herbgold

Looks great, Terry, miles better than my Supply - here's her current state (I never did the ratlines), together with my rather sad-looking Pegasus, which I must start second-planking one of these days...

Just to say that I haven't given up in spite of my long absence from these hallowed pages... I started two new history courses and my time has been taken with reading and attending lectures.

I'll be back - probably not before next March!

Thanks, SpyGlass. I measured down from the very top of the gunport strip to the bottom of my temporary batten, and get 29mm, which I think equates pretty closely to your 23.35mm measured from your extrapolated line.

Thanks again - I had thought of laminating two 1mm strips, and the trial soak and bend seems to work just fine.

I think so, Mike, although it's very difficult to tell.  (I did read your log, and found it very useful. Especially the batten idea, as you see here.)

Thanks, Spyglass. I did take them from the plan, the problem I had was measuring the extreme forward and aft ends where there aren't any easy reference points. I have just remeasured and my marker batten is actually spot on, to less than 1mm.

I've pinned a temporary batten to guide the top of the wale. Like others, I was a bit puzzled by how the wale should curve at the bow and stern, and I've just let the batten relax in what seems like a natural curve fore and aft.

On another topic, this thing (I find it hard to describe it as anything else) has just moored next to HMS Belfast here on London River. Cheek!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/06/russian-billionaires-superyacht-makes-waves-in-london

Thanks Mike. It's amazing how much more clearly the imperfections show up in a photo than on the real thing!

Well, I've finished the first planking. It's not pretty - there's far too much filler for my liking - but I think it'll do as a foundation for the second planking. I hope.

Sorry if I over-reacted, chaps - it's been a long day and I've spent two hours of it in the dentist's chair...

thanks as always for your interest.

I'm sorry, Mike, but you said (a little above, on 26 July):

Just make sure that you lay your planks naturally against the hull, and don't try to bend them laterally against their width.

and that's exactly what I've been trying to do!

Yes, that's exactly what it does - edge bends the plank. I don't see a problem with it as far as first planking is concerned.

Can't remember if I read about this somewhere, but if I did I've forgotten. Seems to work well, but will have to think of some other method on the second planking - or perhaps stick the cut out bits back in afterwards???

Eight planks laid on each side, plus a short garboard strake. There's a bit of a problem on the right of this picture, where the green pins are, and I'll remove that bit and fix it tomorrow. I feel reasonably happy with progress.

Well, I started to mark up the bulkheads according to the method in Simple Hull Planking Techniques for Beginners (Dirk De Bakker et al,) but the more I thought about it the less sense it seemed to make to divide the bulkheads up the way it is done there without actually marking the planks on them. The Jack Nastyface Planking Tutorial looks superb but is too advanced for me (and uses different widths of planks, whereas I am pretty much bound by the kit contents). So the best option seems to be to follow Nico's Planking the hull, running the planks, which looks straightforward and seems to leave much less to chance. I will report back once I have done it...

I've printed it off, Martin, and will study it before I start. Good point about practice first planking.

I don't think my wife would agree that I am a patient man, but thank you anyway.

A question before I start the first planking - downwards from the gunport strips, as per the instructions, or upwards from the garboard, as per Martin's build: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/5960-hms-fly-by-martin-w-amati/page-8? Or does it not matter that much for a first planking?

Onward!

Well, it's (re-)done. I steamed the starboard gun-port strip off yesterday, soaked and glued it back today, using Spyglass's tutorial as best I could, in particular the bit about sighting through port 6 via a temporary mainmast. It's definitely better, at least the strips now line up vertically and horizontally, which is just as well because the bulkhead risers would not have stood another steaming.

Thank you everyone - I honestly think if it hadn't been for your help and encouragement I would have given up.

Thank you very much, Steve, that's quite extraordinarily helpful. My nose will be back to the grindstone is a few days' time.

Martin, I didn't use screws this time time round. I have soaked and clamped the ports twice without gluing them. I lined them up at the joint the first time round, and that didn't work, so this time I started at the bow, as Mike suggested.

I have just looked again, more carefully:

• The main problem is that the starboard strip is set too far back, and I will steam it off (isopropyl alcohol apparently doesn't work on standard Evo-Stik) and shorten it at the bow. (This arises from the first time round, when I broke off a piece at the bow when removing it, had to remake it, and got it a little longer that the port strip.)

• The minor problem is that the starboard sides of the aftmost two gratings is skewed aftwards at the right, which visually exaggerates any unevenness, because the eye tends to settle on the edges of the gratings as right-angled reference points. That's easily fixed by removing the gratings and refixing them.

I hope all this makes sense! Thank you all for your advice and patience with me. Probably nothing more until the week after next, when a very fit Herb returns from walking in the French Alps with his beloved.

Both set back, Steve. The port only just a little bit, starboard rather more. Sigh.

SpyGlass, I don't believe the bulkhead risers will stand for another "procedure" after the trauma they've been though - screwing and gluing, steaming, pinning and gluing. That's why I think I will have to do the gunport surgery I was talking about. But I won't do anything till back from France, week after next.

Thank you all once again for your advice and encouraging words.

Of course there's a problem - there would be - the starboard gun ports are about 3mm further back than the port ones. I am not going to unglue them again, instead thinking of either enlarging the port ones backwards by 3mm or the opposite with the starboard ones. I think I will be able to cover up when I timber the sides. But it will all have to wait until we come back from our week in the French Alps - I can't tell you how much we're looking forward to getting away from Britain for a bit.

No no, I wouldn't do that! Onwards...

I haven't fixed down the deck yet - if you read above you will see that I had already described the screws as a mistake.