Steam Tug Wattle by Ikcdab - 1:24 - my first scratchbuild

[Ikcdab]

And so to actual construction. The keel is 25mm x 3mm basswood, but I could only buy 12.5mm x 3mm, so I have just to laminate two bits together.

I was concerned to get these true, they are 950mm long.

 

You can see the setup I used to get these glued true.  I fastened down a 1m straight edge to my building board and held the wood tight with weights.

 

 

I held the wood flat with some 123 blocks.  

 

Glue now drying.

 

[Ikcdab]

And I have also started cutting out the bulkheads....

 

This is the first one. The top edge is sacrificial and once the planking is complete, gets get off along the curved dashed line.  The instructions say to "score this line" which I have done, probably cutting half way through. I am apprehensive as to how easy it's going to be to release the hull from the building board in this way. Anyone got any experience of this?

[Ikcdab]

So tonight I am going to reprint the rudder. The screenshot below shows that I have added a sacrificial "sprue" along the bottom edge in order to try and keep the rudder from warping on the build plate. You can also see that I am going to print the remaining hatches and, hidden behind the rudder, is the motormount.

 

Its a 9 hour print, so Ill run it overnight. Lets hope this one is more successful....

 

[Ikcdab]

So the reprint was successful. I now have a straight, unwarped rudder.  Ill upload a picture tomorrow.

 

Meantime i am still cutting out bulkheads.

 

So a question, how do i decide the width of the planking? The drawings are silent on this, so its a bit of guess work.

The longest length from the gunwale to the keel is about 270mm.

 

here is a drawing showing 8mm and 9mm planking. I guess that where the sides are flat then its immaterial, but more important arouind the turns, and also where the planks bend around the stem and stern. 

 

My temptation is to go for 8mm planking,

 

Any advice gratefully received.

 

 

 

[KeithAug]

On 1/24/2024 at 5:28 PM, Ikcdab said:

Anyone got any experience of this?

Yes Ian - My advice would be to cut right through where you have scored the line leaving only about a half inch at either end of the line to maintain the attachment to the up-stand. When you come to cut the hull from the base board cut it off some where near your letter B. Then remove the remainder of the up-stand by cutting through the "half inch" attachment areas.

 

Have a look at posing 212 on my Cangarda build for further detail / options. 

Edited January 26 by KeithAug

[KeithAug]

12 hours ago, Ikcdab said:

My temptation is to go for 8mm planking,

Ian - as the planks are being covered up then let the hull tell you the answer. In general wider planks can be used on flat sections and narrower on more extreme curvatures. My advice would be make a start on planking and after a few planks decide if its going well and then adjust the width up or down as you see fit.

[oakheart]

On 1/10/2024 at 2:10 PM, Ikcdab said:

sticking the printouts to the ply

Hi Ian

I have used Pritt stick to glue printed paper plans to ply wood, just needs a wet rag wiped over the paper to remove.

 

With my 1:48 scale, 85ft Harbour tug I used 3mm ply for bulkheads, 3mm ( 1/8") balsa planks 6mm wide, then used brown parcel paper and Ronseal matt varnish instead of fibre glass with Halfords grey primer over the top of that. It ran all last summer without a leak 🙂

 

 

I wish I had taken photos of the build now.

 

I used cereal packet card for the superstructure which was also painted with Halfords grey primer.

 

 

I am amazed at how well it has performed at the clubs pond all last summer, as long as it does not sink I hope to keep going for years.

I love its knock about quality. The other things I am build tend to become precious, you worry about damaging them.

Tim

 

Edited January 26 by oakheart
add photo

[Roger Pellett]

Ian,  Planking a hull is a daunting problem for many modelers.  The “correct” way to do it is to use a method called spiing.  If done correctly it will provide a pleasing pattern for wooden ships/ models.  You are not building a model of a wooden ship so you might want to explore a simpler planking method.

 

There is an alternate planking system for planking full sized watercraft.  It is called Strip Planking. It is especially popular with builders of wooden Canoes.  It involves planking a hull form of bulkheads with narrow strips of wood and then covering both the inside and outside of the hull with fiberglass.  Sound familiar?

 

I have not seen this exact system used for models but it might have some applications.  Try looking up strip built canoes on the Internet.

 

Roger

[Ikcdab]

12 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Ian,  Planking a hull is a daunting problem for many modelers.  The “correct” way to do it is to use a method called spiing.  If done correctly it will provide a pleasing pattern for wooden ships/ models.  You are not building a model of a wooden ship so you might want to explore a simpler planking method.

 

There is an alternate planking system for planking full sized watercraft.  It is called Strip Planking. It is especially popular with builders of wooden Canoes.  It involves planking a hull form of bulkheads with narrow strips of wood and then covering both the inside and outside of the hull with fiberglass.  Sound familiar?

 

I have not seen this exact system used for models but it might have some applications.  Try looking up strip built canoes on the Internet.

 

Roger

Hi Roger, thanks.  Is "spiing" the correct term?  Google doesn't help me with that!

The strip approach seems promising, I guess narrower strips are easier to form around the shape of the hull.

Ian

[wmherbert]

I just finished a scratch build tug at 1/4 inch to foot. The hull was about 26 inches long. Since hull was going to be painted I tried using the widest planks I could. As you can see some were 1.5 inches wide along the bottom and the middle topsides.  The stern took narrower planks but they were still over 1/4 inch. A midships there were only 4 planks total and at the front third only 3 planks total. 

    All and all it made the planking much faster and way easier to fair.

And when done and painted you can't see anything except a smooth hull.

Just an alternate thought.

Bill

 

[Ikcdab]

16 hours ago, wmherbert said:

I just finished a scratch build tug at 1/4 inch to foot. The hull was about 26 inches long. Since hull was going to be painted I tried using the widest planks I could. As you can see some were 1.5 inches wide along the bottom and the middle topsides.  The stern took narrower planks but they were still over 1/4 inch. A midships there were only 4 planks total and at the front third only 3 planks total. 

    All and all it made the planking much faster and way easier to fair.

And when done and painted you can't see anything except a smooth hull.

Just an alternate thought.

Bill

 

Hi Bill that's very interesting, thanks.

[Ikcdab]

So I have now cut out all of the bulkheads.

Just temporarily stood up....

 

[oakheart]

1 hour ago, Ikcdab said:

now cut out all of the bulkheads

Good to see you making sawdust, looking good

 

Tim

[KeithAug]

Ian - did you say what the spacing is. It looks quite large.

[Ikcdab]

15 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

Ian - did you say what the spacing is. It looks quite large.

Hi Keith, as per the plans I am building it from, the bulkheads are spaced 95mm apart.

I am planking it with 3mm thick planks, again as per the drawings.

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, Ikcdab said:

the bulkheads are spaced 95mm apart.

 

That is going to be quite a baptism of fire Ian. Do you have a lot of clamps? As you progress the planks need to align with the previous plank along their length. With a wide frame spacing you may find that the planks don't want to align with the previous plank particularly at the half way point between frames. You will probably need to clamp the adjacent planks together at mid span while the glue is drying. 3mm is quite thick for planks and they are going to take some restraining - presumably this is what the designer had in mind when he / she suggested balsa as the planking material. You may find other MSW members have more experience of large frame spacing with thick planks. They may be more able to comment and advise. Ultimately we all find a way in the end.

Edited January 28 by KeithAug

[mtaylor]

On 1/27/2024 at 1:58 AM, Ikcdab said:

Hi Roger, thanks.  Is "spiing" the correct term?  Google doesn't help me with that!

The strip approach seems promising, I guess narrower strips are easier to form around the shape of the hull.

Ian

I think thats a typo.  It should be "spiling".    From Google: "Spiling is a technique used in building wooden boats in which a smaller component is used as a pattern against which the outline of a larger component can be drawn. This is often used for creating planks on traditionally built boats that have complex shapes."

[Ikcdab]

12 hours ago, KeithAug said:

That is going to be quite a baptism of fire Ian. Do you have a lot of clamps? As you progress the planks need to align with the previous plank along their length. With a wide frame spacing you may find that the planks don't want to align with the previous plank particularly at the half way point between frames. You will probably need to clamp the adjacent planks together at mid span while the glue is drying. 3mm is quite thick for planks and they are going to take some restraining - presumably this is what the designer had in mind when he / she suggested balsa as the planking material. You may find other MSW members have more experience of large frame spacing with thick planks. They may be more able to comment and advise. Ultimately we all find a way in the end.

