Bob Cleek

These Veritas miniature tools are collectors' pieces. While they do "work," they are not built for serious use. For one thing, as miniatures, they aren't ergonomically suited for use in a full-size hand. They were intended for the gift trade (and hence the nice fitted box,) not serious miniature woodworking. 

Save your money and your sanity. "Plank crimpers" are next to useless. 
 
Go to the Articles Database, https://thenrg.org/resource/articles, and read everything in there on planking. Then go to YouTube and watch Chuck Passaro's plank-bending instructional videos.
 
Then you're good to go.
 
 

Some people / navies like to have a rope-ring or something like this above the leathering to prevent the oar from slipping out of the thole. In other places this is frowned upon. I gather this is what Jerry was referring to ?
 
Such a ring is usually a tight-fitting single or double 'Turk's Head' (well, today rubber rings are used). There are instructions for tying Turk's Heads on the Internet or in books on knots. At a 1/25 scale it should not be too difficult to replicate.

Oars were typically covered with leather where they contacted the thole pins or oarlocks.  WoodenBoat Magazine recently (the last two or three issues back) included instructions for making oars and a side bar for adding the leather.
 

Beautiful model ! Great job ! Thanks for sharing it.

And that's a huge understatement. The world is full of great modeling wood species. Many aren't commercially viable at all because they don't grow large enough to produce anything other than small pieces. In fact, those small, slow growing species often produce the best modeling wood species of all. Think "boxwood" and "holly," etc. I just had a three inch thick branch break off of a persimmon tree on my property. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can mill out of that. I expect it will be great modeling wood. (It's main commercial use once upon a time was for carving golf club driver heads.) Good luck trying to buy some at your local lumberyard. And the best thing about harvesting your own wood is that it's all free!

My comment on this is a bit late to the dance, but I missed this thread on the first bounce.
 
As for milling, my late friend Elof Granberg invented the "Alaskan mill" chainsaw planking mill and I've played with them some. They do work, but their kerf is large. They are fine if your are milling large logs, but not practical for small stuff. As you note, securing the small logs for cutting is a problem. 
 
I've found that for modeling stock, which doesn't have to be large dimension stuff, splitting the log is often a good way to go for logs that are too big for my 14" bandsaw. I rip a cut the length of the log with a circular saw and then drive wedges into the kerf and split the log into halves, quarters, and so on, until it's small enough to handle on the bandsaw. I square two sides on my jointer, or plane one face by hand and then  cut slabs off with the bandsaw. I keep billets fairly large and mill pieces as needed from the billets instead of trying to mill a bunch of standard sized stock. Building boats or models, nothing is dimensioned lumber ever anyway. It saves a lot of wood that way. You only cut what you need.
 
Another advantage of splitting your logs is that you minimize grain run-out. Trees are basically "cones" with the "rings" getting progressively smaller as the trunk or branch tapers upward. By splitting along the grain, you know that side of your piece has its grain running right along the split, instead of running off the edges of your planks when cut square. Sawyers of commercial stock would never do that these days because they can get more lumber out of a straight cut than they can along the ring, but modeling stock is small bits and pieces and we can afford to be "wasteful" when we mill it.
 

My comment on this is a bit late to the dance, but I missed this thread on the first bounce.
 
As for milling, my late friend Elof Granberg invented the "Alaskan mill" chainsaw planking mill and I've played with them some. They do work, but their kerf is large. They are fine if your are milling large logs, but not practical for small stuff. As you note, securing the small logs for cutting is a problem. 
 
I've found that for modeling stock, which doesn't have to be large dimension stuff, splitting the log is often a good way to go for logs that are too big for my 14" bandsaw. I rip a cut the length of the log with a circular saw and then drive wedges into the kerf and split the log into halves, quarters, and so on, until it's small enough to handle on the bandsaw. I square two sides on my jointer, or plane one face by hand and then  cut slabs off with the bandsaw. I keep billets fairly large and mill pieces as needed from the billets instead of trying to mill a bunch of standard sized stock. Building boats or models, nothing is dimensioned lumber ever anyway. It saves a lot of wood that way. You only cut what you need.
 
Another advantage of splitting your logs is that you minimize grain run-out. Trees are basically "cones" with the "rings" getting progressively smaller as the trunk or branch tapers upward. By splitting along the grain, you know that side of your piece has its grain running right along the split, instead of running off the edges of your planks when cut square. Sawyers of commercial stock would never do that these days because they can get more lumber out of a straight cut than they can along the ring, but modeling stock is small bits and pieces and we can afford to be "wasteful" when we mill it.
 

