I am around 3/4 of the way done with the Hull Planking…






I had to soak and pre-bend this Plank going to the Stern.
I am around 3/4 of the way done with the Hull Planking…
I had to soak and pre-bend this Plank going to the Stern.
I’m slowly working my way up. ..
On the Stern, I calculated that I need to taper the 5mm Planks down to 3.88mm in order for all of them to fit.
I’m slowly working my way around to the turn of the waist.
Yeah. .. Notice the sharp bend on the last Bulkhead to the Transom. It’s very steep.
I find that I have to Soak the wood first for the Stern section. So… I’m doing it by eye so I may end up making some Fillers .. 🙄
I’m thinking to myself that maybe I should start planning more??? 🤔🙄😲
I just finished Planking the Forecastle Deck. I call these the side jobs while I wait for glue to dry on the other aspects of the build.
I use Titebond Translucent Wood Glue for the rest.
Like I mentioned before, I use Dap Contact Cement for the Bow Section. I swear it’s a miracle Glue! Holds really strong!
Then for the rest, I use Titebond Translucent Glue. I love this Glue! Very strong holding once set.
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 starting the Planking on the Starboard side while the glue on the Braces dry on Port side.
Next time I’m going to work on installing the gun ports that is on the Gun deck.
This necessitates measuring because I need to make some supports that is going to support the Gunports along the decks.
I’ve been thinking about these Gunports a lot lately while I finish up the Cannons. I ended up finding four more Gun carriages to make on another Laser Cut Strip.
Anyway, I’ve been experimenting around with different types of braces and I think that cutting these 5 mm x 5 mm Basswood stock I had l laying around is going to do the trick. I figure if I run out of that stock I have some to 2mm x 5mm I can use as well.
The big problem I’ve been having is cutting this miter cut of 20°. Each brace is about 20 mm long with a 20 degree angle cut. Well, not all that big of a deal it’s just I ended up experimenting around with different pieces but that’s just normal.
I decided to begin at the Stern and work my way forward because the last Gunport sort of leans against one of the last bulkhead frames. So I’ll just use that as a baseline to measure the rest of the Gunports off of.
There’s another dilemma that I’m facing as well. It’s because the upper bulwark where the gun deck is has a bit of a concave curve to it. So now I’m going to have to install these braces without the gun ports and to sand them down to the same concave nature as the rest of the bulkheads.
I’m I’m riding all this right now while I’m out walking my dog so that’s why there’s no pictures. 🤣😲🤭
The Transom took these .5mm x 3mm Walnut Planks.
It kind of came out uneven so I had to make a Filler sliver. Then while the White Glue was still wet, I rubbed across it with the 120 Grit, just enough to generate a few Walnut Sawdust to act as Putty. Now the descrepancy is barely visible.
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!