themadchemist

Congratulations

There is only one word that explains such happenings,

PROVIDENCE.

when hard work and timing collide.

It may very well say that, and honestly there may be a master plank but it sounds like something that AL made up.

To be honest I quit using the instructions at nearly the beginning as so much of the Swift is incorrect as to how a boat is actually constructed.

I guess I just don't accept AL as a source as they seem to get so much other stuff wrong. Nearly everything's a simulation.  

...and I couldn't tell you how AL says to plank because I put away the instruction way before that point. Frankly the help I received on MSW was so much better and the AL instructions so vague.

Again I'm not saying there isn't a master plank, just that I have never seen one mentioned. I checked my Oxford companion to ships and the sea and no mention. not in the other sources either. I also did a Google search for "master plank" and "master plank hull" and found nothing.

I love the AL Swift kit but as a jumping off bashing point, but can't imagine building her straight from the box. ...and I one day plan to revisit the Pilots with a historically correct POF. They are one cool working vessel and I'm growing to love the working vessels more then the war vessels.

not sure I've ever heard of a Master plank as you describe Tony and looking through resources and online don't see anything either.

On gun ships there are gunwales and the deck has thicker planking usually for gun tie down points (not sure the name) but I've never seen or heard of a master plank in the hull referred to, do you have a reference as now you've sparked my interest.

Oh and your comment on helping out and encouraging. Your Welcome, but....

I'm a disabled teacher and nearly homebound (no drivers license for 7 years now) from lyme disease. My helping out is purely a selfish thing, as was me being a teacher. Helping others helps me learn and it gives me self worth and gives my life meaning. Plus there's the added pleasure of friendship which develop.

Selfishness is only negative when it becomes for things or objects, rather then for relationships and learning. I prefer to see everything very open-mindedly and very subjectively. For me its all relative, you help me as much as I help you and that's how the world progresses.

No such thing as an idiot, just those learning a very difficult nautical language. I use to call the transom counter (that curved part under the transom) the curvy part of the transom   It's all part of learning. Not trying to point out faults, just help with the language I know....and there's still a lot for me to learn.
 
Half way, I think that was the last plank I laid.

Are you thinking of Battens, which are usually placed at certain distances along the hull. These are typically used to check the lay of the hull during fairing and to test the future fit of planking. On a hull as small as the swift I think its an unnecessary step.
 
Here's a boat lined with temporary battens

Was that story called "Deconstructing Vicky"?

I hear Woody Allen's making a movie from the transcript  

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118954/ 

It seems familiar though .....

I love flashbacks of key steps along the way, they help see that forward progress is being made.

but did you skip the chapter on the guys eating? or are they still chewing

Do you want the good news or the bad news first

Lets get over the bad news first, as its not so bad, first it's garboard (Garward is actually a builder on MSW from the Ukraine building a Montanes) anyway, the garboard is a piece of cake compared to the plank next to it.

Not so bad, It does require quite a lot of lateral bending at the bow to get to the keel line.

The good news. The plank looks perfect. You nailed it on the ending spot so as not to crowd the bow or stemline.

Something that may help fit the second plank, once bulkheads are marked and the other side garboard is on, is to sand the garboard plank bow ends edge with a sanding block and get that as straight as possible, this will reduce the edge/lateral bending required. Once you get going, its like falling off a log, just much slower.

and again, she looks Great. Your time and efforts are paying dividends. 

The copper will be striking against that pear.

The gun lid link has some amazing symmetry. Either a mill or someone with an amazing eye and skill level. Works of such masters I can look at for hours.

Hey Nigel,

Beautiful work ...again. Hopefully the last practice run.

Is the Russian Master your referring to Roma's Le Requin as its gun deck gratings are single pinned. His build is the reason I purchase the ANCRE monography. I also love that he nailed the inside of the gun port doors, such a beautiful touch. It definitely deserves it's gold and Roma's passing was a great lose to this hobby.

