Armed Virginia Sloop by CiscoH - Model Shipways - 1:48

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Cisco, your AVS is looking great. If you are using the Cheerful monograph as a reference you would now be at Chapter Four where Chuck describes using tick strips and planking fans. I found this method very valuable in obtaining a good result. It really takes the guesswork out of the picture. 

[CiscoH]

Thanks for the support Paul.  My (new) plan is to finish first planking on the port side as best I can while learning how to best spile and heat bend.  Then starboard I will try an up my game with battens first to get a smooth run, then apply tick strips and fans.   And I still have to open up the gunports, thin the remaining bulkhead risers, and put in my waterways.  No rest for the wicked as they say.

 

Also I made it to Page 2!

Edited March 14, 2022 by CiscoH

[CiscoH]

I managed to go 1 week between updates!  This is only because the wife and kids are away until tomorrow on an end of the year ski trip so I have that thing called Free Time.  Gotta take advantage while it lasts...

 

This week I followed Paul Le Wol's advice and instead of filling in the remaining port side planks willie nilly I busted out the tic strips and planking fan, my first experience using them.  I followed Chuck's Cheerful instructions, free to download, chapter 4, which includes the planking fan.  It so far has gone easier than I anticipated, words that may come back to haunt me.

 

First I measured the widths I wanted to plank at the stern, amidships, and at the bow.  Pretty simple - lay a strip of paper across the width and mark it.  (The below picture is a re-enactment as I had already marked it so pretend the tic marks on the bulkheads aren't there).  Since paper strips are flexible they will follow the contour of any curves and measure the true width.

 

 

Next figure out how many planks will fit in these spaces.   I measured each width and did some math.  For this first layer of planking the practicum has you use 1/4" wide basswood planks, so I divided the measured widths (1" at the Bow, 1.5" amidships and 1 3/4" at the stern) by 1/4" and got 4, 6, and 7 planks wide.   And I assumed I wouldn't want to narrow the planks at the stem to more half the original plank width, which would be 1/8", so I divided the original widths by 1/8" and got 8, 12, and 14.   So if I want single planks without stealers that don't taper more than half their width I can do between 7 and 8 planks.  That led me to trying to use 7 planks total, each of which would be the full 1/4" wide at the stern, and taper to a little more than 1/8" at the bow.  I hope I didn't mess up that math.

 

 

Next I took each tic strip and laid it across the planking fan to create 7 planks.  Just like reading a hematocrit.

 

 

Then I laid the tic strip back across the bulkhead and transferred the marks.  I used a separate strip for each bulkhead unless it was really close to the previous one.

 

 

Next I used a compass to measure each bulkhead mark and transferred it to the plank.

 

 

 

 

 

I connected the marks and cut off most of the excess plank to make bending easier.  The next plank was going to be from the stern -> forward and I had previously soaked it and bent it in place to dry over the transom.  The transom upwards curve this far inward is not nearly as pointy as the outside planks so this one bent fine and didn't try to splinter.

 

And here is me test fitting the new plank.  You can see it tapers some as it gets amidships and I left it a bit long to make it easier to bend.  I sanded my bevels to make it fit tight, trimmed off the excess tip, and glued it in place. 

 

 

 

 

 

For the next round I need to leave the plank a little fatter so there is enough width to bevel the edges.   Also I am running out of easy clamp room.

 

Thats all for tonight.  Happy modeling and thanks for reading

 

Cisco

[Theodosius]

You're doin' a great job on this planking!

[CiscoH]

Thanks Theodosius!  I appreciate the encouragement

[CiscoH]

Sunday night, wife and kids upstairs playing a board game so I have time for an update.  I'm on my third adult beverage so please excuse any typos...

 

I am almost finished with first planking on the port side! 

