How do I make wooden planking appear realistic?

If the hull / deck is solid wood, you can scribe the plank-seams into the wood. The disadvantages of this technique are that:

• one slip and you've got a problem;
• if the wood shows any grain at all, the planking will look artificial due to grain running from one plank to the next.

If you're doing plank-on-bulkhead (POB), the bulkheads will be too far apart, allowing the planks to "slump" into the gaps. This will be true even if you're using "double planking". A common solution is to glue blocks between the bulkheads and carve / sand them down to an even curve. Although this appears to be a lot of extra work, it really makes a difference. You don't need to use exotic woods either - ordinary hobby-grade balsa works fine (you just want the packing to provide support).

Plank-on-frame (POF) hulls support the planking well enough so that you don't need packing blocks.

You have a couple of choices in working with planks - you can either use scale planks (a full size plank would be unlikely to be more than 24' long; = 3" at 1:96 scale), or you can use long strips and mark in the "butts" (where planks join) later. Long strips are easier to work with, unless you have to taper or otherwise shape them - then they can be awkward!

In any case, before you actually glue the plank material in place, run a pencil along the edge - when glued, this will help represent the caulked seams (which were typically less than 1/4" wide).

Decks are the easiest to plank - in most cases the planks (and their edges) are parallel to one-another and to the centerline. The only thing to watch out for is the "shifting of the butts" - the ends of planks were always supported by beams; at least two unjoined planks had to be between successive joints on the same beam. (You don't know where the beams would be? There would certainly be one under each end of any deck structure for support; likewise on either side of each mast. Additional, more-or-less equally spaced beams would be used to fill gaps between the support beams.) And, oh yes, they wouldn't place butts anywhere if the total plank-length was less than a single plank - such as between hatches, masts, etc. Remember that each joint was a point of weakness.

The hull is somewhat more complicated. First of all, there are usually wales (one or more bands of thicker planks parallel to the top edge of the hull {the "sheer"} located somewhere around the widest part of the hull in order to provide longitudinal strength). Planks above and between these are likely to be of uniform width, although they may be curved edge-wise. Below the wales the general rule is that there are a uniform number of planks on each frame/bulkhead. Since the hull had more "circumference" in the middle than at the ends, these planks need to taper. Sometimes there's even a reverse taper (often at the stern), giving the series of planks from stem to stern the outline of a fish! The simplest way to manage this is to decide how many planks you want to fill a space ("N"), then fit strips of paper - at each bulkhead/frame - to the space, and divide each into N equal sections. Now take a piece of plank stock, mark where it touches each frame/bulkhead, and transfer the plank-widths from the strips of paper to the wood and rough-cut to shape.

Now comes an activity called "spiling". Set your dividers to a small gap (say, 1/8"), and place the plank within this distance of its position. Use the divider to accurately scribe the edge of the plank relative to its neighboring plank. Remove and final-shape the plank before attaching it.

Stealers

Occasionally a plank will get too narrow (e.g., at the bow where a lot of planks converge) or too wide (e.g., at the stern where the planks are diverging). Here's where you'll need a "stealer". That's a place where one plank mates with a pair of planks in order to provide an increase or decrease in width. Planks were fastened to beams/frames using spikes or "trunnels" (from "Tree-nails" - wooden pegs), depending on the period. You can add them as you place the individual planks, or wait until all planks are in place. Remember, however, that these were no larger than 1 1/2" diameter (or 1/64" at 1:96 scale) - too big and they'll look like "zits". The same thing happens if they're too contrasty - use a similar colored wood.

Fastening patterns

The "nailing" patterns vary with period and plank width - a plank 6" wide might have one fastening at each beam/frame (alternating from side to side:
, ` , ` , ` ) while a 12" plank might have two:
: : : : : ).

The nicest material for the pegs is bamboo - salvaged from barbecue skewers, chopsticks, etc. With a little practice you can split these end-to-end using nothing but a pocket-knife. Then pull them through a "draw-plate" (steel plate with a graduated series of holes) to round off the corners and make them the final size. Dip in glue and push into the pre-drilled holes; then clip them off. When the glue has dried, cut, scrape, and sand them flush. (Hint - if you put a coat of finish on the plank before you glue in the pegs, squeezed-out glue will pop right off without a lot of effort; it won't leave a mark either.)

