How to measure and line off at the bow

[Isaiah]

I don’t really know the best way to measure and line off right at the bow. Because it’s curved and not like just measuring the bulkheads it’s confusing to me.

 

i haven’t really worried about it for the first layer planking, I’ve just measured the closest bulkhead and tapered it slightly more. But second layer planking is different.

 

Any advice?

[Gregory]

4 hours ago, Isaiah said:

I don’t really know the best way to measure and line off right at the bow.

Do you have any illustration of what you mean by this?

 

It's basically a matter  of dividing the space available by the number of planks.

Have you looked at the planking videos by Chuck?   They show how to get a better fit of the planks by 'edge bending'.

 

 

Sometimes a " drop plank " at the bow will help you avoid planks that become too narrow at the stem.

A drop plank reduces two planks to one.  The problem with doing this with a kit is that it requires wider stock than the basic planking stock, so it may not be practical with the kit you are building.

You should be able to work around this by just making the ends of the planking more narrow than the drop plank would provide.

I assume we are talking bout the Sherbourne you are building, so I think you could get some ideas by looking at Chuck's Cheerful. The lines are very similar.

It is a single plank model, but the run of the planking will be much the same as your 2nd planking on the Sherbourne.

Chuck has the instructions for Cheerful at his Syren Ship Model Co. Here is a link to Chapter 4 which covers the planking below the wales.

 

 

Edited May 23 by Gregory

[Isaiah]

Sorry for not being clear, but this is what I meant:

 

How do I measure and line off this area, where the arrow is pointing? I’m a bit lost as to how to do that at the moment.

 

[druxey]

There are several tutorials on this site on how to plank. Any of these will answer your question, as well as Chuck's contribution:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/forum/98-planking-downloads-and-tutorials-and-videos/

[Mr Pleasant]

Use a piece of thin card or paper say 10mm in width.  Stand it on its edge and form it around the bow area along your red line and mark the start and finish points.  This will give the length of the space that you need to fit the planks to.  Divide this length by the number of plank runs required at midship bulkhead (or however you've determined the number of planking runs required) this will give you the width of the blanks at the bow.

 

Mark

[Gregory]

14 hours ago, Isaiah said:

How do I measure and line off this area,

Use a piece of string, then measure the string with a ruler.

Divide the length of the string by the number of planks used to cover a midship bulkhead.

 

Here is a post I made about tapering planks from mid ship to bow.  Your measurements should be different than my example.

 

 

Edited May 24 by Gregory

[Isaiah]

This is good info, but the thing I’m most confused about is if you use string or paper, where is the end? If you follow it around at the bow it just keeps going to the keel. 
 

Where is the defining line to stop the paper or string. Also mine doesn’t have a bulkhead right at the bow like that.

[druxey]

Please read the planking tutorial:

 

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/APrimerOnPlanking.pdf

 

It will answer all your questions!

[Thukydides]

As @druxey said read the article. Between that and the videos from Chuck previously linked in the thread they should answer all of your questions.

 

If you need some further discussion of how to fit the garboard plank (the bottom most plank) I discuss my thought process in my alert log from the perspective of a first time builder (log# 12). I also in previous logs show how I line off the alert hull which is a very similar shape to sherbourne.

Edited May 25 by Thukydides

[Gregory]

Hopefully you will take the advice to look at the references given .

 

Here is another example from Chuck's Cheerful.  The green line shows where the first two planks next to the keel are.  The first plank next to the keel is the garboard, and you may want to look at  Thukydides reference for establishing the garboard plank.  I also discounted the next plank because it doesn't lend itself to measuring a width where it meets the stem.  You will have to try to achieve the look you see on those two planks and taper them accordingly.

The red line is the distance you will measure to determine the width of the planks at the bow.

If you measure the red line to be 55mm, then would divide 55 by 18 to get 3.05 mm for the width of your planks at the red line.

Since your number may be something that is really hard to measure for cutting, such as 3.05 mm, then you may want to use just 3mm ( just an example as your actual number will probably be different ), and have one or two planks a little bigger.

You could just fit them in at the end.

 

Unless you follow the planking practices you have been given, you will not have an easy time achieving something like the picture above.   

 

Look at the many build logs for Cheerful and Alert.   The planking details may not be well documented in all of them, but it will be in a few like the one Thukydides pointed you to.

 

Edited May 25 by Gregory

[Isaiah]

Thanks Gregory for your info.
 

So to get the measurement at the bow, you have to fit the garboard and a second plank, then you’d have a stopping point for the measurement?

 

I did not see this mentioned in any of the references or pdfs.

[Gregory]

5 hours ago, Isaiah said:

I did not see this mentioned in any of the references or pdfs.

I'm sure it is implied somewhere.  You should have the information you need to proceed with your planking..

 

The image I posted couldn't be more clear about the space to be covered and how it should look.

 

Look forward to seeing your progress.

[mugje]

Just a photo because I was dividing the second belt on my Spinx...maybe it helps with some visuals. I divided the hull first in the appropriate belts that you find in the helpful links posted earlier. On this photo i'm dividing the second belt at the bow. You do this with every belt...until it's closed

[Isaiah]

Wow really nice planking, thanks for showing this.

[mtbediz]

I recommend you to watch the video. You will find a clear answer on how you measure and line off at the bow area.

 

 

Edited June 5 by mtbediz