Bob Cleek

I can't imagine why anyone would have any need to edge-glue planking at all. It adds nothing structurally and creates a lot of messy work. Properly spiled and bent plank should easily lay fair on the frames or bulkheads and glue at the faying surfaces between the frame or bulkhead and plank face should be more than adequate. A plank which has to be forced into place isn't done right. Do watch Chuck's videos to learn how it's done correctly. You'll be glad you did.

No difference, really. Just remember you can paint oil-based paint on top of acrylics, but not acrylics on top of oils.
 
 
Paint manufacturers long ago discovered that if they created the impression that one had to use primer, they could sell twice as much paint to people who didn't know whether they needed to prime a piece before painting or not. The fewer coats of anything that you put on a model, the less detail is lost and the better the scale impression will be. (Ideally, you want the thickness of your paint coats to be "to scale" too!) I don't use primer unless I need it to make my finish coat cover with less coats or to make incompatible coatings adhere. If I don't need a primer, I don't use one.
 
The fellow in the video wasn't using primer on his plastic plane model because he was using oil-based enamel which sticks to plastic well. He probably would have used a primer on it if he were using water-based acrylic paint because the water would tend to bead up on the slick plastic surface. Oil doesn't bead up on slick impermeable surfaces like water does.
 
Primers have a variety of purposes. One essential purpose of a primer is to serve as an intermediate coating between two surfaces and/or coatings that aren't compatible. (Hence the market term: "Universal Primer," of which dewaxed shellac is one of the best.) When two non-compatible coatings must be applied one on top of the other (which one ought to avoid in the first place,) a "universal" primer compatible with both oil and water-based paints creates a common surface that "sticks" the two together. Primers are also useful for creating a uniform base color, particularly when successive colors aren't likely to cover as well as you'd like. A highly-pigmented primer coat in a neutral color is much easier to cover with a finish color coat than an unevenly colored surface. Finally, "sanding primers" contain chalk which makes them easy to sand. If you have a rough surface, a sanding primer or "basecoat" is easier to sand to perfect smoothness than finish coats.  Bare wood requires a "sealer," which some incorrectly call a "primer," although a first thinned coat of paint or varnish can often serve double duty as a sealer. The purpose of a sealer is to seal an absorbent surface, such as bare wood, that would otherwise soak up the finish coat paint unevenly, requiring additional finish coats and likely more sanding. I seal all my wood with thin shellac. ("Out of the can," which is two pound cut shellac, I'll add 25 to 50 percent alcohol to thin it well.) I keep the thinned shellac in a jar and often simply dip small pieces into the shellac and then shake off the excess. It soaks into the wood and dries very quickly. (And faster if you blow on it.) The alcohol evaporates quickly. This provides a "hardened" wood surface for final fine sanding and an impermeable surface for applying paint so the paint won't soak into the wood unevenly and leave "rough spots."  When you see close-up photos of models on the build logs that look like the parts were cut with scale-sized dull chainsaws and painted with a an old rag on a stick, they haven't been sealed and sanded before painting. (The unsightly finish is less noticeable when viewed with the naked eye, of course.)
 
 
Yes, artists' oils will take seemingly forever to dry because they contain no driers. Oil paint is made up of a pigment, the color material, and a binder, an oil that cures and hardens so the pigment adheres to the surface that's painted. The oil, often "raw" linseed oil (which can be purchased in food-grade as "flaxseed oil" in health food stores for much less than in art stores,) polymerizes over time and becomes hardened. Artists often blend color for various effects right on their canvases and a slow drying paint is desired by them. "Boiled" linseed oil (which isn't boiled at all) contains added driers, usually "Japan drier," which accelerates the polymerization of the oil binder. Adding boiled linseed oil to artists' oils will cause them to dry more quickly, or one can buy "Japan drier" and add small quantities of that to artists' oils (or any other oil paint) and that will cause it to dry more quickly. How quickly is a matter of "feel" and experiment and tests on scrap material should always be conducted before applying mixed paint to the model itself. 
 
Oil paint will dry with a glossy finish if there's enough oil in it. Thinning tends to dull the finish, but sometimes not enough to achieve the flat finish required on scale models. To achieve a flat finish, a small quantity of "flattening agent" may be added. This can be purchased wherever artists' oils are sold. Grumbacher makes the industry standard "flattener."
 