And that's a huge understatement. The world is full of great modeling wood species. Many aren't commercially viable at all because they don't grow large enough to produce anything other than small pieces. In fact, those small, slow growing species often produce the best modeling wood species of all. Think "boxwood" and "holly," etc. I just had a three inch thick branch break off of a persimmon tree on my property. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can mill out of that. I expect it will be great modeling wood. (It's main commercial use once upon a time was for carving golf club driver heads.) Good luck trying to buy some at your local lumberyard. And the best thing about harvesting your own wood is that it's all free!

My comment on this is a bit late to the dance, but I missed this thread on the first bounce.
 
As for milling, my late friend Elof Granberg invented the "Alaskan mill" chainsaw planking mill and I've played with them some. They do work, but their kerf is large. They are fine if your are milling large logs, but not practical for small stuff. As you note, securing the small logs for cutting is a problem. 
 
I've found that for modeling stock, which doesn't have to be large dimension stuff, splitting the log is often a good way to go for logs that are too big for my 14" bandsaw. I rip a cut the length of the log with a circular saw and then drive wedges into the kerf and split the log into halves, quarters, and so on, until it's small enough to handle on the bandsaw. I square two sides on my jointer, or plane one face by hand and then  cut slabs off with the bandsaw. I keep billets fairly large and mill pieces as needed from the billets instead of trying to mill a bunch of standard sized stock. Building boats or models, nothing is dimensioned lumber ever anyway. It saves a lot of wood that way. You only cut what you need.
 
Another advantage of splitting your logs is that you minimize grain run-out. Trees are basically "cones" with the "rings" getting progressively smaller as the trunk or branch tapers upward. By splitting along the grain, you know that side of your piece has its grain running right along the split, instead of running off the edges of your planks when cut square. Sawyers of commercial stock would never do that these days because they can get more lumber out of a straight cut than they can along the ring, but modeling stock is small bits and pieces and we can afford to be "wasteful" when we mill it.
 

Hello Geoff,
Have you considered using Privet. I recall reading on the forum a couple of Australian members recommending this. Apparently it's readily available as it's considered a weed there and grows into a small tree. Sorry but I can't remember who they were,perhaps if you PM Jim Lad he may know.
 
Dave  

Any reasonably hard wood with a fine, straight grain can be used for most parts of a model.  Best to pick out your own pieces if you can to get the best results.  That said some woods are better for some purposes.  For a general all around, low cost wood go with basswood.  Poplar is also a low cost alternative that is a little harder than basswood.  Not the best woods but pretty good.  I like cherry for most purposes but it doesn't seem to be the best for steam bending.  Apple and pear are good for just about anything.  Black walnut is excellent if you can find good pieces with out wild grain or knots.  Maple is good for the backbone of the model and decks but get wood with a fine grain, not the typical stuff you find at Home Depot.  Boxwood is an excellent wood for everything especially carving but it is expensive.  There are lots of woods that can be used in modeling and they don't have to be the ones found in kits or from wood suppliers.  I find that aracantha, dogwood, gardenia, plum, lemon, lime and other woods I find available around here work just fine and are usually for free.  You do have to season it and mill it yourself but it is easy to do with a little practice. 
 
One last thing.  Don't buy wood from sources in China.  What they label as cherry, walnut or boxwood has only a passing kinship with the real stuff.

Ash, like Hickory and any Oak, has open pores and a distinct and distracting grain.  This causes any one of them to be a poor choice for any part that is to be left natural.  It also requires that the pores be filled if any of these species are to be painted.
If the framing is to be completely planked over and the deck is completely planked, Ash will serve, since it will be totally hidden.
 
Pet peeve about the internet:
Now, about your question as asked,  This is not any sort of competition.  A ranking based on some arbitrary score serves no purpose.  Using the superlative tense is some creature of the internet, and in most cases takes a discussion in a non productive direction. In addition, the best in a group that is all crap, is still crap.  A productive ask would be a search for excellence.  You do not supply your location on Terra.  If you are located in eastern North America, and you are seeking commercially available domestic wood that is a reasonable price,  Hard Maple and Black Cherry are excellent species to use for framing.  If you can harvest, mill and season your own wood, the choice of excellent species becomes a much larger one.

