Building St Canute 700 Billing models 1931

[DaveBaxt]

New to building models and chose this one which is advanced beginner. ( sold out of tug boats beginners models)

Ok so far so good, completed assembly of the following

Keel,Bulkhead fames and main deck. Also filled in bow and stern with filler block and faired the bulkheads to fit the planks.

Unfortunately there is only 4 pages of intructions and each page has a photograph of assembled parts and a short paragraph explain what is to happen next.

Most of what I have learned form this site together with some videos of planking. The instruction did not mention anything about faring the keel in the dead wood area or rebating the rabbit ,so as yet I have not done this.

 I have read many articals on planking ( including on here which I think I understand) I have also watched a few on Youtube which are all conflicting ,some are just making it ip as they go along others have really good ideas.

My first question is do I plank downwards from the deck or up from the keel. The instruction do look as if its the deck down  approach to planking which is what I like best. However some suggest from the garboard strake up to the deck first. 

After doing several calculation using both a taylors measuring tape and masking tape I have come to the conclusion that its going to be very tight at the bow and stern to maintain the 5 mm planks to no less than 2.5 and it will be neccassary  to drop two planks forward ie 26 to 24 planks  and 26 to 19 at the stern. The above  is assuming I can taper the very first plank at the main deck which I don't know if this is such a good idea, However if I do not taper this plank then I think I might have to drop another plank at the stern. Dropping 8 planks at the stern seems a like a lot of planks to drop.

Also am I correct in assuming that all tapering will be on the top of the plank except the garboard  strake.Again if the plank at the deck is tapered on the top ,then I think this would not look to good as then the planks going up the bulwalks would give me problems as these also look to be straight and not tapered?

                  I have tried fitting some temporary planks 5 on each side not including one 10mm from the keel and one at the deck , I have moved these about a bit but finding it difficult as the planks to not long enough and are short about a space between two bulkheads bow or stern. I am also thinking of drawing a plan of the planking to see which is the best bulkhead to drop the planks.

             Any help or advice would be appreciated and hopefully I can post some photos to show my progress so far.Best regards Dave 

ps hope this all makes sense.