Hi Keith, thanks.  We shall see.  Luckily I can back out and change things if it doesn't work out.  As you say, I said I was using balsa right up front and all the advice on here was not to, despite that being what the original designer used.  I do have plenty of clamps, we shall just have to see how it goes.  

I guess narrower planking will be easier than wider in that case.

Ian

[Ikcdab]

I have come across a snag.

I have cut out the bulkheads exactly as per the drawings. When I assemble them, I have a mismatch between the hole for the propellor tube on the final bulkhead and where the cutout (slot) is on the keel section. See picture below

 When I measure it on the drawings, I see the mismatch. There is a 8mm discrepancy, the diameter of the hole.

I don't see how I can change the slot because of I move it down the propeller will no longer fit.

All I can think of doing is to fill the holes in the bulkheads and refill them too match the slot.  Then I'll need to shim the motor so that the shaft matches the redrilled holes.

Any thoughts?

[Ikcdab]

Bulkheads all now fixed to building board, keel made up and we are ready to start planking.

 

 

 

I have, of course, watched endless youtube clips about planking, so I am soaked in how to do it....but confused by the variations - everybody has their own methods.

 

So, what are the top tips for planking? The designer says to start at deck level and lay in a few planks either side of that. The lay in planks from the garboard and fill in the gap.  Is that the best way?

 

[KeithAug]

On 2/6/2024 at 4:27 PM, Ikcdab said:

The designer says to start at deck level and lay in a few planks either side of that.

Ian - my view is that planking is an art not a science. My preference is to start at the deck and make my way towards the keel - however hulls can be very different in shape and what works best for one won't necessarily work best for another. My advice would be not to worry too much about all those youtube videos and just make a start.  It was easier before the internet because it was just a case of suck and see. The main thing to bear in mind is that planks should bend in their narrow direction and not in their wide direction. You will find that the first plank naturally wants to go on while only bending in its narrow direction (i.e it follows its natural curvature). Your tendency will be to try and force it to follow a different line (like the deck edge). Doing this forces it to bend in the wide direction. If you force it too much the plank will start to twist producing a clinker effect which is undesirable. 

 

I could go on at length but my best advice would be to put a few planks on, then post an update and request advice as you go.

 

Your frame is looking nicely made. The planking is going to be quite difficult across the final 4 frames because they change shape quite dramatically.

Edited February 7 by KeithAug

[druxey]

Marking out the run of planking in bands using dark thread and white glue helps plan things, rather than hoping it will work out! Check out the primer on planking in the 'tutorials' section on this site. 

[wmherbert]

I agree with Keith. The first 2 0r 3 planks starting at the deck usually go on pretty easy. When they get hard skip down toward the turn of the bilge and run one that lays nice and easy.  Then do one along keel and then fill in the ones between. I'm no expert at all but I've always gotten a smooth paintable hull. Albeit with sometimes a lot of putty and sanding.

I know I will never be as good as a lot of guys are but I can live with that. Planking to me is just something you need to get done with so you can move on to the fun stuff.

Bill

[Ikcdab]

Thanks to @KeithAug @druxey and @wmherbert for your helpful advice. I'm not sure how I avoid bending "in the wide direction" as it seems essential to me that the first plank should follow the line of the deck. 

With regards to my previous question about appropriate planking width, I realise that they don't all have to be the same width....I will get the table saw going tomorrow and cut planks in 6, 7 and 8mm widths and see how it goes ..

Thanks again

[Roger Pellett]

If you are going to plank it the “correct” way, every plank will be unique and will get wider and/or narrower from fore and aft.  Shaping of these planks is called spiling.  If you plan to do this, cutting standardized planks at this point is just going to waste wood.

 

Since you are going to glass it easer methods such as strip planking might work.  If you have not already done so, I suggest that you Google “Building a Strip Planked Canoe.”

 

Druxy’s advice is worth following, he’s an expert!  Use thread to plan out your planking.

 

Roger