You spoke of shaping, how do you plan to achieve the curvature? I think the single pin/nails is attractive, two is boarder line crazy, but we already know that    

By the way here is Roma's work, may he RIP.

gunports

gun deck grating

Look at this - 4 pinned masterpiece

I envy those of you that have local clubs. Such a great resource. For both help and friendship.

I would have attempted gluing the small piece, but then I'm a hammer head like that. Pieces like that seem to get found by the vacuum around here though and I think OH NO that was my _____, clinking up the vacuums tube.

Oh, the joys of lost parts  

Sometimes it takes longer to find them then to just build another. When I was making mini-shackles and pins I lost more then I ended up with, but that was more to poor hole drilling. There's more then one way of losing a part.

Sometimes I think its natures way of saying practice some more.

Thanks John for the page links.

One can never have to many references. Nice set of photos.

Hey Brian

Its a MS kit, contact ME, they are well known for replacing wood at no cost, even for opps.

Its worth a try. I've know a few that have gotten replacement wood for MS kits.

Brilliant!

So where do you buy 1.2 meter tic tac's  

I missed the bellows earlier, thanks for pointing them out and for taking the time for a tic tac reference shot, That only makes it all the more amazing.

So did the Gunner get his weevil-less pizza?

Now that's a clever trick Jesse.

I've removed dimples in wood left by clamping wet wood and it dries with a dimple from the clamp. I add water and the wood re-expands and the dimple is lessened or gone. Sometime warmer water and several applications work best. 

I would have never though that lines could be adjusted just like clothes shrunk in the wash though, Plus dryer dried clothes are typically tighter then air dried so the heat make perfect sense.

So many great ideas are floating around here, I just love it.

Another great tip as I prepare to rig.

Hello Alistair

Brian's build lead me here. I love following build links it builders signatures.

BTW, I think your stern looks fine. The window symmetry is quite excellent.

If this was your 1st, I must say your rope work is gorgeous and very realistic. That deck fixtures, especially that hatchway, are magnificently done. For a 1st you did a Great job. It appears a veteran did her.

The positive force I experience and feel in your helping Brian and others is inspiring. It takes that to make MSW the community we are.

I just wanted to say hello and say what a beautiful AVS you have built. It's sad the originals were lost, but pictures and your hand draw tutorials are great resources.

I guess now, I'm on to the Fly.

Is it not glueable? I've found many times if the break is clean and with the grain, gluing will fix it and most times its unnoticeable, unless the grain twisted in the break.

That is the heartbreak of building... anything that can go wrong ... will usually happen right before gluing, after you've expended the maximum time in preparing it. Randy is right though, the repeat always seems better as experience is a hard teacher.

I once did a copper electroplating analysis lab for determination of Cu % in a metal sample... 7 times.

The teacher even stated the lab did not work and asked why I continued. My reply was "this is a classic electrochem lab and it should work." I found in a 1923 quant text that the solution wasn't acidic enough, and was the 1st 100% in years. I also rewrote that lab and they added my name to the manual. There is no substitute for perseverance.... except maybe determination...

Let the planking BEGIN!

Great Job giantdog. I always tended to use a lot of cross banded force like you did on the starboard bow, it helps pull the planks down,

By doing this while wetting and drying, it then takes less force in gluing when the plank is preshaped.

Thanks for the picture and link Brian, I've added it to my decking collection. I hoard reference photos and links, they come in handy.

Looking at the picture blown up, the treenail plug holes appear to be filed with the same sealer as the deck lines. I wonder if this was a historic practice or something done on only the replica. Always another question....

I do agree with you on "do what pleases you". There are as many ideas on tree-nailing, at least as many as there are builds and builders. It really only matters what pleases you. Dirk's work is beautiful and I haven't looked in on his build recently, one I need to fix the email glitch on. Anyway, that's the best part of exploring others builds, the ideas that you pick up are tremendous. I can't imagine building pre-MSW, especially as a beginner.

As always the photos are as much a part of the beauty as the Wasan herself.

The last 2 photos of the port bow and stern are perfectly angled for maximum effect of the sculpture viewing and the Wasan's great tumblehome shape that is so strikingly beautiful.

