Mayflower by TheRedGnome - Artesania Latina - 1:64

[TheRedGnome]

4th row is planked in.  I think I'm going to go 2 more rows and then start the top strake and work my way down over the gun ports next.  Here's the front of my planks set into my rabbet with the ends nibbed.

[TheRedGnome]

I've added a few more rows of planks and started working my way down the hull. There's some "stepping" in the planks near the bow, but I'm not overly concerned since the instructions show us painting things later and that can be fixed and hidden with some putty and sanding. I'm learning more and more with each row... and having a great time doing it since it's taking my mind off the day.

[TheRedGnome]

I've been a busy little bee over the last couple of weeks and have been able to devote quite a bit of my evening time to planking.  I've learned a lot while doing it.  The treasure trove of information on how to plank here helped in the theoretical sense, and as time went on I got a better grasp on just what people were talking about.  The side of me that takes pride in my work to the point of completely scrapping something to redo it is struggling with the practical side of me that knows I can't mill more wood down with the tools that I have on-hand to replace what was used in this learning process.  I know the simple solution is to just get said tools, but my wife's family has 1 absolute rule during the holiday season.... Under no circumstances are we to buy something for ourselves that wasn't a "pre-planned/budgeted purchase" from October 1st through to December 25th... so I'll just take what I've learned into my next build when I start on it after this Mayflower is finished (or when I get to rigging and need a break from small knots).

 

For now though... the main hull is planked!  I've marked where I added the proper gun port framing behind the planks so they can be cut out.  I used a combination of a small clothes iron for putting the edge bending into the planks, and followed them up with my aeropiccola being held in my vise to allow both hands to manipulate the planks I was spot bending.  I tried using the little clamp guide that came with my aeropiccola, but ended up running into more trouble with it than I felt it was worth.  Some planks would be over-bent, some under.  Some I couldn't even get the plank through due to the tension on the springs.  I couldn't use the sharp curve side of the aeropiccola while using the clamp guide because of the spring tension.  To bend twists into the planks, I would just use a set of precision/jewelers pliers to hold the plank if the twist position was too close to the bender.  This week my main goal is to start the sanding/smoothing process for the planks that were stepped early on in my bending experience (before I set the aeropiccola into my vise to use both hands).  If areas are too filled with CA glue, I have acetone on hand to soften the glue up for a more precision gluing.  I also have some putty on hand to close up the gaps that formed here and there.

 

After that, my next step is to figure out how to get this laser cut piece that's supposed to be the rails around the decks and the upper rear portion of the planking bent into shape/place.  I'm still not 100% sure on how I'll manage that one... I might just do some soaking overnight in a container and use my iron to form it into shape on the hull itself.  I'll search other threads that have done the AL Mayflower to see what they've done before I get too set into a process.  I do know that I'm going to first shape the laser cut pieces into place and then do their interior walnut planking after I've marked what areas need to actually get planked rather than planking it first and then shaping after.

[TOM G]

We live and learn. 🙂

[TheRedGnome]

41 minutes ago, TOM G said:

We live and learn. 🙂

That we do.

[TheRedGnome]

My Mayflower is still progressing nicely but hasn't had much done on it since this past weekend due to Thanksgiving, my covid booster over the weekend, and my wife's booster early this week.  Fatigue and sharp objects don't mix very well so figured it was best to give building a bit of a break until the fatigue is gone.  I was going to wait to post until I had a little more progression but after thinking about it and reading through various other build logs in my downtime, I think I'm at a great point for an update.  One of these days I'm going to figure out how y'all are getting the images inline on your posts instead of just being massive at the end but for now it'll just be a wall of text followed by a wall of photo. Figured it out while I was actually uploading the images this time.

 

For starters, I was trying for a while to figure out the best way to bend the plywood sheet that the AL kit contains for the planking around the decks.  During this I noticed, due to not knowing any better in my initial planking attempts, that my top planks weren't entirely uniform against the bottom of the plywood.  One side had a pretty sizeable gap midships that'll have to be addressed later.  For bending the plywood I decided on a multi-approach of both soaking sections of it for a little bit, then using a combo of my bending iron and clothes iron to curve it.  My clothes iron was used to get the broad bends in place, along with any twists it needed.  The bending iron for the more severe bends near the bow of the ship.  Ultimately, I'm pretty proud of the bending that I did and got them to be pretty close to sitting on the ship without any springback pressure...  I then proceeded with doing the internal veneer planking that the instructions called for and started the process of gluing the now-veneered plywood to the ship....  Then things went less than ideal.

I let the clamps sit on it for over 24h just to give my wood glue the max cure time.  I was most concerned with 2 locations, the part that sat against the elevated deck forwardships and the part that sat against the first elevated deck aftships since those are the 2 locations with the most springback.  I slowly removed their clamps... just to have them break the glue bond and pop out away from the ship.  Thankfully they didn't damage the decks, just some residual glue that needed to be carefully removed.  I tried some CA glue to keep them connected, which worked, but also looked extremely bad to me.  After much internal debate and talking it over with the wife, I decided I'd just do the planking myself.  I spent the entire next day going over ideas on what to do, using the same thought processes I use when developing & implementing the software frameworks that will be the foundation of projects over the next several years at my work.  I came up with the idea of getting the deck stanchions (I believe that's what they're called? please correct me if I'm wrong) cut into the decking and glued into the existing planks, then using them as the support for laying and securing the planks that will span the gaps across the decks.  I set to work cutting out the little walnut pieces that were meant to be used for this (but decoration instead of actually structural) further in the instructions.  I shaped and bent the top plank for the main deck that would sit at the top of the stanchions, marked out where it's visible on the deck, and painted between the markings.  The paint I used is the "oak brown" paint from The Army Painter's miniatures wargamers paint set.  I did a sample piece and it's colors came out pretty close to the veneer, enough that it shouldn't be really noticeable once everything's gotten a finish coat.

I then set out to cutting the notches along the decks that these stanchions will sit in.  There's several spots where I cut the slots too wide (and you'll notice one of the deck boards chipped off due to my saw even though I was trying to be extra slow with it), but I'll cover them up with a toe board before everything is said and done.

I glued the stanchions to their proper location on the plank, set them into the deck after the glue dried and got the correct height that they're going to be after the other 2 planking rows are applied.  Currently this plank isn't glued in, but the stanchions are.  I'm going to wait to glue it in until after I get the plank for the other side of the ship shaped/bent/painted/setup.

 

Dan

[TOM G]

A lot of work goes into building a wooden model ship........ And you have to have your thinking cap on your head, all of the time. 🧐