Japan drier is a mixture of 3% cobalt in naptha. Linseed oil is simply linseed oil, a natural vegetable oil. Gum turpentine is simply refined tree sap. While I am no fan of climate change, one unfortunate consequence of many environmental protective regulations is that they too often attack the "low hanging fruit" and not the larger causes of the problem. Despite the relatively limited environmental impact of releasing oil paint related organic solvents into the atmosphere, oil based paints and solvents which contain high amounts of "volatile organic compounds" or "VOCs," are no longer allowed to be sold in some jurisdictions, notably in the U.S. in California. (Hence the "Not available in California" notations in many mail order catalogs these days.) There are a few exceptions to these regulations, generally involving packaging amounts. Linseed oil, Japan drier, and gum turpentine can still be obtained in small amounts at ridiculously high prices when sold as art supplies, but you'll have a hard time in many areas finding quart cans, let along gallon cans, of stuff like turpentine, linseed oil, mineral spirits paint thinner, naptha, tolulene, and the like. In times past, these substances were staples for anybody who knew what they were doing and did any amount of painting. Now, if you find yourself in a area where they've become unobtainable, you have to resort to "smuggling" your supplies from outside the areas where they are banned or pay the huge premiums charged for the ounce-sized containers in the art stores.
 
For those who wish to use acrylic paint, tubed acrylic artist's paints are readily available, of course. They are, however, acrylic paint and, like just about everything that "mother" tells us is "safe and sane," they are no fun at all. Those of us who were building models before about 1980 mourn the loss of "real" model paint like the legendary Floquil, which was so "hot" (full of aromatic hydrocarbons) you could get a buzz on using them. They worked perfectly every time right out of the bottle. Sadly, with their demise, modelers wishing the same results today have to teach themselves how to mix and condition their own paint.
 

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.
 
 

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.
 
 

I've had a hand crimper and tossed it as it damaged the wood too much.    For heating, I have two old curling irons, one is 1/2" dia.  and the other is 1-1/4" dia.  They don't get hot enough to burn the wood. 

I edge glued the planks on my last model and tried to be careful not to use excessive glue. I then used, and highly recommend using a cabinet scraper for the initial removal of excess glue and unevenness in the planking followed by sanding. My caveat is that I painted the hull and did not leave it natural so I have no idea how my efforts would have turned out using stain. Cabinet scrapers are available in many profiles and I have found them an extremely useful tool. Other areas I stain such as decks I always use a pre stain conditioner to even out stain color and use gel stains as they make it very easy to control the color.  
 
I have found that using a pre-stain wood conditioner to allow the even penetration of the stain really helps. I also use the Minwax gel stain and it is easy to control the color. I rub it in with like shoe polish with a cloth and it allows me to to make it as light or dark as I desire. 

HI Mark,
 
No other blocks, it goes straight to the steering wheel.
On the second deck, the ropes pass through some kind of wardrobe, or should we say a wardrope.
On a more serious note, the biggest difference between a French an English  74 gun ship for the steering wheel; is the location:
the French installed it behind the mast, the English installed it in front of the mast, needing a much longer rope this way.

I began adding the initial maple planking.....her shape is coming to life.
 
Rob

Paint should be thinned to about the consistency of milk, or even thinner in some instances. If you are experiencing brush strokes and runs, you are applying the paint too thickly, either because your brush is overloaded, your paint is too thick, or both. Repeated thin coats should "lay down" without any brush strokes or runs whatsoever. Keep applying until the coat is even and covers fully. This can sometimes take several coats. The goal is to cover the surface adequately with the least amount of paint build up. For sanding between coats, "less is more." Many sand so aggressively that they remove the coat they just put on! A properly prepared surface, with paint properly applied, should require very little sanding. 120 grit is way too coarse. You should be using 400 to 600 grit, and sparingly at that. If you've painted properly, you shouldn't have much more than a speck of dust here or there on the surface that you need to remove.
 
Paint needs to be "conditioned" before use. They aren't generally intended to be applied "right out of the can." Conditioning generally involves interdependent processes:
 
1.  Thinning: this involves adding the thinning solvent to the paint from the can to get the thickness of the paint adjusted.
 
