The main wales are a group of three planks along the water line of the ship. Because they are subjected to a lot of stress, they are connected in a very specific way called “top and butt” planking in which the two bottom planks are interlocked at different angles. I took the plans from the National Maritime Museum (NMM) and mirrored that pattern as well as I could. Using this pattern (as opposed to just strips of planking) adds a layer of authenticity to the build, even though you are barely able to see it because the wales are ultimately painted.
Once again – I’m not cutting my own planks, I’m using various sizes that I have in stock in my stash. So – I measured out about a 12 mm total with the wales, 4 mm for the top and a combined 8mm for the bottom two varying in widths from 5mm at the widest point to 3mm at the narrowest point. To achieve this, I measured out one plank and lined out the shifts, cut the plank, then overlapped it on top of the second plank to essentially create the opposite shift pattern so they could then be married together. I figured this offered me the best shot at the patterns fitting together smoothly.
In the interest of full disclosure; at the end of the day (or a couple days as the case may be), this method was only moderately successful. There were still some sketchy and inconsistent gaps and I was ultimately glad that these wales are painted black so the variances are less obvious.
I like hand painting for the most part, but I was having difficulty getting the crisp lines I usually get. I blame this on my laser eye surgery. Before the surgery I was basically blind with anything past about 18 inches from my face. I had like – point me in the direction of the eye chart cuz I can’t see it – kinda vision. But – anything close was perfectly in focus. Great for ship / model building – not so great for… well, life. Now – I have 20/15 distance vision, which is awesome. Except, I can’t see crap up close. So, I now have varying degrees of reading glasses, magnifying head gear, etc. But, I’m still getting used to it and it has indeed affected things like painting and small carving. Anyway – not to make this some kind of “woe is me” story – but I opted for taping off the ship and airbrushing the paint on the wales instead. I new I could get the tape much more precise than a brush by hand.
The Lehman Shipyard 