Beginner at Model shipping. I need your expert help!

[SurgicalGlitch]

Hey guys.

 

I finally found a forum that really looks friendly and full of help so I made an account a fue days ago and have been pottering around looking at the great amount of information you guys have on all things model ship building.

 

I just picked this up about a month or so ago, and I cant say I jumped right into it, I have been taking my time with it, but the planking got me stumped, in fact for a long time I went off my own instinct and the very, VERY, vague manual.

 

I know I have made a little bit of a mess of it, well, not really, because I know I can fix it with some sanding and fill here and there. But with the next ship I do, the HMS Endeavor's Longboat I want to really get the planing 100%.

 

Now I know that not every ship has the same planking regime. In fact looking at all the planking tutorials on this website it looks like planking is something that you need to adapt to the model rather than it being a set tutorial. But it sort of escapes me.

 

What I mean is this, I am not good with numbers, nor written tutorials. When I real the tutorials I cant help but feel like I miss a step, or my calculation is off. and what I mean by that is this. You want to make the measurement of each bulkhead, the calculate how many planks fit to that bulkhead, starting with the middle since in most cases it is the biggest part of the hull. but the Stern and Bow of the ship will be smaller, or calculate smaller. Now that is fine, each Bulkhead will get progressively smaller as it gets closer and closer to the Stern and Bow. How do I calculate how much I need to shave off the planks? Let me explain. because math is not my strong point.

 

If the Measurement in mm is 27mm for the Bow, and the plank width is 5mm, then it should come up to 5.4 planks. Now how can I calculate 5.4 so that I can make all those planks even so they all fit and are all the same width? Or am I going about this the wrong way? Basically I get everything peachy up until I need to shave the wood off the planks to fit them all. Now most people will put them together in a bunch and they using a mini plane, shave the required about of wood off, the using light sand paper take care of the rest, but how do I find out how much I need to shave off? if it says 5.4 how do I calculate that down to each individual plank. And of course thats just for the bulk. Here is my measurement in whole. 

 

Ship Calculation

Bulkhead Frame

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Transom

Measurement mm

20

31

35

41

44

45

45

45

44

42

39

27

 

Planks width mm

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

 

Planks to be fitted

4

6.2

7

8.2

8.8

9

9

9

8.8

8.4

7.8

5.4

 

 

Please note, this is just a test for my new ship I am making, I haven't put this into effect yet.

 

Thanks for your help in advance! Good to find a good forum for a very unique hobby.

 

 

[mtaylor]

Welcome to MSW....

 

Go here:  http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php  At the bottom of that page are two things by Chuck P.assaro, the Tutorial and the Planking Fan.   I think that may be what you need.

[SurgicalGlitch]

Sorry. I just got home and realized that the Table didn't turn out like it did in the Preview. My mistake.

[Ryland Craze]

In addition to Chuck's articles, another good article on planking is A Primer on Planking by David Antscherl.  It is located in the MSW Database at http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php.  If you follow Chuck's and David's techniques, you will not have any problems lining out your hull and planking it.

[bluenose2]

Hello Les here. As you, I find planking the most difficult part of building any wooden ship,boat, skiff etc. I purchased the book Ship Modeling Simplified by Frank Mastini, to be the best reference for any ship building" period". It explains all the procedures as if it was your first start. ISBN 0071558675. Try Amazon or any book seller you can get your hands on. You won't be disappointed.