Hms Alert by Maarten [COMPLETED BUILD]

After the lower transome parts dried the PS side is sanded to a flat surface.
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Next the PS wale is recolored with ecoline.
Now I will prepare the planking above the wale.
This planking will be yellow ocre, I color again with ink, dark yellow ecoline. The ink will keep the woodgrain visible which fits the model.
See below the first plank colored yellow with ink.
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And the look on the model.
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The planks I first steam with a household steamer.
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Then I bend and curve them on a laboratory type hot plate. This can be set at every temperature between 20-250 deg C, I bend at 50 deg C.
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The sides of the planks I colour with dark brown ink to simulate caulking.
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But before fitting the planks I first have to install the fwd chase port as this protrudes into the planking.
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This means the first frame is cut.
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The place of the cut I determined by dry fitting and marking the top of the two planks. The top of the gun port sill is fitted on the same height. The sill is at an angle in the hull, flat to the waterline and not to the ships shear.
The lower sil of the gun port is joined between the frames with two pointed ends. These joints I filed on the sill and into the frame sides.
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If the joints properly fit you just slide it into place with some glue.
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After drying sand it flush with the hull, in and outside.
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Next will be fitting the planks.
 
Finally the first outside planking is fitted. As mentioned before colored with dark yellow Ecoline and the edges with dark brown acrylic ink from Schmincke.
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The planks fit perfectly, a great job from Trident.
I have decided to treenail the wales on the frames between the bolted frames. The planks are fully treenailed on every frame.
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After treenailing the planks.
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And some close ups
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Finally the planks will be finished with oil but that will be done later.
 
From DYI clamps to Ecoline ink, I'm learning so much. You are doing a great job and I can't wait to start. I just waiting on Trident now.
Just one addition to ecoline, this is not the best in uv resistence, you can use a UV blocker to improve uv resistence.
I have used ecoline already for a few years and had no major issues with UV.
If you have a lot of sunlight on your model you can use aerocolor of schminke.
 
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I started with the planking of the PS side of the hull below the wale. The Alert is clincker build which means the planks are overlaying each other.
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There are 16 planks below the wale, this means 6,6 mm width per plank at its widest point of the hull. The total width of the plank is calculated by addind the overlay, I kept 2mm for this, taken from the detail drawing.
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So I will prepare 8,6 mm planks. Below the waterline I will use a light coloured wood in this case Guatambu which I got a while ago from a parquet maker. These are slabs of 10mm thickness.
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Sawn to planks of 8,6 mm width and 1,2 mm thick.
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These planks need a rebate which I mill into the plank, 2 mm wide at half the thickness of the plank.
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The setup for doing this is easy. I have a plank with a nail in it. Along the nail you feed your plank under the mill. You set up the height of the mill and the rake of the mill into the width of the plank to remove 2mm of wood.
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Turn on the mill and slide the wood under de mill along the nail and every rebate into the plank will be the same.
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Next will be fitting the planks.
 
Nice work. And thanks for the lesson how to.

About the saw blade, which are you using? I got 2 types, the standard and the super with 250 tooth.
 
Back to planking. The first is the stern plank along the keel. On the end I have to file down the rabate as at the stern and also the bow the planks go from clincker to carvel build.
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After bending the plank into shape with steam and a heatplate I dry fit, mark the outlines and put the glue on the frames and egdes.
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The planks I keep in place with pins during initial 30 min drying. The firstrow of planks fitted.
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The edges of the planks treated with brown ink.
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The second raw of planks is layed on top of the rebate of the first row and as you see flush to the end.
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The width of the planks I write on the frames.
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When dry fitting I take over the width onto the plank on the respective spot, measure and mark the width and sand in into shape on the sanding disk. The 2 mm difference is the 2 mm for the rebate.
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After shaping, mill the rebate, steam into the shape needed, color the end and glue it jnto place.
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Plank by plank she is growing.
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Now 4 rows of planks fitted, 12 more to go
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More planking todo in the comings weeks :)
 
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Great job! 1 question though, how much of the rebait do you remove at the end and how far do you taper it for the carvel portion of the streak when going to carvel?
Hi Gents, thx for the comments.

The rebait removed is approxx 1 cm and is tapered for about 3-4 cm. But I do not measure it, just file by gut feeling.
 
Hello, Mon Amie! What are the size of the bolt's head and the washer on your image? I guess this is the test for outer planking?

View attachment 208915

Thank you!
Hi Jim,

You have eagle eyes, yes this was a test.
The planks are fitted with copper bolt and shims between these.
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The bolts go all the way through so will ne visible on the inside ceiling also. Still thinking if I will do that.

The outside of the shim is accrding this drawing 1,38 mm, which is 2 1/2 ".
I used a solid core 1,5 mm2 electricity wire which is 1,38 mm in diameter.

I first used a large cup burr to create a pointed tip to the wire, then I use a smaller burr of 1,2 mm followed by a 0,8 cup burr.
Now you have the outside diameter of the wire creating the look of a shim with a small 0,8 mm bolt head.
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Hi gents,

Yes electrical wire is in 99,9 % of the cases copper due to its conductivity vs price ratio.
Larger cables like ground cables etc are mostly solid core instead of the wired core as you see in a cable from a lamp or so.
The 1,5 mm2 is just the right size for these rings and as here in the Netherlands electrical installations in houses are wired with solid core wires 1,5 mm2 and
2,5 mm2 in tubes I do have plenty in stock.

When the bolting starts I will discuss it step by step. Allthough a part of the planking is also treenailed.

In the meantime also the planking continues.
Below measuring and shaping a plank in the bow.
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And fitted.
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To avoid stealers in the stern section I have sawn slightly wider planks for this part.
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If I don t do this the curvature in the height of the plank would be to much.
See below the curvature I already need now. Due to the wider plank I sand in the rest of the curvature and keep it at its maximum size at the stern to reduce the curvature of the next plank.
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Then I bend them over the thicknes, which is easy, and you can see the total shape of the plank.
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And finally fitted with as less force as possible.
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Hoi Maarten,
After catching up in the BN Group Build, I found some time to look in the other Group Builds. In the Alert-Group I found a lot of interesting build-log’s. Also yours, Jim’s and Uwe’s about the trennels. Where did you ordered the burr’s? In the Netherlands or abroad with acceptable postage?
Regards, Peter
 
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