 

My plan for this side was to not get buried in details and concentrate on learning how to plank without huge gaps while having some degree of symmetry.  And then learn and make the starboard side better.  I have a tendency towards paralysis by analysis and I don't want to never finish because I was afflicted with Perfection.  So here goes:

 

My planking reached the sternpost using 1/4" full width planks.  But the angle was wonky; you can see in the pic below that the planks ended up almost parallel to the sternpost, instead of at 45 degrees.  This made it really difficult to fit and I had to add slivers of wood into gaps.  I didn't download a good pic of this, will do so next post.

 

 

I decided to split most planking runs into 2 planks.  Clamping techniques had to evolve as spacing got cramped.  Using clothespins as wedges worked pretty well but man does basswood like to dent.

 

 

And then I was down to one last row.  Obviously (I mean its obvious to me now) if you have 1 row you have to fit both sides of the plank which is harder.  I decided to divide this last row into 3 pieces.  The first piece towards the bow had some slight gaps due to oversanding- the strip wouldn't fit so I would sand it some and re-fit; after a while I got tired of constantly refitting and trying to wedge the piece into the gap and so would sand more aggressively and then => gaps.  So you can't be impatient.  The gaps are tiny but definitely there.  I conveniently forgot to take a pic of this as well.

 

So for the middle and third piece I went slower.  Having shorter pieces helped too.

 

Below is the middle piece.  It went much better.  I first fitted the top of the strip until there were no gaps.  Then I used my compass to measure at each bulkhead width (plus about 1mm) and marked it on the plank.  Then slowly sanded down to the mark.  Still too big as I was about 1mm too wide.  So starting at the fore end I sanded a little, trial fitted, still too big, sanded a little more, trial fit, and kept going removing just a tiny amount each time until I could wedge it in place without too much effort.  Then I started sanding at the mark for the next bulkhead, constantly refitting until it finally wedged in.  I found sanding the sides of the plank so it was wedge-shaped (in cross section) instead of 90 degrees helped with fitting.  Once it started to just slip into the space I sanded the edges to make them 90 degrees, aiming for a finger pressure fit.  

 

 

Below is the middle plank glued in place.  It wanted to lift up at the back end so I had to do some interpretive wedge/clamping.

 

But... no gaps.

 

 

And finally here is the last 1/3 of a plank fitted the same way.  You can see its an oddball shape.  I haven't glued it in yet.

 

 

And thats where I am at present.  My planking is very slow because I like yellow glue so everything needs a night to set up.  I know superglue is faster but I am comfortable with yellow glue and Change is Bad.

 

My next post will examine what I did right (and wrong) planking the port side and ways I can improve on the starboard side.

 

Have a great night and thanks for reading.

 

Cisco

Edited April 11, 2022 by CiscoH

[Paul Le Wol]

Very nice planking Cisco. Will have to remember your technique of beveling the edges of the planks to pre-fit them and then make the edges square.

[CiscoH]

Well its been a while.  Work went bonkers, kid obligations, all the usual excuses.  But the last 2 hours have been full immersion staring beady-eyed at my AVS, planning like crazy even if I didn't actually build anything.

 

So first a review of my previous efforts planking:

 

Front, I mean bow area

Few small gaps, the closeup makes it look rough but overall I'm happy.  I haven't sanded yet so the different thickness plankedges cast shadows that make it look worse than it is.  I left a deep rabbit along the stem to fit both this first planking and the second thinner planking.  It was hard getting the bow tips of the planks flush with the rabbit but I hope to fill the remaining rabbit with the second planking.  I may have to widen the rabbit in areas if the remaining gap isn't equal the entire length.

 

Next the stern:

This area has been giving me fits trying to figure out landmarks.  The practicum adjusts the first layer of planking so its not at the same level along the gundeck as the kit instructions and I got all sorts of confused.  Having glared at it for a long time over several days I think I have it figured out, more below on that.  BUT the planking it pretty tight here which is what I was concentrating on.

 

Now to plank the other side and do it a little closer to the kit plans.  I am not really following the practicum at present so any mistakes are all Me.