It's a good idea to put planks alternately on both sides of the hull - The strains are balanced and the hull is less likely to warp; it's also easier to maintain symmetry (it looks terrible if you end up with a herringbone pattern of planks at the bow or stern).
(John O. Kopf, with input from all in the shipmodel list.)

If the space between bulkheads is too great, I glue additional basswood pieces in until the distance between bulkheads closes.

It takes about an hour to trace and cut the basswood bulkhead thickeners, a half hour to glue and clamp them to the kit bulkheads. The fairing of the hull takes maybe 15 minutes longer, if that. This two hours of extra work makes hull planking many times easier, and, I have found, much neater.
{Frank E. Donahue}

I show an illustration from Petrejus' Modeling the Brig Irene that compares the two methods with a bow-on view, English on the left, Dutch on the right. These are real methods, not kit building shortcuts.
{David Hill}

I'm building my first wooden model, and from conversations here I understood that stealers and drop planks are almost "cheating" and weakening the hull. So I managed to plank mine (an 18th century ketch) without any stealers or drop planks, though it took a great deal of bending the planks sideways and most of my planks are half their width at the bow.

Now I discover that this great achievement of mine is not so authentic. Were stealers and drop planks used only because they couldn't bend enough the real planks or the bows were too obtuse?
{Peter Lifshits}

We are attempting to differentiate here between the stealers that are 'kit building shortcuts' and those that are authentic planking techniques. Common kit instructions suggest that you use progressively shorter, pointed planks to fill in a wedge shaped gore left between other planks. This is the 'cheater' technique that we object to.

Tapering the plank ends and careful attention to how they run will take care of most of this problem. Dropping some planks at the bow, or adding some stealers aft, while not desirable, is acceptable if you can't otherwise cover the surface. If done, how they are done is important. You don't just taper the plank to a point because the narrow point can't be fastened and can't be caulked, so you use a method similar to deck nibbing: cut the end off blunt, and hook the adjoining plank around it to fill in where the point would have been. Dan Pariser pointed out that this would be termed a 'hook scarph.'

We've also mentioned a method of dropping planks that is typical of (at least) late 18th century Dutch shipbuilding practice: a series of planks were typically dropped just beneath the wales, which closely resembles the typical kit technique except
(a) it doesn't replace tapering and spiling, and
(b) they're carefully fitted with hook scarphs for strength, and
(c) its only done just below the wales and not haphazardly wherever convenient.

The shipbuilder's objective was always to use as few such devices (stealers & drop planks) as possible, for they were weak points, and when used they were used as high on the hull as possible so they would be accessible for repair. The fewer the better, and best is none at all. You've managed with none, so you've a perfect score on that point.

Your planks that are tapered to 'half their width at the bow' are also quite normal... You should taper the planks to avoid using stealers (or drops) as much as possible. Perhaps unwittingly, you've followed our general guideline: if you have to reduce the width of a plank to less than half, then we suggest a drop plank to reduce the plank count and allow each plank to be somewhat wider. This is to prevent the hood ends from getting so narrow that they are too weak to hold a fastener. Again, you have a perfect score on this point.

The only "inaccurate" technique you mention is that of edge-bending the planks, but this is a reasonable workaround for a kit builder, given the planking stock supplied with your kit. Any plank can be edge-set to a certain small degree, but a shipbuilder would avoid this because of the stresses this induces in the hull; he would use wider stock and cut out a curved board that fits without bending. (Look up "spile" or "spiling" for more on the process of cutting and fitting hull planks from wider stock.) But your kit didn't come with wider stock, and unless you buy more wood, you must work with what you have. That means bending the planks sideways. If you edge-set a plank too much, the inner edge will rise out of line with the adjoining plank... again, this is ok in moderation, for you can sand off the high edge and it will look fine. But too much rise and you'll sand right through the plank before you even up the surface.
{David Hill}

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