Model Ship Builder

3rd February 2010

Time to fit some planks.

This model is double planked. I can’t fault Krick’s instructions here. They say “Our model is double skinned. Double skinned means double the work”.

There’s honesty for you!

The hull is divided into three separate bands: there’s the main hull which is fairly conventional  and the bulwarks which, in themselves, are also conventional. However, because this is a paddle steamer, the deck extends out beyond the full width of the hull for about 1/3 of the width of the paddle boxes. This means that there is a transition band of planking between the hull and the bulwarks.

The instructions call for the main hull to be planked first, then the transition section and finally the bulwarks. With just a little persuasion at the stern, the first plank could be run along the top of the hull section.

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The next planks were straightforward but the natural lie was starting to diverge more strongly at the stern so the first stealer was required.

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The keel is 5mm plywood and is eventually to be planked with the same wood as the second planking. The rudder is also 5mm thick and is to be planked in the same way. That means I have to end up with a 5mm thick keel after I’ve completed the first planking. That’s not a problem where the planking curves in to the stern, but a rebate is required further down where it lays flat against the keel.

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I think this ship has been over indulging on junk food. The line of pins in the following picture shows the natural lie of a plank in the middle of the remaining area, so some extra planks are required to make things fit around the waist.

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I’m going to need a few of these:

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As you can see, the calculations came out right eventually!

I’ll taper the planks at the bow a little earlier on the second planking. Although everything fitted there, the middle planks should curve more towards the deck as they reach the stem.

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Onwards and upwards.

13th March 2010

Planking the section between the hull and the bulwarks was relatively straightforward. As it approaches the bow, this section twists to line up with both the hull planking and the bulwarks. For the majority of its length the bulwark planking overlaps the edge of this planking. I planed off the edge of this planking so that the bulwark planking would sit flat along it. However, because of the twist at the bow they lie edge to edge at this point so I cut back the top edge of the planking to allow the bulwark planking to sit against it here, rather than overlapping it.

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Although it’s turned out OK, that was the wrong order of doing things. I should have cut the rebate at the bow first as it’s then easy to see where to stop bevelling the planking. I ended up with a very thin plank just at the point where it changes from overlapping to meeting edge to edge.

From that point on it was very easy. I measured down from the top of the frames and found I could just nicely fit 5 planks along the bulwarks.

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This is what it looked like after a bit of scraping and sanding:

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I think Krick have got the shape of bulkhead 8 slightly wrong. It lined up perfectly at deck level, down the sides and for the majority of the bottom but just adjacent to the keel there is a noticeable dip. (At least it was noticeable at this stage, I didn’t notice it earlier).

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I’m not a great fan of wood filler but this seemed to be one of those times when it has its uses.

(I’ve since added some filler further forward over bulkhead 6).

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Now that it’s looking respectable, it’s time to try again and cover up everything I’ve done so far!

3rd April 2010

Although the first planking had turned out quite well, I thought I could improve the line of the second planks, particularly towards the bow. The hull has a somewhat unusual profile. It is more or less ‘V’ shaped at the bow and also approaching the stern, but has a broad, rounded profile in the section between the paddle wheels, no doubt to accommodate the machinery. This led me to insert a number of filler planks in this area and I thought I could avoid the need for these if I started tapering planks at an early stage.

The first two planks along the keel and the two upper planks were straight forward. The line of the two upper planks did take them away from edge of the transition planking at the stern though, so a couple of stealers were required there.

With these first planks in place, it was possible to pin some temporary planks in place to see where they wanted to run.

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Although it doesn’t look it in the picture, the plank under the white pins is parallel with the keel planking for virtually the full length between those pins. Previously, that plank was fitted under the lower red and blue pins and if you look carefully, you will see the pencil lines on the hull showing where that plank ran.

The next picture shows how the planks ran at the bow. I actually had to fit a stealer in to get the planks to turn up the stem. After that, the planks ran very neatly and are tapered to 60% of their full width.

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This is the corresponding picture at the stern. There are a couple of stealers in the section near the keel.

