Half Hull Planking Project by dcicero - NRG - Planking Tutorial by tlevine

[dcicero]

For everyone in the US, Happy Memorial Day!

 

Just a quick progress update today.  I've installed the planking battens.  I used the technique explained in Planking the Built-Up Ship Model.  That book recommends using 1/16" wooden battens rather than the string battens Toni recommended.  Since I'd tried the strings before and had a tough time getting them to stay where I put them, I decided to pull some 1/16" strip wood out of my wood pile and see how they would work.  I like the results.  I tacked them to the frames with the smallest brads I had, which kept them in place.  I wetted them slightly to get them to bend around the bow and just moved them around until I got a "pleasing run of planking."  I'm happy with the results, but let me know if I shouldn't be!

 

 

 

 

 

I struggled with the broad strake.  Once I had it installed, I had to do some trimming on the upper edge to get a clean line, fore and aft.  And you can seem in the bow, that I had a little splitting happen.  It's a lot more noticeable in this photo than it is on the model itself and will be easily fixed up.  I'm working hard to minimize the amount of "fixing up" I have to do.  I haven't done any sanding at all on what I have in place so far.  That'll wait until everything's installed.

 

 

Dan

[dcicero]

I've gotten a couple of messages saying my photos aren't visible.  Can't explain that.  I posted the URL to my OneDrive folder, but no matter.

 

Here they are.

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

 

[dcicero]

Not liking the way the forward part of the broad strake looked in those photos, I decided to remove it and do it again.  Doing it again, now, will save me a lot of headaches later because that defect will bother me throughout this whole process.

 

 

 

[tlevine]

It may simply be the pictures, Dan, but I think you still have too much of a "smiley face" in that lower batten.

[dcicero]

Thanks, Toni.  I detached the lower batten and repositioned it.  I didn't move it much.  Moving it much lower really changed the sweep of the batten a lot.

 

Last night, I got my replacement broad strake in.  It looks much better.  And I laid out the stealer.

 

 

 

[dcicero]

To avoid the “smiley face,” I dropped the forward ends of both battens a little bit.  I thought, sighting along the hull, that the previous way looked better, but I think the battens now better describe the run of planking.

 

Dan

 

[dcicero]

Progress...

 

I made a decision not to just re-do what I did before, but to try to understand what went wrong the last time and how to get it right this time.  I re-read Toni's instructions.  I re-read Planking the Built-Up Ship Model and David Antscherl's A Primer on Planking.  I also read through a number of build logs here on MSW.  I watched a few of Chuck Passaro's videos.  And I incorporated some techniques I've learned through the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society of Chicago.  Here's the step-by-step process I went through with the first plank above the broad strake using a mash-up of all those techniques (all of which produce perfect results, by the way).

 

First, I measured with dividers the distance between the middle of the batten and the top of the prior plank.  (That's from Planking the Built-Up Ship Model.)

 

 

Then I constructed a table of equal distances.  (I learned this from Bob Filipowski from the NRMSS.)  I have to fit four planks in the distance measured, so I just found the line at which the distance equals four spaces on the table. 

 

 

Then I drew a horizontal line for frame 2.  (For some reason this photo and the next are upside down, even though I edited them before uploading them here.)

 

 

Each of those divisions equals the proper width of the plank at that frame.  By labeling all those lines, I can go back to this table at any time and determine what the plank width ought to be.

 

 

Then I used an awl to make a small mark on the frame showing where the plank edge should be.  My goal is to have the top of the plank cut that tiny circle in half when it's in place.  (That small mark at the top of the broad strake was misplaced.  I needed to adjust the width of that plank when I installed it.)

 

 

 

All ready to make the plank.  I found the blue painter's tape Toni recommended to be difficult to use because it twisted a little every time I tried to use it.  I used Antscherl's process, using a piece of cardstock.  Just cut a piece slightly wider and longer than the plank you intend to make, position it close to the top of the lower plank with just enough gap to fit your compass point into.

 

 

Mark each of the frames on the cardstock and run a compass point along the top of the lower plank, marking a parallel line.

 

 

Now I have the bottom edge of the plank defined.

