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

[palmerit]

Still struggling a bit with planking, I decided to take on the Nautical Research Guild's 18th-Century Merchantman Half-Hull Planking Kit  (aka half hull planking project or the half hull) before continuing with the rest of the boats in the Model Shipways Shipwright Series. It has a long tutorial book and several builds to follow, including one by the developers of the kit:

 

 

Edited Monday at 04:59 AM by palmerit

[JacquesCousteau]

Looking forward to following along with this build!

[Jim M]

Looking forward to your progress. 

[palmerit]

Started by mounting a photocopy of the layout on a piece of 1/2” foam core board I bought at an art supply store. 

Edited Sunday at 04:16 AM by palmerit

[palmerit]

Cut out the keel, stem, and stern pieces and laid them on the board. Need to sand the char and check for fit before going to next steps. 

[palmerit]

So when I fit these, I assume the notches on the pieces (keelson and fore keelson) should line up with the red lines on the plan. They don’t line up now without cutting about 1 1/2 mm from the keelson. 

[Jim M]

I see that the lines do not fully match on the keelsom. I had the same issue this looks really good.

[Gregory]

I see the same issue on Toni's log.

 

She doesn't mention it.  I think you should be able to just forge ahead without doing any trimming,  without affecting the final outcome.

But of course that is up to you.

 

Looking ahead in her log, I still see a small deviation there at 4.  So I think you will be good.

Edited Sunday at 01:38 PM by Gregory

[Jim M]

@Gregory I had to sand mine down a bit on both the keelsom and fore keelsom to get it to fit, and line up mostly to the lines. 

[JacquesCousteau]

10 hours ago, palmerit said:

They don’t line up now

I had the same issue (as have a lot of people) and found that lining up the fore two slots by trimming the aft end still left the aftmost slot slightly off, which I corrected when I deepened the slots.

[palmerit]

I ended up shaving a bit off the keel and keelson so that things lined up with the plans. The deadwood still doesn’t quite line up with G through H and there doesn’t seem to be an away to fix that. 
 

[palmerit]

I’m on the rabbet/mortice step along the keel and stem.
 

So it took me reading the instructions a couple of times and reading through a half dozen builds to get to a point where I think I understand what’s going on. I’m sure I could have just followed the instructions and parroted other builds but I wanted to understand why I was doing these steps. Once you get it, it makes sense. It’s getting it that takes a minute, at least it did for me. 
 

I was thrown by the instructions that opened with “the rabbet is nothing more than a 90 degree groove cut into the keel/stern”. I thought 90 degrees relative to what?

 

It wasn’t until seeing later photos in the instructions and in build logs that I realized the 90 degrees refers to the edge of the plank that will be laying inside the rabbet. The planks have 90 degree edges, so the rabbet needs to accept those 90 degree edges no matter how the plank enters that rabbet. 
 

I took some photos before cutting the rabbet and I’m using a leftover piece of pear wood plank from my Sherbourne (since the hull comes with sheets you need to cut rather than planks).

 

The first photo shows that because of the fat bow on this model, the plank will essentially go into the sternpost at a 90 degree angle. That’s why the rabbet there is referred to as a mortise. It’ll be a notch the width of the plank. 
 

The second shows that along the keel, the bottommost plank (the garbourd) will intersect with the keel at a 45 degree angle (hence cutting a rabbet on the keel and keelson at a 45 degree angle. 
 

The third shows that the planks will run up against the sternpost flush, at a 0 degree angle. Later on the instructions, part of the deadwood will be sanded down so that the planks when installed are flush with the sternpost. 
 

It seems pretty simple once you get it, assuming I correctly understand what I’m aiming to do and why. 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 12:57 AM by palmerit

[Dan Poirier]

I think I had to read the instructions at least four or five times before it started to sink in.

[palmerit]

On the keel and keelson, I drew a straight line the width of the planking material (around .035” on my caliper). I tried using the compass I have, but mine wouldn’t get that narrow, so instead I marked the measurements from the calipers and drew a line between the marked points. 
 

I ended up drawing the line the same width on the inside edge to help keep the 45 degree angle. I’m going to make the rabbet a bit shallower than needed so that the resulting rabbet will accept the plank flush (with two sides of .035”, the hypotenuse - where the plank will hit flush - will be more like .049”). 

Edited Tuesday at 01:48 AM by palmerit

[Jim M]

i am at the same spot and i just marked everything out and have given it a couple of days to reflect before making the cuts. i am still having a challenge in visualizing the rabbet at the stem. more so the start of the mortise and the end

[palmerit]

I know by waterline 4, it’s just a mortise and only on the stem (the stemson is untouched). p. 8 says “above waterline 4, the entire rabbet will be on the stem side”, to accept a plank at 90 degrees. 

 

p. 9 says “the stemson side of the rabbet finally disappears just above waterline 3, the third line from the bottom”. 
 

and p. 11 has “at the third green line (at the point where no more wood was removed from the stemson), the rabbet will resemble a mortise or step rather than a V-shape”

 

It’s pretty clear where the transition ends (right above the third green line). I’m not quite sure where the transition starts on the fore keelson to the stepson. I’ll need to reread and check some builds. 

[palmerit]

This is a zoomed in photo from tlevine’s build log. 

[Jim M]

8 hours ago, palmerit said:

I know by waterline 4, it’s just a mortise and only on the stem (the stemson is untouched). p. 8 says “above waterline 4, the entire rabbet will be on the stem side”, to accept a plank at 90 degrees. 

 

p. 9 says “the stemson side of the rabbet finally disappears just above waterline 3, the third line from the bottom”. 
 

and p. 11 has “at the third green line (at the point where no more wood was removed from the stemson), the rabbet will resemble a mortise or step rather than a V-shape”

 

It’s pretty clear where the transition ends (right above the third green line). I’m not quite sure where the transition starts on the fore keelson to the stepson. I’ll need to reread and check some builds. 

 

Ohh I missed the page 11 comment. Thank you.

[palmerit]

Not to get too far ahead of myself ...

 

Tree nails can be done on hulls as well as decks right? Has anyone done an NRG half hull with tree nails? The scale would seem to be okay for that. I don't do it if the hull ends up trash (i.e., just a learning experience) but if it's something I'd feel good about staining and framing I might consider adding tree nails too. I don't know if there's anything about the basswood used on the half hull that would make that a bad idea (or fine idea). 

[palmerit]

Cut out the frames and sanded them lightly where they’ll later be glued to the keel and building board. 

[palmerit]

I sanded out the rabbet on the keel and keelson. Glad I made the marks on the inside as well as the outside to try to keep the 45 degree angle since it’s tough to see through the sawdust. Also thankful for having purchased an optivisor. 
 

Despite have marked the point after which I wasn’t supposed to continue the 45 degree rabbet (below the deadwood), it wasn’t clearly marked enough (and despite the fact I read how others made the exact same mistake). Thankfully, while that part of the keel isn’t a 45 degree rabbet, it is a 90 mortise. 

[palmerit]

I turned the errant rabbet and the stern end of the keel into a mortise. 
 

I cut a plank-width piece from the basswood sheet (checking the dimensions later in the instructions) to be able to check the the rabbets and mortises were close to the proper dimensions. 

[palmerit]

Cut the mortise into the stem. Slowly cut it out with a sharp scalpel. 

[palmerit]

I think (?) I got the rabbets and mortises cut okay. I figure I can do a bit better at fine tuning if needed when the pieces are glued down and when I start to lay the planks. 
 

I did use the small piece of planking I cut to test fit in a bunch of places. 

[palmerit]

Got the keel, keelson, for keelson, stem, and stemson glued to the board. 

[palmerit]

I think I’m going to have to do some repair work. I don’t think the mortise is supposed to go past the start of the sternpost (and I got to that because I continued the rabbet too far). I’ll check the instructions, but if I’m right I’ll try filling in with sawdust and glue and sanding to fill that part in. 

Edited Wednesday at 04:01 AM by palmerit

[palmerit]

Next step was deepening the slots on the keelson using my scalpel and removing pieces with tweezers. 

[palmerit]

Next step is gluing and clamping the frames into place. 

[palmerit]

Made a slurry of sawdust, glue, and water to fill the part of the mortice that shouldn’t be there. I’ll let it dry overnight and then sand. Might need to add some more sawdust if it isn’t smooth after sanding.