USF Essex 1799 by RossR - Model Shipways - 1:76

[RossR]

It has been awhile, but here is a quick update.   I finally finished fairing the interior.  I found this to be a very difficult task.   I have the gun ports painted red, and now I will be starting the planking.   
 

[RossR]

I have started the planking.  It is the first time I have felt like I have been making progress in awhile.  The first plank I added was a basswood strip that runs the entire length of the ship to get a smooth run for the planking above.  I am not worried about the lack of vertical seams on this plank as it will be covered with other planks to make the wale later.  

 

 

Above this plank I am using the Alaskan Yellow Cedar that I purchased from Modeler's Sawmill.  Hoping that the planking at the gun deck level, which is left unpainted, will really pop with the higher quality wood.  Two rows of planking were added above the first plank before I got to the gun ports.  

 

 

 

 

I definitely subscribe to the theory you can't have too many clamps.  I bought 4 more  of the black ones used near the stern at Menards today. I am trying to use PVA for gluing the planks.  I really appreciate the ability to easily remove a plank if I decide It isn't right.  I used a 4 inch PVC pipe as a form for adding the curve near the bow.  I just soak the wood in hot water for about 10 minutes then clamp it to the pipe.  Careful to use a old scrap price between the wood and the clamp to limit making and marks in the plank from the clamp.

 

 

 

 

For the next row of planking I needed to notch out the plank to accommodate the gun port.  The planking should reveal 1/32 of an inch of the gun port framing.  For this row, I used a number 11 scalpel blade to cut away to material to accommodate the gun port.  I carefully cut a little bit vertically then cut thin slivers horizontally and repeat until I get close to the total amount of material removed.  The last bit is sanded away.  On these planks the amount left where the gun ports will be is less than 1/32 of an inch.  

 

 

I am adding a row to the port then starboard sides and building up both sides of the ship.  I will continue to use the Alaskan Yellow Cedar until I get to the planking at the height of the quarter deck which will be painted so I will switch back to the kit provided Basswood.

 

 

 

 

[Ronald-V]

Good thing you have upgraded the visible planking, that will definitely improve the overall look! Good start 👌

[RossR]

I have completed all of the planking above the wale on the exterior of the hull.  As I mentioned earlier, I use some Alaskan Yellow Cedar for this section since the planking at the gun deck level will not be painted.  Hoping this will look a little better than basswood.  

 

I found my Ultimation Sander to be a great tool for this work.  I cut each plank to a near net length and used the sander to bring the length down to the perfect length.  I did make one adjustment to the sander.  The sander ships with 120 grit paper which has worked well with other woods, but I felt that I could see marks in the Alaskan Yellow Cedar with that coarse of a sand paper, so I used a 240 grit disk and was very happy with the results.

 

The planking around the gun deck gun ports has a 1/32 inch rabbet and the gun ports on the quarter deck do not have a rabbet as those gun ports do not have any lids.  

 

There is still a lot of sanding and a little filling above the gun deck level which will be painted.

 

 

 

 

Next up is planking the stern.

 

In addition to work on my ship, I had a small household project that I completed.  I built a small coffee table with some whisky barrel staves.  My wife loves the look of the staves, but they are miserable to work with,  They are not uniform in size and not a single straight line on the stave.  These were from a whisky barrel so they are charred on the inside.  We removed any loose char and then uses a spray matte polyurethane to seal the charred surface.  Three bolts hold the whole thing together.

 

 

I have previously built this billiard rack with wine barrel staves.

 

 

 

 

[JacquesCousteau]

Great job on the model, and that coffee table is very cool!

[RossR]

I have the upper part of stern planked.  I either lost or didn’t get the window pieces, but I had some left over grate material from earlier builds that worked well.  The windows will be behind a boat hanging from davits on the stern on the complete model.   The stern was planked with Basswood as it will be painted.   
 

 

next up is the garboard and broad stake.  I will use 1/16 x 3/16 planks for these two planks.  After that I will take my time figuring out the layout for rest of the planking.  The instructions call for an expedient, and simplified planking below the hull using three planks per row with no staggering of the planks.   Everything below the wale is painted or coppered, so it makes some sense. 
 

