Bob Cleek

"Powder horn values range widely depending on condition, type of carving, and market conditions. A simple piece containing a name and date could be worth a few thousand dollars, while intricate examples with historical engravings have been valued at $30,000 or more." https://www.invaluable.com/powder-horns/sc-UVH6H0R6BL/
 
See:  https://www.pbs.org/video/antiques-roadshow-appraisal-1849-ohio-carved-powder-horn/ 

I appreciate the work you've put into your approach, but, as allanyed mentioned, there are specific butt shift patterns which are distinctive to the construction method of vessels and periods.  Your "every other plank" butt placement is glaringly incorrect to a knowledgeable eye. Similarly, deck planks are always fastened with trunnels (wooden pegs) or with metal fasteners which are countersunk with the holes plugged with wooden plugs. No bare metal is visible on the deck surface. Wooden decks were regularly holystoned (sanded with abrasive stone blocks) to keep them clean and free of tar.  Protruding metal fasteners would prevent holystoning. In fact, at scale viewing distances, deck plank fastening pegs or plugs would be invisible on a real planked deck. Portraying them on models at most scales is greatly out of scale.  I could have passed on this comment, but as you posted this as a tutorial, I felt it might be helpful to some to note the discrepancies. Depicting deck plank fastenings of contrasting colors in scale models seems to be a matter of taste with many modelers, and if it satisfies them, that's their choice, but it does not create an accurate impression of the prototype.

Very nice tutorial Keith!!   Depending on the ship and era, keep in mind the pattern of the ends of the planks are  a bit more complex, usually  with a three butt or four butt shift system rather than a single butt shift system as you show which would be extremely weak.  I realize with a POB, this may be nonsensical, but it can be done.  Thanks for sharing!
Allan

I'd suggest you have that 1850's powder horn appraised if you haven't already.
 

I'd suggest you have that 1850's powder horn appraised if you haven't already.
 

I'd suggest you have that 1850's powder horn appraised if you haven't already.
 

Ian, back in the '70s I lived in a studio apartment and had no space for anything. I built a Kentucky percussion cap carbine kit on my lap during that time. It can be done!!! FYI - the kit came out great - I still have that muzzle loader!!
 
Thanks for the comments!!!
 
Hank

Sanding sealer is for use on open pore species, such as Oak, Hickory, Ash, Walnut.  The pore and grain structure places them in the category of woods that scale in an undesirable  way and are not appropriate for our uses.  The desired species do not need their pores filled and there is no need for a sanding sealer type product. 
The material itself tends to leave a layer that is too thick for scale uses.

Interesting to read the feedback to my query. Nobody mentioned sanding sealer so I guess that’s out! My workshop is an apartment dining room table, an area that clearly falls within the Admiral’s personal jurisdiction, so any form of spraying is out of the question. Not yet sure how sanding will survive scrutiny from this higher authority but at least have access to a vacuum cleaner! 
 
Finishing the hull and deck with anything that involves rubbing, see tung oil and thinned poly comments above, sounds feasible but it’s tough to visualize this as practical for deck furniture. So it looks like super thin un-rubbed brushed on poly might be the answer in this area.

I’ve had much better luck with the non-pigmented finishes in rattle cans.  You’re right, the ones dispensing pigmented finishes gum up quickly.
 
As an old timer passing on my experience to others ( although I don’t feel old) It is difficult to know what equipment someone has and what solutions fit their finances.  As a much younger man raising a family I remember when buying an air brush and air compressor would have been a big deal.  Also, while building model ships is for me an avocation, for others buying and assembling a kit does not warrant a well equipped workshop.
 
My suggestions are, therefore, often the poor boy approach to accomplishing a task.  I’m also prone to experimenting with ideas that I dream up.  Some work, some don’t.  
 
Thanks for the  nice complement on the model.
 
Roger

@Bob Cleek thank you for such a detailed and thoughtful answer!

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:
 
 

Lovely model, Roger! I'd say a great example of "understated elegance."
 
The original poster was specifically asking about finishes applied with a brush, so I didn't mention spraying. I'll say this about that...
 