The photo of the rat-lined shrouds reaching to the sky, makes me think of a favorite Zeppelin tune... and she's climbing a stairway to heaven....

Beautiful work. Just stunning!

Hey Brian
I tend to think the treenails are perfect. Treenails in the deck were not end grain exposed, dowels, but plugged with a cross-grain cut plug with the grain of the plug lined up with the decking grain, so that the treenail plugs nearly disappear on an actual ships deck.
 
Check out this thread
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/740-methods-for-making-treenails/page-2

and a real treenail plugged deck


Geoff Matson also shows this side view of the plugs from the USS Conny, nice piece of history

 
Your fitting of the waterways is beautifully done. And your deck sample looks excellent. it looks to have a pretty nice 4 plank shift and lines up pretty good for eyeballing it.
 
I love those quiet moments while wet wood or glue is drying and I have the time to think about everything I've done.
I believe it was Mark Taylor that once said he slowly bent the curvature by slowly adding water a few drips at a time, then waited for the wood to relax. He'd then wet the next section. Small clamping stress, water and time achieved and almost impossible bend. He said it took HOURS over days IIRC. It made me change my whole philosophy in building and slow WAY down. Wood and its ability to be shaped is a mystifying thing and every wood has it's own personally.
 
So what do you think of Holly. Its a great planking and carving wood. It's so velvety and the grain is so much harder then basswood and doesn't round or fuzz like basswood or breakout during carving. It also makes a quite striking deck. The tissue paper looks good. Myself I've only used pencil on the long boat, but would like to use paper and thread at some point to simulate caulking.
 
Brian your AVS is slowly becoming a beauty. Nice symmetry on the wales at the stem BTW. I knew this would be a fun watch. WAY better then TV, I guess as I no longer have it, as life is just more interesting.

the newer designed kit changed quite a lot to the "bones" as creating larger lower deck areas reduced contact area on several areas of the bulkheads and keel bulkhead. From examining pictures not only was the transom bulkhead added, but the center keel is thickened.
 
Just to give you an idea on the bulk removed in my operational process here is a before and after. I did not use the basswood blocks provided in my kit as shaping would have taken forever. I swapped them for balsa. The main shaping was done with the convex curved rasp and the final tuning with 5/8'' sanding dowels with 100 grit paper. Keeping the dowel parallel to the keel line and riding the aft bulkheads back and forth until the planks tell you by their lay that the shape is smooth and the transition can be planked without issues, making sure not to round over the end, where the transom counter will be planked.
Much of my fairing was dependence on sand, test with plank.... repeat

Letting the plank be my guide.

Before


After

and right on schedule.

Beautiful work Dave, Thanks for the excellent tutorial and motivational work. The glass and base really make here beyond extraordinary.

Here is what mine looked like at that point and some of the tools used in shaping. I found the dowel with sandpaper glued on one end and another with it in the middle used as sanding block and the bulkheads as guides as the best way to find the nature shape. I fine tuned my shape based on plank lay.

Nigel I tend to agree with you on wood changing everything.

My longboat project of Ebony and Holly was as much about discovery of those wood as the actual building process.

I find learning the personality each wood has very interesting indeed and understand your skyward budget issues, but honestly the wood is worth it.

The pear you have chosen makes your Mordaunt one of a kind, a gift all your builds share. 

I used my micro-motor for grating production so far but have recently invested in a Unimat SL1000 with the mill attachments and so I'm taking notes on your grating 101 course. It is funny that my first grating I cut with a razor saw and files. Toys are just too much fun though, and faster.

I would say that the gunner will say..."make mine pepperoni and mushroom and hold the weevil"   

Beautiful small details Daniel. it reminds me of the distiller Nils built for his Peggy's stove. I love this kind of detailed Research and Development. Thanks for sharing as always. I wrote it out rather then use the acronym R&D as with XXXDAn around the D could stand for Deconstruction.

BTW, how big is that forge next to the tic-tac-penny, your Vicky distorts scale perception due to its detail, especially on those guns.