I have come to believe practice is sometimes required, so despite the paint and copper, I will follow more accurate planking methods as much as I can.  I will attempt to edge bend the planks.   I am planning on using planks of about 4 inches which would be about 25 feet at my scale.  Hopefully I will feel bad covering it up with paint and copper, but be better prepared for a build that requires no paint or copper in the future.  

Edited November 25 by RossR

[RossR]

I have the garboard and broad strakes installed.  I used 3/16 wide planks for these two planks.  The rest of the planking will use 1/8 inch planks.  So far I had been using PVA for all the gluing on this build.  On the broad strake I switched to CA. I just couldn't get the plank clamped adequately, so I thought the quicker CA made sense.  

 

At the bow I used tape to get the shape of the strake and cut it out with a scalpel.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I will be figuring out the number of bands of planking on the rest of the hull and determining where I need to add drop planks and steelers.  I will also need to work out the shift pattern.  

 

 

[RossR]

I have made some progress on the planking and have learned some lessons. I am not going to stress too much on the issues I have, since all the planking I am currently adding will be painted or covered with copper plates.  My previous model that was "properly" planked was a half hull.  I realize now that I didn't do a good job of making the initial planking on the port and starboard sides symmetrical.  on the Garboard strake I have too much curve up the bow on one side, the other I think I did a good job, and on the upper planking I didn't do a good job of getting the planking at the same height on the bow.  

 

As I said I am not going to stress on these issues and they will be painted or covered in copper, but I do want to note them and hopefully learn from them.  I have the remaining planking divided into 4 belts. I have completed the upper belt on both sides.   I am using a pattern that staggers the butt joints that repeats every fifth row of planking.  

 

This is my first attempt at edge bending a plank.  I needed to decide on a heat source for the bending and I already owned a wood burning iron with the following tip.  

 

 

I thought the shape would work very well but the wood burner would be way too hot.  I had a dimmer switch in the tool box in my garage that was left over from a home project, so I put this together to dial down the heat.  

 

 

It has taken me a while to figure out the ideal temp, but I am making progress.

 

I am using tape to get a visual representation of the curve I need and using that as a guide to use when bending the parts.  

 

 

 

 

I put the tape with the curve drawn on it on my bench and clamp a small curve peice of wood that is used to create the curve on the planks.

 

 

I added a drop plank also.  for the plank below the drop blank I used a similar technique with the tape to create the template used to cut out the plank below the drop planks.

 

 

I hope to improve with my technique as I complet3 the planking , but thankful that all of this will be painted or covered in copper.

 

 

You can see I had the temp a little too hot on my heat source for the bending on some of these planks.

 

I will keep working and plan to post another update after the next belt of planking is added.  

 

 

Edited December 7 by RossR

[RossR]

I have the next band of planking added to each side.  As I mentioned on my previous post, I didn’t do a good job of keeping both side symmetrical.  I started the next band on the side that has the Garboard strake curve too high on the bow.  Not surprisingly that is creating challenges.   On the other side I am happy with my progress.   
 

I have the heat dialed in better on my iron for edge bending and I am getting better at getting the planks to meet up with no visible gaps on the tapered planks.  These pictures on on the second side that I planked, the one that is turning out better.   
 

 

 

I hope to have all of this ready to start sanding in a couple weeks.  
 

 

[Ronald-V]

Making good progress!👍

[RossR]

I have all of the planking installed now.  It is far from perfect, but I think I made a lot of progress with the edge bending process.  I was able to get the temperature of my wood burning dialed in so that it didn't scorch the planks but provide plenty of heat to allow the wood to bend.  I also improved at shaping planks that needed to be fit exactly into an opening or fit tightly to the plank above or below.  It is far from perfect, but I am happy with how much I improved as I went and I will have a lot more confidence if my next build has a hull that isn't painted or coppered.  

 

I still need to do quit a bit of sanding and then some filling in a few spots.  I usually do my heavy sanding in the garage due to all the dust.  It is 6 degrees Fahrenheit / minus 14 Celsius right now, so I may wait and hope it warms up a little this afternoon.  