2.  Retarding: this involves adding a "retarder," generally more of the oil "binder" to the paint. This will slow the drying of the paint, which permits brush strokes to "lay down" or "level" naturally. 
 
3.  Accelerating or drying additives: this involves adding "Japan drier," or other additives which accelerate the drying time of the paint. This is only necessary when mixing your own paint using tubed artists' oil paints, which generally do not contain driers to begin with.
 
Decent brushes are a worthwhile investment. When using oil-based paints, you should use natural bristle brushes. Synthetic bristle brushes are for water-based paints.  Use the largest brush you can for a job. This allows you to easily maintain a wet edge as you paint. You don't want to be running a brush back over paint which has started to dry.
 
Don't rush. Multiple coats are better than fewer thick coats.
 
Painting is an acquired skill. The more you do it, the better results you will achieve, although there can always be surprises, so be sure to test your conditioned paint first on a scrap piece.
 
YouTube has many video tutorials on painting models and miniatures.  This guy's series, although addressing plastic aircraft models, is fairly good:
 
 

I've reviewed the published comparisons. Dewalt is the highest rated of the mid-price-range scroll saws. Hegner is at the top of any list, along with a couple of others, all highly-priced accordingly.

The "search thingy" is your friend. Here's a thread from the past answering your question. Hope it helps.
 
Remember, if you buy your accessories at the same time as you buy your saw, you will likely save a considerable amount on shipping costs, especially to Germany, than if you have to keep "going back to the well" to get another accessory you've discovered you'd have a use for!
 
 

This is indeed the issue - double parallel arms.  The way to think about this is to consider what you do with your Jeweler's saw or coping saw.  You get the best result if you move your saw vertically up and down. This is what a double parallel arm scroll saw does.  It has two moving arms - one above the table and one below and the blade is mounted between them.  These arms move up and down parallel to each other.  The cheaper saws only have one moving arm and the blade fits into a fixed holder below the table.  To understand the action of this variation think again of your jeweler's saw. The action is like rocking your saw backwards (away from you) on the upstroke and then rotating it forward on the down stroke.  This is clearly not as precise and on the scroll saw tends to produce more vibration.  It also produces a bit of undercut but  this is not really important as you will cut outside the line and sand it back to the line.
 
John

The Romans had docks, to be sure. They had a huge inland port near Rome to serve as the terminus of a canal from the main port of Ostia where large amounts of cargo were offloaded. The limitation in the Mediterranean, however, was one of suitable dock space in harbors. Because it was possible to "parallel park" a larger number of vessels than to tie them to the side of a quay or dock, cargo was handled across the bow or stern of the vessels "parked parallel," instead of from midships as would be the case if the vessel was tied alongside. Hence the "gang planks" which are common in the area even to this day.

Forum members interested in harvesting and milling their own wood will find today’s Woodcraft Supply, woodcraft.com, to be of interest as it includes a free article on the use of jointers to be of interest.
 
As the jointer’s main job is to flatten bowed and crooked lumber, this article includes a number of common sense tips for those of us trying to mill home cured boards.
 
Roger

Belt sander to sharpen knife usually have a belt of 2 inches by 72 inches. It is use for the rough sharpening and the final sharpening is made  on a stone.
The speed for a belt sander for metal is faster than the speed used for the wood.
Belt sanding for wood gives a much better finish than a disk sander, especially when you sand in the same direction as the wood grain. For this reason, I do not use disk sander.

I am using a set of angle gauges like the one below to set the table of my (shop-made) disc sander:

 

A batten can be made of any "springy" material. Straight-grained wood slats work well. The thickness of the batten will determine the batten's flexibiliy, which is a matter of taste. Metal will also work, if it has spring to it. A broken piece of bandsaw blade with the teeth ground off serves well. So do pieces of metal packing banding. Manicure files and emery boards can work, too. They come with the abrasive grit already on them and the ones with a coarse and a fine grit on opposing sides are often handy.  Plastics will work, depending upon their stiffness. You want your batten to be stiff enough to make a fair curve when laid over the bulkheads or frames, but not so stiff that you break the bulkhead or frame trying to make your batten take a curve. Experiment and see what works best for your application. 
 
