HMS Pegasus by The_bitter_end - Amati/Victory Models - 1:64 scale

[Jolley Roger]

The first layer of planking is to build a solid base for your second layer, so do not worry about tapering, spacers etc, yet.

The first layer is going to look ugly, it's normal

[ASAT]

Tapering is the definitive, correct “accepted” method for the first planking as it ensures that the planks all “land” on or are glued to a bulkhead which adds to the structural integrity of the hull, if you go with full planks and stealers you invariably will have some of those stealers terminating between bulkheads and only have another plank to glue to. That may or may not work out and you may have some spring back or “soft spots” on the hull - especially after you sand everything down to Fair the hull and you may wind up with hollows or bulges because the planks are not fixed to the bulkheads- some of which can be fixed with fillers but overall, the better job you do on the first planking  the better the second layer will look. 

[vulcanbomber]

On the Peggy, you can use full length strips, they don't need tapering at the stern, but for following the curve at the bow, tapering is necessary.

 

If you look at my build log, I have photos of the first planking under way showing the kind of tapering I did at my bow. There are lots of photos showing the bow and stern planking, so it could help you.

 

Don't be afraid of it, the planks themselves will tell you how much they need tapering (one thing to note on tapering - make sure you taper the same edge on each plank - i.e don't taper the top edge on one plank, then the bottom edge on another- this helps eliminate gaps, as no matter how hard you try, it is difficult to cut perfectly straight!).

 

The first 2 planks under the bulwarks didn't need tapering and ran straight to the stern, my next plank needed a bit of tapering, lay the plank up tight to the previous one and gently bend it up towards the bow, don't force it, let it lie naturally, any overlap you see - this is where you need to taper it. I use an oversize length; then you have another go at getting the tapering right, if the first one doesn't go as planned!

 

Here's a few photos of my bow planking under way (you can also see that the very top and bottom of the bow didn't need tapering, just the middle):

Edited October 28, 2019 by vulcanbomber

[The Bitter End]

On 10/28/2019 at 9:37 AM, Jolley Roger said:

The first layer of planking is to build a solid base for your second layer, so do not worry about tapering, spacers etc, yet.

The first layer is going to look ugly, it's normal

Good morning my friend

 

I am so glad that you told me this. my first layer of planking currently looks like the north end of a chicken flying south. But Im hoping that with some judicious sanding and filling things should be ok

[The Bitter End]

On 10/28/2019 at 6:44 PM, ASAT said:

Tapering is the definitive, correct “accepted” method for the first planking as it ensures that the planks all “land” on or are glued to a bulkhead which adds to the structural integrity of the hull, if you go with full planks and stealers you invariably will have some of those stealers terminating between bulkheads and only have another plank to glue to. That may or may not work out and you may have some spring back or “soft spots” on the hull - especially after you sand everything down to Fair the hull and you may wind up with hollows or bulges because the planks are not fixed to the bulkheads- some of which can be fixed with fillers but overall, the better job you do on the first planking  the better the second layer will look. 

Hi there ASAT

 

Thank you for your contribution. That makes perfect sense and I can see how serious that problem would be. This, being my first build has been quite a steep learning curve and its great when someone can forewarn you of mistakes before they happen .

 

If you ever have the time please keep stopping in to correct me where I am going wrong. I anticipate this may happen alot

 

Cheers!

 

Haiko

[The Bitter End]

On 10/28/2019 at 9:24 PM, vulcanbomber said:

On the Peggy, you can use full length strips, they don't need tapering at the stern, but for following the curve at the bow, tapering is necessary.

 

If you look at my build log, I have photos of the first planking under way showing the kind of tapering I did at my bow. There are lots of photos showing the bow and stern planking, so it could help you.

 

Don't be afraid of it, the planks themselves will tell you how much they need tapering (one thing to note on tapering - make sure you taper the same edge on each plank - i.e don't taper the top edge on one plank, then the bottom edge on another- this helps eliminate gaps, as no matter how hard you try, it is difficult to cut perfectly straight!).

 

The first 2 planks under the bulwarks didn't need tapering and ran straight to the stern, my next plank needed a bit of tapering, lay the plank up tight to the previous one and gently bend it up towards the bow, don't force it, let it lie naturally, any overlap you see - this is where you need to taper it. I use an oversize length; then you have another go at getting the tapering right, if the first one doesn't go as planned!