 

Here's a pic of my stern with the kit planking picture.  Keeping in mind the kit picture shows the final planking not the underlayer, I can see that my garboard strake tip curves upwards, while the kit plans show it, well, not curving upwards.  I realized when I bent the bow end of the port garboard strake to fit into the rabbit it had the unintended effect of bending the tip upwards as well due to Obscure Geometry.  So of course all the subsequent planking follow this upward curve.

Stern shot with the kit planking picture:

1) my fashion piece doesn't come down low enough. 

2) I brought my hull planking up way high on the counter.  This was a bit on purpose; I plan to place the final lower counter planks after i plank the hull and use a scalpel to trim across to get a good fit.  But I brought the planking up about 1 counter plank past what I had planned because of my confusion over landmarks.

3) the kit shows the stern planks coming into the bottom of the counter at about a 45 degree angle.  My planks come in at about 60? degrees which made it hard to fit against the sternpost.

 

And now to the starboard side to try and Do Better.  The kit instructions divide the remaining space into 3 belts.  I measured off the plans with strips of paper to get ballpark locations of each belt, then tried using tape to smooth out the lower belt line.  I tried using a thin batten for the upper belt line; I think the batten gives a better run but its harder to keep still.

After a lot of measuring and dividing with tic strips I got to a pretty good place.  You can see below my proposed stern planking is more 45 degrees where it meets the counter.  The pencil line across the stern is the final future lower border of the counter. 

 

And below's my final marking for the bands.  It doesn't agree perfectly with the kit, especially at the lower stern planking with the 2 stealers.  But I'm going with it for now.  I will do the lowest band next, then re-evaluate for the other 2 upper bands.  The practicum has you make the garboard strake wide at each end and thin amidships for reasons that escaped me, which is what I did on the this side.  In the future I plan to leave the garboard wide its entire length so its more like the kit plans.  I also trimmed the bow end of the garboard strake so it doesn't curve upwards, so hopefully I will have a straighter run of bow planking on this side.

And thats it for today.  I was sorely disappointed to not attend the Northeast ship model show in CT this weekend but my wife said I would much rather attend the yearly fundraiser for my kid's school tonight, which she had a part in organizing.  Next year I guess.

 

Enjoy spring, those of you in the Northeast USA, and thanks for reading

 

Cisco

 

 

[Oldsalt1950]

She is looking good Cisco. Just take your time. Remember this is a hobby and supposed to be fun. There are no time deadlines.

[mikiek]

" I realized when I bent the bow end of the port garboard strake to fit into the rabbit it had the unintended effect of bending the tip upwards as well due to Obscure Geometry.  So of course all the subsequent planking follow this upward curve. "

 

The garboards should go in straight - no bending. Yes there will be a lot of twisting and turning but no bending. I you find that it is wanting to bend up at the bow most likely it is pushed too far forward. You should be able to lay the next strake on the top edge of the garboard and it should sit flush. I usually try to pin the garboard in place then lay the next strake on top just to see how the two will mesh. Then adjust and glue the GB.

 

As you found out, if the GB is bending all subsequent sticks will want to bend as well.

[CiscoH]

Thanks for reading my post Oldsalt1950.  I worry if I don't make at least slow constant progress I might lose momentum and then Bam! 20 years later I find a sad half completed AVS pushed to the back of the closet shelf.  But so far I am really enjoying the mix of challenge and fun that building model ships brings. 

 

mikiek I get your point.  I suspect I took the garboard too far forward which is what led to it curling upwards at the stem;  I had read that a lot of beginners do this. When I did model shipway's longboat Chuck specifically stated (i think) to end the garboard just forward of the stem/keel joint, which at the time seemed too far back.  Every subsequent plank had to be bent downwards just aft of the stem to follow this curve.  It turned out looking fine to me at the time but since I painted the hull white I can't see my planking job well enough to re-asses it. 