I do a lot of spraying and, for a long time now, even more spraying than brushing, especially on "the wide open spaces." I use my trusty old Badger double-action airbrush. I would never approach a model with a "rattle can!"  I hate them. They are expensive in original cost and more often than not, they crap out before they're empty. And more importantly, they're risky, since, for me, at least, I never know when one is going to start spitting and sputtering and ruin an entire finish job.  I do my spraying as a model is built, paying attention to masking schedules and accessibility. While the model you have pictured is somewhat unusual in its lack of detail and bright finish throughout, which lends itself to spraying the whole model when complete, you're a more daring man than I, shooting the entire finished model as you did. I'd be afraid I would never get a sufficiently even application with a gun. How did you ever get the hard-to-reach places done? I'd never be able to get the "innards" coated evenly without getting too much build up on the outside of the framing. Congratulations on a job well done !

Lovely model, Roger! I'd say a great example of "understated elegance."
 
The original poster was specifically asking about finishes applied with a brush, so I didn't mention spraying. I'll say this about that...
 
I do a lot of spraying and, for a long time now, even more spraying than brushing, especially on "the wide open spaces." I use my trusty old Badger double-action airbrush. I would never approach a model with a "rattle can!"  I hate them. They are expensive in original cost and more often than not, they crap out before they're empty. And more importantly, they're risky, since, for me, at least, I never know when one is going to start spitting and sputtering and ruin an entire finish job.  I do my spraying as a model is built, paying attention to masking schedules and accessibility. While the model you have pictured is somewhat unusual in its lack of detail and bright finish throughout, which lends itself to spraying the whole model when complete, you're a more daring man than I, shooting the entire finished model as you did. I'd be afraid I would never get a sufficiently even application with a gun. How did you ever get the hard-to-reach places done? I'd never be able to get the "innards" coated evenly without getting too much build up on the outside of the framing. Congratulations on a job well done !

A lot depends upon the type of wood you're planning to finish bright (clear.) If the wood has open grain, it will be difficult to finish bright and obtain a smooth finish without considerable filling and that filler will have to match the appearance of the wood, which can sometimes be tricky. When finishing a model, "less is more." Others may have a different opinion, but I am not a big fan of clear acrylic or polyurethane finishes for models, although they are great for finishing bar and table tops. That said, some claim good results using thinned polyurethanes (sometimes marketed pre-mixed as "wipe on polyurethane.") If you plan to apply a finish with a brush, you will have to apply a very thin coat, or coats if you want to avoid brush strokes, puddles in the corners, and overall loss of fine detail. Because models are viewed up close, the finish must be perfect if the artistic impression of the model is to be effective. Assuming the wood that is to be finished bright is a suitable species (i.e. a closed grain "finish" wood, such as pear, boxwood, ebony, or the like,) I would opt for a thin coat of clear shellac, hand rubbed with fine steel wool and/or pumice and/or rottenstone after drying, if necessary. If the surface is well prepared and perfectly smooth, the thin shellac should soak into the wood well and little, if any, hand-rubbing should be necessary. If, after that, the surface appears a bit too flat, I'd apply a light coat of Renaissance Wax. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Wax 
 
If the wood species isn't suitable for fine clear finishing, I would not finish it bright, but would fill it in the usual way and paint it. As the saying goes, "You can't polish a turd."

Lovely model, Roger! I'd say a great example of "understated elegance."
 
The original poster was specifically asking about finishes applied with a brush, so I didn't mention spraying. I'll say this about that...
 
I do a lot of spraying and, for a long time now, even more spraying than brushing, especially on "the wide open spaces." I use my trusty old Badger double-action airbrush. I would never approach a model with a "rattle can!"  I hate them. They are expensive in original cost and more often than not, they crap out before they're empty. And more importantly, they're risky, since, for me, at least, I never know when one is going to start spitting and sputtering and ruin an entire finish job.  I do my spraying as a model is built, paying attention to masking schedules and accessibility. While the model you have pictured is somewhat unusual in its lack of detail and bright finish throughout, which lends itself to spraying the whole model when complete, you're a more daring man than I, shooting the entire finished model as you did. I'd be afraid I would never get a sufficiently even application with a gun. How did you ever get the hard-to-reach places done? I'd never be able to get the "innards" coated evenly without getting too much build up on the outside of the framing. Congratulations on a job well done !

