Planking the Hull (1st Layer) - Part 2

With the 1st band of hull planks in place, it's time to start planking the rest of the hull.  In my previous ships (and that initial layer), I always just did this 1 strip at a time, measuring and trimming each plank as I went.  But for the rest of the hull I'm going to follow some of the guidelines on the web (including one by Chuck Passro, the guy who designed this model) about planking a ship.

This is going to be a much more detail-oriented process than I'm used to, so I'll see how it goes with the next band.

To start, I know I will have 3 more bands, so I need to figure out how many planks need to be in each band.  Measuring from the bottom of the 1st band to the bottom of the ship, it is 67mm at the middle bulkhead (it is the same on both sides).  Each strip of wood is 3.2 mm wide (more like 3.3 mm with the gap between them), so to cover the rest of the hull requires 19 planks plus the garboard plank (a wider plank that goes at the very bottom of the ship).  Divided by 3 bands, that is 6 for 2 of the bands and 7 for the one with the garboard plank.

Next, I marked the width of each band on a tick strip (aka a plain piece of paper...) and then transferred those marks to the middle bulkhead of the model.  Using those marks as a starting point, I taped a piece of thread to the middle bulkhead, and then positioned the other ends of the thread at both the bow and the stern of the ship until I was satisfied with the overall curve of the band; I taped both ends.

 

 

 

 

I repeated this step for the other band on one side, then repeated the process for the other side of the ship, making sure the bow and stern end points matched.  Once done, this will enable me to get the width of each band at every bulkhead.

Now that I have the width of each band, I calculated how wide each strip would need to be at each bulkhead in order to maintain the curve.  For example, the planks for the top band (below the one I already did) are mostly the full width of each strip except at the stern they each need to taper to 95% of their width for the last 43 mm and at the bow they need to taper to 80% of their width for the last 77mm, plus they need to be "spiled" (another new technique for me - bending the strips along the edges instead of the width) to get the curve for the bow...

To practice spiling, I used the template which came with the kit and glued it to a scrap piece of wood.  Then I soaked 3 short pieces of wood for about 10 minutes before gently bending them around the template and locking them in place using 2 small pieces of scrap planking as "stops" (the stops and template together are a "jig").  Once they've had a chance to dry, I'll see if the spiling will make a difference.

The empty jig:

 

With the 3 strips inserted:

 

 

After leaving the pieces in the jig overnight, I took them out and they retained their curved shape.  After a quick test fit on the hull, it looks like it will worth, with the planks running smoother together than the earlier ones which were not spiled.  Of course, I probably should have tapered the strips before putting them in the jig, but I should be able to do that with the spiled planks; I'll just need to make sure they still fit neatly together.

The final strips after drying overnight:

While the spiling did seem to work, it is time consuming as the wood needs to remain in the jig long enough to fully dry (e.g., overnight), otherwise they won't retain the correct curve, plus the jig can only do 3 at a time and I'll need probably 30 of them to do both sides of the hull (I won't need to do all of the strips in the bottom band).  If I try to make it hold more by moving the stops, there might not be enough pressure to hold the centre pieces tightly in place.

I could use the 3 pieces I just made and create more jigs, which would allow me to do 12 at a time, but before I do that I am going to try to manually create the required curve with the electric plank bender.  If that works, it would probably be better as I could make them as needed.

Another option is to make the curve by actually cutting the planks to the required shape, but I'd need wider planks to obtain the correct curves, which the kit doesn't have.  I could glue 2 pieces together and get the curve that way, but I'm not sure if the kit includes enough spare wood for that, plus I'm not sure how the wider planks would affect the overall planking.

Okay, so the electric plank bender worked, and of the 12 strips I curved that way, only 2 of them cracked while making the bend (they didn't break so I could still use them).  As you can see, these spiled planks fit together smoother than the first band I did - it's still not perfect, but compared to my previous models it's a significant improvement!  Plus I still need to sand (and use wood filler in some places...) everything smooth before this 1st layer is complete.

 

The 2nd band completed on the starboard side of the ship:

 

 

 

At the bow (looks crappy... I'll need to use some slivers of wood to make the planks line up with the keel):

 

 

I did better on the port side - it'll be easier to cut the ends then to try to extend them:

 

 

 

 

Both bands fully in place:

 

 

The stern (obviously I still need to trim the wood so the ends are flush with the boat's stern):

 

Bottom view showing what is left to plank.  This will be made of 2 more bands, and I will start from the bottom (the band with the garboard plank).