 

Here's a few photos of my bow planking under way (you can also see that the very top and bottom of the bow didn't need tapering, just the middle):

Vulcan you are a scholar and a gentleman!

 

This post really helped me. And actually anticipated a number of questions I had, like which side of the plank to taper. I did employ a slightly strange method in the end but I couldnt have done it without you.

[ASAT]

Well Bitter End, you gave me permission to correct you so.....  Vulcanbomber is actually a scholar and gentlewoman, and a British woman at that! Quite the talented lady and has one of the best San Francisco builds on MSW, and as you commented, a very nice Pegasus in work. 

I will be glad to stop in periodically and if I can be of assistance I will, and if not I can certainly lead you astray.... 😀 just keep posting pics of your progress, and you will get lots of help and ideas here.....   Very consistent workmanship, and you seem to be meticulous as well, great first build effort so far! Keep at it and keep asking questions! 

Edited October 30, 2019 by ASAT

[vulcanbomber]

Lou, you'll make me blush!!

 

Bitter End, I'm glad my photo's helped. I'm happy to help however I can.

[The Bitter End]

On 10/30/2019 at 9:36 AM, ASAT said:

Well Bitter End, you gave me permission to correct you so.....  Vulcanbomber is actually a scholar and gentlewoman, and a British woman at that! Quite the talented lady and has one of the best San Francisco builds on MSW, and as you commented, a very nice Pegasus in work. 

I will be glad to stop in periodically and if I can be of assistance I will, and if not I can certainly lead you astray.... 😀 just keep posting pics of your progress, and you will get lots of help and ideas here.....   Very consistent workmanship, and you seem to be meticulous as well, great first build effort so far! Keep at it and keep asking questions! 

Hi again ASAT

 

Thank you for the correction 😂this is exactly what I need. I will be formulating my apology accordingly.

 

It really is great to have so much support on here and thank you for the compliment. Hopefully by the time you read this my next post will be up and running with all the usual rookie questions.

 

Have an outstanding day!

 

cheers

 

Haiko

[The Bitter End]

On 10/31/2019 at 1:38 PM, vulcanbomber said:

Lou, you'll make me blush!!

 

Bitter End, I'm glad my photo's helped. I'm happy to help however I can.

Vulcan! My humblest apologies. Please change all my sirs to ma'am's.

 

I hope that I havent misinterpreted your photos but you will see my attempts at duplicating them below.

[The Bitter End]

Day 27 to 34 - First planking

 

This post covers the first few stages of the first planking. After some careful reading of the posts of the helpful folks on here I began first planking. The method I went with at the end of the day was a combination of different bits of advice. It is far from perfect but it was a great learning experience that I thoroughly enjoyed and I am very glad that I had this first layer of planking to teach me before approaching the second layer.

 

Here are some things that I learned during this process.

 

1. That rabbet that is not mentioned in the original build plans is an absolute lifesaver for a rookie. It captures the planks neatly and helps a huge amount.

2. Sand the bearding like quite a bit before you start planking. It is far easier to sand MDF than it is to sand this lime wood.

3. Do as little of the rest of the build as possible before beginning planking. It requires a fair amount of rough handling and the less there is to break while doing this the better.

4. Those balsa wood fillers are a huge help. If the planks dont have something solid to be glues onto they had a tendency to be slightly springy. making it almost impossible to get them sanded completely flush.

5. The best method I could come up with for smoothing the planks was to use a carpet knife blade and scrape the worst of the unevenness out of the hull and then move over to 100 grit sandpaper and then up to 600 grit. I dont think it makes sense to make the surface TOO smooth as it will just reduce the ability of the glue to adhere for the next layer of planking.

 

My method for fitting the planks changed after the first few went down but I will describe what I did as if it was the method I used from the beginning to the end.

I started by placing the upper and lower strakes(I know there is a correct technical name for this but i forget what they are). I then measured the distance between these two planks at the widest distance and used this to calculate how many planks would fit in this space by dividing the distance by 5.2mm as the planks are actually slightly wider than 5mm and there will always be additional space when laying the plank(the answer was 16 for me). I then measured the narrowest gap at the bow and divided this number by 16...giving me what width plank I would need to be able to fit 16 planks in that space. I then tapered the planks from this measurement back to the point where they returned to original thickness and then installed them buy steaming, pinning, drying and then gluing the shaped planks in place with PVA glue. I repeated this process (measurements included) every time I had laid a plank to eliminate any errors at each stage and not create compound errors.

