San Francisco II by Frank - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:90

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

I'm reposting some of the photos that I've archived from the original log. Being a novice I did a considerable amount of reading and made too many mistakes to count. Lacking experience and being a perfectionist was rough and knowing when "good enough" was "good enough" is probably the most important thing I learned, other than not to repeat the mistakes, of course!

 

So here goes, from the beginning, yet another San Francisco II build log.

 

 

If I were to do this again, I would probably add filler all the way to frame 2. Being so blunt nosed it was difficult to give a consistent gentle curve to the planks from frames 2 to 0 afterwards. There are some annoying flat spots that can't be sanded out after planking.

[Mike Y]

Wow, the nose filler looks really good!

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

First attempt at planking the deck. I wasn't happy with the caulking, too crude and uneven, and a few other things. This would soon be the least of my problems though. I did know enough to stagger the planks.

 

 

An excellent reference to the topic of deck planking and the one I used is "Deck Planking by Ulises Victoria, 2008":

 

http://modelshipbuilder.com/e107_images/custom/conversionfiles/Deck_PlankingII.pdf

Edited April 23, 2014 by Frank M

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Now the fun begins. Step 7 "go ahead and plank the hull".  The hull is single planked with extremely brittle and thick strips of 2mm x 5mm Mahogany/Sapelly which were a real b***h to try and bend.

 

 

Wasn't really happy about the deck planking. Need to think about that so lets move on and practice bending a few of these mahagony planks for the hull just for fun and a relaxing change of pace.

 

 

Steam usually works.

 

 

Okay next... paint stripper... maybe blow torch....

 

 

Do not release the vice grips or....

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Back to the deck... The holes on the deck planking were too inconsistent so I made a little jig to get them uniformly spaced. 

 

 

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Back to the planking.

 

 

Even the experts were astonished at the amount of warping. The planks were brittle for a reason, they were extremely dry. The moisture in the glue created all kinds of funky effects, but not what I was looking for.

 

 

Okay, must humidify wood. I used a closed storage bin with a damp towel to keep the wood at the right humidity.

 

Strip off planks and start again....

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Moving right along... lets try again.... something different maybe...

 

New planks, tanganyika for the deck planking.

 

 

 

 

[edmay]

Frank, new planking is looking real good,what was the age of the original planking,and was it keep in a to warm environment,Edwin

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Impossible to tell the age. I had received the kit only a month or so before. However, it could have sat on a shelf in the boiler room of some warehouse for ages though.

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Finally finished the deck planking. I used mahogany wood filler for the plank caulking and to fill in the holes. After it dried I used a scraper to scrape and smooth out the planks. Finished off with a coat of tung oil. I originally tried to smooth everything out with #0000 steel wool but it made a mess with little bits of steel wool caught on every nook and cranny. Cleaned that up and and finished with 800 grit sandpaper. Recoated with more tung oil. Thoroughly wiped off the excess.

 

Threw out all the original planks. Time to order more for the hull....

 

 

Some artistic liberty was used here for aesthetic reasons. Most decks would have been sun bleached and scrubbed white. If you're after an authentic look, ideally use holly instead of tanganyika. But what the heck.... in my world.... 

 

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

More deck work...

 

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Moving right along...

 

 

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Its too bad I don't have the text that accompanied the original log. There were quite a few problems with getting everything to line up. Much fudging and eyeballing happened here.

 

 

 

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Can't put this off any longer. Time to start on the hull planking.

 

Trying out a technique to get fair plank lines by dividing the hull into sections and using thread to mark out the sections. Nice in theory but for this particular model it just didn't work out for me. The very blunt nose of the ship and my inexperience, undoubtedly, caused all kinds of grief.

 

Edited April 22, 2014 by Frank M

[Sailor1234567890]

Don't chalk it all up to inexperience. Often times, the shape of the hull simply won't allow the thread to sit fair because the curve of the hull is such that a fair line doesn't translate to a straight line on the hull. If you get my meaning.

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

After much mucking around I decided to plank the hull as one large segment. This, I figured, would minimize the need for stealers. My first attempts using 5 segments resulted in something that looked like an amateur attempt at basket weaving.

 

I tried to follow two rules religiously that 1) no plank could exceed 5mm in width, except for the garboard plank. And 2) no plank could be narrower than 2mm in width. This led to a very interesting layout. Probably totally impractical to do in real life but actually worked out. Once again in my world.....

 

I used David Antscherl's "A Primer on Planking" Parts I and II in Warships to Workboats Volume III Number 1, as a guide. Chuck Passaro also has some excellent tips in the instruction manual "Modeling The Mayflower 1620", a very similar blunt nosed vessel.

 

http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php

 

 

I first tried to use proportional dividers to calculate the number of planks and their width at each frame but found them inaccurate at this small scale. David Antscherl had another method which I found much easier and more accurate.

 

 

I then transferred the spacing to each frame. 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2014 by Frank M

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

The infamous Garboard plank was next. In hindsight I made it too wide. Started planking from the keel up.

 

 

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Finally where I left off after much spiling. I replaced the original mahogany with basswood and limewood. I originally was going to double plank it. After all the work that went into it it seems like a shame to cover it up so I might first try staining to match the mahogany.

 

 

 

 

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Because of the compound curve at the bow it takes several passes of spiling to get closer and closer to the shape of the actual plank. I learned this the hard way after many wasted hours and producing lots of swizzle sticks.

 

The planks are cut out of a flat sheet of basswood.

 

 

Finished plank fitted to hull. It still needs to be sanded and trimmed to the right width.

 

 

Plank sanded and trimmed. Still trying to consistently avoid having those glue lines. Hopefully they won't be noticeable when the hull is stained.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2014 by Frank M

[edmay]

Hello Frank,I feel your a little hard on yourself,the new deck is looking superb ,very neat and you've made a great start on the planking,and your not the only person who has trouble using proportional dividers,it takes practice,will follow a fellow Canadian,nice to meet you,Edwin,

[frank.maselli@gmail.com]

Hi Edwin, Thanks for the kind words of encouragement! When I first started this build I knew virtually nothing about what I was getting into. I decided to read and learn as much as I could about different ways of doing things and trying them out. Some techniques worked out better than others. As they say practice makes perfect. I'm using the build as a learning exercise so its probably taking me 10 times longer than my normal plodding self. I'll try to include and share any links or references to material that I found really useful. It may help other newbies who are just starting out.

 

The last batch of posts were kind of a fast forward through my old log. I'll try to flesh it out a bit more if I can remember the related discussions. I still have a pile of old pics archived that I'll sort through to see if there's anything more that I can add. I'm afraid from here on in things are going to slow down considerably. Spiling is a long slow process and I still have a wee bit to go....

 

Hows that saying go... "The wood is patient...."

 

Nice to meet you Edwin.

 

Cheers,

Frank.