 
Hand and power tools each have their places, but hand tools often have greater ranges of utility. Power tools can be too aggressive and thus difficult to control, particularly in modeling. For fine fitting to close tolerances, hand tools have the advantage over power tools unless you pay the big bucks for highly accurate power tools. Really good power tools will provide accuracy greater than possible with many hand tools, but at a price. 
 
Like power tools, however, hand tools do come in a range of qualities and the good ones are priced accordingly. A decent set of chisels in smaller sizes are very useful. There are a number of small planes on the market, but there's a huge difference in quality and ease of use between the cheap plastic ones that are sold by modeling retailers and, for example, the nice metal ones sold primarily to luthiers.  The critical thing to remember about hand or power tools, but especially about  hand tools, is that they have to be kept sharp. Keep your tools sharp and they will not fail you. The same applies to sandpaper. When it wears out or gets loaded with dust, get another piece. Work from coarse grits to finer grits. Don't waste your time trying to remove large amounts of material with fine sandpaper.
 
Only buy a tool when you actually need to use it and always buy the best tool you can possibly afford. Realize that old used hand tools in decent "user" condition are often your best value. Learn to sharpen and maintain your tools and do so as often as necessary. You will easily be able, over time, to build up a good selection of fine tools following these principles and your work will be more enjoyable and better with good tools.  You will also save money because a quality tool is one that you will only have to buy once and if you ever decide to sell it, it will retain some of its value.
 
This is a (rusty blade) plastic Xacto "plane." I use the term loosely. I have one which came in a boxed Xacto knife set I bought at a garage sale decades ago. I attempted to use it once. It is totally useless.
 

 
Consider acquiring a Stanley "model maker's plane."  http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan12.htm
 
This is a current Stanley model #12-101 small trimming plane. It'll cost you ten or eleven bucks retail.  Note that its body is made of folded sheet metal. It will do the job well enough.
 

 
This is an original old Stanley #101 small trimming plane. (A very early one, by the trademark on the iron.)  Mint condition collectible ones aren't cheap, but "users" are quite common on eBay and on the used market. (Don't overlook thrift shops and low-end "antique" stores, which often have tool bins full of junk tools, often with a few "finds" among the junk. They often aren't aware of the value of the good tools and there are bargains to be had.)  Note that the body and cap are of cast iron. This one will do the job easier and better because it has more heft and will not flex, has a convenient pad for your index finger to rest upon, and has a better quality iron which will hold its edge longer and be easier to sharpen.
 

 
 
This is Lie-Nielsen's No. 101 Bronze Violin Maker's Block Plane, a copy of the original Stanley #101 in bronze with a precision wheel blade depth adjuster and a cryo-treated A2 steel iron.  https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/lie-nieslen-101-violin-makers-plane.aspx  It'll set you back $100, but it's a real piece of "jewelry" and a really great plane, from all reports. It represents the upper end of the price point and quality scale. Assuming both planes are properly sharpened and set, this plane and the old Stanley #101 will work equally well.

 
 
Here's a collection of Ibex Archtopped Carving Planes with convex soles. The small ones will set you back around $100 a pop. The large one in the foreground, about the same size as a Stanley #101, will make a $225 dent in your wallet. That said, just the thought of owning a set of these beauties will make most model makers start to tingle all over. These puppies aren't cheap, but if you are building concert violins, you gotta have 'em. https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/planes/ibex-archtop-carving-planes.html
 

 
 
 
 
He who dies with the most tools wins!
 

First, the bulkheads or frames have to be sufficiently rigid to withstand sanding without moving. They must also be set up accurately, but that probably goes without saying. If they move too much, you can put temporary (or permanent if it won't ever be seen after planking) blocking between the bulkheads to give them more rigidity.
 
