18TH c. English Pinnace by Blue Ensign - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:24 scale

[Blue Ensign]

Thanks Steve, I too prefer to approach a build from both ends; once the top few planks are fitted, I like to fit the Garboard and then work up and down towards the centre. With the Pinnace particularly, the top two planks provide stability to the bulkheads.

 

Thanks for your input Chuck, my rough spiling template indeed shows the 'S' shape.

It is the short curve at the bow that has defeated me using just water and heat; aft of the first three bulkheads the treatment works fine to achieve the more gentle 'S' curve.

On your original Pinnace build, where I think you just used water and heat to achieve the shape, did you have to start the short bow curve well back in a longer length of strip to give you the leverage to form the bend?

 

Regards,

 

B.E.

 

[Chuck]

Yes indeed....it is impossible to bend that severe a curve on the end of the strip.   The curve was made closer to the middle and then the excess snipped off and discarded.  If you achieve the proper curve you will need very little pressure if any to make the plank rest against the frames without any lifting.  If it lifts at all your curve is incorrect.   With such thin planking,  you may not have to apply much heat to bend it the other way and also give it a bit of a twist.

 

I have written a very detailed instruction for the barge here.

 

http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Barge instructions.pdf

 

on how I bent and twisted each strake.  Maybe it will be of some help.

[Blue Ensign]

Thanks Chuck, I have taken your advice, and thanks for the very useful 'Barge' pdf.

So the top sheer planks are replaced.

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Full size strips, dry heat curved after wetting to align with the bulkhead tops. This is quite a gentle curve from around the mid point with a slightly more upward sweep aft from the centre.

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This time I have shaped a balsa block to temporarily protect the plank extensions for the decorative transom.

That's the easy bit!

The second plank below the sheer plank I have also fitted untapered, but have used the water/dry heat method to create the 'S' shape as shown below.

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This time I started the curve much further back in a longer length of strip.

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The downward curve is quite severe at the bow.

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So Grommit what d'ye think of it so far. hmmn not too impressed eh.

 

Time for a break I think and a trip down to Dorsetshire.

 

B.E.

[Martin W]

So, if I follow you correctly, you're not actually spiling the planks, but bending & tapering?

 

Watch out for me nobby styles, Lad! 

 

Martin

[Blue Ensign]

You must be one of them there Cockeney Oklahomans Martin.

The first two strakes have been bent but not tapered.

From now on there will be tapering involved as well as bending, but at least one strake will need spiling, and maybe others if  necessary.

 

Taking a week off now but when I return I'll re-mark the bulkheads and try to fit the garboard plank.

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[Tigersteve]

That's looking really good. Looks like the planks are lying against the bulkheads and not lifting. I also bent the planks that way for the longboat and cut off the excess. Bending the plank that hugs against the garboard was the most severe. 

 

Been sanding and removing parts from my laser cut sheets and prepping the keel. Hope to post some pics soon to join you in this project. 

Steve

[Blue Ensign]

Look forward to it Steve, 😊

I've had a tentative look at the Garboard strake and the one above it, and the bend does indeed look short and severe.

I'm not entirely clear how to determine the exact shape of the garboard plank at the bow end as yet and its relationship to the one above, which by all accounts should not curve upwards at the stem.

 

B.E.

[Tigersteve]

In Chuck's instructions the photos are even more clear on this one than the longboat as to how the garboard is shaped and placed. My plan is to line off the hull using a planking fan before laying them down. This should give the correct shape. 

 

After lining out the hull and making a test garboard, I also edgebend the next plank to make sure it curves around the garboard. If it's too severe, I adjust the garboard to a more gentle curve. I do this before gluing them down. This process is very time consuming, but necessary. Bob F used this method for the first couple of planks on his longboat. Hope this helps. 

Steve

[Justin P.]

Lots of great tips and info being shared here, thanks all....

