alde

No you dont have to, but it would be smart.....otherwise you are flying blind.   Its a quick exercise and on a boat this size doesnt take very long.  This way as you are sanding and tweaking your planks and your strakes start to shift from strake to strake.....you will have your pencil lines there to keep you on track.  Plus this group project is about learning a skil you may have never tried before and doing it within a group may be a huge help in the end.
 
OR
 
Of course not😵.....You just have to make sure that you place your planks exactly where I placed mine and you must fair your hull exactly like I faired mine.  And you must of course bevel the edges of your planks exactly like I did.   Then I am sure you will have no problems and get a great fit.  This second part is just a joke in case it didnt come across that way.  LOL...
 
 
 

Nice progress Mike.
 
Ever-so-slightly, yes the planks are a bit oversized because everyone will need to make adjustments.  It would pretty tough for everyone to place there planks exactly the same and with each strake that will open small gaps.  Each builder will also fair the frames differently especially at the bow and stern.  But with some care and adjustments you should get a really tight fit.

After completing the hull fairing on one side of the hull, I worked on lining it off. Here I used 1/8" painters tape. The bow area is a bit tricky to do and I anticipate some minor adjustments later.

Prior to installing the garboard the keel is held straight with a length of 1/4" x 1" ply.



So far, it appears that these pre-spiled planks are made slightly oversize, leaving room for adjustments.
 
Mike

I'm looking forward to it Steve. You add a lot of value to the form with your skill and humor. And besides you've become what I consider to be a friend.

I'm looking forward to it Steve. You add a lot of value to the form with your skill and humor. And besides you've become what I consider to be a friend.

Alde (and others). I'll add a link here just as soon as I'm ready to start a new build-log.

Well Steve, whatever you decide to build I'll be looking forward to the log.

Well Steve, whatever you decide to build I'll be looking forward to the log.

I' sorry to hear your throwing in the towel on the Connie. At least you'll come away from it with more knowledge for the next project.

Well Steve, whatever you decide to build I'll be looking forward to the log.

I' sorry to hear your throwing in the towel on the Connie. At least you'll come away from it with more knowledge for the next project.

I' sorry to hear your throwing in the towel on the Connie. At least you'll come away from it with more knowledge for the next project.

So, you cut those boat parts with the Death Star? Very nice.

Great to see you back at it Mark.  You seem to have that 'death star' sorted now, that sheet looks very nicely cut.
 
cheers
 
Pat

So, you cut those boat parts with the Death Star? Very nice.

When I was a kid I was walking across the carpeted living room. I felt a sharp pain on the bottom of my foot and started dancing on one leg. As i was hopping in pain my mom with a perfectly straight face said "oh, you found my earing". The entire stud was stuck straight in. We all had a good laugh about it later but I didn't think it was very funny at the time. 

This is going to be a great group build. I think a bunch of us will learn quite a lot from it.

So, you cut those boat parts with the Death Star? Very nice.

So, you cut those boat parts with the Death Star? Very nice.

So, you cut those boat parts with the Death Star? Very nice.

So, you cut those boat parts with the Death Star? Very nice.

Thanks for following along this voyage everyone.    Things have settled down a bit and I'm getting some shop time.   So on with the build as time permits.. now where was I?   Oh...  the carvings have been set aside (again).  I probably have a mental block for them.      So it's back to the ship's boats.
 
I've basically dumped all the old formers and bits that had worked on as I just wasn't happy with the way they were turning out.   Felt like something was really amiss so I went off on a different tack.  I hope this time will be the magic one.  I've done a test boat (didn't complete it) that showed me the "true" path to enlightenment.  Or something like enlightenment.
 
I reworked a set of plans I bought and turned them into what I needed for the boats.   I also decided to attack the 6" boat first and work down to the 4". Disclaimer:  I sent the plans maker a copy of all the plans for these boats to see if they can use them.  I'm also buying enough kits (3) so the build will essentially be on a one-for-one basis.
 
After reworking the plans, I've cut the first pieces which are the keel, building jig and all the associated pieces out of boxwood.  I found that plywood un-glued itself or the glue went up on smoke and I ended up with charcoal.   There were two pieces of the build jig that I cut from 1/4" basswood and it's been cleaned up as necessary.   I'm currently removing the pieces, cleaning off the char as needed and putting together the keel and building jig.  I hope to cut out the ribs and planking from Swiss pear later this week.   There won't be twarts, rudder, oars, etc. inside this boat as it's the "bottom of the stack" as such and the next boat will fird inside this one.
 
The sharp eyed will detect a few errors in the photo such as a duplicate cutting due to my mispositioning the wood into the laser.   It's a "just in case" spare now.  There's at least one other obvious "I blew it" moment but those two parts have been corrected and recut.
 
There will be more pictures to come.
 
 

This is going to be a great group build. I think a bunch of us will learn quite a lot from it.

That's just amazing work. Why do you prefer pearwood?

Excellent start Mike!!!  😄  You are the first unofficial member to start building the Medway LB.   Hopefully there will be many more once it officially gets started.  I asked mike to start building in Pear to see how it looks and maybe gauge some interest from others.  I am not sure yet if I will offer it in Pear but lets see how it goes.
 
Excellent use of those extra braces at the stern but remember you will need to snap those off after you finish planking so you can remove the model from the baseboard.   
 
So far the pear version looks very good!!  Keep in mind that all of the frame parts are actually cherry (poor man's swiss pear)...but the keel and everything else will be swiss Pear.  You would never know otherwise unless I mentioned that.  Its a perfect match.