There are a lot of things buzzing around in my head regarding Master Hands hull planking at the moment.
From studying E.J.M.'s Sailing Trawler book I have found Master Hand has 21 strakes of planking on each side of the keel.
The top 4 planks or sheer strakes are 6" wide and 3" thick, the bilge strakes are also 3" thick, at 1/16th scale and converting to millimeters, these measurements equate to 9.5mm x 4.8mm and 4.8mm respectively.
The 4 sheer planks carry their 6" width right to the bow and from amidships to the stern but having no evidence to the contrary I'm going to thin the width of these planks from 6" to 2 1/2" as they approach the edge of the first of the transverse transom planks to which their hood ends butt up against.
From my research, this is how this tight turn at the stern was negotiated.
The guard board plank and the 2nd plank will also carry their width all the way to the bow, what this does is lift the run of all subsequent planking up the stem giving them a nice upward sweep.
If this is not done the ends of the planks at the bow take on a downward sweep which looks just awful.
I will describe this procedure as we go along which will make things a little clearer
Once all these planks are in place port and starboard I can then mark off the width of the remaining 15 planks per side. This will be done by fitting strips of cardboard to the remaining exposed edge faces of each frame and dividing it by 15 to get the width of each plank at each station.
Things are not set in stone at this point as I will be looking for a nice sweep and run through to the plank seams from bow to stern and I will widen a plank here and narrow one there to achieve this.
I will be detailing each step of the planking process and how I approach it as we go along with lots of photos, the idea being to take some of the mystique out of planking a hull in a scale manner
But for now I have laid the first plank (how exciting!
) which is the lowest transverse transom plank. This measures 12" x 2 1/2" (19.05mm by 3.9mm at 1/16th scale).
Because I have so much framing to nail to in this area I had no problem fixing it in place using 1/2" steel dressmakers pins.
I use the soft variety as they bend if wrongly hit with the hammer rather than snapping off as when using hardened pins, which would be impossible to remove. I could of course use brass pins but its an expense I don't need and besides the real ships planks were held in place by galvanised steel bolts which were countersunk and the heads stopped with cement and varnish. So the odd rust streak on my models hull wont be out of place
To get my first plank to bend to that tight curve across the stern I boiled it alive in a shallow baking tray of water over the hobs on my stove for 15 minutes.
I was extremely hot when lifted out but very pliable
It was clamped at both ends with those cute little Rolson quick clamps of which I have quite a large heap (you can never have too many clamps of all sizes and shapes in my book!
)
As you can see it has taken up that nice sweet curve I worked so hard to create
I have nailed it down (no glue yet) at each of my horn frames by two pins in each and three pins in each of the quarter timbers and are more than enough to hold it in place.
In my keenness to avoid burning my fingers and in a rush to get the plank on before it decided it ought to be straight and not curved
I neglected to put pads under the heads of the pins!
The grand plan was to pin the plank in place till it set and then remove it and glue and pin it in place but in my excitement I nailed it flush!
so its going to be fun extracting the pins later with out damaging the plank surface!
We shall have to see
It went on soggy and hot but as it cooled down the plank dried out completely which surprised me
I will be making a steam box out of 3/8th plywood to which I will be attaching either a wall paper stripper or I could use a kettle element I rescued from an old leaking kettle and fix it into a big aluminium pan I have.
The lid of the pan is a loose fit so I shouldn't have any pressure problems and I will be fitting a hose near the top edge of the pan to carry steam to my steam box.
It's all some what of an experiment I have in mind if my request to borrow my Mums steam wall paper stripper doesn't go down too well!
I shall of course be chronicling the steam box adventure also
Each mirrored pair of hull planks will be cut, steamed and fitted to the hull simultaiously to ensure symmetry. When I cut the planks originally I left them slightly thicker than the scale 3.9mm, this will allow me room to scrape and sand the completed hull surface smooth and clean without reducing the scale plank thinckness.