Save your money and your sanity. "Plank crimpers" are next to useless. 
 
Go to the Articles Database, https://thenrg.org/resource/articles, and read everything in there on planking. Then go to YouTube and watch Chuck Passaro's plank-bending instructional videos.
 
Then you're good to go.
 
 

The most important part of the boat- the fighting chair. Brass parts aged in vinegar.
 
The figures were masterfully sculpted digitally and 3d printed by Luis Hidalgo, aka "Holden8702", of Spain.  
 
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Plain denatured alcohol, "ethanol" (in the US) or "methylated spirits," (in the UK) is sold in hardware and paint stores. Isopropyl alcohol and other "spirits" formulated for medical use are sold in pharmacies (in the US) or by "chemists" (in the UK.) 

Just what Thunder said. Today's bottled modeling paints, particularly the acrylic "water based" types, are the result of complex chemistry and there is a lot that can go wrong with them, especially when they are combined with other types and brands. Acrylic water based paint often does not adhere well, if at all, over oil based paints, while oil based paints will adhere to acrylics. Under coats are sometimes incompatible with finish coats. While dried pigment generally appears darker than wet pigment, colors may, upon drying, appear different in unanticipated ways. If paint ages in the bottle, it sometimes won't perform as expected. Using the wrong thinner or conditioner, which works for one brand and not another can cause problems, too.  A common malfunction occurs when paint doesn't dry, or in the case of acrylics, "cure" fully and remains tacky to the touch. The only cure for this problem is to remove the paint completely and start over. That's a terrible, nasty, messy job. You don't want to have to go there ever. 
 
So, the moral of the story, at least until you are completely certain and comfortable with a particular coating, is to test it first on a piece of scrap material or, as the professional painters call them, a "chip." That "paint chip" gives you a preview of how that paint will perform. If it doesn't perform as you require on the chip, you've lost nothing. On the model, it's another matter entirely. These chips are also worth saving, with any helpful information written on the back with a Sharpie pen, such as the brand and color and they type of thinner and/or conditioner used. Other colors can be applied over a section of a chip as well, and this will provide information on how well that color "covers" and what it will look like when dried on top of the earlier coat. This practice comes in very handy if and when you graduate to painting with an airbrush, which is more demanding of properly conditioned paint than brushes are.
 
I'll pass on writing an entire dissertation here on conditioning paint, but suffice it to say that it is a rare bottle of paint that contains paint ready for use "right out of the bottle" or can. Environmental factors such as temperature and humidity affect the behavior of paint to greater or lesser degrees depending upon the paint, oil or water based. (You will probably end up preferring one or the other. I prefer oil based paints and often use fine arts artists' oil paints sold in "toothpaste" tubes from art supply stores, which I condition to my own taste. Your mileage may vary. "Dance with the gal ya brought.") These conditioners create the characteristics of the paint. Thinners simply are solvents (or water or alcohol with water based acrylics) that make the paint thinner. Thinners can also contribute to the "flattening" of glossy paint, a desired effect for models, which should not be finished glossy because gloss is out of scale. "Flatteners" will also flatten glossy paint. The more you add, the flatter the paint gets. Other conditioners will improve the "flow" of the paint, basically slowing its drying time, so a brush won't "drag" and a "wet edge" can be maintained more easily. Paint that "flows" well will also "lay down" easily and brush strokes will disappear as the paint "levels." Too much, on the other hand, can cause paint to sag and create drips and "curtains." Driers, often sold as "Japan Drier" in the case of oil paints, contain heavy metals which speed the drying of the paint, the opposite of conditioners that improve flow. On hot days with low humidity, you will add conditioners to slow the rate of drying, while on cold days with high humidity, you'll add conditioners to speed up drying. These skills become even more important when airbrushing and spray painting because the atomized sprayed paint has to hit the piece before the solvents kick off, and then lay down before drying to achieve a perfectly smooth finish, yet not be so thin or retarded (slowed down) that they run or "curtain" after being sprayed. (And if you are of a mind to spray paint, forget the rattle cans and go for an airbrush. It will pay for itself over the rattle cans, which always seem to crap out while they're half full and never really give the same control or results.)
 
You need to also remember that wood has to be sealed before painting so the paint won't soak into the wood and produce an uneven coating. I use shellac for this because it is easy to work with, dries fast, is economical, soaks into the bare wood well, is compatible with all other coatings when dry, and sands very nicely to a very fine smooth finish. 
 
This may all sound a bit overwhelming at first, but it's not rocket science. If you're lucky, you'll find somebody who can show you how it's done and you'll be on your way. It's a lot easier to learn by watching somebody do it than it is to learn it out of a book. Experiment a little and get the hang of it, but, most importantly, practice and learn on scrap pieces before starting to slap paint on a model you've spent a lot of time on. That will save you a lot of grief. 
 
This fellow seems to have a pretty good video on the subject.painting miniatures. 
 
 

Plain denatured alcohol, "ethanol" (in the US) or "methylated spirits," (in the UK) is sold in hardware and paint stores. Isopropyl alcohol and other "spirits" formulated for medical use are sold in pharmacies (in the US) or by "chemists" (in the UK.) 

When and what to paint really depends upon the progress of the build. Generally, apply finish coatings when it is easiest to do so. It's surely easier to paint separate parts and then secure them to the model if that avoids having to mask or carefully cut in edges. If a hull has a lot of "attachments," it's often much easier to finish the overall hull coatings first and then add the attachments because you'll be sanding "wide open spaces" and not having to sand around edges and corners (which you don't want to round off with sandpaper, anyhow.) Bottom line, "use your own judgment."
 
As for protecting finished work, here again, common sense prevails and discovering solutions is part of the joy of the hobby. I often find using those foam insulating split tubes they sell at the hardware store to keep pipes from freezing or to insulate hot water pipes under houses is a good way to protect finishes during construction. They can be cut up in sections and several sections taped together at the ends with duct tape to form a "cradle" that will hold a model hull upright and secure without marring the finish on the hull.
 
You will often read that parts should best not be glued to finish coated surfaces and that's generally sound advice. That said, however, many of us hew to the traditional US Navy contract ship model "mil-spec" requirements and always mechanically fasten parts on our models, most often with a peg glued into a drilled hole or similar. This practice renders the "don't glue to painted surfaces" advise irrelevant and also eliminates most all  problems with adhesives letting go.
 
Finish coatings are an essential feature of a well done model and developing the skills necessary to do a good job does present something of a learning curve, even for a somewhat experienced painter. You'd do well to try to find some instructional videos on the subject and study up on it before you start painting your model. YouTube is full of videos on painting models. Don't just look for ship models. Some of the best are done by the military equipment modelers and the fantasy gaming figure modelers. Painting any miniature is all pretty much the same, but it isn't the same as painting a house!
 
Finally, one bit of advice that few new painters learn out the easy way. Always try out every coating you are going to use on a similar surface other than your model and on the test piece determine if the paint's consistency, "leveling ability,"  and drying time, etc., are as you intend them to be. If we had a dime for every post that started, "I've waited a couple of days after painting my hull and it's still all sticky and not dry..." we'd be rich people today. Learn to condition your paint and always test it first on a scrap piece of material ! (And save those scraps in case you want to paint over it later, too. That's the way to make sure that a later coat is compatible with the earlier one ! )

In 1975 a guy who worked for me offered me the wood from a pear tree that he had removed from his property.  The logs were cut up by a small saw mill and the rough planks sat around until I finally sawed and planed them into billets several years ago.  When they were originally sawed, I knew nothing about flat sawing, quarter sawing, etc. so the dried planks were cupped and twisted, with streaks of rotted wood.  Even after losing perhaps half, I have enough usable billets to last me the rest of my life.
 
The point is that small blocks suitable for model building can be cut from warped and cupped wood that would be useless for other applications.  In my case, billets that I cut have remained dimensionally stable.
 
Roger

Rubbing alcohol is iso-propyl alcohol and you need ethanol...

Just cheap denatured alcohol from the hardware store. Make sure you get the clear denatured alcohol, though. In some places, they dye denatured alcohol blue (often when sold as stove fuel) to keep people from selling it as drinking alcohol.
 

"What do you all think I did wrong? I didn't wait long enough? Put it on too thick.?" 
 
Or a combination of the two. Enamel paint hardens 1. as the volatile solvents (thinners) evaporate and 2. as the oils (binders) polymerize. The solvents evaporate "from the top down," with the solvent closest to the surface exposed to the air evaporating first. Thus, a coat can "skin over" with the solvents evaporating and be dry to the touch, but, particularly when a coat is thick, the paint below the skinned over surface won't have completely cured. The skinned surface slows the rate of solvent evaporation, as well, so when you start to sand through the "skin," you run into a real mess sanding. If you put another thick coat on top of a coat that hasn't fully dried, it just compounds the problem. When the later coat skins over, the paint surface shrinks, but the lower soft "wet" paint allows the shrinking surface to "slip" because it's soft, so you can get "wrinkling" on the hardened top coat.
 
Testor's enamel is notorious for taking forever to dry. At least that's what I've often heard as well as experienced. It's formulated primarily for use on plastic models and is fairly thick stuff. I expect that most of the "model" paint sold today is made for the plastic model kit builders' market. The wood and metal modelers are decidedly in the minority and a lot of the modelers working with traditional materials mix and condition their own paints from artists' oils or acrylics, anyway. If you seal your wood with thinned shellac which permeates the bare wood (and will dry very fast) , and then do your final finish sanding, you should have a perfectly smooth surface without any sanding dust-loading problems on your sandpaper, which is caused by trying to sand uncured paint. The only reason you'd really require a primer coat would be to get a uniform base color. Real "sanding basecoat" (sometimes called "high build primer") is a paint made with chalk dust added, which gives the paint more solids which cover well and sand very easily. Use that if you have to fill a lot of minute imperfections. It also will cover dark patches well. If you are trying to get a uniform base color, try to prime with a paint that has a lot of solids (pigments) which will cover well. The thinner your coats, the better. 
 
Unfortunately, the lacquers that we used to love are hard to find these days. Frankly, "model" paints really aren't the best option in many instances because they are somewhat "generic" and favor the plastic kit building market, rather than the materials many ship modelers use. You will often find better options in art supply stores, quality paint stores, marine chandleries, and automobile paint supply houses.  Note that  Rust-oleum Paints, which are sold pretty much everywhere, have many different primer options, as well as a good line of quality oil paint in many colors. Your paint store can color Rust-oleum to your specifications while you wait. Rust-oleum enamels can be purchased in pint cans at a relatively reasonable price and are easily thinned with lacquer thinner for airibrushing.
 
Finally, "rattle cans," while perhaps seemingly convenient, really aren't the best option for painting miniatures. There's  a wide range of quality with the nozzles, which are the main determinant of the quality of the finish you can get out of them. There's a world of difference between the control you have with a decent airbrush and what you get with a "rattle can." And, of course, the cost of a "rattle can" is far greater than the cost of the same amount of paint in a regular can.
 
 

Save your money and your sanity. "Plank crimpers" are next to useless. 
 
Go to the Articles Database, https://thenrg.org/resource/articles, and read everything in there on planking. Then go to YouTube and watch Chuck Passaro's plank-bending instructional videos.
 
Then you're good to go.
 
 

Your mileage obviously varies. In my experience, properly seasoned and heat-bent wood will stay where it is put within normal ambient humidity variations. Those variations are also greatly dependent upon the species of wood involved. (Museums are full of old models that are proof of this.) As a matter of science, the smaller the piece of wood, the less it tends to shrink and swell with changes in moisture content. It is absolutely true that in single-layer monocoque wooden hull construction "If the planks are glued to each other, all stresses are shared by adjacent planks and the movement is also shared." From an engineering standpoint, however, those shared stresses will always need to go somewhere. When movement, as contrasted with stresses, is evenly distributed throughout the structure, such as a wooden hull, the movement is often imperceptible, being relative to the entire structure. The inherent flexibility of most paints and varnishes will accommodate this distributed movement rather well. Even in the extreme environment to which a real wooden vessel is exposed, a good quality paint job over a quality built planked hull will not "show her seams" for a good long while. A model which is properly cared for has no problem at all in this regard. On the other hand, when movement is consolidated by gluing all the parts together, the stresses, will "seek the path of least resistance" and the "weakest link" principle comes into play. Where the glue is stronger than the wood itself, which is the case with many modern adhesives, this can result not simply in one big glue-line failure, but in the actual splitting of a piece itself. This problem is endemic in "strip planked" full size hulls, which is why that construction method places so much emphasis upon resin sheathing to isolate the wood structure from moisture. 
 
By the same token, the stresses from movement of the wood structure when a model is built of properly seasoned and bent wood of a suitable species and property exhibited and stored should be insufficient to cause any significant damage to the model, so there's no great harm likely to be done by edge-gluing planks if one is so inclined and not bothered by the inherent drawbacks of the process. If you want to do it your way, go for it and good luck!