18th-Century Merchantman Half Hull Planking Kit by JacquesCousteau - NRG - 1:48

[JacquesCousteau]

Although I'm still working on my scratch-builds, I got started on this recently. I received the NRG Half-Hull Planking Kit as a Christmas gift. I'm looking forward to building it and learning a lot about planking a curved hull in the process. I'm also glad that the result should be relatively easy to store, display, and transport, as I don't have a ton of room. Given work, I will probably be building this pretty slowly.

 

As can be seen, the kit is pretty straightforward in terms of components. Overall it looks like a nice kit, and the instructions are quite thorough, which I appreciate.

 

I'm still waiting on getting a foam building board, so nothing is glued yet, but I've sanded off the laser char and removed the basswood parts of the model's backbone (keel, stem, etc). In general, the parts fit together well with minimal sanding, although I'll have to do a little more shaping where the keel rises slightly near the stem. The keelson slots fit the frames well.

 

However, there is a slight issue with the fore keelson, and I thought I'd ask for advice before proceeding. The slots in the fore keelson don't line up with the markings for the frames on the plans.

 

I see two main ways I could deal with this. One would be to trim the end of the fore keelson so it aligns better with the frame markings--more or less like below, although there the fore keelson is propped up above the other parts.

 

 

That said, if I do this I'll be throwing off the fit of the stemson and of the fore keelson against the stem and keel, which will require a good bit of shaping to correct.

 

The other option would be to simply leave the fore keelson as it is, and cut new frame slots into it. The frame slots will need to be extended anyway. And while this might leave some frames with less sturdy of a connection, I don't know if that would be a serious problem given that everything will be attached to the building board.

 

Comments and suggestions are welcome! I'm looking forward to learning a lot with this kit.

[JacquesCousteau]

A tiny bit of progress:

 

First, I ended up trimming back the aft end of the fore keelson so the slots better align with the markings. There will still need to be some shaping, as the distance between a couple slots doesn't quite match the plans--the aftmost slot on the fore keelson is especially off--but it should work better now.

 

I also finally got a building board. I had originally planned on going to an office supply store a short walk from home, but it closed unexpectedly while I was away. I eventually found some in a target. It was only 1/8zinch thick, so I doubled it up. I then trimmed my plans to the right size. I still have to glue them down, but I'm ready to start on the rabbet.

[JacquesCousteau]

The rabbet was not as difficult as I thought it would be (unless I've actually ruined it). The instructions were fairly detailed, although some detail photos are a little blurry. I also checked Toni Levine's original build log, as well as a lot of other build logs, which were very helpful in making sure I understood what to do.

 

First things first, I used a compass to mark 1/32 of an inch on the keel, keelson, stem, and the back half of the fore keelson. I found it helpful  to lightly press the compass into the wood to mark out a groove I later drew over with pencil. I then drew out the approximate curve as the rabbet narrows along the fore half of the keelson and eventually disappears on the stemson.

 

 

Then I began to carve the rabbet on the keelson. This cut will be hidden by planking, so I figured it was a good opportunity to try cutting the rabbet with an exacto blade. It worked all right, but was a bit uneven and had some slight gouges. Sanding it a little smoothed it out, though. I found it easiest and most consistent, as I moved ahead with the keel, fore keelson, and stemson rabbets, to use the knife for initial carving but to purposely leave space, and then to finish it with sanding. The long flat parts--keel and keelson--were best sanded against a simple sheet of sandpaper placed on a flat surface, which seemed to work well to get a consistent angle. I just had to make sure not to sand away the keel's slight rise at the bow, or after the aft marking. Meanwhile, I used sanding sticks for the curved parts.

 

As can be seen, I was soon finished except for the stem, the trickiest part of the rabbet to make.

 

Aft detail showing end of rabbet:

 

Bow prior to making the stem rabbet:

 

For the stem, I started by marking where the stemson rabbet disappears. Above that mark, I cut a mortise (essentially a right-angled cutout). Below it, I used a combination of the exacto blade and sanding sticks to shape a curving rabbet, which reaches a 45-degree angle by the time it meets the keel. Below you can see the results:

 

And here's the complete rabbet. Hopefully I haven't somehow ruined it--the whole time I was carving it, I somehow had Elmer Fudd singing "kill the wabbit" to the tune of "Ride of the Valkyries" stuck in my head. Weird associations the mind creates!

 

Next up to glue down the backbone pieces.

[RossR]

Very nicely done.   I have this kit on the shelf and I am looking forward to getting started.   
 

Have you thought about how you will cut the slots for the bulkheads deeper yet?   

[JacquesCousteau]

1 hour ago, RossR said:

Very nicely done.   I have this kit on the shelf and I am looking forward to getting started.   
 

Have you thought about how you will cut the slots for the bulkheads deeper yet?   

Thank you! I think I'll just carefully carve them out with the exacto knife after the the keelson is glued to the keel, as the instructions suggest. I briefly considered extending the notches on the bulkheads themselves instead, but the plywood is really tough to cut, and in any case I need to move some keelson notches slightly to the side when extend them for alignment.

[JacquesCousteau]

Work has been pretty hectic lately, so very little has progressed on any of my builds. A week ago or so, I glued the keel pieces together on the building board.

 

And yesterday, I started deepening the notches. About half were very easy to cut out with a sharp exacto knife, but the other half were a lot harder and the building board took a few stabs. I think there may have been glue at the spots I was cutting there, which would be something to look out for. I was also able to adjust some of the notches to better align with the lines on the plans. I should note that the D frame lines on my plans are a bit wider than the other frame lines, so it will be a little tricky to align.

 

One question that I haven't seen explicitly addressed in the instructions or other build logs: do the notches only get extended on the keelson, or also on the fore keelson, too? I already extended one of the notches on the fore keelson, but am debating how much I should extend the other two if at all.

 

Finally, I made another order at Modelexpo, which included a sheet of 1/32‐inch-thick cherry (seen below with a comparison to the basswood sheet). I'm hoping to use it to plank above the wale to create a nice contrast, although the cherry is more heavily figured than I expected, so getting consistent planks may be a challenge. If I can only get a few, I might limit the cherry to just the quarterdeck or something.

[RossR]

Regarding the notches in the fore keelson, I think the notch needs to allow for a smooth transition from bulkhead into the rabbet for the planking.  You will need to adjust that notch accordingly based on how the bulkhead fits.  
 

 

[JacquesCousteau]

21 minutes ago, RossR said:

Regarding the notches in the fore keelson, I think the notch needs to allow for a smooth transition from bulkhead into the rabbet for the planking.  You will need to adjust that notch accordingly based on how the bulkhead fits.  
 

 

Thanks! So I think it would make the most sense to cut the notch nearly to the rabbet, with the understanding that the bulkhead will be beveled during fairing. I'm wondering if I should try to pre-bevel the foreward bulkheads a bit, although that runs the risk of really messing up the fairing.

[RossR]

It is easy for me to offer an opinion since I haven’t started mine, but I do think it make sense to start the beveling of the forward bulkheads before they are attached.   It will be impossible to file or sand with a forward motion after they are attached because you run into the building board.   

Edited January 30 by RossR

[JacquesCousteau]

It's been a while, but I was finally able to make progress!

 

First I extended the fore keelson notches:

 

Then I attached the frames.

 

After getting the central frames in place, I realized that frame 2 somehow ended up out of alignment, tilted back a little. I was able to unstick it with rubbing alcohol and reglue.

 

Then I began adding the supports. Some took more sanding than others to fit, and some were too short. While the instructions say you can add a shim, I ended up just making new ones in the correct length from scrap. As can be seen, I used rubber bands to clamp while gluing--first doing every other frame, and then running the bands across longer stretches of frames.

 

 

It was a little tricky to make sure that I'd be able to mark at least one side of the wale on each frame.

 

Then I began adding the frames at the fore and aft ends. One frame chipped a bit, so I added a filler:

 

Following the instructions, I marked the bearding line and sanded down the deadwood appropriately.

 

And here's how I cut the keel rabbet under the deadwood, which should be a 90-degree notch rather than a V-cut: (note the keel is on top in this photo)

 

I've been adding fore and aft frames. I just have a couple to go at the bow, and several at the stern.

 

I'm glad to see that it's looking a lot more like a ship now!

[JacquesCousteau]

I finished the framing.

 

The bow was a little tricky, requiring extensive shaping in order to get the frames to follow the rabbet. I found that the plywood sands pretty well, but it tends to crumble when cut, which was a bit tricky to deal with. First I cut a notch for the 5a frame, then added it.

 

 

Then a further frame that just sits on the stemson. The instructions said to add another piece ahead of it to run directly up to the rabbet, but I didn't have the space.

 

As can be seen, I also ended up angling the spacer due to the serious curves in the hull form at the bow.

 

The stern also required some shaping to match the rabbet. There was no space for a spacer between G and Ga.

 

Instead, the spacer went between Ga and Gb.

 

Finally I added H. I nearly had a heart attack (well, that's an exaggeration) when I noticed that the aft part of H is not supposed to be sanded, after I had already shaped it to match the rabbet. After looking at Toni Levine's log, I realized that the H frame should indeed be shaped to match the rabbet, it just shouldn't be sanded when you're fairing. In general I recommend reading other build logs alongside the instructions for complex areas like the stern. I was then able to glue the transom to the L-shaped piece and glue them in place with an angled spacer.

 

The instructions and most build logs aren't very clear about how the transom is oriented, so here's another view of how I did mine. The key is that the curved end should be facing out, with the narrow part at the top.

 

With framing complete, it's becoming clearer how the hull will look:

 

Next up, to figure out the topline and then fair the frames.

[JacquesCousteau]

Shaping the topline was easier than I expected. First, I used a square to mark it. I started with a pencil, but changed to just marking it with an exacto blade, as it was more precise. Every frame needed to have something trimmed, some of them quite a bit, and none of them needed to be built up.

 

As I mentioned, I found the plywood to crumble easily when cutting with an exacto blade, so originally I was going to just sand. This would have been quite a bit of sanding, though! Instead, I decided to try my razor saw. It worked perfectly and cut very cleanly, and the blade readily followed where I had earlier scored the frames.

 

There were a few areas near the bow and stern where I needed to use a smaller blade. I was able to use the tiny exacto saw blade to cut there.

 

In general, the plywood handled the sawing very well without any problems, and I soon had all the frames cut to the topline.

 

Then I sanded, using a long, flexible sanding stick. It worked really well, except that the transom required quite a lot of sanding, so I ended up simply sawing along the mark there before cleaning it up with sandpaper.

 

With that, the hull is ready for fairing.

[JacquesCousteau]

Just a brief update. As other logs have noted, the frames require quite a bit of fairing, and I've been working on it a bit at a time. It's neither the most exciting work, nor the most interesting to photograph, but I definitely want to get it right. I've been using 150-grit sanding sticks, and for a time just a sheet of 100 grit sandpaper in order to sand some areas that need a lot removed.

 

 

I still have a lot to go. As can be seen by the char, some of the frames have barely been sanded, and I will probably have to build them up a bit. Other frames, especially B, were very prominent and have been reduced by quite a bit. The bow takes a lot of work to fair because a ton of material has to be removed, but (so far, at least) it hasn't been complicated. The stern is a different story. The idea behind having so many frames there is to provide a lot of surface area for a complex shape, but it requires a lot of sanding. It's also tricky to get without accidentally sanding the aft edge of Frame H, which the instructions warn against doing because the counter will be placed there (and presumably faired afterward? The instructions are not clear on this).

 

In any case, I still have a lot of sanding ahead of me. I can see why people like using dremels for this!

[JacquesCousteau]

Things have been extremely busy around here, and I have not been able to make nearly as much progress as I would have liked on the half-hull.

 

Fairing continues, very slowly. Here's my current progress.

 

The B frame still protrudes too much, despite a great deal of sanding. I've ended up needing to build up the C and E frames, and may need to build up the D frame a little as well.

 

Beyond that, the bow and stern have also both given me some trouble. The bluff bow is requiring quite a bit of shaping. I've had difficulties with using battens to test fairness here, as the battens keep breaking around the sharp curve. That said, I think I'm getting there at the bow.

 

The stern is another story. The dense stack of frames there has some really major differences in height between frames. As can be seen, some of the frames are low enough that they've barely been touched by the sandpaper. Parts will need to be filled in with some fairly large pieces of scrap basswood. I'm also still not really sure when to add the counter--I think I'm at about the point where it can be added, but maybe the stern needs to be more faired first?

 

If anyone has any advice on fairing, or has noticed anything that I'm doing wrong in the photos, I'm all ears! I'd love to move on to the next step and actually start planking, but I know a poorly-faired hull will cause all sorts of problems later.

[CiscoH]

I cant help with the counter as i havent built this ship but on my AVS model i had to sand a lot and add strips to shim out the bulwarks, just like youve been doing.  the sweep up to the stern in your last picture is supposed to be sanded diagonally, a mirror image to the prow.  Probly you know that.

i wonder if this design would have benefited from having an extra frame along the deck midline.  then the bulwarks could have been “D” shaped instead of their S shape which always looked unstable to me.

but regardless great job i am following with interest; this ship is on my to do list

[VTHokiEE]

On 3/21/2024 at 2:13 AM, JacquesCousteau said:

has noticed anything that I'm doing wrong in the photos,

I can’t say that I see any wrong but I do think your stern could probably use some more fairing. I added the counter after I had faired the stern further (which I believe @tlevine did the same looking at the original build log).

 

I used a bunch of Emory style boards (from the cosmetic section of a general retailer) to do a lot of the fairing and recall really having to work a lot on both the bow and stern. You’re doing a good job!

[JacquesCousteau]

Thank you for your helpful comments! I'll definitely fair the stern more before adding the counter, and I'll have to try some emory boards. @VTHokiEE, your half-hull turned out great and your log has been helpful for thinking about the build. @CiscoH, your sloop looks fantastic. If you do the NRG half-hull, do you think you'd use holly again?

 

I think part of the reason I've been so slow with sanding is that the plywood dust seems to set off my allergies more than basswood has. Wearing a mask and sweeping up immediately after sanding helps, but sanding indoors still gets dust everywhere. Hopefully the weather warms up enough soon that I'll be able to sand on my balcony instead.

[VTHokiEE]

6 hours ago, JacquesCousteau said:

I think part of the reason I've been so slow with sanding is that the plywood dust seems to set off my allergies more than basswood has

Dust can trigger my allergies as well - I tend to use a mask as well as a shop vac positioned near the sanding zone to try to keep the air clear. 
 

I think there are some other air filtration units that can be effective for this as well, but having the shop vac on (and wearing ear protection) has helped a lot.

[JacquesCousteau]

Slowly but surely, I'm getting closer to finishing the fairing. I've been barely able to work on it lately, but today I was able to grab a few moments and sand out on my balcony in the sun, so that I wasn't leaving dust in the apartment.

 

I decided to use a bit of chart tape to check on the fairing. There are still some high spots and shims needed, but it's getting close.

 

I'll either need to shim frame D or sand down frame C (to the right, which was already shimmed).

 

At the bow, I initially thought I would need to shim frame 4 (and possibly 3, to its left). When I used the chart tape to check at other placements, though, I found that the real problem is that the upper part of frame 4a needs more sanding.

 

I also decided to start shaping the counter to get a better grasp on the curves at the stern, although I still have a bit more sanding to do there. I beveled the edges and placed it, but I'm not sure what I'll need to do to get a better fit (besides sanding more, of course). The corner of the counter stands way out from the frames.

[JacquesCousteau]

I think I'm nearly there with fairing?

 

Toward the bow, adding some fillers on frames 3 and 4 was useful. Testing with a coffee stir-stick batten seems to suggest that I need to do just a little more on the lower part of the 5a and 5b frames right at the bow.

 

At the stern, I ended up carving some filler pieces (as it was a very complicated curve) to fill some of the major gaps around frames.

 

As can be seen, there's now a lot more surface area for the planking here.

 

However, I'm not sure if I need to fair this area significantly more? I'm having a hard time visualizing how the planks will transition into the rabbet. It seems like a very complex series of curves in all directions in this area, and I'm having a hard time visualizing it from photos elsewhere.(Test with coffee stir stick below.)

 

[JacquesCousteau]

I think it's finally faired, but I'm still not totally sure on the stern.

 

As can be seen, the bow now takes a smooth curve:

 

 

I've faired the stern more and I think it's looking better, but I still have to admit that I have a hard time understanding what it should look like. 

 

This, for instance, would be for a strake that ends against the counter, near the wale. I'm not sure if it's still bending too much upward at the stern.

 

There's still a bit of a bend like that further down for planks that would end at the rabbet, as well:

 

Do I still need to take more off? At this point I've sanded so much that I'm worried about taking too much off, but I still can't figure out if this is fair or not. Any advice would be appreciated!

[JacquesCousteau]

Forgot to mention: I've also reshaped the counter. As far as I can tell, something like this should work. Although now I should probably fair the aft edge of the H frame a bit more....

 

[JacquesCousteau]

The garboard strake is on!

 

I marked out the wale and the location of the garboard's top edge with chart tape. It needed a little adjustment after these photos, but not much.

 

 

 

Then I removed the tape that was protecting the stem and keel. In the future I should use actual masking tape, scotch tape didn't do a great job of withstanding accidentally sanding and tended to rip rather than to come off in one piece.

 

I marked out the garboard strake, starting with the aft plank, on tamiya masking tape as per the instructions.

 

The sawtooth aft was a bit exaggerated, and the plank took some sanding to finalize the shape. Although the instructions don't say to soak the plank to bend it, I did it anyway to reduce the stresses of twisting it so much.

 

Then I glued it in place, and repeated the process for the fore plank. As can be seen, the aft plank turned out ok. The rabbet was perhaps a hair too shallow.

 

As for the fore plank, I think it's low enough at the bow to avoid the "smiley-face" problem. It also didn't sit well at the bow rabbet, as it approached it at a shallow angle. I'm debating whether to try to remove it to sand down the inner side of the rabbet or something so that it sits better.

 

 

Overall, though, I'm excited to finally be making planks. Fairing the hull took a lot longer than I had anticipated.

[RossR]

Seeing your progress makes me anxious to get started on my half hull that is sitting on the shelf.  Great job.