robdurant

That's really helpful. Thank you. And I agree about the tedium... a good audio book goes a long way for me

Hi Doug, I've just been re-reading your log picking up on ideas and tips for the next few stages once I finish second planking of Stefano... Just one question, hope you don't mind... how did you go about cutting all the copper plates out? Did you use side-cutters? And did you have any troubles with the plates bending as you removed them from the sheet? I've coppered a hull before, but the plates were already separated, so this will be a new thing for me. It's lovely to be reminded that the messy, dusty, time-consuming steps lead to such a beautiful looking vessel... I was getting slightly stuck in the doldrums trying to get the second planks to go round the stern transom... a tricky step for sure. Hope you'll have a chance to get back to Stefano soon Rob

Looking great. I missed the sweep ports on my build and wished I'd added them at the stage you had. I didn't think they'd look right stuck on so I just left them off but yours look great. As far as lining the ports goes I lined them all at this stage. You just have to be more careful getting the edges lined up on the second planking so you get the recessed edge. But it's definitely doable with a little care.

Welcome Looks like a solid start. Welcome to the forum. Do start a build log and check out the other bounty logs on this site, and you'll be sure of some help along the way. It's a friendly site to be a part of. For example... Rob

Hi Eamonn, Overall it's a very simply hull to plank, but the counter is a bit of a pest. Mainly because the plank needs to be shorter on its lower edge than on the upper edge, so it naturally wants to clinker at the lower edge. I resorted to water, steamed on the plank-bender, bending it between my fingers, and then when I thought it was pliable enough (i.e. just about to break if I bend it any further!), getting it in place on the model using superglue, and often clamps a centimetre or two at a time... It still wasn't perfect by any stretch, but I managed to get it close enough that sanding brought it level without it breaking through the depth of planking in any places. It's solid enough now, so no harm no foul I finished planking the counter yesterday on the port side, so I'm probably feeling a bit more positive about it than I was early on yesterday. I'm please with the lines over all, although I do wonder whether the line that leads into the counter should dip less... I guess the lines on the wale should hopefully hide this, as long as they take the correct line, once the hull is painted. And I can always sand it back a bit further if necessary. I'll double-check against the plans later. I carved out the balsa in the stern to just above deck level and was pleasantly surprised by how solid it all seems. Thanks for looking in. Rob

Hi all, Just to say I've updated the pdf documentation for Picture Resizer to include the latest functionality, and I've also finally got round to writing a proper website for the application. As always, you can find it here: https://durant.biz/pictureresizer/ Thanks Rob

Thanks Bob Not much progress to show but I have been working little by little on the second planking. None of these planks are tapered but a single stealer was put in at the stern to help the run under the transom. I'm not a great fan of the beech(?) veneer. It's pretty splintery and not very forgiving but this hull will be painted so it's not really a big deal. Careful application with superglue seems to be working out okay. I'm about half way down on the starboard side so far.

That's looking great 😀

Thank you all for your kind words. I have begun Stefano and have made some progress finishing the first planking and beginning the second. You can find the build log here:

Thank you all for the kind words.

Hi! Looks like you're doing a great job of this iconic vessel. Hope you don't mind if I follow along.

Okay- the rigging is complete. I'm waiting for a case to be made, so Ethalion's under a cardboard frame with a plastic dust cover over her at the moment - not her best look. I shall take some better photos and post them when she re-emerges. I shall add (at least some of) the ship's boats around the model rather than on the skids as they hide so much of the deck beneath. But for now I'm going to call this one finished . Thanks so much to everyone for your encouragement, interest, wisdom, likes, ideas, etc... Especially Barbossa, Ray, Beef Wellington... I've taken so much inspiration from your builds! Here's just a few photos... She's in much need of a nicer stand, but that will happen when the case arrives Thanks again. Rob

I neglected to do this properly, and it shows on my final model, so I think you've done a great job there. The more work you do to really get it sanded down neatly and ready for the second planking, the easier that will prove. It's a great start well made If you work it out again as you go every few planks, you can accommodate for the inaccuracies and push things back into line... it's the only way I find will work for me, as my planking is never accurate enough to get it right first time. The mix of planks that are never perfectly the dimensions I think they are, and slightly off marking, and slightly off cutting mean I'm never quite where I expected to be.

