Tag Archives: Bulkhead Measurements

Different Methods of Determining Tapering

In my efforts to learn about planking, I ended up learning about three or four methods and here’s what I found out.

I think that’s the worst thing that you could do is to go by planking your boat haphazardly. You really need to make a plan and think about what you’re doing before you begin the project.

The first method that I learned was from the book Ship Modeling Simplified.

To be honest, I really wasn’t a big fan of this method because what they require you to do was to bend your plank around the Hull and at the point where the plank above it was your point x and for you to taper the playing from that point on to the Bow at the point where that plank met it.

The next method is the one that I’m using now. This method requires you to use a batten that divides the Hull of the ship into two bands. The upper band and a lower band.

Then what you have to do is to calculate out how much taper you’re going to need by mathematically finding out how small the Plank needs to be in order for it to squeeze into a certain space.

First you have to find out how many planks are going to be all the biggest part of the bulkhead, then you determine how you’re going to be able to squeeze that many planks into a limited space like the first bulkhead.

Another method is by using proportional dividers. I kind of have a hard time with this one because the proportional divider didn’t go small enough for the scale the ship that I was using but I’ll save that for later scale model which is bigger.

Like I said, there are as many methods as there are Model Makers. But this is my method. I’m not into it for speed production. Slow and Steady…

“Steady as she goes…” 🤣🤭😲

Bulkhead Measurements

I took down all the measurements for the Bulkheads in order to calculate out my Taper measurements for the Bow and Stern portions of the Planks.

I found that by starting at the #6 Plank and at the #11 Bulkheads., I am able to get 2 even tapers which will eventually allow all the Planks to fit into the small space allowed in the 1st Bulkhead… Which is approximately 1/2 of the distance that the largest Bulkheads take. Which are the #6 – #11 Bulkheads.

I made this simply Spreadsheet so that I can keep it all straight. Although, a simple piece of paper would do the same thing. Also, I measured it using a standard Sewing Tape Measure which has Metric on it.

Basically, what I end up with is around 12 Planks with Tapers on the forward part at 2.5mm and at the after part at 4mm.

That’s for the Upper Band Portion. I have yet to calculate the Lower Band Portion yet. I’ll be using some Wedges for that one I imagine.