Advice on Fixing Bulwarks and Planks on Nisha

[Glomar]

I am building Vanguards fantastic model Nisha but I am running into problems with the Bulwarks and planking. This is my 3rd model after the Norwergian Sailing Pram and Grand Banks Dory and I am wondering if I bit of more than I can chew with this one. 

The Bulwarks are a bit too forward, should I trim them or take them off and reglue? I used a decent amount of wood glue so I am not sure what the best way to remove it would be. 

Are any of the planks salvageable or should I remove them and try again? I am not full understanding how to taper which I thing explains the gap between blanks 3 and 4. There is a noticeable height difference between 3 and 4 as well and I am wondering if I did not do a good enough job fairing the bulwark. 

This is my first time planking, so I am sure that I am missing some fundamentals and any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated 
 

 

 

[starlight]

Hi Glomar,

 

Looks like you've received some excellent advice on your build log, but I'll try to add on.

 

It seems to me that you have not lined off your hull with tick marks. This will greatly assist with the tapering and edge-bending process. There's a good tutorial by Chuck in the Articles Database: https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/LiningOffYourHullPlankingTutorialAndFan.pdf I used it as a reference and it was very helpful.

 

Make sure to bevel the long edge of each plank so that they fit tighter. Otherwise you will end up with large gaps and/or a clinker effect on your hull. I made a quick diagram to help illustrate my point:

 

 

One other thing I would recommend is to remove the brass pins after each plank is laid down. Otherwise they will get in the way of sanding down the first planking. What you can do is to insert some material to stand off the head of the pin so that it can be pulled out with pliers. I just used some broken pieces of planking on my own build. As you can see, my first layer of planking looked a bit rough, but sanding and filler made it turn out all right .

 

 

Lastly, I know it's easy to feel disheartened. The above picture is my first build (that I'm still working on). I remember getting very frustrated at myself during the planking process, but looking back I'm glad for the challenge and it's just a good memory now.

 

Cheers,

starlight

[Glomar]

@starlightThanks for detailed breakdown, I did not use tick marks and this is excellent advice! For the bevel on the planks, do I just sand the edge to a 45 degree angle? Do you have any techniques that you like to use to bend planks into shape? 

I have been getting super great advice, so it is definitely an issue of user error! 

[starlight]

Hi Glomar,

 

You shouldn't need to bevel each plank very much, depending on the bulkhead curvature. If you end up overdoing it, that's also not a big problem as long as you preserve the desired width of each plank, i.e. don't sand away the outside-facing edge.

 

What I did for edge bending was to soak each plank in warm water for about 10 mins, and then clamp it to the edge of a table in the desired curve while it dried (usually 6-8 clamps). Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the process. Laying each plank was an iterative process of tapering, edge-bending, and dry-fitting against the bulkheads before finally gluing into position. All I can say is that the more time you spend here will be paid off with less filling/sanding and a better second planking.

 

Hope that helps,

starlight

[mtaylor]

Hi Glomar,

 

What type of wood glue are you using? If'it's PVA, a bit alcohol will go a long way to breaking the bond without damaging the wood.  

 

In addition to what Starlight has recommended, I suggest you get a look here:  https://modelshipworld.com/forum/98-planking-downloads-and-tutorials-and-videos/   There's several tutorials on planking and "how to" with everything from bending wood, to tapering the planks. The reason there's several is that there's several different ways to do it and sometimes following only one method gives you more headaches.  Pick and chose the bits out of each that will work for you.

[Craigie65]

I agree with @mtaylor that a pick and mix approach is sometimes the best.