Licorne 1755 by mtaylor - 3/16" scale - French Frigate - from Hahn plans - Version 2.0 - TERMINATED

[mtaylor]

Thank you for the "likes" and comments. 

 

I guess time for some answers...

 

 

Mark, that looks great. 

Question, why the poly before the planking is finished?

Sam

 

Sam,

One light coat to give some protection.   I know that I'll have to go back do some more sanding because I have do some more parts such as a window, the quarter galleries, and the breeching bolts.

 

planking looks awesome Mark........neat how you left a pre measured gap for the ebony     in respect to your next step.......I guess it boils down as to how you want the stern planking to lay.   do you want it to butt over the hull planking,  or do you want the hull planking to case in the stern planking.

 

V2 has been Very good to you 

 

Thanks Popeye.   The gaps are for the channels.   I have the counter planked so it's the planking above the counter..  Plus the quarter galleries cover pretty much all the exposed butts.

 

Mark - that planking looks great, did you spile any of the planks to get such a tight fit?

 

Jason,  I wouldn't call it spiling.  More like sanding and shaping like crazy.  Oh wait... this is spiling.. so yes.

 

Hi Mark - 

 

Coming along quite nicely.  I can see how your planking skills are improving all the time as you get more experience and work your way up the learning curve.

 

As for sequencing, I recommend that you plank the stern first.  This is how it was done in actual practice, so the run of the hull planks would overlap the hood ends of the stern planking, reducing the chance that water action would loosen the stern planks.  It is also easier to do, because you can sand the ends of the stern planks flush with the final ribs, then simply run the hull planks over and past them before trimming and sanding flush with the face of the stern planks.  If you have Zu Mondfeld's book, look at his discussion of stern planking (pages 96-97 in my edition).

 

Looking forward to watching you progress.

 

Dan.

 

Thanks Dan.  As I mentioned to Popeye, the counter is planked.  I think the proper term would be transom?  The windows and the area above it?  Maybe the do the windows but not much more until she's cut loose from the build board far in the future. 

[mtaylor]

Port side aft bulwark planked...   I'm cleaning up the shop a bit and I'll start on the hull planking.

 

Critiques, laughing out loud, pretty much anything you want to say about it is allowed, as always.   

 

I do notice that there's a couple of place that need a touch more sanding, but those places are on hold until after the rest of the hull is planked.  Might as well get everything at once....

 

[Canute]

Yowie-zowie, very nice work.

[GLakie]

Critiques, laughing out loud, pretty much anything you want to say about it is allowed, as always.   

 

2-4p.JPG

Critiques, laughing out loud? You're kidding right? Every time I look in at your scratch-build, and others for that matter, I feel like the wide-eyed kid, the first time going to a fair or something. I can only hope to learn something by watching these go up, and some day hopefully, start one of my own. It's amazing to me how much work actually goes into these, and from what I see, you're doing a bang-up job.

[mtaylor]

George,

 

I'm serious about critiques... part of having a log is for other sets of eyes who may see something the builder doesn't.  For example, back on page 45, Gianpiero caught something that I missed.  I knew the line needed shaping but there were other issues creating that problem. When I looked again, I found what caused the problem and it was where he pointed it out.  

 

I do appreciate all comments.

[GLakie]

Oh I know and understand all that Mark. I guess I was trying to point out my lack of enough knowledge about it to offer any kind of critique at all. 

 

Cheers

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up after being away, Mark.  Very nice indeed - as usual.

 

John

[popeye the sailor]

that's some very nice work Mark.

[pete48]

Nice work Mark, She's looking good

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[dgbot]

Nice smooth and clean. It is great looking.

David B

[BANYAN]

The planking is coming really nicely Mark.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Old Collingwood]

Port side aft bulwark planked...   I'm cleaning up the shop a bit and I'll start on the hull planking.

 

Critiques, laughing out loud, pretty much anything you want to say about it is allowed, as always.   

 

I do notice that there's a couple of place that need a touch more sanding, but those places are on hold until after the rest of the hull is planked.  Might as well get everything at once....

 

2-4p.JPG

Superb work mark

 

It so reminds me of some of the architect drawings i was fortunate to be shown when i spent a week with the RN down at Pompy, this plus a very extensive tour over Victory including some of her normaly closed off areas like the Keel lockers, and ballast keeps

 

It is a credit to yourself and some of the other dedicated history tellers - through their building of sutch beautiful peices of art, and the long standing commitment to achieve realism,  i feel honored to share my work here on the site

 

OC

[Omega1234]

Hi Mark

 

I wish I had something more intelligent to say about your Licorne, but the only words that come out are adjectives like: Wow, Brilliant, Beautiful, Fantastic and outstanding! Strange that. I wonder why?

