1st Layer Planking (Lime)

Where the lime meets the centre of the hull I rebated the ply to accept the wood so the finished hull would be only one thickness of wood (when the walnut was applied) above the ply level.

And that was the first layer of planking finished.

A view of the back of the hull with the lime planking finished.

A view of the front of the hull with the lime planking finished.

I decided to start planking the rear of the boat at this stage, probably because i was bored with the other planking !

The hull had to be turned over now, I made up some blocks off wood for the hull formers to rest on and screwed it with some very small screws to stop the hull from moving around while it was being worked on.

This proved to be very successful.

I alternated the planking on each side of the hull, doing 2 planks on one side then two on the other, this assured that the hull remained straight and was not pulled to one side.

I had to remember to mark the centre lines of the blocks for the dummy canons.

A few more are positioned , the technique I used is to nail through an off cut of wood let the glue dry and then break the off cut of wood away the nail can then be removed easily. (You can see this on the bottom plank)

The start of the planking always a daunting task, firstly I laid a couple of lime strips along the hull fairly straight with the decks.

Hull Formers and Decks

A close up of the rear terrace's showing the curvature of the decks. The two blocks between the two rear terraces are there to keep them parallel to one another, while providing more strength.

Another view of the decks, note the timber across the deck on the 7Th hull former was only glued slightly as this was to be removed at a later stage.

The 3 decks glued in positioned along with the rear terrace's.

Showing the blocks in position again looking back it would have been better to have painted these out black before the planking was started.

The side ribs showing the blocks that are used to accept the dummy canons, looking back now it would have been better to have made these bigger, so the tolerance was bigger when opening up the gun ports.

So this is it the start of the San Felipe

After completing the HMS Pandora a few years ago I promised myself I would never do another period ship model as that one took me 5 years !

So here I am starting another one, and yes ive now jumped in the deep end with probably one of the hardest ships to construct, so who knows how long this one will take.

But its a hobby and theres no time limit on it, the idea is to enjoy it and its finished when its finished (well thats what I keep telling myself)

The first stage was to make sure the hull formers are straight, and think of a way of holding the hull while it is being constructed.