get the first layer of newspaper in place, but after that the process went fine. The boat was then cut in half, to make it easier to remove the moulds. The balsa wood came away fairly easily, thanks to the grease. The two half-boats were then glued to the keel (made from card), and I could then proceed to put in ribs, again using card not wood. Then the thwarts were installed. I hope the photos show just how small the scale is - they show a 23 foot boat.
A couple of uncertainties. Do I fit the boats with rudders? It seems to me more likely that the rudders were fitted when the boats were launched, not when they were stored. I could not find an ideal photo on the National Maritime Museum site, but it looked to me from the model of HMS Mars, for example, as if the rudders were not fitted. And I just don’t understand the davits that are shown on some of the plans in the Museum, so I’m not trying to fit them. Adding a windlass, however, should certainly be possible.

Thank you guys for nice comments and likes.
I continue with the construction of hawse timbers.

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

Welcome aboard, Marcel!

An excellent primer for learning rigging techniques, Toni! 

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

For scuppers: My method (waterway in place) is, first accurate mark-out both inboard and out. Drill with a very small diameter bit from both sides. Hopefully the holes will meet - at least partially. Then progressively enlarge using larger diameter bits and needle files, making minor corrections as you go until you reach the diameter of the scupper.
 
I've not drilled hawseholes in years. I file the half-holes in the hawse pieced before assembly. Again, I make them slightly under final size, then file them out once planking is complete.

Please read the planking tutorial:
 
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/APrimerOnPlanking.pdf
 
It will answer all your questions!

Welcome aboard, Marcel!

Welcome aboard, Marcel!

Welcome aboard, Marcel!