A lot depends upon the type of wood you're planning to finish bright (clear.) If the wood has open grain, it will be difficult to finish bright and obtain a smooth finish without considerable filling and that filler will have to match the appearance of the wood, which can sometimes be tricky. When finishing a model, "less is more." Others may have a different opinion, but I am not a big fan of clear acrylic or polyurethane finishes for models, although they are great for finishing bar and table tops. That said, some claim good results using thinned polyurethanes (sometimes marketed pre-mixed as "wipe on polyurethane.") If you plan to apply a finish with a brush, you will have to apply a very thin coat, or coats if you want to avoid brush strokes, puddles in the corners, and overall loss of fine detail. Because models are viewed up close, the finish must be perfect if the artistic impression of the model is to be effective. Assuming the wood that is to be finished bright is a suitable species (i.e. a closed grain "finish" wood, such as pear, boxwood, ebony, or the like,) I would opt for a thin coat of clear shellac, hand rubbed with fine steel wool and/or pumice and/or rottenstone after drying, if necessary. If the surface is well prepared and perfectly smooth, the thin shellac should soak into the wood well and little, if any, hand-rubbing should be necessary. If, after that, the surface appears a bit too flat, I'd apply a light coat of Renaissance Wax. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Wax 
 
If the wood species isn't suitable for fine clear finishing, I would not finish it bright, but would fill it in the usual way and paint it. As the saying goes, "You can't polish a turd."

Lovely model, Roger! I'd say a great example of "understated elegance."
 
The original poster was specifically asking about finishes applied with a brush, so I didn't mention spraying. I'll say this about that...
 
I do a lot of spraying and, for a long time now, even more spraying than brushing, especially on "the wide open spaces." I use my trusty old Badger double-action airbrush. I would never approach a model with a "rattle can!"  I hate them. They are expensive in original cost and more often than not, they crap out before they're empty. And more importantly, they're risky, since, for me, at least, I never know when one is going to start spitting and sputtering and ruin an entire finish job.  I do my spraying as a model is built, paying attention to masking schedules and accessibility. While the model you have pictured is somewhat unusual in its lack of detail and bright finish throughout, which lends itself to spraying the whole model when complete, you're a more daring man than I, shooting the entire finished model as you did. I'd be afraid I would never get a sufficiently even application with a gun. How did you ever get the hard-to-reach places done? I'd never be able to get the "innards" coated evenly without getting too much build up on the outside of the framing. Congratulations on a job well done !

Lovely model, Roger! I'd say a great example of "understated elegance."
 
The original poster was specifically asking about finishes applied with a brush, so I didn't mention spraying. I'll say this about that...
 
I do a lot of spraying and, for a long time now, even more spraying than brushing, especially on "the wide open spaces." I use my trusty old Badger double-action airbrush. I would never approach a model with a "rattle can!"  I hate them. They are expensive in original cost and more often than not, they crap out before they're empty. And more importantly, they're risky, since, for me, at least, I never know when one is going to start spitting and sputtering and ruin an entire finish job.  I do my spraying as a model is built, paying attention to masking schedules and accessibility. While the model you have pictured is somewhat unusual in its lack of detail and bright finish throughout, which lends itself to spraying the whole model when complete, you're a more daring man than I, shooting the entire finished model as you did. I'd be afraid I would never get a sufficiently even application with a gun. How did you ever get the hard-to-reach places done? I'd never be able to get the "innards" coated evenly without getting too much build up on the outside of the framing. Congratulations on a job well done !

The model below was finished by me in 1982 so it is 38 years old.  Hull and deck framing is domestic pear wood.  Deck planking is holly and hull planking is boxwood- not Costello, all finished with clear finish, no stain.
 
When the model was finished, I went to a local auto body paint supplier who mixed up a quart of matte finish lacquer.
 
i hung the model from a hook in my basement and sprayed it with a Badger sprayer propelled by canned air.  38 years later finish is still good as new, and there is no visible buildup of finish.  Any sort of wipe on finish would have been very difficult to apply and with the oil based finishes you run the risk of discoloration as the finish ages.
 
you could do the same thing.  If you don’t have spray equipment, look into a Preval sprayer, inexpensive and disposable.  Otherwise use rattle cans.  My favorite is Testor’s Dulcote or use one of the hardware store sprayable clear coats.  These range from full gloss to matte finish.
 