If I'm understanding you correctly you would know when the garboard is in its proper place when the next plank up can rest on it without bending.   I'll try it on second layer planking.  Luckly AVS only has 2 layers.  Only crazy people do 3.

[mikiek]

"If I'm understanding you correctly you would know when the garboard is in its proper place when the next plank up can rest on it without bending."

 

This is correct. Another thing you can do is take the stick that will be your GB and put the bow end into your rabbet about midship. Lay as much of the edge in the rabbet towards the stern. Then start sliding the stick forwards in the rabbet toward the bow keeping a close eye on that leading end. You will either see the stick start to move upwards when it gets to the stem or it may just stop and not slide anymore. That's where it should lay. You can then do whatever shaping you need to do to the front end of the stick.

[CiscoH]

I was posting comments on a build log and the author asked if I had my own log for the AVS and I said "yes," and then I realized I hadn't posted in weeks.  Work goes knuts once the summer starts and takes more and more of my energy.  But enough whining lets have at it-

 

So I haven't been happy with my port side first planking.  As you can see lots of gaps at the prow which for some reason didn't seem to occur on the starboard side.  Whenever I clamped at the prow the plank would slide upwards and leave a gap and each time I thought I had pushed it back but once everything was dry there it was.  I am at the end of this band of planks so I wanted to get my head back in the game and fix it for the final band. 

And I didn't want a gap forming at the stern end where the plank curves up into the counter, which it always tries to do.  You can see in the pic below I had to add a tiny wedge to close the gap in the last plank.  There will be a second planking on top and I already work at the speed of Government Bureaucracy so I am not alcoholing off my mistakes but I want to get my technique better.

My method of getting the steep bend in the stern plank is to leave the tip of the plank in water overnight and the next day very slowly bend it around and clamp it in place until it dries.  The problem with this plank is it needs to bend sideways AND backwards, a 2 dimensional bend.  When I have pre-bent it sideways (a la Chuck) and then put it in water to soften it for the backwards bend the water undoes the first bend.

So this time I tried wetting and clamping in place a much wider plank than what the final dimension calls for so I could trim it down.  Below is the plank after drying, it splintered a bit due to the extreme bend.

BUT when I lay it in place there was enough extra plank so i could shape the sideways curve by strategic wood removal instead of bending it into place. 

To keep the gaps from opening up I tried using wedges and the little brass pins that come with the kit.  That worked great.  Here the stern plank is in place after after shaping and narrowing.  The glue has already dried; this was a post-op demo shot.

 

And here is the stern plank, with 2 wedges,

And the final result, no gaps that I could see

  and the stern

I call that Good Enough.  I haven't sanded yet so it'll look better I promise.  6 planks in the final band, after I add the plank below the strake which also has a tight curve to navigate.  I worry my stern wood removal technique wouldn't work in wood with a strong grain lines, like the alaska yellow cedar, because you would see the grain runout.  But I'm planning on my second planking being holly, which conveniently doesn't show grain. 

 

Thanks for reading, I apologize for the myriad close ups of basically 1 plank but hopefully it will help someone else including Future Me when I've forgotten how I did this.

 

Cisco 

[mikiek]

You and I had a conversation about these in my log. These will help hold pieces down when nothing else will.

 

Is that wood you are having to bend over a frame piece or a filler block that you had to shape? Whichever, are you sure you are supposed to bend a stick around it? If it was a shaped filler block maybe you didn't sand enough of that edge off? Smoothing it out a little.

 

That appears to be almost a 90 degree bend which doesn't sound right and would have been virtually impossible in the period.

 

Every boat design is different but many have horizontal planks running from the top of the transom down to stem. You trim the ends to get that half circle shape of the transom. Then your side planking just butts up against those edges and don't need to wrap at all.

 

 

 

Just some things to consider. I've never seen this build so I could be way off base.

