18th-Century Merchantman Half-Hull Planking Project by stevenmh - NRG

stevenmh · Friday at 04:56 PM

Several years ago, at a Northeast Ship Model Conference, I had the chance to ask Chuck Passaro how he learned to do such amazing, and neat, hull planking. He came over and looked at the model I had brought to the conference (the Pride of Baltimore), replied with a "hmmmm" and said it had taken him a while to get it right, until he'd had his Ah-Ha moment (encouraging) and that I should keep working at it and I was sure to have my own ah-ha moment when it would all make sense and click into place (very encouraging). In the intervening years I have had several ah-ha moments, but none of them, I think, quite what Chuck had in mind. So I decided maybe this project would lead me closer to that moment.

I decided to make a change to the kit, because as a novice I of course know better... but also because I wanted to get some practice with the kinds of wood I think I will be using as I move on to other models (and maybe one day my own scratch-build. So for the stem, keel, stern post and wales I decided to try using some cherry I have and will use Alaskan Yellow Ceder for the hull planking.

I traced the stem and the forward end of the keel onto a piece of cherry, and cut it out and formed it using a scroll saw and sanding drums of various sizes that attach to my drill press. And just to enhance the learning curve I made a lap joint to connect the stem to the keel.

The keel was an easy straight cut on the table saw - the kit keel has a curved section at one end to mate with the wider stem, I just included that in the stem I was making so the joint on my model will be slightly further aft that on the plan. As you can tell from the photos my stem needed some work to get both the width and the thickness correct.

I finally glued the plan to a piece of foam core - some adhesive did bleed through the plan but the lines are not distorted so I think it is good to go. Once I'm sure the curves on my stem and keel mate properly with the provide keelson and stemson and I have cut out the rabbet my plan is with the rabbet. I did shave off about 1/8" from the aft end of the fore stemson to get the slots to line up with the plan.