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

[RossR]

Thanks so much for providing so much detail on your process.  This really makes the process clear. 

[JacquesCousteau]

4 hours ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Jacques, your planking looks great. Lots of great tips too!

 

2 hours ago, RossR said:

Thanks so much for providing so much detail on your process.  This really makes the process clear. 

 

Thanks, glad to hear people are finding this useful!

 

The plank is now being glued in place after having the "caulking" added:

 

Unfortunately, I've run into an issue at the bow. I noticed that the uppermost plank isn't quite sitting on frame number five. Instead it's hovering just above it. This gap is small enough that it looks like I can fill it with glue without causing any problems, but I was worried about whether this would continue further up. So, I soaked and clamped a scrap plank to bend it to shape, and took a look. It's hard to see in the photo below, but the plank does indeed float well off from frame 5.

 

I'm not sure how I missed this problem earlier, given that I checked things pretty extensively with a batten when fairing. And as can be seen, it's not like I was especially aggressive in fairing frame 5, which still has a substantial amount of char that was never touched. I may have missed it due to the difficulty of fairing around the bluff bow, which broke a number of battens when I tried to check for fairness, and I may have placed the battens at different angles as I wasn't sure of the strake lines then. Perhaps I placed frame 5 too high, but I don't think I did.

 

In any case, I think I'll have to make a very thin shim, tapering to practically nothing at the current uppermost strake, in order to correct this issue. As can be seen below, a bit of 1/32‐inch thick scrap seems to correct the problem. I just hope I can add it with a minimum of re-fairing and re-working the planking belts.

[JacquesCousteau]

As it turns out, the shim was not very difficult to add. I used the scrap plank to determine how far it needed to extend and tapered the shim's thickness at each end and glued it in place. After it dried, I lightly sanded to fair things up, and then re-drew the belt and wale lines.

 

Testing shows that the planking will fit much more smoothly now.

 

Also, to finish up the earlier step-by-step post on planking: the plank is in place.

 

Apologies for the multiple blow-by-blow posts! I'll be quiet now until I figure out the stealer.

[mtaylor]

No need to apologize or be quiet.  Often times, we do details and later find out that those helped someone else.

[JacquesCousteau]

It's been a little while since my last post. I'd like to finish this before my move in late August, as the model will be much easier to pack if it's fully built and can be removed from the build board (or if the board can be trimmed substantially). It took some thought to figure out how to do the stealer at the stern. After considering different options, I decided to follow the example given in the instructions, rather than the other style of stealer shown in Toni's build log. First I marked it out on the hull.

 

And then cut it to shape.

 

It fit fairly well into the slot.

 

I then began adding the next strake. I also decided that I may as well add the wale now, so I began marking that out.

 

One issue I've been having is that it's been very hard to fit planks into the rabbet. I'm not sure if I didn't cut it deep enough. As can be seen, the bow plank ended up too short.

 

Fortunately, it came off easily enough with rubbing alcohol.

 

While I was redoing that plank, I also began cutting the first layer of the wale to shape. Fitting it was a little tricky due to the pronounced curve of the bow, which made it difficult to test fit. I ended up cutting the strip a bit oversize at first to bend it into shape, as seen below, so as to then do the final shaping afterward.

 

I've continued working and moved on to the next strake. As can be seen, the color variation between sheets of basswood has ended up nicely highlighting the stealer.

From this angle, you can also see another issue. Following the instructions, the stealer ends on a bit of backing that was placed between frames. Unfortunately, clamping the hull to that backing has led to a bit of a flat spot in the hull in that area. I'll have to see if sanding the hull helps, but I'm not sure it will. I'm also not sure if this could have been avoided--the only way I can think of would have been to add the backing piece much earlier in the build and fair it in place such that it followed the curve of the hull. In any case, this is a minor issue and I can live with it.

 

In any case, I painted the edges of the wales black, and have begun gluing them in place starting at the bow. As can be seen, I had to be a bit creative with the clamping. Sone of the frames are too thick for me to fit the clothespins around, so I had to use several bits of scrap wood to instead clamp to the spacers between frames.

[JacquesCousteau]

I'm continuing to make progress. The wales are now in place (or at least the first layer) and I'm midway through the second belt.

 

As can be seen, creative clamping is a must.

 

Further details of how I'm clamping at the bow:

 

And at the stern:

 

Unfortunately, with all the clamping material in the way, I didn't see until afterward that the bow plank somehow got weirdly twisted at the tip:

 

I found that it wasn't quite as bad as it seemed, though. There isn't actually much of a gap between the plank and the plank below it, it's more that the plank below it is standing slightly proud of the rabbet. Preliminary sanding helped a lot. I also used an exacto blade to carefully trim the top of the plank to get rid of the odd upward twist. It now looks more acceptable:

 

Meanwhile, I'm nearly up to the counter at the stern:

 

Overall, I'm pleased with how the planking is coming along. I can certainly see areas for improvement in future builds, though.

 

[Seventynet]

Nice job!

[JacquesCousteau]

On 7/15/2024 at 5:47 PM, Seventynet said:

Nice job!

Thanks!

 

With the wale in place, I've started planking above the wales while continuing to plank the bands below. First, I had to mark out the molding on the quarterdeck.

 

I was then able to mark out the planking widths above the wale. I also finalized the fairing of the transom's bottom corner, which I hadn't done earlier because I wasn't sure where the wale would end up.

 

By now, I've finished the third strake of the second belt, and started planking above the rail.

 

 

 

So far I'm enjoying this build a lot, it's very fun to see the hull take shape. There are a few things I want  to mention, though. First, I don't think I'll be doing a drop plank at the bow, as it looks like I have plenty of space to fit the full four planks there. I'm not sure what I did differently from the instructions, but I feel like a drop plank would lead to the planks in the last band becoming weirdly wide at the bow.

 

Secondly, as the bow becomes quite bluff by this point of the hull, I've been having a lot of trouble test fitting planks to properly shape them. I'm not sure if I didn't properly fair it or what, but a few planks have snapped when I tried to test fit them around the bow, as can be seen below. (Thankfully it wasn't disastrous for that plank, as I was actually re-using an earlier plank I had accidentally cut a hair too short, so I was able to just trim off the broken end and continue.)

 

What I've found works best is to get the plank approximately spiled, curve it to shape with hot water and clamps, and then finalize the shaping once it's properly curved and can easily fit around the bow.

 

Third, I've also had some trouble fitting planks into the rabbet at the bow and stern. If I were to redo this build, I would make them a little deeper so there was more to seat the planks.

Edited July 17 by JacquesCousteau

[JacquesCousteau]

I've now finished the second band and the first strake above the wale. Although there are still challenges, I feel like my planking skills have improved over time and the run of each strake is getting better with each band.

 

Now that the wale has been installed, it's becoming quite difficult to clamp the planks below it, as can be seen below. Thankfully I was able to slightly deepen the rabbet, allowing the bow planks to be much more firmly seated.

 

The stern is also tricky, given that the planking now ends against the counter. The haphazard arrangement shown below doesn't work all that well, as the clamp only is in contact with the scrap blocks at the build board. I'm considering adding at least the first plank of the counter's planking in order to form at least a small rabbet of sorts, which would undoubtedly help at least a little to hold the tip of the planks in place.

You can also see how the strake above the wale was left oversized at the end. Although I soon cut off the tip to bring it down to the transom, the plank is supposed to cover the ends of the counter planking. As can be seen, the wale also dips a bit, although I'm hoping the second layer of wale will cover this. In general, I'm not totally pleased with my counter and the end of the wale, which doesn't seem to have turned out quite like it should. This is an area where I feel the instruction manual could be clearer. That said, from the other build logs it looks like there's a lot of variation in this across builds, and they all look great, so perhaps it's not so much of a problem.

 

As others have noted, the planks above the wale are very straightforward to shape.

 

View from below:

 

View from the stern:

 

View from the bow:

 

View from the side:

 

I'm quite liking how the hull is coming together, even if I'm very unsure about how I'll clamp this last band.

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Jacques, your half hull project is looking great. Your planking skills are second to none!

[JacquesCousteau]

On 7/19/2024 at 1:37 PM, Paul Le Wol said:

Hi Jacques, your half hull project is looking great. Your planking skills are second to none!

Thanks, that's very kind of you! That said, I can see a lot to improve upon in future builds.

 

It's important to note failures as well as successes, in order to (hopefully) learn from them. For instance, I trimmed this plank too thin while I was shaping it. You can see how several marks are well above the plank:

 

This was because I was using a dull exacto blade to trim it. Instead of cutting smoothly, I took a divot out of the wood. I feel like blade dullness is an issue that always sneaks up on me and I don't notice it until I have an issue like this.

 

In any case, I swapped blades and redid the plank. It's amazing how much better a fresh blade cuts. The plank looks much better now.

 

That said, while the plank looks good, you can still see a little bit of the marking on frame 4a. As far as I can tell, if I follow the markings perfectly, they'll all be a little wider on that frame than on those around them. I'm a little confused by how this happened--maybe my wale is slightly low there? The run of the sheer appears smooth when I check it, so I don't think I left the frame too high. I'll see how it looks once I get the other two planks on.

[JacquesCousteau]

Not much that's new, just continuing with planking. I've finished the band above the wale, and have started the second-to-last strake in the last band below it. Clamping has been difficult due to the narrow space.

 

 

And here's where it currently is:

 

 

 

Close-up photography really brings out all the errors at the bow:

 

In any case, I'm hoping to finish in the next couple of weeks.