This worked swimmingly until I got about 2 planks from the end. This left me in a position where I had one plank that had to have a curve cut out of it near the stern (i did this by steaming and pinning the plank and then marking on the hull. there is a photo below where you can see this curve between the planks already laid) and one plank that got cut into a long pointy shape, which i realise is really not the right thing to do.

 

Despite all this I am fairly happy with the results and what I learned.

 

This brings me to questions.

 

1. Must the first planking at the stern lie flush with the walnut keel or should I sand it back further to accommodate the final planking.

2. How should I fill the spaces between planks and pin holes where they appear? Should I use pva glue and the sawdust that I so lovingly gathered together while sanding? Is there another step that I need to take before proceeding with planking, and have i missed anything major or made any mistakes.

 

Here are some photos

 

[The Lazy Saint]

Well l think you have done a super job of the first planking, it looks great. As for your questions:

1. I think you should sand it back further to accommodate the second planking.

2. Any wood filler should be ok but l wouldn't worry to much about pin holes, it is, after all, only the first planking.

I only have limited experience myself so if any one with more experience contradicts me then they probably know best.

Keep up the great work.

Best wishes as always, 

The Lazy Saint. 

 

[vulcanbomber]

That is a very good attempt at first planking. It will make a good solid base for the second planking.

 

The hull needs to be really well sanded, one reason for the thicker planks; it is surprising how much sanding it can take. Spending time and getting the hull nice and smooth now will make a good base for the second layer as any dips and bumps will be more noticeable when the second planking is done. You can use either wood filler or PVA mixed with sawdust, either works well. 

 

The stern will need to be sanded down quite a bit, Spyglass shows a good way of getting an idea of how much material needs to be removed, by temporarily fixing the stern post you can use a strip of the second planking as a guide, the second layer should just be at the same level or slightly proud of the stern post, but not too proud otherwise you might find yourself sanding it off when the final planking layer is sanded smooth..

 

You will probably find the second planking will probably follow a different pattern to the first as the strips are a lot thinner and not quite so forgiving as the lime planks. You will see on my Pegasus that the second is different. 

The first six were straight rows, after that the following rows ended against the first band, this was to prevent the planks from clinkering. I used scale lengths for the second planking and mixing the different colours to get an interesting effect which I enjoyed doing, but you can follow the same process using full length planks.

 

The strips themselves will show you where they want to go, as they are not so flexible and won't take much bending laterally before splintering of snapping, let them show you! As you can see mine had a gap that was filled in.

You can get a good idea of how my bands of planking were shaped at the bow on these two pics. The six under the bulwarks were straight and not shaped, you can see where the following five or six runs meet up to the sixth band of planking. As they went along the stem, they were also tapered, but not as much as on the first planking.

 

The stern, you will probably need a couple of stealers, but these are not difficult, the planking itself will dictate where these will need to go, it's basically a case of filling in a couple of gaps with a triangular piece!

 

If you want any more close ups of my second planking, just ask away and I will take some for you.

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by vulcanbomber

[The Bitter End]

On 11/4/2019 at 9:23 PM, The Lazy Saint said:

Well l think you have done a super job of the first planking, it looks great. As for your questions:

1. I think you should sand it back further to accommodate the second planking.

2. Any wood filler should be ok but l wouldn't worry to much about pin holes, it is, after all, only the first planking.

I only have limited experience myself so if any one with more experience contradicts me then they probably know best.

Keep up the great work.

Best wishes as always, 

The Lazy Saint. 

 

Hey there Lazy

 

Thank you for the compliment its really nice to hear, especially for a rookie.

 

I followed your first piece of advice and sanded back and then decided that I was going to be a perfectionist and cover the whole first planking in a layer of sawdust and PVA(a decision that I deeply regret as it took about 3 days to sand off.

 

I hope you stick around and continue to give me advice where you see fit.

 

cheerio!

 

TBE

[The Bitter End]

On 11/4/2019 at 11:06 PM, SpyGlass said:

I am sure that somewhere on here I have a better pics but here is an early Fly which shows how far I sand the first layer back.

The walnut pieces are just temporarily fixed with dowels .

I managed to have a errant Dremel take a chunk out of the upper stern part of the keel ply - hence the BluTak temporary filler  - but the pics shows my approach.

