Planking a wooden ship model hull
A hull is narrower at bow and stern than amidships, and that difference has to go somewhere. Do nothing about it and the strakes run crooked and you get the clinker effect everyone warns about. The answer is tapering, and where that is not enough, a drop plank or a stealer. This page shows how that was handled for each part of the hull, including the times it had to be redone.
How-tos
7 steps
Marking out and cutting the gunports
5 steps Painting with Admiralty paints in thin coats
6 steps Closing tiny gaps with sanding dust and thinned PVA
9 steps Making a drop plank with masking tape as a template
5 steps Dividing the hull into belts and tapering per belt
7 steps Fitting the wale and black strake
5 steps Painting with Admiralty paints in thin coats
6 steps Closing tiny gaps with sanding dust and thinned PVA
9 steps Making a drop plank with masking tape as a template
5 steps Dividing the hull into belts and tapering per belt
7 steps Fitting the wale and black strake
Problems you run into here
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Gunports Marking out the gunports at 30 and 31 mm spacing went wrong at bulkhead 5. | Measured at 1.2 inch (30.48 mm); fudged half a millimetre here and there. in the register |
| Gunports While sanding the ports the sandpaper occasionally touched the deck, leaving ugly marks. | Stick masking tape on the deck before sanding the ports. in the register |
| Gunports Aft, the upper deck sits up to 4 mm too high relative to the ports; with the port linings in, the gun amidships no longer fits in the port. | The gun turned out to fit when turned round (the hole is off-centre); set the axletrees deeper into the carriage so it drops 1.5 mm; the top of the barrel at half the port height is right. in the register |
| Inner bulwark The Admiralty red ochre looks much browner in reality than in photos of other models; Eduard is colour-blind. | The colour is correct; apply two or more thin coats, the first coat does not cover. in the register |
| Second planking Here and there very small gaps between the planks of the second planking. | Sanding dust plus PVA thinned with water in the seams (Henk van Luinen's trick); it really works well. in the register |
| Second planking Despite early tapering and drop planks, a clinker effect remains and strips have to be forced into place. | Prepared a drop plank on the English system, left the adjacent plank wider and divided the hull into three belts with battens. in the register |
| Wale The black strake should be half as thick as the rest of the wale, but the kit supplies 0.5 mm against 0.7 mm strips; after light sanding the difference in thickness is gone. CA glue was not a success. | Painted the black strake slightly thinned to make the difference visible; back to PVA and short separate strips. in the register |
| Wale The manual says six 3x1 mm strips below the black strake, but the height on the profile view is only 18 mm. | Black strake plus five strips, as in pietsan's build log. in the register |