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Although I could have got away without using filler planks, the natural lie of the planks led me to compromise and fit just one. This is how it looked at this stage.

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This picture is very deceptive. What looks to be the narrowest band of planking, adjacent to the keel between the paddle wheels, is actually the widest.

I had one problem area to deal with. For most of its length, the gap still to be planked required a couple of planks of the same widths as those around them. The problem area was at the point where these two planks approached the stern, one curved towards the stern post and one curved towards the transom and a short stealer was going to be necessary.

This picture shows the area in question:

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And as they say in all the TV programmes, here’s one I prepared earlier:

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The upper sections of planking should be relatively straightforward although I’ll be a little more careful just where the bulwarks approach the bow.

I think it should clean up very nicely.

12th April 2010

Completion of the second planking went quite smoothly. It would have been nice to start the bulwark planking at the top and work downwards but I thought that might make it difficult to get the bottom plank to fit accurately against the existing planking. Instead, I measured down from the top of the bulwarks and marked out where the bottom plank should be. I then cut back the hull planking at the bow to the line I’d marked. The planks only lie side by side for a short distance from the bow, as they run back they lap over the edge of the lower planks.

This is what the planking looked like at this stage:

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If you look at the planking near where the paddle wheels fit, you can see two black spots. There are two beams that fit in the hull to support the paddle boxes and the two spots are where I notched the planks so that I could locate the holes for these beams.

The following picture of the planking at the stern shows how the bulwark planking overlaps the lower planking for the majority of its length.

The planking at the stern post needs to be cut back to match the keel, but I’m going to leave that until later.

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This next picture shows the hull after cleaning it up. I use a scraper in preference to sand paper. The holes for the support beams have been opened out to the correct sizes.

As with the stern post, the planking on the stem is still to be cut back, but to a lesser extent.

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The final picture shows the hull from the stern.

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There are quite a few bits to stick on the hull yet so I won’t be applying any form of finish at this stage.

23rd April 2010

Now that I’ve completed the second planking, the next job is to cut holes in it!

There are two pairs of doors in the bulwarks on either side of the deck. These are represented by two 8mm wide strips of mahogany set vertically on the inside and outside of the bulwarks for each pair of doors. I added a frame by using a 1mm square tanganyika strip around the cut out. I cut the second planking away using a razor saw and then trimmed the edges with a knife where necessary. (I cut the first ones slightly undersize to start with but I then found I could cut them accurately to the correct size with the saw).

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The next picture shows the first two pairs of ‘doors’ in place. There are 8 pairs in total.

I bevelled the edges of the two 8mm walnut strips to emphasise the division.

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The next stage, fitting the paddle boxes will require far more drastic surgery on the hull, but first I need to construct the boxes themselves.

The four plywood pieces that form the inner and outer sides of the paddle boxes weren’t exactly the same size so I clamped them all together then sanded and scraped them to make them match. The discrepancies weren’t massive, but I’ve since noticed the same thing on other parts.

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Next job was to plank the side panels. The outer side pieces have cut outs in them. This seems to be a common feature on all paddle boxes and I assume it’s to let air out and relieve pressure if the ship rolls and the bottom of the paddle box becomes submerged. The cut out section is planked by using two short planks at the ends, then a full length plank, then two more short planks etc. to produce a grill effect. I kept the crescent shaped waste plywood pieces and put them back in place while I cleaned up this planking.

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The instructions say that you should cut two 48mm wide blocks to hold the two sides apart and then plank between them. The picture shows the paddle box laid on it’s side and a set square used to line things up.

Instead, I cut three 48mm plywood spacers and resorted to the Lego drawer.

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The wood used for planking these didn’t have the nice square edges that the hull planking material had, but only required a light sanding (it needed a slight bevel anyway) to clean things up.

There are two doors to fit on the inner sides of the boxes, but these fit on the surface so I’ll fit them later.

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Now it’s time to cross fingers – and toes – measure twice, then measure twice more and finally get brutal.

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Well, that’s made a bit of a mess of the bulwarks, but yes, the paddle boxes do fit.