robdurant

Now we're up to date... I've been using the same strategy with the second planking to try and get really neat runs of planking without lots of drop planks and stealers... time will tell whether I end up getting bitten, but so far I'm pleased with it. I have a thermos flask with freshly boiled water in it, and then here's what I do for each plank:
 
Use paper to take a map of the curve of the plank (as though spiling) Mark out the width of the plank to fit and trim with a craft knife and sandpaper. Bevel the edge of the plank (I have good intentions, but I'm not very good at this yet!) Soak the plank in the _hot_ water for 30 seconds Edge bend the plank according to the paper prepared above. (with 1x4mm walnut, it'll hold it's shape fairly easily) Use plank nippers to bend the plank in for the bow and stern. Test, re-test, and glue in place with pins (or near the top, clamps to avoid pin marks)  
And here are the results so far...
 

 
There are gaps in between several of the planks, which I suspect may be shrinkage... I'm hoping next time I can spile, to avoid the soaking process, and that way avoid those gaps... Of course, it may not be shrinkage at all, but simply that my skills aren't quite up there yet
 
Anyway - I'm pretty pleased with how it's going, and the rest of the planks will be under the waterline and painting dull white, so it's not looking too bad now!
 
In amidst the planking I decided to start on something completely different to freshen up a little... I've begun the gratings. And I found a sailor left over from Pickle to keep eyes on proceedings too
 

 
Once the edging is on, I'll sand these to have curved tops...
 
But that's for next time.
 
Happy building
 
Rob
 
[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]

Good start! That is some nice planking!

Looking good   the gaps will be shrinkage for sure. You're best off fitting the plank in place without glue until it is thoroughly dry and then gluing it in place.
Takes a lot longer but gives a neater result

Next up was planking...
 
I wanted to try spiling, but I didn't want to splash out on lots of extra wood at the time, so I thought I'd try edge bending the wood to see how well I could get it to fit. I was fairly pleased with the results, but even using the tick strips, it became evident just how much edge bending was required to get a nice run of wood without lots of stealers and drop planks... Next time I hope I'll be able to get the wider planks and spile instead. Nevertheless, not too bad for a first planking.
 

 

 
Again, you can see bulkhead 9 waiting to jump out and get me!
 
Next it was time to put the transom on - and this was where I had to deal with bulkhead 9. I tried just gluing the transom on and leaving a gap, but it looked really messy. I would have had to double-plank the bulkhead so that I could fill the gap between it and the transom, so I took the transom off again, and sanded down the bulkhead so it was even.
 
Now it plays nicer!
 

 
That meant I was ready for the second planking.
 
[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]

The next task was the gunport patterns.
 
These were placed for 30 seconds in water straight out of the kettle, and then clamped round a coffee mug that was roughly the same radius as the bow of Sherbourne. A couple of hours later, they'd dried, and held their shape beautifully... In fact, I'd bent them slightly too far round, and putting them back into the hot water for a few seconds loosened them up and allowed them to be glued and clamped in place while the glue set...
 

 

 
This job's a little bit fiddly, but well worth taking time over, because it affects whether the guns will look right in their places later on, and has a big impact on the symmetry of the boat.
 
After drying overnight I took off all the clamps, and I was really pleased with how they'd turned out... perhaps .5mm down on one side, but not so much it'll be noticeable.
 
For those of you wondering how she sizes up against Pickle... here you go (apologies for the reflections / quality of the pic - I was in a hurry):
 

[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]

The next task was to fill the gaps between bulkheads 1-3 and 7-9 with balsa to help me find a smooth flow as I finished fairing the bulkheads. You may notice in these photos that I clean forgot to add the bow formers that sit up against the keel former at this point, and had to cut into the balsa to add these retrospectively. Again - too much haste, and so less speed!
 

 
You can see in this photo how bulkhead 9 is at a slight angle - with the starboard side (on the left of this photo because it's keel up) slightly further forward... across its width, this adds up to ~6mm!
 
Eventually, it started to look like I was hoping it would... I added a strip of lime to the bottom of the keel former to help the rabbet.
 

 
[edited to restore photos, 11 July 2017]

So - to the build.
 
I started about a month ago, and unpacked the kit eagerly... having checked the parts I got the ply keel out and checked to see if it was flat... sadly it wasn't. It was about 5mm out lengthwise, and two or three from top to bottom, giving a shape rather like a bowl.
 
Attempted remedies of making one side damp and weighting it down for 48 hours seemed to work at first, but minutes after the weights were taken off, the ply sprung back.
 