 

Remove the cardstock from the model and, at each frame, take the measurement from the table of equal distances for those frames and make a mark on the cardstock.

 

 

 

Using a French curve or ships curves, connect the dots.  In Planking the Built-Up Ship Model, the point is made that you don't necessarily want to "connect the dots."  Just describe a smooth curve.  (There's a great diagram in that book showing what your plank should not looks like.)  Use the French curve to clean up the line drawn by the compass too.

 

 

And now you have a template.

 

 

With which you can cut out the plank.

 

 

I did find it difficult, at times, to clamp the planks in place.  And now, with the bigger battens in place, I've found it impossible to fit clamps in there.  I watched a few of Chuck Passaro's videos about planking HMS Winchelsea.  He uses heat to bend the planks.  David Antscherl makes the point that wood can be bent in two planes, but not three.  In my experience, it can be bent easily longitudinally (back an forth), easily torsionally (twisting) and with some difficulty laterally (side to side).  That's not to say edge bending doesn't work.  It does.  I built my Longboat using nothing but edge bending and Chuck uses edge bending in his videos, but the fact that these planks have been spiled eliminates the need for edge bending.  It doesn't eliminate the need for the plank to bend in the other two planes.  The fact that clamping these planks is problematic -- for me, at least -- meant that I needed to bend the planks and get them to stay where I wanted them without pressure.

 

I heated up my plank bender ... which is nothing more than a soldering iron.

 

 

 

I wetted the plank before bending it.  That's optional, but it made this process go quickly and smoothly.

 

From there it was just a little sand-fit, sand-fit, sand-fit until the plank sat nicely where it belonged without the need to clamp it.  Here's the result.  No gaps, no bulges, no cracks, no deformation.  With one exception, it cuts my little marks in twain.  No connecting the dots, just a smooth curve.

 

 

So that's it.  I only have to do that about another hundred times -- accounting for the ones I'll mess up -- and this thing will be done!

 

 

 

Dan

Edited June 5, 2021 by dcicero
Typos

[tlevine]

Looking good, Dan.  I would like to make one comment, as this project is a teaching aid for planking.  Look at your broad strake at stations 4 and 5.  It is a little too wide, resulting in the "waist" at station 4 in your first strake.  Generally, if you see an unusual shape in a plank, something is amiss in the adjacent row.  

[dcicero]

Thanks, Toni,

 

That explains a lot.

 

I installed another strake yesterday, but it was looking a little weird too.  I suspect it has more to do with the shape of the strake below it than anything else, so I removed it, along with the plank just above the broad strake that you pointed out.

 

 

Only a little bit of splitting on those planks when I removed them, so I can probably use them for templates for new ones.

 

 

And here's what it looks like now.

 

 

How do you usually deal with the tops of the planks when you find a defect?  Do you carve them in place?  Or do you remove them and and just make another?

 

Making each of these planks is  a time-consuming process (at least the way I'm doing it) and it seems that, no matter how carefully it's done, defects appear when the plank is actually glued in place.  Is there any way to adjust them in place?  I know I can't add any wood to a plank that's been carved too aggressively, but it seems like I can remove wood from one that needs trimming.

 

 

Dan 

 

 

[LyleK1]

"How do you usually deal with the tops of the planks when you find a defect?  Do you carve them in place?  Or do you remove them and and just make another?

 

Making each of these planks is  a time-consuming process (at least the way I'm doing it) and it seems that, no matter how carefully it's done, defects appear when the plank is actually glued in place.  Is there any way to adjust them in place?  I know I can't add any wood to a plank that's been carved too aggressively, but it seems like I can remove wood from one that needs trimming."

 

For me the key was in the tracing of the line below the plank you're making. Be meticulous about it, use a real sharp pencil and make sure the tape is shaped properly and tight. If you take enough precautions, just some light sanding will fix any minor gaps or errors.

I'm no expert but this was a fun project but definitely a challenge!

oh... And you it takes a long time to fit each plank! I'm doing the same on my current model (HMS Bounty) and I literally spend 45-60 minutes on planks. Especially, at the bow and stern.

Good luck!