DocRob

I like your base very much, the proportions are densed in a very appealing way, exactly the right size for the project. I wouldn't have used black for base, but don't like the silver either. I would sand the sides more smooth and would use a brown tone, which contrasts well to the sand color of the Panther and surface, but not too dark, to distract from the scene . Cheers Rob

After a long sanding session, where I thinned the stern considerably to accept the sternpost and the rest of the hull now ready to receive some filler, I turned my attention to an area, which I dread a little. The stern is very complex, many parts meet with a delicate geometry there and I will prepare myself with a little test fitting. I figured, If I put the stern fairings (the planked looking stern parts) flat onto the remaining spars of the fuselage, there is not enough room to accept the rudder. I have to cheat the geometry a bit here. It was also important to find the right position for the stern fascia (the part with the windows), as it's not overly clear shown in the instructions, where a pic from the inside would have helped. All in all, I took my time breeding for more than two hours about the area and hope I have a cunning plan now. Cheers Rob

Thank you Phil, but my planking skills need to be honed for second planking, which can't be hidden. Actually, I'm not working on the DoK for too many hours daily, to be concentrated. There is a lot of drying time involved, be it glue or soaked wood, which have to dry preformed. On the other hand, the build is more relaxing than a plastic kit until now, I even curse less . Cheers Rob

Pity, interesting project though. I know about the lack of documentation from old builds. I switched to digital photography very late, as I didn't liked the results of the early cameras. I loved my Contax with Zeiss lenses, using slide film, often black and white and enjoyed the quality of the pics after having to wait for them. After converting to digital photography, I always felt, the quality of my pics declined a lot. Anyway, I got some hundred important slides digitized, but modelling was not on my priority list by this time. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gaz, I'd really like to see some pics of your SMS Seydlitz. I like these older battle ships with casemates. Which scale is it 1/200 or 1/150? Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, building a wooden ship is quite different from plastic kits. Basically all is made from flat material and the result is 3D. You are also closer to the original thing, using some techniques and materials, like the real thing (In a simplified form with DoK). Cheers Rob

Great start Peter, I absolutely love the F1 cars of that era. Basically strong engines and some fat wheels, not the high tech stuff of recent years. It was about drivers then and now it's about building this Italian icon, which has the same fascination as a kit, like the original, given the time it was produced. I will follow your path soon building either the Porsche 935 or the Brabham BT44. Do I like Martinis, you bet Cheers Rob

Yesterday, I used the curing time of the PVA to prepare some parts for the following steps. This included preforming some parts like the stern blending and the outer bulwarks. These parts were soaked in warm water for a while and in case of the stern blending wrapped around a round wooden shaft with zip ties (a tip from another build log) and left to dry over night. The outer planking of the bulwarks was clamped to the hull after soaking and left to dry overnight as well. The result was looking like this and the method had worked successfully. The pic shows also the sternpost, which will be added with the keel and later accepts the rudder. Finally I started trimming the stern area planking with my Dspiae nipper and a fine Tamiya saw. I tried to follow the line of the sternpost with the saw, to have a square and symmetrical shape. This is only the first step of closing in with the stern blending. The firs sanding session is over and the hull looks way better. There will be less filler needed, than first thought. Like the stern area, I'm far from finished with sanding, but the planking starts to look smooth. Cheers Rob

Thank you Gaz, I had the same sensation and another benefit of finalizing the first planking is, I can use the stand now . Cheers Rob

Thanks Mike, I have only a large Festool orbital sander, but will add a smaller accumulator driven sander to my tools shortly. For now it's manual sanding, which has the advantage of better control and les vibrations. In some areas, my disc sander could be used for getting roughly to the finalshape. Cheers Rob

Wow, impressive Gaz, I like your mud application and weathering, which blends perfectly. I always thought about mud in a layering way, with dry, partly dry and sticky wet parts. I also like the spots you applied the mud, as sometimes you see models, where mud was applied in places, very hard to soil with it. Yours look spot on. The Tannenbaum, well it looks not exactly like a Christmas tree, but could resemble a small larch. With the light passing through in the firs pis, it appears to be very natural. Cheers Rob

My comfort zone with wooden ship models is very narrow, as I lack the experiences necessary. This is only my fourth wooden ship, with two, a trawler and a racing boat built in my twens and the one before Dok is a Kutter, with the first planking finished. As much as I like the USS Constitution as an icon of an ending era of wind powered Man O' War's, I would never consider building one in wood (I built a plastic one as a teenager). There are different reasons, first I like larger scales for detailing and realistic outfitting and rigging of wooden models. The 1/64 scale of the DoK was the biggest obstacle for me, while deciding about buying the kit. Only the obvious quality of the kit made me change my mind. The second important aspect in choosing a wooden kit is the lack of too much redundancy. I can not bring myself into rigging a myriad of cannons or get the gun ports aligned properly. You see, the USS Constitution is far off my list, with maybe Vanguard's HMS Sphinx as a follow up project, which is the absolute border in connection to the above mentioned points. What I surveyed so far is, the kit should build up from quality materials, cheap wood and crudely prepared parts are a nightmare. A good documentation along drawings are also very important. Personal preferences, as the scale in your case are also important, there are differently complex models available and the price range is also important. Only to be of little help, I recommend our resourceful partner forum 'Model Ship World'. I only attempted one search and found that: USS Constitution Best historical wooden kit available? - Wood ship model kits - Model Ship World™ Cheers Rob

One milestone done, with finishing the first planking. Planking all the way down from the deck line to the keel, I stopped some planks from the keel and applied the keel plank as straight as possible to the keel position. In the firs pic you can see, that I used some plank pieces as spacer, to get as close to only inserting one last plank, to close the hull entirely. After inserting some very fine strips of plank residue, to fill the last remaining gaps, I prepared the keel planks to accept the keel, which is only loosely assembled on the following pics. After an overnight curing period, next up will be sanding the hull smooth and add some filler where needed, along with trimming the planks in the stern area. In case you wonder about the strange looking gray tape on the bowsprit, this is only to protect the part during the planking phase. Cheers Rob

Your Kingfisher looks extremely good, love the painting and weathering. I wanted this kit so often, but failed to grab one, but one day... I have only these little fellas in my stash, which are a part of Eduards recent USS Arizona boxing in 1/350. 3D printing is clearly the new wow. If they turn out a tenth as good as yours, I will be satisfied . Cheers Rob

Amazing detail with these printed parts. Your great painting reveals the quality of those parts. This pit is truly a kit in the kit and let me think again about getting the nose section without the redundant accessories . Cheers Rob

Almost there with the first planking, at least on one side. For the last rows, I inserted some stealers to adapt to the geometry. With only some planks to apply, I prepared the plank nearest to the keel, as I want that to be a full plank. I then added a second one upwards and have to close the remaining opening with tailored pieces of plank. It somehow looks a bit crude under my inquisitional lighting, but is smoother to the real eye, luckily, but I have to do a lot better with second planking. Cheers Rob

I hear you about the distractions, quite a few tempting projects. I will not start to count down mine, because I will abandon the DoK build only by studying the list . I keep it poco a poco, step by step, like the Spanish here say. I still work on the first planking, but I can see the end now. Some pics will follow later. Cheers Rob

Indeed Peter, it's like a guide book to me with the right chapter always opening at the right time. There is so much to learn about wooden ship modeling and it's best to learn from the aces. Cheers Rob

Nice little Albie Gaz, but c'mon, no rigging . I can only bow my head to modelers, who are able to rig their 72 scale planes. I only built the Fokker D.VIII from Arma hobby in this scale and there are only a few rigging lines with this. Your Albatros looks great though and you have to look twice to realize the scale. Cheers Rob

I feel with you Tim, having lots of different hobbies is a prob for me too. In the moment I feel perfectly comfortable with building the DoK, which is so positively different from plastic modelling. I will stay with polystyrene for sure, but I always loved working with different materials, be it wood or metal and a wooden ship to me is something special. Not utterly sorry about stirring up your emotions, about building a wooden ship . Do yourself a favor and get a good kit, which helps immensely and start a WIP, if only to receive as many golden tips, as I got here . Cheers Rob

You are absolutely right Mike, painting the lower hull makes the task much easier. The upper planks are relatively easy to lay down and the pear wood seems to be a fine and forgiving material. This will be assisted by having a fully sanded and filled hull as a base and not only spars to apply the planks on. Somewhere I have seen somebody using plastic headed thumbtacks for second planking, using the pin to push the plank up and the head to get a good bond on the first planking. I will try to lay the planks nicely in the underwater area too, as to learn something for future projects. I could not force myself into thinking about partial cut planks now, it feels somehow, that fitting the pars of the plank smoothly would not be too easy, but you seem to have mastered that perfectly. I beveled some planks,, but only one sided this time. For the second planking, I'd like to bevel both sides of the plank to achieve an even smoother result. Some hours ago, I claimed, I will use inserts (stealers) only if it couldn't be prevented. With my good side of the hull, I experimented with a two part filler made from scrap plank and I think at least in this area it makes life much easier for the following planks to lay. The inserts are only pinned now as is the last plank, which was soaked in water and now needs to dry. On the bad side, I pinned the next two planks, which were also soaked in warm water for an hour. I think I will add an insert here too. Cheers Rob

Peter, I can't express, how grateful I am for the help and knowledge shared by Mike. I learn a lot with every post and I couldn't have hoped for more support. Cheers Rob

I might try that hairdryer method with the more warped planks, which are now to prepare. 'Unfortunately' the planks are completely perfect with Chris kits, no bends no nothing to take advantage off . As impressive, as I find your planking on the shown hulls, this is not for me, as I fight the material enough the conventional way. But it's good to see, how it could be done. I like to be prepared in case of... In my case, the first planking will be only the invisible base layer and I plan to paint the hull under the waterline with white color. I will pre select the second planks for consistent color and texture, using the not so perfect ones under water. Cheers Rob

I can't thank you enough for your extremely valuable input into this build. It's more than I ever hoped for, while starting this WIP. It's a new experience, like guided modelling . The best about it, the solutions you present are exactly in the timeframe, when I build the section, perfect for me. I also cannot understand, how people can get a decent job out of single planking. There are so many things to do at the same time. I try to use the first planking as a training for the second decorative planking. When I look for the differences between the better side of planking on my DoK, one obvious difference is the width of the planking in the bow area. All the planks are narrowed by cutting off a wedge of material from between the third and fourth spar forward. The good side is a bit more regular in width, a thing, I will keep in mind for second planking. For a better understanding of the geometry of the hull, I measured the distance from the keel to deck level on each spar with a piece of thread. The results show, that for an evenly planking, I need to narrow the planks on the bow to half their full width and approximately to two thirds in the stern area. With planking further down to the keel, I found the geometry from the V-shaped bow to the barrel shaped midship harder to maintain and therefore soaked the prepared planks in hot water and pin them on for drying, before I glue them to the spars.. The hull of your Rennomee seems to be nearly watertight planked, very beautiful work you made there. I try to get away with as few stealers and filling planks as possible for this build, lets see, how this works out. Cheers Rob

Sorry Gaz, I put it the wrong way, I meant the indentions and irregulations in the plastic, not your nice woodpainting. Cheers Rob