 

Seriously, though. You've gotta really proud of what you've done.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[gjdale]

Okay Mark, here's my critique:

 

Sweet!

[cog]

Mark,

 

Smart to wait with sanding till your hull is planked. Laughin' would only show my ignorance, and so far I refrain from critique, as for now it would only show my incompetence ...

 

To me it looks very promising ,,,

[mtaylor]

Thank you for the "likes" and the comments.

 

I'm sorting out the planking plan.   I do want to install the garboard next as that's a odd-sized bit of timber and will provide a reference point.   So I'm kind of thinking the rest of this through on the fly...

 

I looked over the Hahn build pics and I'm not sure he's wrong or right.  There's some strakes the seem to go to a point.... 

 

From the black main wale down, 10 strakes of the wide planking.  I'll measure it off at the midpoint of the hull and run a batten.  These planks also decrease in thickness and I'll need to figure out how much and how fast the decrease needs to be.   There's also the question in my mind about a (for lack of a better word) transition area where the counter meets the transom timbers.  One plank comes into that area and appears to have a pretty sharp bend. 

 

From the garboard up.. measure from the midpoint of the hull and run probably one batten at the midpoint.  

 

The various ANCRE plans I've looked at and various French ships I've seen here on MSW and other places, show a diversity of techniques.. some us stealers and drop planks, others involve spiling.  I guess I won't know which is best until I get there....

[SJSoane]

 

Mark, it is looking very nice indeed!

 

Mark

[mobbsie]

Here's a critique for you Mark, superb mate, nice bit of planking.

 

Cant help you I'm afraid mate with the drop planks, spiling or stealers, a lot of it is all Greek to me.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[cog]

Mark,

 

Have been looking at some French sites a.o. the musee nationale maritime for your stealersd and drop planks, or spiling, but alas ... couldn't find a thing so far ...

[mtaylor]

Carl,

 

I'm putting the research away for now... I'll follow the ANCRE plans for the ways of planking and they look remarkably like the way Jim Roberts does them in his  book Planking the built up ship model.  Right now, I'm fiddling with the battens.  When I think they look right I'll post pictures and work from there.

[mtaylor]

After reading all the theories and "how-to's" where the rubber meets the road....  I'd like some feedback on my batten.  I'm planking from the wales down to the batten first.  The batten represents where the wide wale planks will end... or should end.

 

[Jim Lad]

The batten looks fine aft, Mark, but is there a slight upward kink just about where the red-headed pin is?

 

John

[mtaylor]

I think you're right, John.   Better now?

 

[Jim Lad]

It looks OK in that view, Mark.  Have you had a good look at it from ahead just to double check?

 

John

[mtaylor]

I moved it about a 1/16" (1.5mm) on that last pic.  I saw where it was a tad off....

[gjdale]

That looks pretty good to my eye Mark (though I've been known to be wrong before.........)

[shipmodel]

Hi Mark - 

 

Welcome to the wacky and wonderful world of spiling.  Although you can get lots of help from various books, and Jim Roberts' is one of the best, it is mostly a question of experience and eyeballing.  

 

One thing that Jim suggested when I was his pupil was to take strips of frosted tape and lay them flat on the hull till the area I was working on was completely covered.  Like the planks, the tape will sweep up toward the wale with the curve of the hull and cover previous tape runs.  This is a good thing.  It shows how much the planks want to bend so I could start to judge how many stealers/drop planks I might need.  Also, with the area completely taped I could line out the plank runs in pencil, making as many mistakes as I wanted without consequence.  After a while I developed a good sense of how the hull wanted to be planked, and could then much more accurately position my battens to guide the actual wood planks.

 

On the Licorne I have a feeling, and I could be wrong, that your first batten is too high (towards the keel) at the bow.  Judging by eye, the remaining area from the batten to the keel is not wide enough and your lower planks could be crowded and narrow,  The only way to be sure of this is to put in all of the battens that you want and then carefully examine them from dead ahead to see if they give you equal spacing.  A similar thing goes on at the stern.

 

Here is a drawing of what I mean.  It is from Jim's book, although I have removed his text for clarity.

 

 

Remember also that the garboard and first broad strake (the one next to the garboard) are wider than the rest of the planks, and your spiling/batten plan has to take this into account.

 

This was probably a longer response than you wanted, but I hope that it helps.

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

[kees de mol]

I have a lot  of respect for what you build. Very nice to follow this build.

[Jparsley]

Mark nice work can't wait to follow

[mobbsie]

Looks good to these old eyes mate.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie