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[Geoff]

As an alternative suggestion if you make up a jig so you can put about 6 to 8 planks on edge. Run some electricians black plastic tape on the edges and press it down. Remove from the jig and turn the planks over and use a sharp blade to cut each one away, it only takes a couple of seconds. You then end up with long planks with a self adhesive black strip on one side which is very thin and uniform. I tend to use a graphite pencil to do the butt joints as in practice they really don't show up too much.


Once the planking is done you can use a Stanley knife as a cabinet scraper at about 75 degrees and smooth it all down and you can get the whole to feel like silk. The plastic caulking scrapes away easily enough and of course its black all the way through and doesn't stain the planks. I use tape from Wickes as the tapes are different thicknesses and Wickes is the thinnest.


Good luck with your model and keep up the excellent work.


Cheers


Geoff

[SteamboatPhil]

Sailmakers black thread works well, a light sanding after works well, remember even on full size sailing vessels they poured tar (which we are trying to recreate) it was never perfect or indeed straight


Just a thought

[JimG]

Sailmakers black thread works well, a light sanding after works well, remember even on full size sailing vessels they poured tar (which we are trying to recreate) it was never perfect or indeed straight


Just a thought

If you actually look at a planked deck the caulking tar is straight and level with the planking. After paying the seam the tar was allowed to harden then a scraper used to take it down to the level of the wood. There are several videos on You Tube from a Norwegian boatyard restoring historic ships showing this method. The only ship I have seen with tar proud of the planks was the replica Golden Hind at Brixton harbour many years ago. Thick tar seams and excess tar was all over the deck planking making it look dirty and poorly kept. Also the deck on the Victory was scrubbed daily with holystones, sandstone blocks the size of prayer books so the tar line would be flush.
Jim

[SailorGreg]

Hi Wallace, your build is coming along very nicely.  As your first attempt it is a credit to you.

On the tricky issue of the caulking, you might want to consider that at the scale you are building, a 1/2" wide seam will be 0.007" wide.  That is really too small to model accurately and the best anyone can hope for is a representative deck that gives the same effect as viewing the full size ship.  Your thread is neatly done but does rather shout at you.  For your main deck you might want to consider that "less is more" - take a look at photos of the deck of Victory.  Even from fairly close to, the caulking is a thin line -



Viewed from the top of the mast (which is how models are normally viewed) the line becomes almost invisible.  But only you can decide what works on your ship, and I am sure you will build it into a lovely model.

Greg

[wallace]

    Many thanks to you all for the wonderful comments on the build I'm still hard at work on the model onto the main deck for planking and what I have done has taken over four hours and I have given myself 9/10 its alot better than my lower deck will be posting photo's very soon.
Just to let you know I have been on the Victory  in Portsmouth a few times while I was in Portsmouth in my Navy days 1961-1973  and 5 wonderful years on the Royal Yacht  which had wooden decks all over  which had to be washed every-day they were the days.

[Footski]

Looking forward to seeing the photos.
You have had a very interesting life Wallace. Working on the Britrania must have been incredible..

[wallace]

The last photo of the lower deck.

[wallace]

the photo's are about the main deck with at one end the frame of the cabins.

[wallace]

As you can see the main deck has been pin down and all looking square ,the mast are only fitted to test that they do fit as you can see Yes they do I put in around 10 pins  and marked the deck ready for planking.

[wallace]

these next photos of the build is the start of the planking I have marked out from the right 3.3cm  -- then 6.6cm -- then 10cm the reason is to form a patten for the black cord so you start at the above the centre line with length 10cm glue then another 10cm along the line, place the black cord going down then plank 6.6cm then 10cm  black cord down fill the end cut out the hole and squares  very carefully, third row down is starting 3.3cm then 10cm not forgetting the black cord down in the middle of the joins  carefully cut the holes etc after the planks have set, what I have done so far on the main one end has taken me just over 5 hours  and you can see the patten  the 5 hours has been over three days, so far with the planking I am very pleased with myself alot better than the lower deck I'm just taking my time so many more hours to go .

[wallace]

More on the planking taken so many hours to do and its a job you cannot rush, have enjoyed it and I'm getting better.

[Footski]

Coming along very nicely....

[wallace]

Getting close to the end of planking.

[Footski]

Looking good..

[wallace]

End of planking alot of hours doing the decks but I'm so happy with the outcome because it was my first time doing it and I really enjoyed doing it  alot of days  and alot of Hours.

[wallace]

Update on the build of Victory, so far to date its been 14 wks of my  build of HMS VICTORY with planking my first time with planking.
  So the start of the build many weeks ago was starting with,
   
   The un-boxing and marking all the wooden parts ( I only cut out the part that I need to build that day)
   Building the Skeleton
   Planking the lower deck
   Planking the main deck
   Building some cabins
   Planking the the upper deck
   Fill and seal the planking on all decks with sealant
   Sand down and Matt varnish all decks
   Preparing the Bow parts ready to fit
   Plank the bow deck seal and varnish
   Fit the parts onto the bow  and paint the back part blue  as later it will to hard to paint
   Placing and making sure they fit cut to fit
   Place the first Bulwark into place and hold with pins use super glue and white wood glue to fit and hold with pins let it dry for 24 hrs.