Roger

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:
 
 

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:
 
 

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:
 
 

No matter how you cut it, cutting the rolling bevel in a planking rabbet (sometimes called a "rebate") is a tedious process that takes some thought and care. You will find lots of theoretical instructions in boat building and modeling books about how to do it using the information that may be developed using lofting techniques. The exact angle of the rabbet can be developed for any point along the rabbet's length from the lofting (or lines drawings) and from that the rabbet, back rabbet, and bearding lines can then be developed and drawn or lofted. These varying angles define the shape of the rolling bevel that forms the rabbet. In small craft and model construction, there's an easier way to cut the rolling bevel without reference to the drawn or lofted the rabbet lines at all. Experienced boat wrights dispense with a lot of the lofting by "building to the boat," as  they say, rather than "to the plans." With the planking rabbets, this means that the angle and depth of the rabbet at any given point along the rabbet is developed using "fit sticks" and battens to define the rabbet lines and the bevel's rolling angles. It's easier done than said.
 
What you do is frame out your boat or model. Take care, as is always necessary, to fair the frame face bevels. This requires setting up the frames and sanding the faces so that a flat batten laid across the frames in a generally perpendicular relation to the frames, as well as at lesser angles, will always lay flat against the frame faces. (You may need to place temporary blocking between the frames or otherwise secure them well so they don't wobble when you sand across them.) Your frames should be cut and set up as in full size practice, with the corner of the outboard-most side of the face precisely cut and set up on the section lines such that when fairing wood is removed from the forward side of the faces of frames forward of the maximum beam and from the after side of the faces of the frames aft of the maximum beam. The accurately cut frame corner, the forward corner on frames aft of the maximum beam and the aft corner of frames forward of the maximum beam, is the reference point for fairing your frames. Use one batten for marking the faces of the frames and another, with a suitable sheet of sandpaper glued to its face, or a manicurist's emory board, to sand the excess off the faces until they are fair. The batten used for marking is chalked with carpenter's chalk and rubbed against the faces of the frames to mark the high spots. Where the colored carpenter's chalk transfers from the marking batten to the frame faces is where the frame face is too high and needs to be sanded down some more. When the marking batten lies flat in contact with all the frame faces, transferring chalk to the entire frame face, the frame faces are fair.
 
Now, with your frames faired, take a small stick of wood the same thickness as your planking and cut across at the ends perfectly square, which is called a "fit stick," and place it against the face of a frame and slide it down until the lower back corner of the fit stick (the inboard corner) rests against the keel. Accurately mark the point where the corner of the fit stick and the keel meet. This mark is where your bearding line is at that point.
 
Then take a second fit stick and place it on top of the first with the first in the position it was in when you marked the bearding line point and slide it down over the first fit stick until its lower back (inboard) corner touches the keel and mark that point. This mark is where your rabbet line is at that point.
 
Make these two marks at each frame. Spring a batten between all the upper and lower marks on the keel and draw lines through all the marks. These lines will be your bearding and rabbet lines. Extend them out as far as they will go, but, for the moment, they are relevant only for the span from the forward-most frame to the after-most frame.
 
Now, at each frame, with your two fit sticks stacked as when you marked the lower rabbet line, take a knife or chisel and using the lower edge of the upper fit stick as a guide, cut into the keel at the same angle as the face of the bottom edge of your upper fit stick, i.e. with the flat of your blade against the edge of your lower fit stick. This cut should be as deep as your planking is thick. (This first cut can be easily made with a small circular saw blade on a rotary tool if you know what you're doing. Mark the blade face with a Sharpie to indicate the depth of cut.) Cut down to the point of the rabbet cut you've made from above so that you end up with the back rabbet face of the keel at a right angle to the rabbet line cut.  Test your cut with a fit stick, which, when the rabbet section cut at that frame is done, should lie perfectly fair on the face of the frame with its bottom edge fit perfectly into the rabbet you've cut. Because the angle of your rabbet is defined by the lower edge of the top fit stick and it's depth by the thickness of your planking, there's no need to worry about where the back rabbet line is. You'll develop the back rabbet naturally when the two lines you are cutting to meet at right angles at the bottom of the cut.
 
Now, you simply "connect the dots" or rabbet "notches" you've created at each frame by carving out the wood in the way of the rabbet and bearding lines between the frames to form a continuous rabbet with a fair rolling bevel.
 
The stem, deadwood, and stern post are a bit trickier than the sections where the frames are set up on the keel, but the method of marking them and taking the rabbet angles off of fit sticks is the same and shouldn't need much further explanation. The main difference is that a batten of the same thickness as your planking is place across the frame faces, rather than perpendicular to the frame faces, and extended to where its bottom inboard edge touches the stem, deadwood or stern post and is marked there for the bearding line, and then another fit stick batten is placed on the first to find the rabbet line. You will find a chalked marking fit stick batten to be handy again in fairing up the dubbing on the wide deadwood rabbets. These techniques are a lot easier to learn by doing than to explain in writing. 
 
On a real vessel, cutting the planking rabbets is a very exacting process because the ease of caulking and the watertightness of these seams are dependent upon the perfect fit of these faying surfaces (where the planks and keel touch.) This isn't a big consideration in a model. What's important for a model is only that the visible rabbet lines and the planking are fair and tight. If the angle is off behind the planking and a bit too much wood is removed, it makes no difference because a sliver can always be glued in place to raise the plank to where it has to be and the rest filled with glue, or if too little is removed, the plank face can be sanded fair after it's hung. (The latter being the less preferable. It's generally better to remove wood from behind the plank than from the plank itself.)
 
This may seem like a tedious exercise and it is, but doing it correctly will make your planking a far easier task, particularly in hull forms where there is considerable twist in the planks at the ends. A final word of caution for the modelers with a machinist's background: This is a hand job. You won't find a way to do it more easily on your mill. Many have tried to devise some sort of jig which would permit cutting these rolling bevel rabbets with saws, routers, or other power tools. As far as I know, and those I know who know a lot more about it than I do, nobody's succeeded. Don't waste a lot of time trying to figure out what nobody else has been able to accomplish. I expect that it could be accomplished, in theory, at least, with very sophisticated CNC technology, but would probably take a lot longer to program and set up than doing it by hand will.
 
This video of full-sized construction illustrates the method described fairly well:  
 
 
 

The color range of natural shellac runs from orange which, with multiple coasts, will appear dark brown. Shellac flakes are bleached to achieve varying darknesses ranging from "clear" on up. You can obtain flakes from mail order houses and dissolve them in your own alcohol, but buying premixed "two pound cut" shellac in quart cans is cheap and easy. (Most paint and hardware stores carry it. In the US the brand is Zinsser "Bulls Eye.") It comes in two types, "orange" or "amber" and "clear." For modeling purposes, the clear is what you want. If you wish to thicken it, simply take some out and let the alcohol evaporate. To thin, just add more alcohol. A quart should last you a long time. Brushes clean up with alcohol. I store my used brush cleaning alcohol in closed containers and start washing a brush by rinsing in the "dirtiest" jar of alcohol, then move to another that's a bit less dirty, and finally rinse in a jar of clean alcohol. As the alcohol in the jars gets progressively dirtier, it gets moved into the "next dirtiest" jar. I use the "dirtiest" used brush cleaning alcohol for adding back into the can of shellac to thin it as needed, or even, if there's enough shellac dissolved in it, I use it for when I want very thin shellac. You save a lot on alcohol that way and don't waste shellac, either. One can also always leave the "dirty" jar of brush cleaning alcohol open for a day or two and let the alcohol evaporate and yield shellac of a desired thickness. Shellac that is "molasses" consistency is sometimes used to good effect as an adhesive. Dried alcohol is easily removed by simply washing with alcohol. Shellac permeates the wood surface and does not produce brush strokes or raise the grain. It dries flat on bare wood, but with multiple coats, will build to a gloss finish. It sands easily to a very smooth surface. Shellac is an archival material. Three thousand year old shellac covered artifacts in good shape have been found in Egyptian tombs. And it's really cheap compared to other coatings on the market. It's non-toxic (aside from the denatured alcohol it's mixed in. Shellac is what is used to coat jelly beans to make them shiny. What's not to like?
 
Shellac contains a natural waxy substance that supposedly interferes with the adhesion of polyurethane and water-based (acrylic) coatings, although I've never encountered any problem applying oil-based finishes over dry shellac. If one is concerned about this, Zinsser also sells "SealCoat," a "dewaxed" shellac for use beneath polyurethane and water-based finishes. "SealCoat" is advertised as a "universal sanding sealer" for this reason.
 
(Don't waste your money buying shellac in a rattle can. If you don't want to pay sixteen to eighteen bucks for a quart, you can buy a half-pint for ten bucks.)
 
See: https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/zinsser/interior-wood-finishes/bulls-eye-shellac/