Chapter 9: Hull Finish and Planking

With the hull assembly completed, it is now time to remove the jig top plate. The jig top plate has been an integral part of the model until now, but it is no longer necessary to measure the height of the inner surface, and from now on, the main work will be on the outer surface and the top of the hull, so it is no longer needed. For now, I will cut at the appropriate point on the vertical extension at the top of the frame. Using the superfine cut saw introduced previously, it was easy to insert and cut the blade. The disconnected state is something refreshing in the view for the first time [Fig. 9-01].

Here I decided to change the finish on each port, although it is not part of the set's component configuration. In other words, the port side is to be finished to this point, and the starboard is to be applied to the exterior from the wale up to the installation of the cannons. Therefore, strip materials for the exterior and deck boards are required separately, so if you are not doing this craft, skip the starboard instructions and start working from the portside instructions.

(1) Starboard exterior planking

The basics of exterior planking in structural models are (at least in appearance)

a. The outer plank should be divided into several sections to match the actual ship, instead of a single plank that runs from bow to stern.

b. The joint should be centered on the frame.

c. The position of the joints should employ a 3-butt shift, etc., so that adjacent joints do not overlap.

and so on are required. On that premise, the materials are

Wale inner layer     1.0 x 4.0 x 600 3

Wale outer layer     1.5 x 4.0         total of 600mm

1.5 x 6.0             total of 1.2m

Black strake             1.5 x 6.0         total of 600mm

Outer planking             1.5 x 4.0         total of 2.4m

Originally, the wale should also be made of a single plate, but it is exceedingly difficult for beginners to bend a thick and short plate, so I made a double-layered structure with a through under laminate and a thin top laminate on top of the bottom laminate. Of course, depending on the material, you may also divide the under laminate by a few pieces. With either method, the double structure will be completely unnoticeable after completion. Also, judging from the anatomy, the wale and frame top shear curves are the same in GRANADO. This means that all outer planking can be of equal width and no tapering is required at the stern or elsewhere. These boards should also be of distinct species to contrast with the frame. I used the standard boxwood. Refer to the SideView drawing, which shows the location of each board division.

* First, finish shaping of the outer surface is performed. As you are probably aware, the smoothness of the curved surface of the hull and the fineness of the surface (glossy or not) are taken into consideration when eliminating bumps and determining the fineness of sanding. Most of the surfaces are convex, so no special tools are required, but the concave portions of the stern utilize internal sanding.

* Based on the SideView drawing, the height of the top edge of the wale is measured and marked on the hull. At this time, check in several points whether the outer plank can be well distributed between there and the top of the frame depending on how the model is made, and adjust the black strake width, etc., depending on the situation.

* Attach the topmost board out of the lower board of the wale. This will be the reference position for the rest of the process, so proceed carefully to ensure that there are no deviations along the entire length and that the sheer curve is smooth. The bow section may be fitted better with some B-bending (bend a board to its width direction).

* The second and third boards are then applied. The finished width of the wale should be approximately 12 mm.

* After the shaping of the bottom board is completed, continue with top board planking. The topmost board is 4 mm wide straight plank, but the difference from the under lamination is that it needs to be divided into appropriate lengths. Decide the joint position based on the SideView drawing. When cutting it, it must be aligned with the hull curvature and the edge must be brought exactly to the center of the frame (in this case, the double frame alignment), so cut it just a little longer and make fine adjustments while fitting along the hull curvature [Figure 9-02] to [Figure 9-04]. Since the wale is composed of thick and specially shaped boards, it is a clever idea to have a slightly larger chamfer on the edge of each board member so that it can be clearly seen when it is later painted black.

* The second and third boards are made of boards processed into a deformed home base shape (called top-and-butt). Since the combined width is always 8 mm, the individual widths should be 5.5 mm maximum width and 2.5 mm at the ends, and the length should be processed so that the position of maximum width is at one-fourth of the total length. However, both ends of this one-fourth length will be at the center of the frame, so they should be determined according to the location of the installation. Once the shape is determined, it is cut, chamfered at the edges, and glued [Fig. 9-05].

* Attach the outer plank from the wale up. Check the arrangement of the boards up to the top edge of the frame thoroughly and adjust with the width of the black strake if necessary. Then, it is planked from the black strake. The gist is the same as the method used to attach straight material in wale. The top three boards have openings such as gun ports, so the positions of these openings are marked or slightly notched on each board, and then they are shaped together after all the boards are glued. In addition, the top two boards may be affixed each using a single board as they are divided by the gun port anyway.

* The process is a bit congested, but the forecastle deck section will have another outer plank affixed on top of the plank shear rail [Fig. 9-06]. Keep this in mind and apply it after the later top surface finishing work is done.

* The stern was planked on the entire surface because decoration was omitted, but you are free to decide how you want to do it.

* The series of processes are shown in [Fig. 9-06] to [Fig. 9-10].

(2) Port side exterior planking

Even though it is planking, no planking is done on the port side. Instead, a thin square piece of wood called a riband is used to hold the frame in place. In actual ships, this was also used to hold the assembled frame in position until it was secured by the outer plank or clamping materials. About six of ribands are sometimes used on large ships, but they are removed as the hull assembly progresses. In the structural model, these riband is applied when the planking is not applied. Therefore, if the starboard is also not to be externally planked, the riband is to be installed instead.

Riband 2.0 x 2.0 total of 1.8 to 2.4m

* Three or four ribands are attached by passing them between the futtock joints of the frame. However, for the purpose of appreciation of the model, each is applied to draw a smooth sheer curve, so it may not always be a futtock middle at the edges. In this case, the top one is aligned with the upper edge position of the wale line, and two are attached below it. See [Fig. 9-11] to [Fig. 9-13] for the feeling of this.

(3) Finishing of hull top surface

With the outer planks attached, the top position of the hull (top edge of the frame) has been determined, and the vertical extensions that protrude above it are cut to finish the hull.

Rail                          Rp1 to Rp4, Rs1 to Rs4 1 ea. 2mm

Tafferal                  TR                 1         1mm

Board material                  for fife rail                 1mm

Board material                  for actual sheer rail         3mm

Scrap wood                  for hance                 some

* There is no photo, but the frame is first cut slightly above the outer plank with a fine saw, then sanded to flush with the top edge of the outer plank. Note that the forecastle section will be at a height equal to the thickness of the rail plus one outer plank above the height position of the outer plank elsewhere. In other words, this section is cut and shaped after rails and outer plank are added separately [Fig. 9-14].

Since there is no reference outer plank for the port side, measure and mark the height of the key points from the starboard, then smoothly connect the locations before cutting and sanding in the same manner.

* The plank sheer rails are to be mounted on top of the hull, but there are areas at the bow and stern where some frames penetrate the rails as a bitt, and it is extremely difficult to finish these areas without gaps in the size of the model. Therefore, the front end of the sheer rail at the bow stops around the aft end of the forecastle, and beyond that, I will apply planks only to the extent that they protrude outward from the frame. The stern will have a shear rail assembled directly on top of the hull to the aft end, and the bitt section (part of the frame) that goes over it will be made from a separate piece of material.

* In the original design, the sheer rail thickness was set at 2 mm and the parts were manufactured, but after re-measuring the Anatomy, it was found to be around 3 mm, so the actual manufacturing was done by cutting a new piece from a 3 mm plate. 2 mm is not a major obstacle, so I leave it to your choice.

* One more thing: the fife rails that go on the bow and stern bitts are not prepared as parts. Use the prepared 2 mm parts as a template and create them from a 1 mm thick board. Just the shapes corresponding to R1 and R4 are fine (even if they are cut into 0.8 mm plates).

The reason there are many self-made parts like this is because when I made a kit model before, I was told that the curve of the upper part of this hull would not match the curve of the rail parts as designed in advance because the curve of the edge surface would vary depending on the individual fabrication, and it would be a waste. This is because the cut was limited to 2mm material this time as a trial. In this time, location was also secured by the effect of the assembly jig, which was able to reproduce the curve as designed, so it was verified that rail components could be prepared.

* Bow component R1 of the sheer rail is no longer used due to the method of construction described above. Align the front edge of R2 with the rear edge of cant frame C1 and glue it from there to the stern, matching the frame curve [Fig. 9-15], [Fig. 9-16]. From the front edge of the sheer rail the frames are rising, so a 2mm thick x 3mm wide strip is attached to the outside of the frame, and its protrusion is shaped to be flush with the sides of the sheer rail. At the bow, one more outer plank is glued on top of it [Fig. 9-14].

* Install the bow fife rail. The forecastle will have a knighthead and bit, machined from a 2.5x4.0mm member, with a height of about 10mm for the knighthead and 6mm for the bit. These are all finished vertically. The hance, curled parts of the fife rail end, are machined from the scrap wood to match the height of the fife rail [Figure 9-14].

* Install the stern fife rail. What is needed here are the stern bitts and the hance. The stern bitt is made from a 2.5x4.0mm member cut to a length of about 5mm and shaped into a parallelogram to match the frame inclination at the attachment point, so that it is like an extension of the frame. The first five bitts are vertical (extension of the square frame), the next two are slightly forward inclined (extension of the cant frame), and the last two are slightly backward inclined (extension of the filling frame). The vertical height of the pillars should be about 4 mm. The hance is machined from the scrap wood as in the bow to match the fife rail position.

* Glue the fife rail. The relative relationship between the top and bottom should match that of the shear rail [Fig. 9-16].

* At the stern, the Tafferal TR is glued on top of the counter timbers, matching the height with the fife rail.

* Now that the upper part of the hull has been assembled, this part is painted black to accentuate it. However, since sheer rails are thick, I will paint up to 1 mm thick from the top surface to make it look as if the boards are stacked on top of each other. Apply masking tape to the bottom 2 mm and paint the top portion. Remove the tape after the paint has dried sufficiently.

Figures 9-18 through 9-20 were assembled in this manner.

Note: In Version 2.0, the sheer rails were changed to 3 mm thick and fife rails were added.

Rail                Rp1 to Rp4, Rs1 to Rs4      1 ea.      2mm

Fife rail        FRA, FRF                      2 ea.      1mm

(4) Deck planking

I decided to equip the starboard with planking and other equipment close to the ship's finished state. As one of the first steps, a cannon will also be assembled and equipped in the gunport. Therefore, a minimal amount of deck planking is required on that part of the upper deck, and the bullwork in this area is also required for consistency.

Bullwork plank       1.0 x 4.0 total of approx. 1.5m

Upper deck plank       1.5 x 4.0 total of approx. 1.2m

* The bullwork adjusts the board width so that the top edge of the second row from the bottom is flush with the bottom edge of the gunport. The bottom two boards are joined together in the middle, shifting the butt position. The top part is divided by the gun port, so it is attached in one piece and the opening is shaved off and shaped later. The width of the board is adjusted based on the calculation that five rows of bullwork are to be applied in total.

* For the upper deck, four rows of 4mm wide boards are to be affixed for the cannon to be placed. The attachment position is from the center of beam 3 to the center of the last beam 13. The width of the board should taper to 3 mm at the front end and 3.5 mm at the rear end to allow for a gradual scaling of the deck surface. The waterway has already been affixed, so the plank will be affixed from the inside of the waterway. The butt position has been added to the BeamLayout-Upper drawing for reference [Fig. 9-21] [Fig. 9-22].

(5) Nailing of exterior planks – optional

When getting to this point, the bolts (or tree nails) that hold the external planks in place also want to be imitated. There are many ways to do this, but here is a method using tegus (transparent, black, or copper wire for later frames).

Tegus No.8 (0.47mm)                          transparent and black

0.5mm                   black

Copper wire 0.55mm

Nail patterns can be found in Historic Ship Models and other sources for reference. This model uses a pattern of two diagonal strikes per board, and since it is a double frame, they are placed in a swing from the center of the frame. I also decided to strike a double frame every other frame to create a clean look. The wale and battens were made of 0.5 mm black tegus to imitate bolts, the outer planks were made of 0.47 mm transparent tegus to imitate tree nails, and the frames were made of 0.55 mm copper wire to imitate copper bolts. There is no order in which these tasks are performed.

* For the outer planks and wale, pencil a line (mostly vertical) along the center of the frame behind it (where the double frames meet) and mark the nail positions with a pencil bordering it. At a minimum, the vertical line of nails should be on a line to create a neat and orderly appearance.

* At the longitudinal butt joints of the plank, nails are placed in parallel and fastened in a four-eye-jointed pattern.

* It is recommended to pre-punch with an eyeleteer to match the markings. In this case, the trick is to adjust the position by carefully looking at the surrounding markings and other deviations [Fig. 9-23].

* Drill a 0.5 mm hole for the outer plank and a 0.6 mm hole for the wale, batten, and frame [Fig. 9-24].

* Drop a small amount of jelly-type instant adhesive on a small plate, apply a little to the tip of the tegus, and insert it into the hole. It is easier that the tip should be cut at an angle to facilitate insertion into the hole. It is also easier to insert the tegus by pinching it near the tip with tweezers [Fig. 9-25]. At the gunport, the lower two pieces should be black tegus to imitate through eye bolts for the gun tackle.

* After insertion, cut 1-2 mm above the surface with a small nipper (flat on one side). At this time, turning the nippers inside out and cutting at a slight angle automatically forms the insertion shape described earlier, eliminating the need to do it twice [Fig. 9-26].

* Cut the overhanging tegus at the appropriate break with a disposable scalpel flush with the board surface (it is difficult to cut flush with a straight-blade cutter) [Fig. 9-27].

* When all is finished, carefully check the state of the finish and, depending on the condition, lightly sand the outside surface.

* In the case of copper wire for frames, a scalpel cannot be used, so it is cut flush with nippers and finished by sanding the blade marks.

In this ship, assembled in this manner, is shown in [Fig. 9-28] to [Fig. 9-31].

This completes the assembly of the hull. The entire piece is carefully inspected to ensure that there are no adhesive overflows, shaping not yet performed, or large gaps, followed by final finish grinding if necessary.