What works for me is to use a "sanding board." This is a batten of suitable size and width with sandpaper of a suitable grit (120 for rough shaping) glued to one face of the batten. If you want to get fancy, you can glue knob handles on the smooth side of the batten at each end of the batten. This flexible batten is then bent across a number of bulkhead edges or frames and the "high" end of the face of the bulkheads or frames are sanded down to the "low end," which defines the shape of the hull. I generally will mark the "low" edge face of the bulkheads or frames, if not the entire face, so that i can readily see what has been sanded and take care never to sand beyond the "low" edge of the bulkhead or frame. Using the "sanding board" will permit you to fair the bulkhead edges accurately from any direction across the faces of the bulkheads or frames. Where there are bulkheads or frames that require a significant removal of material, you can also carefully cut larger amounts of material using a small spokeshave or other edged tool, but taking great care not to remove too much. Always "work up to the line" with your sanding board. 

The "search thingy" is your friend. Here's a thread from the past answering your question. Hope it helps.
 
Remember, if you buy your accessories at the same time as you buy your saw, you will likely save a considerable amount on shipping costs, especially to Germany, than if you have to keep "going back to the well" to get another accessory you've discovered you'd have a use for!
 
 

Even to this day, stern-in "med-mooring" is common practice in Mediterranean ports. Many local vessels carry a gangplank for the purpose.
 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 

The "search thingy" is your friend. Here's a thread from the past answering your question. Hope it helps.
 
Remember, if you buy your accessories at the same time as you buy your saw, you will likely save a considerable amount on shipping costs, especially to Germany, than if you have to keep "going back to the well" to get another accessory you've discovered you'd have a use for!
 
 

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! 

What you are asking about are called "bolsters." (See diagram below.) They are simply pieces of wood fastened to the side of the mast which keep the strop from sliding down the mast. You should fashion them from wood and glue them to the mast where you want them, but then drill two or three small holes through the bolster and into the mast and glue small wooden pegs (made with a draw plate) into the holes and sand the top of the peg flush with the face of the bolster, or, alternately, glue a brass pin in the drilled hole, set slightly deeper than the face of the bolster, and fill the top of the hole with a bit of putty and sand fair with the face of the bolster. The pins are necessary to make sure the bolster will be able to stand the load when the rigging is under tension.  Glue alone may not be sufficiently strong to do so. The strops are made up separate from the mast "on the bench" and then installed by sliding them over the top of the mast and down onto the bolster when the mast is rigged. This will require your planning the sequence of setting up the standing rigging so you can get the shrouds and stays over the mast in the correct order. It's generally easiest to rig as much of a mast or spar "on the bench" before installing it on the model, because it is far more difficult to do the work if one has to do so when the mast is erected.
 
 


 
 
Your kit may have provided the eye-bolts you have pictured on the mast about. The pictured eye-bolts are are grossly over-sized and out of scale. If your kit's eye-bolts are out of scale, as is often the case with kit parts, I would urge you to replace them with eye-bolts that are properly scaled. The ones pictured are at least two or three times as large as they ought to be. They also lack mast bands. (See diagrams, lower left, above.) In real life, these eyes would be part of a metal band set around the mast, not eye-bolts simply screwed into the mast. The mast band is a much stronger fitting. Mast bands can be simulated in modeling by gluing a thin strip of black paper around the mast, then drilling holes through the paper band and into the mast and gluing the eyes into those holes.
 
This video on making your own eye-bolts may be helpful to you.
 
 

A batten can be made of any "springy" material. Straight-grained wood slats work well. The thickness of the batten will determine the batten's flexibiliy, which is a matter of taste. Metal will also work, if it has spring to it. A broken piece of bandsaw blade with the teeth ground off serves well. So do pieces of metal packing banding. Manicure files and emery boards can work, too. They come with the abrasive grit already on them and the ones with a coarse and a fine grit on opposing sides are often handy.  Plastics will work, depending upon their stiffness. You want your batten to be stiff enough to make a fair curve when laid over the bulkheads or frames, but not so stiff that you break the bulkhead or frame trying to make your batten take a curve. Experiment and see what works best for your application. 
 
 
Hand and power tools each have their places, but hand tools often have greater ranges of utility. Power tools can be too aggressive and thus difficult to control, particularly in modeling. For fine fitting to close tolerances, hand tools have the advantage over power tools unless you pay the big bucks for highly accurate power tools. Really good power tools will provide accuracy greater than possible with many hand tools, but at a price. 
 