Thanks Bob. I'm gradually learning. I think I probably over-engineer a lot of my solutions, but I have fun doing it, and it's a hobby, so what's not to like

First planking First I should probably say that I went back and added a rabbet at the bearding line, as on Ethalion, as I figured that would give the best chance of a neat termination for the planks at the stern post, once the second planking was in place. The lime wood planks provided with this kit are lovely - really well cut and nice and easy to shape... even so, the stern transom of this ship is a challenge... Using an app called conecalc, I worked out the radius the plank would need to be bent to laterally to sit flat round the stern... it's pretty severe, and my first few efforts at bending the plank like that were dismal. I ended up using 3x1.5mm beech I already had in the end so that I could get the bend. And even with soaking, and using a rib-bending iron, it was still quite the task. The planks were added with superglue, and once the whole hull was first-planked, I painted watered down carpenter's glue (Aliphatic resin) over the hull to stick the planks together. This seemed to give a really nice solid base. The rib-bending iron is great... in a matter of seconds, you can get something like the the result below (and the wood is dry from the heat before it goes onto the hull, so it isn't going to shrink, either...) With carefully edge bending using the rib iron, and gently teasing the planks, I managed to plank half way down the hull, and also the garboard strake and the two planks above without tapering any of them... The rest was then filled by letting the planks lie as they wanted to. Once the hull was closed up on both sides, a liberal coat of wood filler was added, and the hull sanded back to get a really smooth finish, ready for the second planking. The sternpost, and the strip that adds onto the bow? were also added now that the sanding was mainly done and they wouldn't get damaged. After taking these photos, I went over the whole hull and sanded it down further, as I realised there was more filler left than I wanted, but it gives an idea of the result. It'll do for a first planking. I've begun the second planking, but no photos to show yet. So that's me up to date. Thanks for all the likes and for looking in. Rob

The stern former As with the bow, the stern is shaped using balsa formers. These are a little more tricky than at the bow, as it's one single piece that is entirely responsible for the eventual shape of the stern in all three dimensions. It all begins with three identical balsa blocks of equal shape. Again, I made a cad drawing of the plans given by MarisStella so I could take some measurements off it and put extra lines onto it. The extra lines showed where the balsa blocks should start and finish on the x, y and z axes. This enabled me to cut them down to rough shape in the vertical and horizontal planes before sticking them together. I've tried to draw a picture of how I went about this... hopefully it gives some idea... basically the idea is to take away what you know WON'T be in the final shape one axis at a time, and then see what you're left with... when you've done that, you can start to take off the edges back to the curves you will eventually want. As they say, the way to eat an elephant is slice by slice! When done this way the whole thing feels much more achievable. The first wood I removed was the angle at the top - This forms the continuation of the line that runs along the tops of the bulkheads, and is not horizontal... it is higher at the stern than at the final bulkhead. (see 1 on the diagram.) This was achieved by marking the difference in height from the plans, and then sawing off the majority and sanding flat with sandpaper laid on a flat surface. The slope can kind of be seen below: Here are some more photos of progress... I marked the outline of the third balsa block - this is more than all that will be left of it once shaped, so why stick on the rest? It'll only need to be sanded or cut away... And here it is cut down and attached... Then I marked the angle of the backside of the stern (the transom) - again, this is not vertical... the curve of the stern at the top of the block sticks out more than the curve at the bottom of the block... I started this shape by removing the excess straight across the stern. Then, using a template made from the plans, I shaped the lower curve so that it was the right shape... (slowly and carefully, checking progress lots...) As I got closer I used a strip of paper pinned into the balsa to mark the line of the wale... And in this way, the shape gradually took form... Once it was close, I stuck it on to the bulkhead (using gravity to keep it in place as it stuck - which was either brave or possibly stupid, but I seemed to get away with it... ), hence the angle of this photo... I noticed that the angle of the rear bulkhead could easily be wrong, so I used balsa blocks to wedge it up and make sure it stuck in at right angles to the false keel. (There are no dowels through this bulkhead to help you out! Final shaping was then done on the model. Next up is first planking. But again, that will need a separate post.

