Thanks Guys
I made a bit of a boobo
I looked at the full size plans and immediately assumed the kit deck planks were 2 x 5mm,the same as Santa Ana. They are 5mm wide on the plans.
Cross referencing the instructions and material list, the instructions state 1 x 4mm
Quite how you are supposed to get a decent result planking the deck using 1mm planks with supports up to 60mm apart I don't know, 1mm is a pretty thin edge to edge butt joint.There is one build on YouTube and the builder is only gluing the planks to the support beams not to one another???
Whilst this does not change my approach, it does leave me with the dilemma in that do I sand all deck beams down by 1mm to allow for my 2mm decks, or do I adjust where I put the gunport templates and leave the top edge of the hull 1mm high??????
Moving on, I have planked a section of 1.5mm Birch Ply with my boxwood strip. This section is overwide and overlong. This is so I can fully finish the section before cutting to shape. I can cut the shape afterwards as my Bandsaw obviously cuts on the downstroke so I should have no splintering.
The outer planks are continuous as these will be broken up by the bulkhead uprights. There would be no joints in this area. I know this is not historically correct and the Ceiling planks would probably run through without these supports, but the kit approach looks good and I promised myself I would not start any radical bashing
Cutting out after sanding and varnishing prevents the rounding over at the edges and should result in crisp areas that abut the upright structures.
I made a simple jig to cut the planks at 80mm long using a single edge razor blade as my chopper. I have glued all planking using CA. I find PVA introduces too much moisture which leads to warping in operations like this.
The piece is now ready for several coats of spirit based poly with fine sanding between coats. I will ponder my 1mm discrepancy whilst applying varnish and making up the deck grate assembly