I went and messed up with the bending of the #3 Strake on the Starboard side.
I had to use that Strake on the Port side, so therefore I’m doubling up on the Starboard side Strakes 3 & 4.
All I can is to be careful with the bending and make sure you pencil mark each Strake with both the P & S, Forward Arrow, and the Up Arrow to avoid such mistakes. 😲🤔🙄
I’ll update more once I have #3 & #4 on on the Starboard side.
I bought this Plank Bending Jig from MicroMark. I had forgotten all about it to be honest! Anyway, I’m using it now and so far it looks like it’s working pretty good. I suppose you can just make your own but I bought it to fill out my orders to over $75 bucks for the Free shipping.
One thing that I found annoying though. MicroMark gave you just enough of these little Washers to fit the Spacers. Well… I promptly lost one of the Washers and without it, it won’t tighten hard enough. So now I have to hassle around with buying some more!
Here’s the 3rd Strake taking the bend.
So far, so good… Although I’m not really happy with the wood that Mamoli gave me in the kit… I guess the consolation is that this is only the inner Plank and an outer Walnut one will go over it.
Speaking of Wood… I wasn’t very impressed with the Wood for the Bulkhead either. This will probably be the last kit that I buy from this company.
Although their laser cut parts aren’t too bad. But their Instructions are very poor. This is definitely NOT a kit for a beginner!!!
I put a picture of the Strake that I’ve had in the Water for about an hour. Perhaps I’ll go a little less than that because it swelled up really good. It’s probably a good 1 – 1.5mm thicker than it should be!
I will have 12 Planks that will fit in the Upper Band.
Therefore, 12 5mm Planks have to fit in the space with only 26mm worth of space in Frame 1.
I know different people have different methods. Some may ask why I don’t just use a Plank Bender. I’m not a fan of how a Plank Bender breaks the wood in order to simulate “bending”. I enjoy making the wood take the bends as natural to the wood as I can possibly get it.
Hmmm… Just noticed this little error…
I’m trying to avoid using Pins as much possible… Although the possibility still exists where I may need to resort to using them.
I did order some Planking Clamps for MicroMark but it’s on back order so I doubt it will get here on time for this project.
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…” 🤣🤭😲
I am starting the Planking with the Sheer Strake. This Plank will not have anything taken off at the ends and will go all the way across as is.
I’m doing the same with Port Side…
I wet this 1.5mm x 3mm Walnut Plank for about an hour so that I can try and bend it around the bow for a bit to take the bend.
While I was bending it, I noticed that the Walnut tended to break. I suppose that I could have accomplished the same thing without forming it first with water.
I ended up with trying to use some Titebond on the break. We don’t think it will break any further.
I’m literally holding it with my finger waiting for it to grab.
I’m leaving a bit of a lip on it where the Gun Ports will go.
I almost had a potential disaster when this Walnut Plank broke. I filled the crack with some glue while I hold it. Basically performing Wood first-aid.
This Walnut strip runs along the Gun Ports. I don’t know what it’s called.
I was just taking note of how many spare Planks this kit provided for.
So far, on the inside Hull Planks, I’m left with 9 extra Planks. These are the 1.5mm x 5mm x 55cm ones.
On the Deck Planks .6mm x 3mm x 40cm ones, I’m left with 5 spares. So plenty there.
Began working on the Transom. I think I may have miscalculated a bit… Anyway I’m gluing these blocks in so I have somewhere to put my Pins for Vising.
This layer is the first one to have a rather severe twist on the Stern.
I don’t worry too much about getting the Bow part flush in the bending stage. I’ll get it all lined up correctly after taking the pressure off while the wood retains the bend I gave it.
Got the bend in the Plank.
Letting the glue set with the pressure off so that it aligns up.
In the process of trying to bend the Stern, I managed to break it. Which is okay. I Superglued it back into place. If it doesn’t hold, I’ll simply make a new one.
I was looking at this Plank after the Soak for around 3 hours. It swelled about 1 Millimeter wider.
Trying my best to get there Stern lined up. There are no clear pictures in any of the Instructions about how to go about making The Planks go into the Stern so I’m just winding it for the time being.
Here I’m just inspecting the line. The Stern concerns me a bit. Also, I left these gaps… which don’t worry me too much.