Okay - with the gradual wrapping up of Ethalion (the rigging is completed), it's time for an update on the Barque Stefano. With the bulkheads roughly faired, we finished last time with them glued into place, save the final bulkhead at the stern. The next task is to fair the balsa blocks that provide shape for the bow and stern. I scanned the plans, and created CAD copies of the pertinent outlines to help me shape the blocks, and once these were stuck onto cardboard and cut out, they made good templates... This was done before the balsa was stuck on, and then I rough shaped the balsa off the model using a coping saw to stop the room being consumed by a pile of shavings... The false keel and bulkheads gave the rough pattern for what shapes these parts should be. The block was built up so that the gap that would be left on the outside was filled at the bow so the whole area would be solid in front of the front two bulkheads. (Sorry - an ugly sentence, but hopefully the picture explains) (Remember these are handed - they have to fit either side of the bow!, I almost forgot.) It doesn't have to be pretty at this stage... it's all going to get sanded down and up soon enough. The blocks are then stuck into place. I quickly realised that sanding was going to take forever to remove this much material, and still created buckets of dust, so I switched to a small plane... Finishing off was then done by sandpaper folded to make it fairly firm, and in broad sweeps to get nice curves... And here are the profile templates... The gap between the first and second bulkheads was also filled at the outer edge... and then sanded back to make a smooth curve... Next up is the stern balsa former... But this post is long enough already.

Welcome David. I've made a bit more progress, so I'll try and post an update tomorrow

You're very welcome.

Hi David, It was these guys. And it was really really lovely wood - just what you'd expect from a luthier's supplier. https://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk/castello-boxwood-guitar-banding-800-x-6-x-2mm.html They do, however, have a minimum order, so I got some sheets of Castello Boxwood at the same time, which I used for the replacement stem and rudder post. In retrospect I wish I'd bought more of these banding strips. I ran out. Rob

It's a long slog to get that deck planked but it looks like you've done a great job. The bulwarks add lots of strength for planking which is a great help. Far less risk of snapping off the bulkhead tabs. Hope the 5mm planks turn out to be well milled.

Seeing that angled break on the stempost, I was expecting to see it's matching break on the bow of the model... It looks like it could be pretty vulnerable if it were stuck on too early in the build. You've made a great start. Those gunport linings look really neat. Hope you won't mind if I follow along.

Yes, it's 21, compared to 17 in HMS Diana by Caldercraft (the only similar example I have personal experience of), which makes a hull almost identical length. This is particularly at the bow and stern, where the bulkheads are closer together, and this should make a big difference when fairing for the first planking, especially in avoiding the bumps and flats where the planks can get pulled too tight across the bulkheads.

Welcome to the build

So here's a little update. The next step in this build is to fair the bulkheads. The plans (specifically an overhead view, P5 on plan sheet 3) provide lines at three levels. Specifically the main rail along the top of the hull (where the planking stops at the top), the deck level, and a third level... This was defined in the plans as the "highest wooden plating line".... Some head-scratching was done, and comparing the widths of that profile at the bulkhead seemed to confirm that this is in fact the highest copper plating line. This being the case, it's effectively the shape of the hull at the waterline. Once I'd figured that out, I went on to work out the difference in bulkhead width from front to back, as below. These were then carefully marked out at those three levels on forward three frames... and the shaping began, with a mix of a sharp x-acto blade and some files. Bulkhead two was roughly shaped off the model, and then glued in place where the balsa blocks will be added and the shaping will be finessed. Once the time came to fit bulkhead two again, I realised that the part I glued to the back side was blocking it going into the slot. So the bar across the back was modified as shown below. Bulkhead two was then glued in place. The same was done for bulkheads 20 and 21 at the stern. I haven't glued bulkhead 21 in yet, as I'm still feeling my way with this build a bit. Finally, a few shots taken this morning of the build so far. It really shows the accuracy of the laser cutting off, doesn't it! Okay - more soon Happy building. Rob