 

 

[mikiek]

same boat but not sure if it is the same kit - take a look at post #40 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/14957-armed-virginia-sloop-by-captain_hook-finished-model-shipways-scale-148/page/2/

 

theres a few pics that show what I am trying to describe - the side planks do not bend around that last stern frame. They stop at it.

[JLong]

Cisco, you're doing a really nice job on the planking. I had similar frustration with planking around the transom. Even with a ''smooth'' curve filler block, it's still a lot of bend.  I would say the majority of my planks splintered in that region, but thankfully they sanded smooth afterwards. 

 

I want those narrow tapered long clamps you use - those would have come in SO handy during my build. What are those? 

In any case, clamping the planks is still a challenge - never enough room!

 

Keep up the good work

 

-Jason-

[Oldsalt1950]

You mean these: Wolfcraft B3431 Micro Tip Spring Clamp (2) - - Amazon.com

[CiscoH]

Happy weekend!  My update today includes absolutely nothing about my AVS and starts with this book:

Pretty good, not too deep, entertaining.  I bought it and then saw it at my local library the next week.  Mr Dolin includes a substantial bibliography for his many quotes.

 

Next up, assuming nothing happens between now and tomorrow morning, I am attending my first ever ModelCon in Philly.  And to up my stress levels I am participating by displaying my first ever (so far my only ever) shipmodel, Model Shipway's 18th Century Longboat.  I initially made a substantial base with 2 levels and an ogee border which in hindsight totally overpowered the model.  So last 2 days I have been making a newer small base more along the lines of the box picture.

 

Here is the original base (after I had already sawn off the posts holding up the ship so there has been some damage).  Its made of walnut.

I wanted a lighter wood but I felt the kit block of basswood was too light and flimsy.  So I cut out a piece of holly I had been saving for years that turned out to be not dried properly so it spalted and turned a greyish cast.  Useless for planking but a good test subject for making a base. 

 

The pictures in the Longboat instruction manual looked like there was a small rabbit or bullnose on the edges of Chuck's base.  How he did this wasn't covered in the text so I did my best.  This detail is very shallow.  Initially I made a scratch stock but it tore out on the crossgrain.  So I cut the borders of the fillet with my mortise gauge:

    

The I cut the fillet with my rabbit block plane with a piece of wood clamped on as a fence

After cutting all 4 sides I started the roundover with my chisel

I found if I removed most of the crossgrain material first with the chisel there was little tearout when using the scratchstock to finish the roundover

Home stretch.  I finished the base with waterbased polyurethane wiped on with a papertowel.  This was a practice run for when I plank the AVS with holly as I wanted to try a finish that doesn't impart any colour change to the wood.  It worked  great.  I smoothed off nibs by rubbing the dry surface with a papertowel.  In the future I may try a synthetic pad as well but it was getting late and I had to get this done by tomorrow.

 

I remade the posts next.  Previously I had tried to form the tapering posts by chucking them in my drill and shaping with files.  The finished products looked kinda squat and didn't exactly match.  This time I used a dowel from the kit, cut simple holes in the base with my drill and friction fit the posts.  I drilled holes into the top side of the posts and used cut-off wire nails to reinforce the post/ship connection.

 

Version 1 was too tall

Version 2 looked better to my eye so I used a touch of epoxy to connect the ship to the posts, touched up the white paint, and called it a night.

And thats it.  Hope to see some of you at the ModelCon tomorrow!

 

Cisco

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by CiscoH

[mikiek]

Stand looks good Cisco. Have fun.

[Oldsalt1950]

If it doesn't look right by all means fix it, great job. Like the new base

 

[CiscoH]

Greetings fellow Ship Modelers!  The heat here in Delaware finally relented and we could go outside again without heatstroke.