Like power tools, however, hand tools do come in a range of qualities and the good ones are priced accordingly. A decent set of chisels in smaller sizes are very useful. There are a number of small planes on the market, but there's a huge difference in quality and ease of use between the cheap plastic ones that are sold by modeling retailers and, for example, the nice metal ones sold primarily to luthiers.  The critical thing to remember about hand or power tools, but especially about  hand tools, is that they have to be kept sharp. Keep your tools sharp and they will not fail you. The same applies to sandpaper. When it wears out or gets loaded with dust, get another piece. Work from coarse grits to finer grits. Don't waste your time trying to remove large amounts of material with fine sandpaper.
 
Only buy a tool when you actually need to use it and always buy the best tool you can possibly afford. Realize that old used hand tools in decent "user" condition are often your best value. Learn to sharpen and maintain your tools and do so as often as necessary. You will easily be able, over time, to build up a good selection of fine tools following these principles and your work will be more enjoyable and better with good tools.  You will also save money because a quality tool is one that you will only have to buy once and if you ever decide to sell it, it will retain some of its value.
 
This is a (rusty blade) plastic Xacto "plane." I use the term loosely. I have one which came in a boxed Xacto knife set I bought at a garage sale decades ago. I attempted to use it once. It is totally useless.
 

 
Consider acquiring a Stanley "model maker's plane."  http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan12.htm
 
This is a current Stanley model #12-101 small trimming plane. It'll cost you ten or eleven bucks retail.  Note that its body is made of folded sheet metal. It will do the job well enough.
 

 
This is an original old Stanley #101 small trimming plane. (A very early one, by the trademark on the iron.)  Mint condition collectible ones aren't cheap, but "users" are quite common on eBay and on the used market. (Don't overlook thrift shops and low-end "antique" stores, which often have tool bins full of junk tools, often with a few "finds" among the junk. They often aren't aware of the value of the good tools and there are bargains to be had.)  Note that the body and cap are of cast iron. This one will do the job easier and better because it has more heft and will not flex, has a convenient pad for your index finger to rest upon, and has a better quality iron which will hold its edge longer and be easier to sharpen.
 

 
 
This is Lie-Nielsen's No. 101 Bronze Violin Maker's Block Plane, a copy of the original Stanley #101 in bronze with a precision wheel blade depth adjuster and a cryo-treated A2 steel iron.  https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/lie-nieslen-101-violin-makers-plane.aspx  It'll set you back $100, but it's a real piece of "jewelry" and a really great plane, from all reports. It represents the upper end of the price point and quality scale. Assuming both planes are properly sharpened and set, this plane and the old Stanley #101 will work equally well.

 
 
Here's a collection of Ibex Archtopped Carving Planes with convex soles. The small ones will set you back around $100 a pop. The large one in the foreground, about the same size as a Stanley #101, will make a $225 dent in your wallet. That said, just the thought of owning a set of these beauties will make most model makers start to tingle all over. These puppies aren't cheap, but if you are building concert violins, you gotta have 'em. https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/types-of-tools/planes/ibex-archtop-carving-planes.html
 

 
 
 
 
He who dies with the most tools wins!
 

First, the bulkheads or frames have to be sufficiently rigid to withstand sanding without moving. They must also be set up accurately, but that probably goes without saying. If they move too much, you can put temporary (or permanent if it won't ever be seen after planking) blocking between the bulkheads to give them more rigidity.
 
What works for me is to use a "sanding board." This is a batten of suitable size and width with sandpaper of a suitable grit (120 for rough shaping) glued to one face of the batten. If you want to get fancy, you can glue knob handles on the smooth side of the batten at each end of the batten. This flexible batten is then bent across a number of bulkhead edges or frames and the "high" end of the face of the bulkheads or frames are sanded down to the "low end," which defines the shape of the hull. I generally will mark the "low" edge face of the bulkheads or frames, if not the entire face, so that i can readily see what has been sanded and take care never to sand beyond the "low" edge of the bulkhead or frame. Using the "sanding board" will permit you to fair the bulkhead edges accurately from any direction across the faces of the bulkheads or frames. Where there are bulkheads or frames that require a significant removal of material, you can also carefully cut larger amounts of material using a small spokeshave or other edged tool, but taking great care not to remove too much. Always "work up to the line" with your sanding board.