Rather than give up, I decided to be brave, and use the keel as a template to make a new one from a sheet of walnut I had.
 
Several hours later, I'd made this (and included an extra frame to help with the planking).
 

 

 
It was only later on in the build that I'd realise that bulkhead 9, which forms the base of the transom was wonky because the back of the deck was not square... That's my fault for being in too much of a hurry! We'll get to that later, though.
 
I roughly faired the bulkheads to take off the worst of the excess material at the bow and stern, sanded a rabbet into the keel former, and then I used the deck to square up the bulkheads and glued the bulkheads into position, using lego blocks to square them up. Here you can see the results with the walnut stem and keel added.
 

[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]

Well, I'm a little late starting this building log, but it's been an interesting model to build, so I thought I'd share my experiences. Hope it's helpful, anyway.
 
I'm hoping this will be an opportunity to try out some new skills and improve my planking skills before attempting something a bit larger!
 
First off, a quick look at the kit itself. It comes in a small, but really nice and sturdy box, with everything packed in very neatly.
 

 

 
The instructions are much more simple than the instructions for Pickle (a more recent kit, I believe), and reading them through I was glad I'd built Pickle first. Nevertheless, having build Pickle, these are perfectly adequate. The plans are excellent, and give lots of detail, including step by step illustrations for the construction of the hull.
 
Looking closely you'll see the the walnut ply used for the cannon carriages and capping rails has been cut out right to the edge... on the other side this has led to a slight split going through the capping rail itself, but nothing too major, and it should be simple enough to put right (I'll mount it good side up!)
 
So far I've found that all the materials are provided with plenty to spare, just as with Pickle.
 
[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Hi Caroline,
 
welcome home
 
Pretty Job on a pretty ship
 
best wishes
 
Max

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

So... as others have said before it's harder to get decent photos of the rigging underway... but I've worked my way through it, and here are the results...
 

 

 
Really pleased with how it's turned out. Just need to get it back to my mum's house, now... Plenty of bubble wrap, blankets, made-to-measure boxes and some smooth driving are called for :S
 
Thanks so much for the advice, encouragement, suggestions and likes! It makes a big difference!
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

So... as others have said before it's harder to get decent photos of the rigging underway... but I've worked my way through it, and here are the results...
 

 

 
Really pleased with how it's turned out. Just need to get it back to my mum's house, now... Plenty of bubble wrap, blankets, made-to-measure boxes and some smooth driving are called for :S
 
Thanks so much for the advice, encouragement, suggestions and likes! It makes a big difference!
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Well, this evening Caroline reached her home berth:
 

 
Thanks for all your kinds words and support.
 
Rob

Sjors - maybe these photos will help you make up your mind    The planking is not as beautiful as I think you think because of the different woods used, copper was always the plan.
 
Believe I reached a point to deliver a verdict on the Amati plates and share some progress now that copper has met boxwood.  I know that there seem to be many diverse opinions on coppering, and it does present its own uniquw challenges.  Its also amazing how many varied diagrams there are of copper plate layouts.  In the end, I probably ended up somewhere between what is shown in the AOTS Pandora book and TFFM book 2.
 
So, some thoughts on the Caldercraft:Amati copper plate matchup.  First off, I cannot believe how much more fun it is to work with the Amati plates vs my experience with the Caldercraft plates (which do still give a nice result).
Because the plates come in sheets, its possible to apply in some cases in multiple plates at a time.  This is a real bonus when its necessary to shape some which otherwise would leave a tiny sliver to be attached.  This results in less wastage..at least so far. The thin profile of the PE plated I think attaches much more easily (in my experience) using the Admiralty Pro thick CA glue.  This also allows any needed overlaps to be achieved easily without having to hammer out the distinct nail head profiles on the CC plates On to the photos and little bit of the method I've found works well for me.  I started working on the stern as this will likely be the most challenging due to the hull shape.
 
I'm not sure what these are called, but determining the flow of the plates where they need to fan out is the first challenge. Because the plates don't bend and can't be spiled, the problem is a little more intractable.  I found that by using a small sheet 2 tiles wide to find the natural lines of how the plates lie well on the hull was the simplest method, it just takes time and fiddling....
 

 
Once the lined had been figured out, household painters tape helped me keep the lines straight at these transition points (I go through a lot of tape)
 

 
From above (the view as I work), the lines of the plates does appear a little erratic...
 

 
...however, the appearance from normal angles is much more acceptable
 

 
 

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