 

Went to ModelCon last weekend which was fun but brief as I had my 7 year old son with and he was hot and bored bored bored.  Thank you to the 2 guys who entertained him for a few minutes while I met/talked to Chuck - great guy, very social, and he dealt with a complete stranger walking up acting like I knew him with remarkable calmness.  I suspect it happens often.  I brought and displayed for a few hours my 18th Century Longboat (you can see it in one of Chuck's photos looking forlorn between 2 enormous model battleships) and while it didn't draw a crowd hopefully someone(s) appreciated it.

 

Then my son and I toured the battleship New Jersey,  pretty cool, and went across the river to tour the Olympia and the submarine whose name escapes me before deciding it was way to hot for humans and heading home.

 

With my AVS I had an epiphany and changed gears some.  I realized that if don't make more progress I risk bogging down and never finishing.  Its not a race but without some forward momentum she might become an unfinished hull in a box in a closet somewhere.  And THAT would be tragic.  So I stopped trying to make perfect planks mimicking the second planking and instead decided to fill in the rest of the first planking with wider wood strips to make it go a bit faster.  

 

So far I have been using yellow GorillaGlue which has good tack but has to be clamped.  I know many use and are happy with superglue but my previous background in woodworking really regarded superglue as a method for tiny repairs but not to be trusted for actual gluing.  Maybe I'll start experimenting but not for this build.  Clamping has been problematic at this center area of the planking because nothing easily reaches and the gap is small.  And so far I have resisted screwing or pinning into the bulkheads as some do.  So the one thing I did discover this post is pretty simple- putting something on the deck to provide a bearing surface for the spring clamps works really well!  In the pic below I put 2 clothes pins on the deck against the bow planking and they provided a perfect grippy area for the spring clamps.  Without them the clamps just sproinged out of position and it was getting very frustrating. 

Here's the outside shot; you can see its an awkward place to clamp.  And my metal spring paperclip things I used for the other planks now won't fit in the narrow space.

Its hard to see through the clamp forest but the last 2 rows are with wide planks but again this is first planking so no one will ever see it.

 

Hope you all are well!  Thanks for reading

 

Cisco

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by CiscoH

[JLong]

Cisco, I'm jealous you got to go to ModelCon. I didn't even know that it existed - so bummed I missed it.

 

Its worth it to go slow on the planking - You're getting close to the end! Mine only took 6 short months to complete. I had to get creative with clamping too, just as you have. Build a thing to hold the thing that supports the clamping thing, from the other side and not run into anything else.

 

As far as glue goes - I use Tite-Bond Wood Adhesive (medium). 30-45sec drying isn't bad.  All the planking, and structural framing, I used Elmers Wood Glue. To each his own, of course.

 

-Jason-

 

[mikiek]

Hey Cisco - I use a combination of CA (medium) and white glue (Titebond Mold & Trim). Let's say you want to glue a 6" section of your plank - start with a 1/8" dot of CA then run a 2 7/8" line of white glue, another dot of CA, another line of white glue and finish with a last dot of CA. Then lay your stick and apply pressure to the areas where the CA is for 10-15 secs. The CA should dry quickly and act like a nail in your plank, holding it to the subsurface. Once the CA takes hold you still have time to adjust & clamp the white glue areas.

[shipmodel]

Hi Cisco - 

 

Just read through your build log here.  You are doing great, working your way up the steep and long learning curve of hull planking.  I love how you meet and solve the many problems and challenges that you have encountered.  Your creative solutions will stand you in good stead as you approach the second layer of planking.

 

Here are a couple of tips that I have learned by hard experience over 35 years of doing this:

 

1.  Fill and sand the first layer of planking till the shape is smooth and to your liking.  Paint the whole thing with a light colored water based paint.  Now you can draw the plank outlines on the hull in pencil, using dividers or tick strips to give you your initial layout.  Look it over critically and change the run of the planks by erasing and redrawing until you are happy.  Drop planks at the bow and stealers at the stern are much easier to figure out in pencil before you start cutting wood.  Then you can cut and taper your planks to match the pencil lines.

