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Santa Maria1:48 (Pavel Nikitin)

lakedaisy said:
How do I bevel the transom and hull planks uniformly?

Wait... I just remembered I had done this before with a tiny 'round-over' bit. The problem is I did this with a CNC machine that I not longer have. I believe the tiny round-over bits only come a 1/4" shank and I can't use this with a dremel. Hmmm...
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I think you could make something similar to this:

www.ebay.com

Chamfering Cutting Tools Wooden Ship Model Tool Hull Wooden Planking Bar | eBay

However, chamfering the edge of the strip, whether scraped with a knife or polished with a file or sandpaper. can only be handled by feeling, and can not get an accurate chamfering angle. Finial effects of chamfering cutting tool.
www.ebay.com
 
That's too funny Doc... I've had one of those for years. Completely forgot about it. Though I could never get it to work well. I could have tried it again on the transom though. I won't be able to use it on the hull as the plank width varies over the length of each pank.
 
Glued in the basswood filler to fill in the groove for the 1st set of wales. Then gently sanded to conform to the curve of each bulkhead.
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Then glued the 1st strip of the 2 strip wales. I had previously stained this 1st strip black as I like black colored wales. But then decided the walnut wales would look good against the cherry? hull planks. So I lightly sanded the edges (which might be slightly visable) back to walnut. I had to look at the parts list again. Best I can tell, it looks like the decking is Alder and hull is Cherry. Though when I put the wood sheets of the 2 woods next to each other, they look the same to me. ROTF
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I had taken my time while bending the curve of the wales to match the curve of the hull. They fit perfectly without any force to glue them in place!. Okay. Now for the truth!! I had bent the 1st layer of the wales and glued them in place. Next I bent the 2nd layer (top layer) of the port side and glued it in place. And finally, I bent the 2nd layer for the starboard side. As I was brushing on the glue I saw the part number of the wale on the OUTSIDE (visible side) of the wale. Redface. I had bent the wale in the wrong direction. I thought okay, I'll just sand the numbers off as I'll likely lower the height of the wales anyway. Wait! Can't do that as these pieces are cut with curves in them. Each of the hull planks are cut a certain way so they fit together without any trimming. So... I couldn't simply glue this wale on as it was cut to fit in only one direction!! I wetted the entire wale, put it between two flat boards and let it dry. When I removed it, the wale was straight again. Now I have to go through the process to bend it the CORRECT way. Finally I glued the last wale piece on. If fit perfectly. I was lucky I could recover from that mistake.
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The first wale is in place. Ready for the first regular hull planks. The hull is planked below this wale first, then directions plank above the wale. Two more wales are placed above this first wale. I wish there was a rabbet on the stem/keel, but there isn't. This makes it a little harder to fit the plank at the stem.
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These are the 1st hull planks (#13) to be installed below the 1st wale (#14). Each are made up of 2 pieces glued together to form one long piece. The hull planks (like the deck planks) are made to fit together without having to be trimmed. This is very nice. The videos show several planks and wales already installed above wale #14, but not how or when they were installed. Step by Step #14 Side boards P.1
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However the instructions show planking the lower hull before moving to the upper hull.
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Installed the 1st plank (plank #13) below the 1st wale.
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Glued together the next planks below the wale. Planks 2-6 (planks #12-9). There's a lot of dimensioning to these planks so they can be attached without spiling. Reading other builds, it looks like planks #3 & #4 near the keel will be too short to fit correctly. I'll see when I get there.
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I have completed the port side of the lower hull... Very pleased with the way the planks went together. Some minor issues, but they were easily fixable. The hull only needs minor sanding to level/smooth it. Then need to check the grooves between the planks to correct any unevenness. If that is possible. I'm not real good at detail work. Hard fo me to see, even with the magnify glasses I have to wear when working on the ship. 1.jpg

The front edge of planks 3,4 and 5 didn't reach the keel. I glued a small piece of scrap from the planking sheets and glued to each then sanded to fill the gap. 2.jpg3.jpg


The final plank #1 was also too narrow to reach the keel. I ripped a narrow strip and glued to the keel side of the plank and sanded it down so plank #1 filled the space.
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I had some concerns about all the hull planks fitting corrrectly from watching some other builds. But, everything pretty much worked out fine with my ship. Overall I a very please with the fitting of the parts. Now to clean up this side, then plank the lower hull on the other sied.

I had bought Pavel's San Bartolome a few years ago and gave it way where on SOS when I wasn't feeling too well and had kind of stopped working on models. I wrote to Pavel about the San Bartolome. He is filling Christmas orders right now and said any further shipping will be at the end of Decem2 ber. I'm thinking probably a little later. He has a 10% christmas discount right now, so I went ahead and ordered another San Bartolome and all the associated parts. He said shipping to Florida would be about 2 weeks, though I'm sure it will be much longer. I'll have plenty of time to complete (I hope, if I don't drop it again) the Santa Maria before the San Bartolome arrives. I also ordered more airbrush stains.

Even though my building skills aren't much compared to most on this site, I have been enjoying building the Santa Maria. And as I said earlier, to me it's more about what I've done and the way it looks to me compared to what the actual ship may look like. Oh, and I almost dropped the hull onth the tile floor, but luckily I caught it and no damage was done.
 
lakedaisy said:
I have completed the port side of the lower hull... Very pleased with the way the planks went together. Some minor issues, but they were easily fixable. The hull only needs minor sanding to level/smooth it. Then need to check the grooves between the planks to correct any unevenness. If that is possible. I'm not real good at detail work. Hard fo me to see, even with the magnify glasses I have to wear when working on the ship. View attachment 559057

The front edge of planks 3,4 and 5 didn't reach the keel. I glued a small piece of scrap from the planking sheets and glued to each then sanded to fill the gap. View attachment 559059View attachment 559060


The final plank #1 was also too narrow to reach the keel. I ripped a narrow strip and glued to the keel side of the plank and sanded it down so plank #1 filled the space.
View attachment 559061View attachment 559062

I had some concerns about all the hull planks fitting corrrectly from watching some other builds. But, everything pretty much worked out fine with my ship. Overall I a very please with the fitting of the parts. Now to clean up this side, then plank the lower hull on the other sied.

I had bought Pavel's San Bartolome a few years ago and gave it way where on SOS when I wasn't feeling too well and had kind of stopped working on models. I wrote to Pavel about the San Bartolome. He is filling Christmas orders right now and said any further shipping will be at the end of Decem2 ber. I'm thinking probably a little later. He has a 10% christmas discount right now, so I went ahead and ordered another San Bartolome and all the associated parts. He said shipping to Florida would be about 2 weeks, though I'm sure it will be much longer. I'll have plenty of time to complete (I hope, if I don't drop it again) the Santa Maria before the San Bartolome arrives. I also ordered more airbrush stains.

Even though my building skills aren't much compared to most on this site, I have been enjoying building the Santa Maria. And as I said earlier, to me it's more about what I've done and the way it looks to me compared to what the actual ship may look like. Oh, and I almost dropped the hull onth the tile floor, but luckily I caught it and no damage was done.
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I’m with Paul, Rob. Your planking looks really good and that is with the challenges. I’m happy to see your reflexes are sharp to save a “crash and burn”:D. Cheers Grant
 
Planking the starboard side. Doing it a little differently fro theport side. Using CA gel glue. I've (I think) always used pva glue. I find pva easier to remove if necessary than CA. I use vinegar on PVA and de-bonder on CA. So... I'm finding CA much easier to get the planks in place. I CA glue about 5 bulkheads at a time.

I had asked Pavel a question about something and he also mentioned when responding about something else about planking. It's likely that most already know this, but I didn't. When I attach a new plank to the hull I bevel the top/inside of the plank to better mate with the plank above that's already glued in place. Pavel said to bevel both inside edges. I have only been beveling one. So on these planks I am "eyeing" a 45° degree on both sides of the inside of the plank - about 1/2 the depth of the plank. Then I 'slightly roundover' the outside two edges to make the 'groove' between planks per Pavel's ship images. Working pretty good so far.

I keep the sawdust sanding from each different wood. I like to fill any gaps by putting PVA glue in the gap and cover it with sawdust. The use a stick to press it all in the gap or groove. It's sandable and stains pretty well.
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The lower port hull so far... I've been bending the wet wood with the plank bending tool, then temporarily attach it to the hull and heat it dry with a small directional hot air source. I let it cool, then remove it. I check the fit. If necessary, I do this several times to get the plank to fit almost perfectly without any glue. This also gives the the chance to lightly sand any edges to make the piece fit better. Some 'contour' sanding on the 'glued on' plank outuse will still be necessary as the planks are flat and the bulkhead is curved. The wider the plank the more sanding necessary to 'round' it to the curve of the bulkhead.

Coming along good so far!!!
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Completed the lower hull on both sides. Taking a short break and reflecting on the lower and upper hulls, what I've completed and what is next.

The starboard side came out perfect. Just one minor problem at the keel. Otherwise the planks fit great. All planks reached the stern. No short planks. Plank #1, the last plank next to the keel fit in the space prefectly. It needed slight trimming at the stern as was a little too wide.

I needed to add a thin piece to Plank #1 on the Port side for the plank to reach the keel. Was not needed on the Starboard. I measured from the wale to the keel on both sides, thinking maybe the distance between the two were different. They were the same. The width of the planks on port/starboard had to be slightly different. Maybe I over-sanded the plank edges on the Port side?? I did take more time fitting the planks and had a little more experience putting on the Starboard side.

So... Now I will smooth the lower hull on both sides. There are a couple small gaps between planks on the Port side which can easily be filled. None on the Starboard side. I'll check the grooves i sanded in between the planks after smoothing the hull and correct any deficiencies before moving on.

Very pleased with the hull so far...
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Before smoothing the hull, I removed all the remaining (upper) hull planks. On both upper and lower hull planks there were some pretty serious laser burns on the surface. I am running all the planks through my Byrnes thickness sander to remove these burn marks and to make them all the same thickness. I did this on the lower hull planks.

When I laid out all the remaining planks I noticed something I hadn't seen before. You may remember the wales are made up by gluing one 2mm plank on top of another 2mm plank to make a 4mm thick wale. The wale planks are numbered #14, #16 and #20. So there are two #14 planks, two #16 and two #20 planks. What I found was these wales are duplicated on both walnut and cherry. The cherry aren't used. Maybe the original plan was to use cherry for all wales as all the wales were laser cut into the cherry sheets of wood. Then, maybe later it was decided to provide walnut laser cut wales. Anyway the wales are duplicated in both cherry and walnut. If I'm see this wrong let me know. I also found Planks #25 in walnut. There must be another tiny wale near the hand rails on the upper hull.
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Oops... noticed a small groove error in the above image...
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Filled it will a natural putty. It still looks a little off, but that is because of the whitish putty color but it is actually level now. It will stain when I airbrush the hull. I'm trying out a new putty. I like it so far. I dries pretty quickly if thin coated. And sands very easily.
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Wood Filler
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