[WaltB]

Model Shipways must be making a good return on this package; many Pinnace models being done. I too just started one. I have the shear strake and plank below as well as the garboard and one above installed. (both port and starboard). I've had some of the same issues as Blue Ensign describes. i suppose we are all having them. I've been lucky so far; brute strength and awkwardness seems to have worked for me for these first eight planks. I haven't had to do any fancy trimming; but did do some extreme bending and twisting. But I can see that i will have to get  a bit more creative for the remaining planks. Makes one wonder if it might be the better part of valor to leave the hull planking open ala Chuck's admiral's barge; nah, that would be cheating on the pinnace.  :-)

 

I'm trying to decide whether or not to start a build  log here; there are so many already on MSW, another may be redundant. At any rate i'm off for ten day cruise of the Alaskan inner passage. So will decide when i get back.

Walt

[Tigersteve]

Yes- start a log, Walt. We'd like to see your progress. Believe it or not there aren't too many logs of the Pinnace on MSW. 

Steve

[MEDDO]

 I'm almost ready to start my Pinnace. I think we cannot have too many build logs of this boat. The more people we have talking about the issues the easier it is to proceed. 

[Beef Wellington]

Hi BE, sorry to have missed the start of your new build but nice to see so much progress in one sitting.  Looking very sharp and neat as to be expected, lovely work.

[Blue Ensign]

Thanks Jason,

 

I'm back from  Dorsetshire now and ready to do battle with the Garboard plank and the one above it.

Ideally I want to get these two fitted  and then work out the plank tapers for the ones in between working both up and down to infill.

 

B.E.

 

 

[Blue Ensign]

The Garboard planks are now fitted.

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For these I used straight strip shaped by reference to how Chuck's  build appeared to look in his photo's with the end just extending beyond the scarf joint in the keel.

This has to be done in conjunction with the one above it, before it can be glued into place.

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Working the strake above the Garboard.

 

A fair bit of fiddling about here.

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There is a severe curve at the bow end to go around the Garboard and fit into the rabbet at the stem.

This was formed from around the centre of a much longer piece of strip, to get the necessary curve.

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Once I was happy the two planks would match, the Garboard was glued into place.

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Port side  bottom strakes fitted. The second strake is also full size without any tapering.

I think I've achieved the objective of keeping the second plank from creeping upwards at the stem.

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Only wet and dry heat was used to  form the shapes.

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The stern section of the strakes also untapered was problem free in fitting.

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 I now need to work out the required tapers for the intervening planks. I will then work from both top and bottom.

 

B.E.

[Barbossa]

I'm less sceptical than Gromit, superb work.

I probably overlooked...is this a double planking project ?

[Blue Ensign]

Cheers Guys, 😊

 

Hi Christan, unfortunately this is single planking with much fining down of the frames internally once the planking is completed. Not much room to hide things on this build.

 

Surely does concentrate the mind knowing that you don't have a second bite of the cherry with second planking, or a third with coppering. 😬

 

B.E.

 

[MEDDO]

1 hour ago, Blue Ensign said:

Surely does concentrate the mind knowing that you don't have a second bite of the cherry with second planking, or a third with coppering. 😬

 

B.E.

 

Yeah.... I am getting scared of this build.... Good thing I have so many great build logs of the Pinnace and the Longboat to follow along with.

[Blue Ensign]

Oh dear it seems like one step forward and three steps back with this build.

Having fitted four strakes each side along the bottom, something didn't look right, there was a creeping mismatch at the fore end between Port and Starboard so the strakes on the starboard side including the garboard plank were taken off and re-done.

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Balance restored.

Using pva allows this re-work without too much effort and importantly without damaging the frames. A slight wetting and easing with a scalpel blade and off they pop. Certainly would not have been so easy had I used c.a.

 

The first four strakes from the top sheerline are untapered.

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...but the fifth required a degree of taper both forward and aft to allow for the fit of the remaining  strakes. There was also edge bending required.

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Something amiss Gromit?