 

2.  Lay in the location of the wale first.  This will determine the bulwark planking strakes above and the hull area to be planked below.  Plank down from the wale and up from the garboard, as you did before.  The final opening will be closed with a 'shutter plank'.  When you get to that point, lay on a piece, or pieces, of translucent tape covering the opening.  Draw the outline of the shutter plank on the tape, then transfer the tape to a wider piece of planking material and cut to the line.  This should quickly get you very close to the final shape that you need.

 

3.  For the garboard, lay the lower edge of the wider planking material (1.5 times the width of the hull planks) against the keel rabbet and slide it forward until the front end begins to lift as the rabbet curves up the stem.  Pull it back just to that point and temporarily tape it in place.  This has been suggested before.  But now take a second plank (known as the first broad strake), place it on the hull above the garboard piece, and slide it forward until its lower forward corner contacts the stem rabbet.  Mark this point.  This is how high the garboard should come on the stem.  Cut the bow end of the garboard strake to fit the open curved triangle that has been marked out.  Now the lower edge of the broad strake will be straight, and you can work off it up the stem.    

 

I hope that helps a bit.  Feel free to ignore it if not.

 

Best of success.

 

Dan

 

 

[CiscoH]

First, thank you guys for comments and likes.  Keeps me going knowing someone is reading these posts.

 

Jason, who lives pretty close, I hope to get to hang out soon.

 

Mikiek I am contemplating your method of yellow/superglue for second planking. 

 

Dan/Shipmodel thank you for your responses and advice.  I am hoping to incorporate some bone details in this model, maybe a binnacle to start.  Baby steps...

 

In my last post I mentioned I was trying to power through finishing first planking.  I had a hit a bit of a rut trying to make everything perfect and it was time to move on.  So now I have officially finished first planking even if I resorted to wide planks.

I had left the counter planking unfinished so I could roll the stern planking upwards, trim the ends flush, and then insert the final 2 counter planks.  I thought that might be a better plan than trying to cut each stern plank individually.  I don't know how some people get such perfect straight intersections!

 

Below I used a compass to trace a pencil line parallel to the bottom counter.  I found it easiest to cut by hand along the pencil line with an xacto, going very shallow and deepening it repeatedly.  Then I used a 1/4" chisel to pare the waste away working down from the top.  Slow n steady.

I eventually cleared all the waste wood on the left side.

I found it easier to glue two narrower strips vs one wide one because the space I am filling is concave.  Below is both sides excavated, glued, and filled.

Of course it'll all be covered by the second planking but I think the stern plank/counter intersection looks tight which is what I was aiming for.

 

Next is sanding and more sanding and then some sanding to smooth it all out. 

 

In other news I managed a late entry into this year's Admiralty Workshops (someone cancelled and I was on the wait list) so I will learn how to make rope with Chuck.  At my usual glacial building pace odds are I will forget everything by the time I get to rigging but if I keep good notes maybe some of it will stick.  And at the end we get a tour with the curator of the Naval Academy Museum; that is just freaking cool!

 

well goodnight all and thanks for reading

 

Cisco

 

 

 

[JLong]

Nice job on the planking. Can't believe you're going to do a second planking - one was painful enough for me!

I like your approach of planking the transom heavy, then trimming back to a clean line, as you described. I started at the transom, and worked forward; Stern planks weren't as tight/clean as yours. How did you bend them so neatly?

 

One suggestion - after you finish sanding, you should consider sanding.

 

Definitely have to hang out and swap savvy sanding stories sometime soon.

 

Jason

[mikiek]

If there is a problem with hull layers - don't consider Lancia Armata - 3 layers of sticks. Quite frankly, none of the layers matched up with the previous layers.

[src]

cisco,

Just found your build. You are cruising right along and doing quite well also.

A man after my own heart: I saw the two cherries chisels in the back ground. A tool question, you mentioned a "lunch box" plane, that is a new one for me. It looks like what I know as a block plane, what is the difference? or is it just cause its small enough to fit in your lunch box???