 

 

 

After the hull is sanded and the gaps are filled I will be adding the wales.  The instructions then have you add the exterior finishes that are above the copper plates.  After that is is on to the decking on the gun deck.  This will be my first time joggling planks.  I am Looking forward to that step.  

 

 

[vvvjames]

Nicely done on the first layer! Can't wait to see it sanded and shiny:)

Side note, do you have a build log on your Beagle by any chance? 

[RossR]

Thanks.  I don't have a build log on my Beagle.  I discovered Model Ship World as I was finishing that build.  There are a lot of logs for the Beagle on the forum.  Many of them quite good.

[RossR]

I was able to complete the sanding and filling in any gaps.  I was actually surprised by how few gaps need to be filled.  I used a used a disk sander on a Dremel to start my sanding.  I used a 120 grit for areas that had more material to remove, but quickly moved to a 240 grit the smooth out everything.  I then used a series of three progressively finer sand paper by hand to really smooth things out.  

 

 

 

 

After sanding I started adding the wales.  The wales are made of two strips of 1/16 x 3/16 inch basswood.  

 

 

 

After sanding the wales

 

 

 

 

I am really happy with the results.  I used a 4 inch section of PVC pipe to form the curve in the planks at the bow.  I still need to add the wale on the other side, and then I will work on finishing the area above the copper.  Black paint directly above the copper and then a natural finish at the level of the gun port and then more black at the quarter deck and forecastle.  

 

The next couple of days will be pretty busy, but I have boxing day off and hope to get 3 days with lots of time in the shipyard before heading back to work on Monday.

 

 

[RossR]

I have added the finishes above the copper to the exterior of the hull.  I used some Minwax Pre-Stain on the area around the gun deck and then applied some Minwax Honey Oak stain to give it just a little more color.  I then gave the whole exterior a coat of shellac.  This will serve as a sealer under my paint and a coating for the natural finished portion.  I added black paint above and below the area with the natural finish. and on the stern.  

 

 

 

 

The copper bottom has a dressing belt at the top. I painted the black down so that row should overlap the black paint by about half the copper plate.  these pictures are taken with the ship in is building cradle for the first time.  I didn't get any pictures of how I made the lines for the top of the copper section and the gore line of the copper plates, but I recreated the process in a couple of pics after the fact.  

 

There are plenty of commercially available tools for making these lines on the hull and we have seen many homemade versions as well.  I used a carpenters scribe tool.  This is used by finish carpenters and cabinet makers to mark various lines when trying to fit something to an uneven  surface.  I found it worked fantastic for marking the lines.  To hold the ship straight upright I used a small combination square clamped between a couple of Legos to give it some additional stability and then clamped the ruler to the stem.  It all worked pretty well.

 

 

 

Next step is drilling the holes for the masts into the bulkhead former before the gun deck is installed.  I hate the process of drilling into the edge of a piece of plywood.  I find that is wants to split as you drill.  I ran into this with my first two Occre models that require you to drill a hole for the bow sprit.  Occre provides cutouts for the masts which is great.  The Essex requires a hole be drilled for each of the three masts.  the instructions have you glue extra wood to the bulkheads former to provide more material to drill into since the diameter of the masts are thicker than the bulkheads former.  Unfortunately I glued this material to the bulkhead former and not the bulkheads.  When the bulkhead former split there wasn't enough material left glued to the bulkead former due to the small distance between the bulkheads.  I have had to re-glue the material and make sure it is glued to the bulkheads not just the bulkhead former.  The only hole that went will is the foremast. This one had more distance between the bulkheads and the extra material held.  

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 12:08 AM by RossR

[Ronald-V]

That's a nice finish! Looking beautiful 👌

[schooner]

It looks like you marked 2 lines on the hull. What is the lower one for?

[RossR]

The instructions refer to it as the gore belt line.   It is a line midway up the copper where the curve in the plates that is created by the shape of the hull is straightened.  Here are a couple picks from the instructions that show what I mean.  

 

 

 

[schooner]

Thanks!