The idea is to be able to put a second strip against the walnut edges and the strip should be be just be a teeny bit proud

 

 

Hi Spy

 

Thank you for this really useful post as always. It really helped. Now that I think about it I recall having seen (and even discussed) how you approached first planking. I somehow forgot about this. I have however now followed yor advice as far as possible and sanded back to where things should be.

'

Please take a look and let me know your thoughts if you do have a moment.

 

thanks again!

 

 

[The Bitter End]

On 11/5/2019 at 12:06 AM, vulcanbomber said:

That is a very good attempt at first planking. It will make a good solid base for the second planking.

 

The hull needs to be really well sanded, one reason for the thicker planks; it is surprising how much sanding it can take. Spending time and getting the hull nice and smooth now will make a good base for the second layer as any dips and bumps will be more noticeable when the second planking is done. You can use either wood filler or PVA mixed with sawdust, either works well. 

 

The stern will need to be sanded down quite a bit, Spyglass shows a good way of getting an idea of how much material needs to be removed, by temporarily fixing the stern post you can use a strip of the second planking as a guide, the second layer should just be at the same level or slightly proud of the stern post, but not too proud otherwise you might find yourself sanding it off when the final planking layer is sanded smooth..

 

You will probably find the second planking will probably follow a different pattern to the first as the strips are a lot thinner and not quite so forgiving as the lime planks. You will see on my Pegasus that the second is different. 

The first six were straight rows, after that the following rows ended against the first band, this was to prevent the planks from clinkering. I used scale lengths for the second planking and mixing the different colours to get an interesting effect which I enjoyed doing, but you can follow the same process using full length planks.

 

The strips themselves will show you where they want to go, as they are not so flexible and won't take much bending laterally before splintering of snapping, let them show you! As you can see mine had a gap that was filled in.

You can get a good idea of how my bands of planking were shaped at the bow on these two pics. The six under the bulwarks were straight and not shaped, you can see where the following five or six runs meet up to the sixth band of planking. As they went along the stem, they were also tapered, but not as much as on the first planking.

 

The stern, you will probably need a couple of stealers, but these are not difficult, the planking itself will dictate where these will need to go, it's basically a case of filling in a couple of gaps with a triangular piece!

 

If you want any more close ups of my second planking, just ask away and I will take some for you.

 

Good Morning Vulcan

 

This post and your build log are going to be my primary sources for planking, you have a great approach.

 

I was wondering how you determined the plank lengths for the hull planking. I am struggling to find information on layouts etc. I would like to do what you did and plank to scale but I dont know how.

 

Also im an absolute ruddy chop and i went and glued the stern keel piece in place for some weird reason. Now i have to remove it AGAIN!!

 

Thanks so much for your help and patience. Its brilliant.

[The Bitter End]

day 35 to 37

 

I sanded, alot.

 

After completing the basic first planking I decided with my infinite wisdom(and handsome looks) to cover the whole hull in a layer of PVA and sawdust to fill all the minor holes in the planking and then sand it back. DO NOT DO THIS! it took me basically 3 days to sand it back to wood again. the results are reasonable but not worth the effort. During this sanding process I also sanded the stern back to allow the second layer of planking to lie just a fraction proud of the keel as suggested by SpyGlass..

 

I then also went and glued the stern keel piece down for some entirely inexplicable reason. Im putting it down to fatigue.

 

I see many different methods of planking and I have a number of questions. However my first is...where do I start the planking. there seem to be at least 4 options.

 

Edited November 7, 2019 by The_bitter_end

[J11]

@The_bitter_end, that's a gorgeous looking hull. Keep up the fine work!

 

 

[The Lazy Saint]

I would say you have done a great job on your first planking and have laid the foundation for a superb finish. Well done, its looking great. 

Best wishes as always, 

The Lazy Saint. 

 

[The Bitter End]

11 hours ago, Jonathan11 said:

@The_bitter_end, that's a gorgeous looking hull. Keep up the fine work!

 

 

Thanks buddy! That makes me feel mighty good.

[The Bitter End]

52 minutes ago, The Lazy Saint said:

I would say you have done a great job on your first planking and have laid the foundation for a superb finish. Well done, its looking great. 

Best wishes as always, 

The Lazy Saint. 

 

You make me blush. I really hope I can keep this up. I feel like I keep getting lucky here.

[The Bitter End]

7 hours ago, SpyGlass said:

Thats all VERY nice !!

Only comment I have is that you seem to me to be a leeetle proud on the stern last bulkhead position which gives you a fairly sharp turn there.

