I’m down to Planking the Hull portion now.
After I finish planking 3 Rows of the Sapelle Wood Planks with no tapering, I will begin the tapered upper section planks that are above the Battens which I haven’t figured out yet.
I was just going over everything with my 320 Grit Sandpaper and feeling for any irregularities to smooth down.
One thing that I’ve found over the years is that you shouldn’t be overly enthusiastic about sanding. You can easily over sand… Which is what happened on the Port side Forecastle Bollard, in which I sanded to thin paper!!!… Ugh Ugh and more Ugh!!!
So, what I had to do was to add another piece of Planking over it and Clamp it down in order to repair it…
I then Puttied and sanded it down to where it looks like this…
Looks pretty good.
Then, I’ve gone through and sanded the entire Hull until smooth… Repairing little bits here and there.
I’ve often found that you need to take your time and really wait and feel around to make sure everything is right…
This was a hard lesson I learned recently with the distancing of the Gun Ports.
Well, the only thing I can do is to keep going. I was even thinking to myself that perhaps this little mistake will make me even bolder and more adventurous.
Perhaps it will?!!!… Who knows? 🤔🤭🤣
I’m at the point where I’m making these Fillers to cover the last of the holes around the turn of the Bilge.
These Cheaters are a real pain. I didn’t make them in the classical sense but it still does the job.
Got this Filler in…
I consider these Fillers similar to Cover-Up Make-up. It is an imperfection that will be all but invisible.
I must say… Making Fillers are probably one of the most relaxing actions. ,🤣😲🤭
I was just thinking to myself that I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out and needing only one or two fillers in the middle. I’ve seen guys that had nothing but filler after filler on their ships because they didn’t do their planking right. I should know because I was one of them!
This is the last Strake from the Keel that goes all the way forward.
I’m kind of ashamed to say that I had to resort to using the Plank Bender. I suppose it has its uses… Although I just don’t like the idea of breaking the Plank. But… I couldn’t do it any other way.
Well… This is the situation that I was trying to avoid… Making these odd looking Filler Planks. Oh well. It is only the 1st Layer.
Nature of the beast I suppose with Planking. A lot of times you just don’t know where you’ll end up.
It looks like the Starboard side is going to be closed up a bit better than the Port. Although I will still be stuck making these funky odd-shaped Filler Planks. At least the lines look good for the most part.
I ended up going up and over on the Starboard side… I figured the Filler Planks would fit more easily on this side like this.
I decided to just go with 2 Strakes going all the way forward instead of 3. In order to get 3 in there, I would have had to make them too thin. So I’m just using 2 and I’m going to just use filler Planks for the rest.
I feel a bit of a failure because my intention was to have all the Planks reach the Bow and for them to all go to the Stern. I suppose experience is the only cure for this miscalculation… I’ll just know better next time.
But… I must say that all in all, I’m quite happy with what came out, filler and all.
This one was a bit awkward… I ended up holding it with my finger whole watching NCIS for about 30 minutes. I tried Superglue but I ended up making a mess of it so had to wait until the Titebond II set.
I’m having a bit of a problematic area on the bottom. It’s always someplace that is risky that way.
I had to bring the #6 Plank across where the Gap is and make for 2 Wedges I need to make for these Gaps. Oh well… What are you going to do eh?
I keep thinking to myself what I could have done differently to avoid this… But looking at it, I don’t see where I could have done anything else? Hmmm… I’m sure a more experienced model maker could tell me, but right now? I have no idea. 🤔
On the Starboard side, I decided to extend the Plank out and sling a Rubber Band across it instead of holding it with my fingers! LOL!!! 🤭😲🤣
I mean… Looking at it?… It’s not horrible.
This one was a twisty one… Which is typical for this stage of the game.
I’m doing the entire lower band without pre-bending the Planks or using a Plank Bender.
I was just noticing something going on between Bulkheads numbers 13 – 15. They ended up narrowing this space up to where I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.
I’ll tell you what… This Plank, the 5th one up on the Starboard side was probably the hardest one yet… It when through some contortions because I refuse to break the wood with a Plank Bender. I’m thinking that I’m going to need it though on the next one..
Hmmm
I calculated that I need to taper this Plank down to 3mm to be able for 8 Planks into the space of Bulkhead 1.
I was just taking measurements and I calculated that I need to make 5 more Planks with all of them going down to a 3mm taper at the Bow.
They’re going in good, but they’re starting to take a lot of twisting to go in… But not unreasonably so.
Starting this one with some Superglue interspersed with Titebond II with the pressure off…
It is true what they say about Garboard planks. That it’s the toughest Plank to be able install. It does go through some rather radical twisting… Around 90° worth from Bow to Stern.
Here I’m gluing the forward part in before I do the rest of the twisting.
One of the main things about Garboard Planks is that you don’t want to let it come up the Bow. This is so you don’t get Plank crowding as you progress up the Bow with the rest of the Planks on the lower band.
The lip of the Plank comes over the Kelson, where the Keel will be glued.
The Keel acts like a Rabbet groove. If it wasn’t like this or had a false Keel, I would have carved some Rabbet grooved along it but it wasn’t necessary with this ship.
Also I’m keeping the overhang on the front of the Garboard Plank… just to have someplace to be able to clamp on to.
Looking at the forward part of it… I’m kind of cursing myself right now for now thinning it out a bit, and to have cut a Rabbet into it. Oh well… I’ll remember to do it next time. It’s too late. The clue on Starboard side is already set and it would be a big messy pain in the ass to take it apart and redo it.