• Ships of Scale has incorportated an extra level of security when you log In. Please follow on-screen prompts to acknowledge that you are not a robot via a "Check Box" or a "Pictorial Check Box Puzzle". This is needed due to higher level of AI Activity Security.
  • SUBSCRIBE TO SHIPS IN SCALE TODAY!

    The beloved Ships in Scale Magazine is back and charting a new course for 2026!
    Discover new skills, new techniques, and new inspirations in every issue.

    NOTE THAT OUR NEXT ISSUE WILL BE July/August 2026
  • Win a Free Custom Engraved Brass Coin!!!
    As a way to introduce our brass coins to the community, we will raffle off a free coin during the month of August. Follow link ABOVE for instructions for entering.

Fair American 1:48 by Model Expo

My latest update is question to the community, and I’ll be putting my nooboscity on full display.

Looking for help on placement of the planking battens to assist with laying out of planking belts.

The planking guide included in the kit says to place the first batten at the mid-point of the turn of the bilge starting at mid-ships bulkhead where the hull us the widest. The problem is that the planking guide that comes with Fair American is a standard guide Model Shipways includes in many of their kits and seems to be based largely on a schooner hull form like Bluenose or Elsie.

On the Fair American, the turn of the bilge appears to be much higher up the hull than the mid-point between the garboard strake and the bottom of the wales, so that if I placed the first batten at the turn of the bilge I would wind up with two very wide planking belts (after placement of the second and third battens) below the first batten and two very narrow belts above. Is that correct? All the pictures and tutorials I have seen appear to show the battens more or less evenly spaced between the garboard strake and the wales.

Also, on Fair American, the widest part of the ship (the first contact point for the batten), as measured between the garboard and wales is not amidships, but farther aft, almost near the last frame. It would stand to reason that this is the measurement from which the number of planks is derived, but is it meant to be the defining point for the planking belts? Or when referring to the widest part of the ship, are they talking about in the beam, which would indeed be amidships, but not where the planks are at their widest?

I’m trying to work my planking technique up from over-simplified to something more accurate, but I am limited in my ability to mill my own planking material and have to rely on kit-supplied stock. Those are of course too narrow to cut properly spiled planks from, but I think I can do better than the purely TLAR approach I’ve followed in the past.

Thanks for bearing with the world’s wordiest question. Happy to hear the thought of the experts.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top