How do I bend planks with electric bender (beginner)

[Chaos Butterfly]

Hello everyone

I received for my birthday my first boat model of the HMS Bounty (Jolly Boat) from Artesia Latina because they know I like building things but such a thing is a first for me.

I finished the inner frame (if you can call it like that) and the instructions tell me to attach the plank to the hull (I'm french) and for that I need to bend them.

I tried one a few days ago, i moistened it 5mn before trying to bend it and it didn't gave me the results I expected.

It was hard to even give it a shape and it's a bit black on some part of the plank because it's hot.

How do I use it, is there something I don't know?

[Dziadeczek]

Watch this video:

He is German, but the video is in "French", if you know what I mean.   😁

[palmerit]

I've pasted below a useful set of posts on this site that have links to videos on planking (in English). One challenge of plank bending is that you sometimes (often) need to bend in two directions, as illustrated in the Passaro videos. It takes a good bit of practice and experience to understand plank bending. It's probably the most challenge aspect of this hobby. 

 

It's good practice to try to get the plank bending right. Sometimes you just need to rip off a plank and redo it. A lot of people recommend treating each plank as its own "project". If you're painting the model, you can certainly use a lot of filler (wood filler or bondo) and do lots of sanding. My first planking was really stepped (clinker) and a mess. But with a ton of filler, sanding, filler, sanding I was able to get a descent hull that looked fairly good after painting. The masters at this art can just leave the planks bare, just finished with some shellac. Maybe someday I'll be able to do that myself.

 

The Modelkit Stuff channel has a Vanguard Model Sherbourne build going on that has some videos on plank bending.

https://www.youtube.com/@ModelkitStuff

 

Another great resource is the YouTube video channel by Olha Batchvarov. She's now working on the Model Shipways Philadelphia and that has some fairly simple plank bending.

https://www.youtube.com/c/OlhaBatchvarov

 

An useful aspect of Olha's Philadelphia videos, where she is building in real time live, is that even though she is an expert model building, she is still spending hours and hours on the planking of a fairly simple hull. There really are no shortcuts to doing this right.