Best,

Sam

[CiscoH]

src/Sam- sorry about the long delay responding.  I can't easly find where I said LunchBox plane, but usually that means a 12" tabletop planer that you plug in, mine is a Dewalt I got at Home Depot years ago that still runs great.  But for finish stuff you need hand tools; I've had several 2 Cherries chisels for a long time and we get along very well.  As long as I don't forget to sharpen then.

[CiscoH]

An update!  Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather, if your located on my latitude.  I've done a lot since my last post.

 

First, I visited the house of another MSW member, Jason Long (JLong), who lives 20 minutes north of me in Delaware.  I got to see his Fair America, which is much further along than my AVS.  A great time was had discussing all things shippy and I hope to have him down to my place in the near future.

 

Second, a few weeks ago I attended my first Admiralty Workshop hosted by Greg Herbert and Dave Antscherl with special guest host Chuck and it was a lot of fun.  We all made rope with Chuck, then learned how to splice and tie and wrap and seize.  My ancient iphone can't take clear pictures of work this tiny so when I finally upgrade I'll try and post some of it.

At the end we spent an afternoon getting a tour of the Naval Academy museum in Annapolis by Grant Walker (hope I got his name right, on the right in the below pic).

I don't know how but Barry Rudd, the gentleman in the blue shirt behind Grant, seems to be in every picture of this event.  I sat next to him in the workshop and he was a very nice guy, and clearly a regular at these events. 

 

The museum recently acquired a collection of miniature model ship that have to be seen to be believed.  Very tiny and protected by glass cases so ham-fisted people like me can't pet them.   The one below is plank on frame and about 2 inches long.   Crazy.

We also toured the main museum area and got a behind-the-scenes history of various models.  I personally find the cases and stands as interesting as the ships themselves.

But on to my AVS.  Since last post I sanded, mostly, the first planking smooth.  I hadn't installed the waterway earlier as the practicum directed because I was worried the bulkhead extensions would be too fragile when clamping the hull.  So time to rectify that and thin the extensions.  I used a chisel, then an xacto, and finally some sandpaper.  The bulkheads curve upwards and the grain likes to runnout so it took a while.  

Once that was done I went about replacing the kit supplied waterways (walnut) with holly.  Initially pretty easy, just trace.

Since my billet of holly was pretty narrow I had to make my waterway in 3 pieces scarfed together.  To make it more exciting the scarfs are on the curved section, and the kit supplied waterway didn't precisely fit my AVS; my prow was more rounded, so I had to do some finagling.  Below is the 3 pieces before being glued together.

I followed Cheerful's directions for forming the scarfs.  Drawing on and cutting out the first half of the joint wasn't too bad, but it was a bear making the mating joint.  I ended up overlaying the first joint and tracing it onto a lower piece of wood with a very sharp pencil, then using my chisel first for rough removal, then files to sneak up to the pencil lines.  I still had some tiny joint gaps which I filled with a mixture of white glue, holly dust, and graphite (rubbing the pencil point on sandpaper then dumping the results onto the holly dust and mixing all 3 together).  This worked better than I planned.  It seemed to fill the gaps and made the joint more visible.

 

After gluing the pieces up and using spokeshaves, a thick dowel wrapped in sandpaper, and the flat of my chisel as a scraper I got my final version. 

To glue the waterway in had 1 final challenge- the deck isn't flat.  After struggling with clamping I came up with the following- I placed clamps along the bulkheads a bit less than 1/8" above the waterway.  Then I cut the provided 1/8" thick walnut waterway, which I didn;t need anymore anyway, into a series of short wedges and used these between the flat clampheads and the waterway to push it flush with the deck.

And thats it for today.  Now I have to make the other side.

 

thanks for reading, Cisco

Edited September 24, 2022 by CiscoH