You may wish to shave the planking back to give a smoother line into the stern counter.

Heres a picture of mine which i had to correct a bit later in the samt place

But a really nice job.

 

Just a query - did you chamfer your planks they are sitting nice and close.

 

And a few comments on planking start point. 

Are you going to copper ? - Always a good idea to start in an area you are going to cover up !

I start from top and bottom

 

 I like to get  the first few strips bottom in first and the temporarily run some guide strips

Golden rule for me is to keep the garboard and oterh bottom planks as straight as possible DO NOT LET THEM CURL UP THE STEM just makes it harder for later

NOTE the keel planks rise a little more at the stem than i would wish on this build you can see that there is a few of lower planks I didnt taper - mistake !

 

I then always do it by getting the top one or two in at wale level and normally do not do not taper much if at all.

And yes you can hide mistakes under the wale !!

The stem rabbet helps to get a nice fit and the old rule steam and prebend!

 

 

 

 

Hi Spy!

 

your positive feedback makes me quite proud. Thank you. I dont mean to be annoying but i dont really understand your suggestion. I think the issue is my poor understanding of the terminology. Could you please help me out

 

While im asking questions, I no longer have a rabbet. I filled it with my first planking. Should I cut a new one?

 

Also they refer to marking a main wale? i Cant quite figure out what exactly that means(I assume it means that I should apply a single strip of planking at a specific level below the Gunports to make a sort of upper guideline. If that is correct then how do i determine what level to put this at?

 

to answer your questions..I did not chamfer my planks. I just steamed the heck out of them and pressed them hard against each other both when shaping and gluing. I did also cover the whole hull in woodglue and sawdust and then sand it down which might be giving it an deceivingly tight effect.

 

As for coppering...I am on the fence. I was considering coppering one half and not the other? do you have any thoughts on this? I cant decide.

 

Thanks again for all your detail and effort. It really helps

[vulcanbomber]

That is a remarkably good hull you have there, especially as a first attempt.

 

I do agree with Spy that it you do have a bit of a sharp bend at the last bulkhead at the stern, if you can take the 'bump' down a bit more (shown in the blue circle and dotted line), you will find it will be easier for second planking.

Also the stern counter (the piece of wood at the stern) curves, Spy's picture shows it quite well. 

 

Planks were generally between 20 -25 foot, depending on what was available at the time. I chose 24ft as my length of plank and scaled down they are 114mm. The pattern I used was a 4 butt shift pattern.  

 

This is how I proceeded:

 

I marked the hull with vertical guide lines about 28.5mm apart along the complete length of the hull I placed the first guide line in the middle of the gap between the 5th and 6th gunport  and then worked to the left and right. Make sure the lines are vertical to the waterline, ( I put the Pegasus in her cradle, which gives more or less the correct position and then used a homemade 'plumbline' - a piece of thread with a blue-tack 'weight' on the end to give me a vertical guide.

 

Next mark the lines 'a' 'b' 'c' and 'd' repeating them to the end of the guide lines. 

 

Here is a diagram of the planking pattern I used. 

To find the starting point, I marked the position of the wale (Top and bottom edges) onto Pegasus. The location is shown on the plans.

Once this is marked, I put the first line of planking following the top line of the wale (bottom edge of the plank on the top wale line) and I proceeded as follows:

 

 

Place the first length on guide lines A-A, repeating along the whole length.

Next row down the lengths are placed on guide lines D-D (planks are set 1 column BACK from FIRST row butts)

Next row down, the lengths are placed on B-B (Planks are set 1 column FORWARD from FIRST row butts)

Next row down, the lengths are placed on C-C (Planks are set 2 columns FORWARD from FIRST row butts)

Next row down is a repeat of the first row.

You should now have 3 rows between your butt joints on guide lines A-A.

 

Continue following the pattern.

 

You can either do straight runs like Spy, or a run similar to mine, the choice is yours!

 

I hope this helps you and doesn't confuse you to much.

 

[The Bitter End]

@vulcanbomber Good morning Vulcan!

 

This now all makes perfect sense. I did use the same 4 butt pattern when planking my deck but this explanation really simplifies the process. I am still not sure if I am going to make use of this system or not yet. It does seem like a huge amount of work for something that is going to be coppered over but the point of this build was always to build the skills I need for future builds.