 

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What's that you say Gromit, is there enough room for two remaining strakes?

We'll see Gromit, we'll see.

One thing I wish I had done with this build at the outset was to replace the Lime/Basswood keel and stem with Boxwood. It really is a poor wood for this purpose where clean and sharp edges  are desirable.

It will take careful sanding to remove the scuffs and marks, followed by application of sanding sealer to preserve the surface.

Am I happy with progress thus far, the jury is still out on that one, finding this a very tricky build; I'll see how I feel once the planking and a sanding finish has been applied.

 

B.E.

 

 

[rafine]

Looking very good B.E. It does seem that you will have an interesting time fitting those last two strakes. I have no doubt that you will do it perfectly.

 

Bob

[Beef Wellington]

Great work there BE.  That gap looks awfully narrow to squeeze two planks into but it's very hard to tell with all the curves and the 2D photos.  I'm sure you have it in hand, the planks really seem to distort the visual perception of the hull shape.

[Martin W]

To quote one of the great polo players:  It just might be done.

 

Go for it!

[Tigersteve]

BE- regarding your sheer plank, did you form the curve of the sheer first or the edgebend for the bow? I was unclear from your earlier post on that success. 

Steve

[Blue Ensign]

Cheers Guys,

Hi Steve, I found the sheer plank the easiest one to fit and I followed the photo's on page 6 of the Instruction manual.

A fairly gentle edge curve is required, followed by the bend to take the tension out of the curve into the stem.

After that it all got increasingly more testy.

 

B.E.

[WaltB]

B.E. is right; this is a tough planking exercise. I too wish I had used real boxwood (or some other harder wood). I have a couple of ugly dings on the lime/basswood that came in the kit. But I'm not going to take them off just for that reason. I'll march on and fix them later; they're minor and i think can be repaired without too much ugliness.

Walt

 

[Tigersteve]

Try applying some water to the dings with a wet quetip and let it air dry. That might help "heal" the wood. 

Steve

[WaltB]

11 minutes ago, Tigersteve said:

Try applying some water to the dings with a wet quetip and let it air dry. That might help "heal" the wood. 

Steve

Thanks Steve; i'll give that a try.

Walt

 

[Blue Ensign]

Gromit was right to question the remaining space to take two strakes.

It proved to be too tight to take two reasonably tapered planks; one to be the sixth plank from the top, and one spiled plank running just below the curve of the hull to complete the planking.

My approach was to perform an insitu taper to the uppermost lower plank (fourth from keel) to equalise the  necessary taper at the bow.

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Here the sixth strakes are fitted, leaving just the final spiled strake to be fitted.

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This is a very interesting shape but at the bow and stern the widths are not out of kilter with the other planks. Most of the length is otherwise obscured by the curve of the hull.

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To get the spiled shape I stick Tamiya tape over the space and cut the shape out with a scalpel.

This is then applied to a strip which is then wetted and cut out allowing a margin for fitting.

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The rather contorted shape of the final plank.

It is all then down to sanding the edge to fit; I start with the widest section, mark the position on both the plank and the planks above and below it, and by degrees fine tune the edges to fit in the gap.

8898

This is not difficult but takes time with constant fit checking.

For this last strip both edges are lined to reflect the caulking.

So here's the hull complete but without the very necessary fettlin' that will be required.

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At this point I also added the stern post, but I replaced the provided kit part with a Boxwood version.

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Once again one of the annoying little sheer plank extensions snapped off during handling, I have glued it back on but I think I will add a back-up strip behind it to make it more robust.

If that fails, the bally things will be removed permanently.

Time now for tidying up, scraping the hull, and 're-caulking' where necessary.

Can't say I'm entirely happy with the way things have gone thus far but work will proceed.

 

B.E.

[Mirabell61]

B.E.

 

planking looks fine, trust it be a lovely hull after fairing /scraping the surfaces....

looking forward to your progress

 

Nils

[Tigersteve]

It should sand nicely!

Steve