перевод
Chapter 10. Clinker Planking.
10.09.2025
Planking overlapping. Clinker Planking.
As you know, the planking of boards on Alert on the sides is not
butt-to-butt, but overlapping. And naturally, overlapping should be done
from the bottom of the keel and up, but! This option does not suit me,
since at the slightest miscalculation the board in a visible place will
be either wider or narrower than the others... and I want to progress
from barkhout to keel without losing the geometry of the lines...
Therefore, I will do an imitation of overlap, using the direct docking
method, but through a step. So in detail about this method.
First, I create a template by which I will calibrate all the rails,
since the boards on the ship narrowed from the middle (6mm) to 4 mm to
the bow.
I thrust two slats (template and plating board) into the glass and holding it out of the template with an extra blade.
Then I stick a 1 mm strip of veneer (0.5 mm thick) dotted with liquid CA on the other side of the rack.
Now I glue the front of the board and the next boards will butt together.
Well, the result...
Due to a lack of material, I had to make rail joints, which I really do
not like. I prefer to glue the entire length and then make imitation
connections. But here one of two things will be real.
Let me remind you that the joint goes along the middle of the double frames and along the line of their connection. (regardless of the inclination of the boards or the hull of the ship.)
After grinding, the geometry of the boards will be as one.
Well, a couple more angles...
One skin belt ready... and 16 more to come... and the next one is the most difficult. He, like several others below him, will be prefabricated from two pear flowers... it will be the toughest challenge in this project...
04.09.2025
In addition to the previous post, here are the results of my overlapping skin method (imitation, which in fact is done end to end).
In the photo below, you can see that the boards at their ends go butt coupling ...
... and then kind of overlapping... but at the same time it is only imitation.
A couple of macro photos...
Well, the general view, in which the "steps" are clearly visible.
By the way, the front geometry is plus or minus mirror, but from the stern... unfortunately, I already see that the left and right parts are not the same, and now it will be necessary to do as much as possible due to the correction of the thickness of the rails so that visually everything seems mirrored...
I finished two belts, and the second will already be cut off at the waterline (I haven't done that yet). And now I will sheathe the front of the case to the waterline with the same light pear... well, then... I'll tell you later ))) ...until I continue...
07.09.2025
It would seem that everything seems to be with the second belt, but no. Since the waterline runs along this belt, it needs to make a notch for a dark pear.
... and made a through cut in a few passes.
The result is an accurate horizontal cutline.
And then he glued a fragment of a dark pear, fitting it in size and contact to a light pear.
Then, after grinding along the plane...
UPD: But it is better to do it this way: cover with a 6 mm board and cut off the excess with a blade as per a template.
And in the end it turned out like this.
Now, the second belt is over. And 15 more to come... uh...
08.09.2025
Well, I'm starting the third belt...
... and it consists of 3 parts. The front is a light pear, the middle is dark, and the back is again light.
I really like this view. I'm already in anticipation of what it will look like when there is all the cladding.
So, in front, after fixing the board of a light pear, I cut off the excess along the waterline.
Then I prepare a dark pear board and fix it at the cut point and repeat all the same procedures.
With one difference, here I use a template to create the correct tapering profile from 6 mm to 4 mm.
Well, after grinding along the plane and along the edge, the following result is obtained.
Behind, everything is the same...
Since the boards overlap (with a step), then only at a horizontal angle the line will be straight or with a smooth bend, but...
Well, the 3rd belt is now officially over... and 14 more to come....
seems like infinity, but! After 2-3 belts, the joints will end first at
the back, and the turn of 6-7 belts and in front. And then you will need
to glue only one board (on each side) for one belt without joints,
which greatly simplifies the task... but at the same time there is still
a lot of work. Moreover, it will be monotonous and there will be little
to show you, except perhaps a step-by-step report on the work done...
Let's go further!...
P.S. by the way, a little statistics...
At the moment, the construction lasts half a year.
During these six months of 117 days, I made 2 buildings at once.
583 parts in the 1st housing and 229 parts in the 2nd.
I don't know why you need it, but let it be. ))))
15.09.2025
...you know, it's like: you do-do something for eternity, and then you look, and there's still the same amount left )))
Only it's worse here.. Here I started the 6th of 17... But one thing pleases that another three-fragment, and then 3 more two-fragment belts, and then the whole ones will go, without connections, and it will be many times faster.
In the meantime, here's what I have...
But that's not all... then I still have to grind and polish all the surfaces! And this is not a smooth structure, but goes steps and.... and why am I complaining... like it, that's why I do it))
20.09.2025
Due to time constraints, did not do much, but! I have completed exactly
half of the body skin, that is, 8.5 belts out of 17... And you can
exhale, because I completely finished the whole part over the waterline.
And now it remains to make 8.5 belts of only one color from a dark
pear, which will be more significant faster!
This is what my favorite symmetry looks like)))
Due to the fact that the skin boards overlap, the waterline runs smoothly at one angle, and at a different angle...
.. due to the position of the boards, the waterline goes with displacements (like on a ladder), which is structurally logical.
Another point that I wanted to describe was the connections of the boards.
Anatomy shows that the maximum length of the skin boards and deck boards does not exceed 18 cm, which is slightly more than usual, but within the permissible norms. I repelled from this indicator. And he made a layout of connections with an offset step of 2-3 belts (basically 3, which gives a more correct and rigid frame due to the maximally spaced connections from each other).
I will make a reservation: I connected the first and second belts under
the wale in specific places due to the shortage of long boards,
therefore these connections are adapted to the general scheme. The rest
of the belts (in photo 6 from above) were already clearly connected
according to the scheme with a shift from steps to 3 boards (that is, 3
boards without connection (solid) are placed above each connection in
the zone of double frames) and only the 4th board again goes with the
connection. The photo below is visible on the top 6 belts.
Here is a visual diagram.
I decided to check and at the same time redo the template. The remaining space for boards is 54 mm. If you divide it by 6mm (the width of the board) it will be 9, and this is the number of belts left to set. From the middle to the stern, the values + are the same.
In the nasal section, the racks from 6 mm narrow to 4 mm.
According to the new template, I will manufacture the remaining 9 belts.
Now, it remains to glue them in place... let's go!
ATTENTION! There's one very important point in joining clinker cladding boards, and I'll cover it later in the review! I made a small mistake; to avoid repeating it, please read the review first.
26.09.2025
Well, let's continue... Having reached the sternpost, I decided to completely finish with the stern.
First I polished it on the plane...
...and polished it along the edge.
Tried the sternpost......
... and as you can see, there is a break in the waterline.
I used a blade to cut out a piece of dark pear and glued in a light pear.
The result was like this:
After that, I still managed to glue the 11th trim belt and...
...there are still 6 more strips to go. I think I'll work in pairs for 3 days, and the paneling will be finished. All that's left is a good polishing. I'm really looking forward to working on the top section; I'm a little tired of the monotonous work.)))
Unfortunately, there is a small problem.
Because the kit, or rather the geometry of the frame built from the kit,
isn't perfectly symmetrical, there's a 1mm error in the middle section,
requiring me to cut another slat that's 1mm wider than the others. This
means I'll have to cut the blank at a different angle to make the board
7mm thick instead of 6mm, and then everything in the middle section
will be covered. I don't know why this error occurred, but
unfortunately, it now needs to be corrected. That's why I started from
top to bottom, so that these inconsistencies would be at the bottom and
practically unnoticeable.
02.10.2025
Finally, the day has come... I've finished the planking!
Over 120 elements and the hull is finally completely covered, with
plastic now only on the top, and of course, the inside. There's still a
lot of work to do on the planking, but it's nothing compared to the work
already done... not without flaws and not without losses... today, for the first time in all my years of building ships, I cut my index finger
pretty badly... I'm glad it was on my left hand. This is extremely
undesirable for me, since I'm a doctor and always wear gloves, and
wounds heal very poorly with them... but as it is, I rushed it - here's
the result.
So! As I already mentioned, due to the asymmetry of the hull, an extra 1
mm appeared. And I thought about cutting the new strip from the plank
not along the edge, but along the plane... and here's what happened:
The photo above shows that different cutting angles produce different wood grain patterns and, most importantly, different colors! It might have seemed like the previously coated wood had changed color, but I deliberately cut and coated the new strip the same way, and the color was similar to the previously prepared ones. The cut at a different angle produced differences that I wasn't happy with. So, I decided to glue two strips together with PVA glue, using a minimal glue line, hoping it wouldn't be noticeable.
After sanding (it lightened the color a bit) and adjusting the width, I spot-glued it with liquid CA. This is the 17th and final belt, which contacts the keel.
Then I cut and calibrated the 16th (second-to-last) belt and traced the cutting line on the 17th belt using its profile with a blade.
As a result, I got a clear groove, after which I glued the 17th belt with liquid CA (since before this I glued it spot-on so that the glue would not interfere with the cut.
Then I glued the 16th belt into the groove with CA gel and poured liquid CA over the joints.
Now let's check how visible the glue seam will be.
If you look at the hull up close and turn it over, you'll barely see the
glue line in the middle section. But please note that from this angle,
the hull will only be visible during construction. Once it's mounted on
the stand, the step from the top chord will almost completely cover this
line. Not to mention that the ship's bottom is completely in the
shadows, to put it mildly, but oh well )))
And from the other side, everything is the same, except everything is
perfect, just the way I like it (and without any unnecessary millimeters)))
I'll show the result in the next post...)))
03.10.2025
Well, as promised, here are the results... so far only preliminary, but already satisfactory.
And let's start with my favorite: symmetry.
The front part is almost finished, only polishing remains, but there are some issues with the rear...
And we need to create a profile like this:
... done!
Well, finally, the rear part of the ship is more or less ready.
06.10.2025
Things were really bad with that! Spoiler alert: they were! ...but I think I solved it (but I'm not sure).
So, first things first. Initially, I wanted to make the deck out of two colors of pear wood. The main color is a light pear wood, like the one on the hull above the waterline, and in the locations shown in the photo below, four pear wood slats in a darker color. Here's a diagram of their positions (the diagram is still in progress).
I previously showed samples with oil and bitumen coating...
... but I ran into a problem: all my light pear turned out to be striped and I barely had enough for the hull above the waterline, and the one I had prepared for the deck all went into the trash... This is what it looked like:
I spent months searching... and words can't describe the level of
despair... when every time you order, you see something that's
categorically not right for you... And it's not that I'm overly picky,
but I think you can see that the pear is striped...
I waited and hoped for a long time... and recently a colleague sent me
another pear sample, and it also turned out to be striped...
His name is -Waldemar- , and I only paid for the shipping, but he simply gave me the materials. In return, he asked me to tell him honestly about these samples, as he, too, was interested in whether anything would work for me and what I could use each sample for even if it didn't.
This is what the package looked like:
Unfortunately, these samples weren't the right color for this particular ship, but! That doesn't mean it was all in vain.
1. I'd never tried apple wood (though I wanted to) and realized it wasn't quite right for me, so this gift saved me from a potential purchase.
2. The pear turned out to be too dark for the deck, but! I use it for other parts, and I liked its dark chocolate color. So, I'm happy with this pear, although unfortunately it didn't solve the deck issue.
3. I really liked the ebony (I've never seen it in real life). But I'd already started making black hornbeam sections on the hull, and they turned out to have slightly different grain, and the black hornbeam actually looks darker. But for some tasks, ebony is very suitable and much better than other woods! I'll talk more about this later, but I'm very happy that I now have it.
4. And the most interesting thing is that I also really wanted light (white) hornbeam! I really liked the grain and color and even considered making a deck out of it... but frankly, in the "museum model" concept (which is the style I want to make this model in), white hornbeam doesn't fit the color palette... But I think you'll also appreciate these hornbeam deck samples...
Below I'll show how I tried to create deck samples; maybe someone will find it useful. Again, I really liked it, but unfortunately it doesn't fit the concept of my model.
I didn't really like the imitation nailing, but with real dowels it looks very nice.
Surprisingly, I liked the hornbeam dowels (on the right, darker) less...
But the ones made from birch toothpicks (they're a bit lighter) look better, in my opinion. See the photo below.
I decided (partly due to a lack of alternatives) to use the pear I originally intended to use for the deck's weight boards. Now, it will fill all the space except for the four weight boards (which I'll be making from a different pear).
Here's a spoiler of what the deck will likely look like (without visualizing the weight boards yet, more on that later). For now, I've scattered the boards randomly to test this method. In the original, each board will be matched to its proper place (as on the hull), so that the overall tone is as pure as possible, without streaks or spots.
I coated the sample with Danish oil to prevent the punching bag from darkening as much as with Tung oil.
I coated the bottom 6 boards twice with Danish oil, and you can see a slight sheen. I did this to test how both coatings would work under the bitumen.
The macro clearly shows the grain and uniformity of the wood, which is
exactly what I was looking for and had been searching for for so long.
Yes, I would have liked it a little lighter, but on the other hand,
maybe it would be even better this way...
Now, about the layout.
The main deck (1) will be one color of pear (pictured below). The power boards (2) will be a different color. The perimeter boards (3) will be the same color as (1), but they will be made from wide blanks so they can be cut to the desired shape.
After sanding...
... I covered the entire surface with undiluted Danish oil, using a small piece of paper towel to apply a thin layer and then wiping it dry almost immediately.
Once the wood had emerged, it was possible to see which fragments would be rejected...
And then, after the oil has dried, I'll calibrate the deck planks for
width (they're wider than needed here). Then I'll sort out all the
defective parts and assemble all the suitable planks into one finished
deck plank to see how it will look on the model. And if I'm satisfied
with everything, I can breathe a sigh of relief and continue working on
the hull. Meanwhile, the deck will await its fate.
I understand that this topic isn't as interesting as the finished photos
of the models, but the importance of this process is invaluable. And to
achieve the expected, attractive result, you need to put in the effort
and check everything many times. I also don't like all these tests,
samples, and experiments, and it annoys me that it takes so much time...
but how can this protect me from failure? It convinces me to do more
and more of the same tests, samples, and experiments.)))
09.10.2025
A big advantage of Danish oil is that it dries very quickly and doesn't stink like tung oil or, especially, linseed oil. It's a shame that tung oil darkens wood much better, so I can't use Danish oil everywhere. So, after it dried, I selected the best boards from the prepared ones and assembled a deck from them (for now, just as a sample).
I then cut out the deck profile on paper and covered it to create a visualization of the future deck.
This is what the macro looks like. Unfortunately, it's cloudy right now, so depending on the distance, the photos turn out completely different colors. But in person, the color is very beautiful.
And this is what a comparison of different pear colors looks like (two on the sides and two on the deck).
By the way, in the future at least 3-4 other pear colors will be used on this ship...
Next...