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trimmed plank glued to flat deck

The deck - all know that decks are not flat. How to bend piece of plywood so it remains oval across and rises in fore and after decks? There are number of ways to do it, I chose the following:

Took a 5x5 mm plank as long as length of flattened deck, trimmed it on both ends so ends were almost sharp. Glued right in the middle of the deck… on top of it put 1 mm plywood which I tried to pre-shape a bit by making it wet. I clamped it all together and left to dry. Result - amazing, and all done within hours. I must say this is really good and fast technique, even if you have to plank the deck later.

Bulwark

Next big step is to attach bulwark. I always "hated" that part in the past, endless attempts with paper slips, corrections, measurements etc. And almost all models I made had bulwarks (used to build tugs). I think making good looking bulwarks is very difficult task. Bad looking bulwark can ruin the model, and on the other side, damn good looking bulwark and its smooth line can attract the eye and cover other mistakes.

First stage is to mill out small groove along the deck i.e. 1 mm deep and 2-3 mm high. Quite difficult task if you do not have correct tools. I started with my not well known brand (and cheap) hand drilling machine (speed 8.000-30.000 rpm) connected to flexi shaft. Beginning was disaster… very quickly realize that I need something better than standard milling bits that come in sets. One I bought from Proxxon proved to be great – nice 3 mm in diameter milling bit for wood (€5). That thing did the job for me! Of course the groove in the end was not exactly 1mm deep and 3 mm high, but was good enough. I will fill the gaps anyway.

Bulwark itself once you have the paper prototype is not really a big deal to make. Prototyping is more difficult that actually construction - as in live. My bulwark I cut out from the same 1.5 mm plywood; all bending done with hot water. But I must say this plywood when wet can be bent in any desirable direction. I was nicely surprised. I really start to like to work with wood.

ZENIT's hull in October 2005: