Planking project

[AmateurModelBuilder]

So I bought this kit inexpensive kit from Ali Express just to learn planking before starting a more serius project. Anyways I glued the bulwarks to the keel, glued the planks and sanded the hull. For a first try at planking Im happy with how the hull turned out. Any tips and and constructive criticism would be appreciated.

[robert952]

For a first attempt, pretty good.  You seem to have the general curves around the bulkheads.  I assume that's what you meant; bulwarks usually covers a structure above the weather deck. So you succeeded in bending the planks to fit. 

 

The instructions or material may not be up to par on this model.  (You mention 'inexpensive kit.') Some kits do a better job of explaining some of the processes and giving instructions in varying degrees of detail. 

 

You might want to consider beveling the edges of the planks so that they fit closer to each other. As you lay planks along the sides, bevelling along the edges will allow you to fit and clamp them closer. 

 

That said, you could use wood filler to fill in the gaps. Then continue with sanding and shaping the hull on this build. 

 

And don't get discouraged.  We all started out with the first time in the hobby. You said you are happy with the results. That's an importan part of enjoying the hobby.  Often we are our own worst critics.  However, if you are happy with the results, that's great. 

 

You will find a lot of help here on MSW.  (Though for some reason I went to the planking tutorials and got an 'oops' message and it seems that there may be a problem with downloading the pdfs as I saw another post topic on the matter. I was going to post the link to those. 

 

Hope this provides some of the type of feedback you were wanting.  Keep up the learning process and continue with this build.  

 

[Dr PR]

You did a good job getting the planking symmetrical on both sides.

 

However, I am not sure if any boat or ship was ever planked in the way the model was planked. usually the plans are tapered on the ends so all planks run more or less parallel to their neighbors. They don't curve up and terminate against another planks the way the bottom eight do on your model.

 

It seems some kit builders have adopted this "shortcut" to make it easier to plank a hull. Tapering the planks the way it was actually done on most (all?) vessels is MUCH harder.

 

If the hull is to be caulked, sanded smooth and painted, with none of the plank seams visible, I guess it doesn't matter. But with time and the swelling and shrinking of the wood with changing humidity the plank seams will become visible.

[AmateurModelBuilder]

4 hours ago, robert952 said:

The instructions or material may not be up to par on this model.  (You mention 'inexpensive kit.') Some kits do a better job of explaining some of the processes and giving instructions in varying degrees of detail. 

The instructions that came with the model are a single sheet of A4 paper and it doesnt even explain planking, so I just did it the way I thought it would be best. And yes I meant to say bulkheads, not bulwarks.

[Fritzlindsay]

3 hours ago, AmateurModelBuilder said:

The instructions that came with the model are a single sheet of A4 paper and it doesnt even explain planking, so I just did it the way I thought it would be best.

Anytime trying something new there are articles and other sources that members can give you on how to do things like planking.  Check out the Articles Database here at MSW or videos like the four part series on planking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCWooJ1o3cM    It is a good idea to research everything before putting on the glue, be it a scratch build or assembling kit parts.

Fritz

Edited 3 hours ago by Fritzlindsay