Wood for bulkheads?

[CPDDET]

Will be starting my first scratch build of Hemingway's Pilar 1/18 scale. Trying to decide if I should make the bulkheads (13 of them) from ply or solid wood. 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Dave

[Dziadeczek]

I don't know much about the Hemingway's Pilar yacht, but in my opinion, if you intend to completely cover the hull with planking, either wood will be OK. Especially, good quality plywood, like Baltic plywood has great stability. If, however, you want to only partially plank your hull (Dockyard style model or similar), you do not want to show the layered edges of your bulkheads made from plywood, and in this case - use solid wood, any of the hard fruit woods will suffice, eg. cherry, apple, pear, plum, but also maple, birch, beech, etc. If your pockets are sufficiently deep, go full blast for boxwood or even some, more exotic species, peroba, etc.

[CPDDET]

Thanks for the education. I should have said frames instead of bulkhead.

While these won't be visible,  I would like like to build as historicly accurately as possible. 

The frames on the original would be oak with mahogany planked hull. Is it even possible to use these types of wood? Or am I way off here?

Edited yesterday at 12:46 AM by CPDDET

[TBlack]

At your scale you can't use mahogany, and I wouldn't use oak for the frames. In both of those wood the grain is too pronounced for your scale. I'm no great expert on wood color, but I think cherry, apple, or pear would be a good substitute for the planked hull. For the frames a light colored wood such as maple or birch would work. Good luck and keep us posted!

Tom

[CPDDET]

I'm thinking cherry at this point. I've used it for some parts of my Bluenose and found it easy to work with and easy to obtain. Should stain nicely to imitate mahogany.