I'm designing what I hope to be an interesting build. It's definitely challenging for me!

I started with the Freedom Song Boatworks kit of the Boothbay Harbor (Maine, US) ferry the Nellie G. But, the kit builds a 21" simplified, hard chine, version of this long-lived little ferry. First, I wanted to make the boat to 1:16 scale, so that it would be a nicer size on the pond. And, second, I just didn't want to live with the hard chine simplification of the graceful original hull.

Also, this kit has a nasty trick or two up its sleeve. While material IS provided for the bulkheads, PLANS for them are not. The widths of the bulkheads at the deck and chine are on the plan, and the side view gives the elevation of the chine. But, it's up to you to develop the actual shape of the bulkheads. Having developed the bulkheads, and then modified them for a round chine, I moved on to the cabin. That's where I found the second issue. The kit cabin sides are 1/2" shorter than the plans show. While the provided cabin sides DO cover the cut-out in the supplied deck, all the placement and size of the parts on the cabin roof would have to be fudged. Finally, the pilothouse roof and base provided are 1/4" shorter fore and aft than shown in the plans. I would not want to be a beginner or even a moderately experienced modeler and be faced with this kit.

I was left with the choice of which cabin and pilothouse to use. In the end, I went with the plans, as I think the larger cabin makes more sense. I originally drew the pilothouse to the kit parts, so it's shorter than the plans - I will likely alter this before finalizing the pilothouse.

I decided to draw the boat in Fusion and intend to laser cut the parts. She'll be balsa strip planked over bulkheads, and have a simple 2 channel RC setup - no smoke. Despite being launched as a steamer, she spent most of her life gas powered, and none of the photos I have show any visible exhaust. While I've got many years of CAD experience on making guitar parts, that experience was in Mastercam - which is to Fusion like a reciprocating steam engine is to a turbine. Mastercam doesn't have a timeline - it's just a database of objects. Fusion, on the other hand, keeps a history of each part and regenerates the state of the model each time you change anything - you can go back and change the shape of a part and the change echoes down all the later steps. But, first, it's buggy. And, second, that limits what it will let you do. I'm used to just throwing changes around, and every time I did that in Fusion, the model just fell apart.

It's been quite a learning curve, and to some extent, I think my prior CAD experience actually slowed me down, but I'm finally doing it with a moderate level of proficiency.

The images I have of her show her topsides in 3 very different configurations. First, with a low pilothouse, second with a low pilothouse somewhat further aft (OR this is perspective distortion), and third with a high pilothouse and presumably still the aft position. The kit makes the last of these configurations. In the end, I decided to go with the kit configuration - it seems to match the latest dated photo I found of the boat.

So, I scanned the kit parts and the plans, and started by just making a round chine version of the kit, but with a skeg-built keel (sharp corner where the keel meets the hull). I wasn't satisfied with that, so I re-drew the bulkheads for a traditional built-down keel, which looks a lot better. I created the bulkheads, a deck and a planking pattern. Then, I went and added the cabin and started on the pilothouse.

But, after all this work - I hit a major snag. Looking at the original photos, it's clear that the sheer in the kit is comically exaggerated at the stern in comparison with the prototype. While my eye originally wrote this off as hogging, as the vessel is over 20 years old in the side-on picture I have, I noticed that in other pictures she also showed that flat sheer aft. So, I had to re-draw the sheer line, the frames, and the cabin.

That's where I am now - working on the pilothouse. When that's done, I'll re-create the alignment holes in the subdeck for the frames and make sure the deck planking pattern still makes sense. And, then I'll get to cutting.

Building board topper laser cut for frame placement - I used an old door skin - and nailed to a piece of MDF. I cut little rectangles for the ends of the keel and ribs to slot into (and they were ALL too small ...).

Keel, ribs and subdeck cut. And, skeleton assembled and tacked with CA. I think there will be plenty of resin inside and out to solidify the structure after she's assembled. I wish I had more frames, but this was based on a significantly smaller kit, so scaling it up made them a bit wide. At the time, I didn't think I could get an accurate enough take on the actual hull shape through Fusion to create intermediate frames. In retrospect, I think I should have tried. I think it'll be fine, but those frames sure are wide apart.

The forefoot wants to tilt to one side a bit - I think there's a little warp in the plywood - so I'll put an additional brace up there before planking.

PS: Yes, my workshop is always a disaster - I have a different project going on the workbench in the back.

My next step is to fair the ribs, then I'll put on a ribband or two and then start planking. I'm using fairly narrow 3mm balsa to plank, and I don't try to make it pretty, just reasonably fair.

Planking this boat has started with trying to dredge up my knowledge of planking from far too long ago. I worked through a Seguin and a Muscungus Bay Lobster Smack, both done bright, and helped plank a real Haven 12 1/2 - but that was in the early '90s!

The thought of how to do it started with the fact that this boat only has 6 frames and is an old fashioned, curvy, built-down hull 32" long. While I did replicate the boat in Fusion and cut the existing frames from the kit, I didn't trust my Fusion skills well enough to interpolate between the frames and create more intermediary frames. Because of this, I didn't think I could get away with strip planking. I was pretty sure that if I started in various areas, when the sets of planking came together, the shapes of the hull sections just wouldn't meet up cleanly - and same if I started at one edge and kept going.

So, that left planking it like a real boat. And, since she's going to be fiberglassed and painted, the planking doesn't have to be immaculate. It just has to be good enough.

The technique I decided to use is sort of half of the process used to plank full sized boats.

On a real boat, battens would be fastened to the ribs the length of the boat periodically, and moved up and down until the lines of the planking both make sense and fit the available wood. Then each plank width would be mapped at each frame and marked. I skipped that step! Also, on a real boat, at least the smaller ones, planking widths vary, with the planks in the flatter areas of the hull below the waterline being wider than the visible planks topside. I skipped that too.

The original kit was to be planked in 1/16" balsa sheet - I went with 1/8" * 1/4" balsa planks (my US supplier works in imperial units). The extra thickness to give me plenty of meat for sanding fair, and the width being narrow enough to be reasonably close to handling the very tight curves in some areas on this hull.

That meant 24 planks a side, not including cheaters (short triangular planks at the ends) and stealers (slivers of extra plank to make up extra width in the middle). I would also note that the turn of the bilge between the last frame and the stern is extremely tight - in retrospect, I suspect it would have been done in solid wood even on the prototype, as the radius of the turn is no more than about 300mm. That gets pretty tight in 1:16 scale. Thank goodness it's not going to be visible!

For the forward 5 frames, I divided the length of the frame and deadwood on each side by 24 to give an even plank spacing, which I marked on the frames. Where the planks carry forward to the stem, I couldn't do that because of the sheer. If I tried to use even spacing, as I got down from the deck, the planks would dive downwards in an ugly pattern that, locally, is known as "moose shoulder" - so I had to just wing that - I still got just a trace of it - you can see the planks bending down just a hair. And, where the planks carry aft over the stern of the boat, I had no idea what was going to happen, so I just tapered each plank to 3mm and hoped for the best.

The "real" way I learned to hang planks is to make a template, mapping out the widths of the plank at each frame on the stock, including the edge bevels necessary to make the planks meet up tightly on the curves (and a separate bevel for the caulking). The plank would then be cut to the template All of that would be done, with the plank being left slightly oversized. The inside of the plank might also be cupped or dished to match a tight curve on the frame at that spot. Then, fit the plank, planing to a perfect fit against the existing plank, and the other edge is checked against the marks on the frames and planed back as necessary to fit the plan.

Then, the plank is steamed, clamped into place, and fastened. One or two planks a day is good going!

I skipped most of those steps.

For each plank, I have been sanding a rough bevel to match the prior plank (which changes from frame to frame). Then, I marked the anticipated width at each frame, and drew lines from mark to mark. I then sanded just shy of that line from mark to mark. I test fitted the plank, and finished sanding to meet the mark. I haven't bothered cupping or dishing the inside surfaces of the planks. Another option would have been to sand little flats in the frames - I probably should have done that.

Forward of the first frame, that's been guesswork and aft of frame 6 it's just been a taper to 3mm at the back of the hull. When everything fits, I've fitted the stem end and then tacked the plank at each frame. Where the planks meet in the center aft of the last frame, I've started herringboning them in the middle.

I started at the sheerline, and worked down - pickling the interior with resin after every 4 planks in the areas that won't be accessible. And, after 4 planks I remembered a good tip from back when - DON'T glue the planks in full length when you are hanging them. Just tack them at the frames. This way, you aren't locking the planks together until you have enough of them to make sure that you haven't glued one in too tight or crooked. I forgot that one - and glued up the first 4 planks on both sides as I put them in. That was definitely a mistake as I had one plank 1.5mm too far out between 2 of the frames. Lesson learned, and I'm grateful for that extra plank thickness!!! It'll be fine, but I could have done without the headache.

Anyway, here's what I've got so far.

I would note that the extra layer of material around the outside of the keel that takes the place of a proper rabbet is only 1/16" - and my planking is a strong 1/8" thick. That's going to be some careful sanding when all the planks are in place. Also, there were a couple of low spots near the sheer line right aft where I added a little more wood on the outside. I'll fair it in properly later.

I hope this all makes sense to folks - that's as well as I can pull it out of my chaotic thought process and get it down.

PS. I'm well aware that my shop's a pigsty. I just moved into it a few months ago and am still figuring out where everything is going to go.