 

Between you and spys explanation of the hump i have at the stern I now know exactly what you mean. Back to the sanding block. I did also notice on Spys photo that the stern counter was curved so I took mine off, soaked it in a cup of hot water and reapplied it wit pressure to create the curve(in the process I also learned that one shouldnt put hot water in a mug that looks like it might have tea in it. i had 3 large sips out of it, thought that I should really write a letter to the Delaware Local Observer about the fact that the quality of tea in this country is going down the toilet, and then realised I was actually just drinking a cup of plywood water.)

 

 

How did you adhere your planks to the hull? did you use cyno(superglue is what we members of the peasantry would call it)

 

Have a magical day/night

 

cheers

Haiko

 

P.S. Despite my run in with the "tea" and my somewhat rookie questions I promise I am usually a fairly competent person 😂

Edited November 8, 2019 by The_bitter_end

[The Bitter End]

@SpyGlass Spy! Top of the morning to you

 

I hope you will be pleased to see that I have moved over to tagging instead of copying the entire message you said(how fast im growing up)

 

This is all starting to make way more sense. I did look at cutting another rabbet and I think there is a very real chance I will just do damage I cant repair so Im going to log this under experience for my next build. In retrospect it does make alot more sense to do it your way(thats what I get for trying to be clever).

 

I understand what you mean now about the hump at the stern. Thank you for taking the time to clarify that. I will get on fixing this immediately

 

I think the Wale situation confused me because it seemed like a big step in the whole second planking thing. when in reality its really just a fancy way of saying "make sure that you mark where you want the wale to run when you finish your planking."

 

 

 

 

[The Bitter End]

Day 38

 

After some great advice from fellow members I sanded back the hump that was pointed out and attempted to put a bit more of a curve into the stern counter. Please let me know if this is correct if you fine people have the time..

 

I then applied myself to the wale line. I measured on the drawings on sheet 4 and realised that the distance from the bottom of the gunports to the top of the wale is the same as the distance from the bottom of the gunports to the gun deck. This happy coincidence combined with the fact that the ply is pretty thin meant that I would shine a light through the ply to mark this level in pencil on the outside. My plan is to then use the 2 darkest strips of planking I can find in the bundle to mark the top of the wale and then plank down from there with lighter wood to make sure I dont get confused about whats what. Again it would be appreciated if you could take a look at the pencil line I drew to mark the top of the wale and give me feedback on its location. Please excuse my dirty nails. I am a farmer and I spend a large portion of my day either doing things that makes tour hands too dirty to ever truly get them clean

 

 

[J11]

Plywood tea .... hmmm .... might try black walnut tea .... we all make those kind of crazy mistakes; glad it wasn't tung oil tea.

 

[The Bitter End]

@SpyGlass  Hello Spy! old faithful at it again.

 

I agree entirely that that wale line was infact far too high. I have an analog vernier that I used to measure the wale off the drawing again and I am far more happy with the results. I did then go a step further and I used a compass, set the compass to the distance between the gunport and the wale indicated on the drawing and then went over to the model. the advantage of this is that it has the pencil built into the one side so there is less fiddling.

 

Thanks for this great representation of just how extreme that curve in the stern counter actually is. I had no idea. I think I may nave to somehow exaggerate this curve using the planking of the hull and the counter itself. I cant get a curve into the ply piece that accurately matches your drawing.

 

Thank you for that link to the drawings. they really are beautiful. I will order a set tonight!

 

I hope you are having a great day.

 

cheers "bitter"

 

 

[The Bitter End]

Rookie question number 982

 

Th e stern counter piece sticks out slightly beyond the edge of the bulwarks. I cant quite figure out if this was a mistake on my part or the models part or if it is meant to be that way. Should I be trimming this back so that the bulwark planking can cover the edge of the stern counter?

[vulcanbomber]

That is much better now the hump has been sanded. Spy is correct, you really need to get that stern counter curved as best you can, otherwise the decoration that is added further on in the build will not fit well. It can be trimmed so its level with the bulwarks, I didn't plank it as mine was actually a nice piece of walnut and I liked it as it was.

 

Also the wale is important to get right as well. The second attempt looks better, but a word of warning for a future step: the quarter badges (the windows on the side at the stern) sits on top of the wale, if the wale is too high the quarter badge wont fit. This is a problem most Pegasus / fly builders encounter. 

 

It might be an idea to use the quarter badge base ( I can't remember it's piece number, but looks a bit like this. ) and then you can test it against the wale's top line to make sure all is okay and it fits between the wale and edge of the bulwark. See my pic: