San Francisco II Wooden Model Ship Build / Log: Bending Wood for Hull

Will start this post by saying there are many ways to plank one of these ships. This is the way I do it, and find it easy for me. This ship really isn't going to be a problem, I don't think. I will go into some detail about planking a hull, as most people trying one of these ship find that this is the hardest part of the process, that and the rigging of the sails. The way I look at it ,very small percentage of the population that will look at your finished ship and say, or even know if it's planked correctly. I would think that most people building one, want there finished ship to look a realistic as possible. So the way we will plank this is just that way, as realistically as possible. If you just want to cover it up, and fill in the gaps, then sand it, knock yourself out, it won't look like the real ship, but will get the job done.

First thing I do, if you remember is to sand the edges down so the planks lay flat on the bulkheads, this will help form the planks to the hull, and give you more surface space to glue the planks.

You can see in this photo, how the plank lays on the bulkhead before you sand down the edge. The plank isn't making contact to the bulkhead, no room to glue or nail the plank. You really can't take much off of it, as you will lose the shape of the hull. I will remove just enough material so I will have a matting surface to nail and glue it.

You can see in the picture above the almost 90 degree bend you have to make, this is really the only bend you have make. So how do you make that bend ?

This is one way to do....

Soak the wood in hot water for 15 min of so.

The wood has to be wet to allow you to bend it, once you bend it, it will dry in the bent possession, I always over bend it slightly. To make bending easier they make a couple tools you can use. One tool uses an iron, and a jig. I use a simple tool, cost about 10 dollars that puts a small cut in the wood, allowing the wood to bend.