Bread and Butter Model Boat Construction

Pros and cons with bread and butter model boat building method – aka laminated hull
construction – it's a quick and easy model boat hull building method suitable for static
and RC scale model boats.

Bread and butter model boat construction is where the bread symbolizes the lumber
and the glue is the butter in a laminated stack. The method seems to have fallen out of
favor for some reason.

To my knowledge there are no kits that are based on this hull construction, so consider this article aimed
scratch building, as an alternative to the more common plank-on-bulkhead method.

A laminated hull ready for carving to commence.

This method isn't for everyone or every project, but sometimes it may get unfairly overlooked. Two good
reasons to consider B&B, in my humble opinion would be:

 Speed at which a hull can be completed

 Lesser skill level required compared to other methods

Bread and Butter construction is not that different from carving a model boat hull from a solid block of
wood. If anything, it's easier.

Bread and Butter model boat construction is well suited for:

Model ships that will be painted – scale model subjects that were built from steel, fiberglass or from
wood and painted.

 Static model boats

 Electric and (to some extent) steam powered RC boats
 Making plugs for fiberglass hulls
 Toy boats
 Pond yachts

Bread and Butter model boat construction, not optimal for:

 A sailing yacht hull will always come out heavy when built Bread and Butter compared to
fiberglass or strip planked. Casual pond cruisers may be fine, but if you are racing to win, be
aware you are leaning harder on your skill if you stick with B&B.
 Planing hull boats, launches, racing boats, cabin cruisers, motor torpedo boats, deep vee's etc –
consider sheet planked or fiberglass hulls to keep the weight down.
 Historic sailing ships with exposed planking – these ships are typically built with one of the built-
up methods. However, it is entirely possible to plank a B&B hull in a similar manner as a plank-
on-frame or plank-on-bulkhead model boat if you are so inclined.

Advantages to Bread and Butter compared to

  solid block method:
 The Bread and Butter method is more economical than carving from a solid block.
 Bread and Butter is suitable for larger boat models that would be impractical to carve from a
solid piece. A Bread and Butter boat model is also dimensionally more stable. Large solid blocks
are more sensitive to changes in humidity, leading to checks and cracks.
 Lumber sizes readily available can be used with less waste.
 As the block is glued up, the contours of the waterlines or buttocks are helpful guides for the
shaping of the hull. This makes it a lot less intimidating getting started. A rectangular block of
wood can look daunting, especially to a beginner.

Benefits over a built-up hull:

The dull task of cutting out and shaping multiple frames or bulkheads is eliminated. Shaping the
laminates for the B&B is a lot quicker and less precise.

Bread and cutter is a faster building method measured from cutting out the laminate pieces to having a
sanded smooth hull. You’ll spend infinitely less time waiting for glue to dry.

Bread and Butter caters to a lower skill level than a planked hull. Sawing, carving and sanding is a lot
more muscle than skill compared to shaping frames and fitting planks. Much of the muscle can be
overcome by using power tools like angle grinders and power drills with drum sanding and flap disc
attachments.

Building a Bread and Butter Model Boat

Here are three different methods to build a bread and butter model boat.

First, if you are not yet familiar with ship plans, follow the link. Study the description on waterlines and
buttock lines. To get started, you need a ship plan of the boat you are building, with cross sections.

The shear and waterline plans will be used for profile and deck outline. It may be tempting to cut your
wood to the buttocks lines or waterlines. The only way this will work is if your lumber thickness
corresponds to the distance between the buttocks lines or waterlines – in most cases there is no match.
You’re stuck with three options:

Scale the drawing to fit your lumber.

This is likely to result in an obscure scale. This isn’t necessarily as bad as some would think. It may be
inconvenient if you plan on using off-the-shelf parts and fittings. If you decide to go this route,
investigate ahead of time what you may have to make from scratch.

Mill your lumber to fit the plan

If you are tooled up with a powered planer or jointer, I’d say this is a viable option. This method may be
wasteful in terms of material. But as I said, if this option is available – consider it.

Generate new waterlines or buttock lines

This is not as hard as it may sound. You need a ship plan with a body plan (also known as hull sections).

Bread and Butter on Waterlines

This is probably the more common of the three methods. It is based on the lumber being glued up in a
horizontal fashion resulting in the boards laying parallel with the waterline.

The design waterline (DWL) is commonly used as the reference plane. In the body plan, draw new
waterlines parallel to the DWL at a distance equal to the lumber thickness you are using. Plot the
intersections on the <b>waterline plan</b> or directly on your lumber.

Connect the dots using a batten or French curves. The lumber should be prepared by having the center
line and stations marked in pencil. It is essential for the lamination process to be successful.

Building a bread and butter hull using the waterline method may seem more intuitive and will probably
require fewer layers. I have a hard time thinking of any other benefits over the buttocks method.

Bread and Butter on Buttock lines

As seen on the ship plans, buttocks are the lines representing vertical slices parallel to the ship’s center-
line.

The centerline will be the reference line. In the same manner as described previously: draw new buttock
lines parallel to the centerline spaced apart a distance equal to your lumber thickness and plot them on
the shear plan or directly on your lumber etc. Follow the same idea as described before.

Building a B&B hull on the buttocks has a few advantages. This method will typically require more layers
than building it on the waterlines since most hulls are wider than they are tall. However, almost all hulls
are symmetrical down the center. By making two of each laminate at the same time, the transferring and
cutting can actually be reduced.

Another advantages include:

 Glue joints will aid when checking the hull shape from side-to-side.
 For hulls with tumblehome (where the widest part of the hull is not at the shear), creating the
lifts from the buttocks is the only viable option unless you are an expert. If you consider yourself
an expert, save some serious time by trying the "other way".

Bread and Butter Hull Construction

Building a Bread and Butter hull - learn how to build a laminated model boat hull from glued up wooden
boards. A step-by-step picture tutorial constructing an RC steam launch model from scratch.

If you want to build a Bread and Butter hull for your next model boat there isn't a whole lot of helpful
information out there. You may find a page or so in a book about building model boats, but that's about
it.
 I wanted to fill that gap by building a hull and document my progress. In
order to do that, first I had to find a suitable subject.

Plan of a Russian motor launch.

As I was browsing the Russian hobby magazine Modelist-Konstruktor (the No.11 1987, page 20) I found a
ship plan for a motor launch for the Russian battleship Marat.

I liked the simplicity of it and decided to build a model boat based on that. This was to become a semi-
scale model. As simple as it may look, there are still details I didn't feel like dealing with, such as the
steering arrangement above deck and the deck grating.

A cleaned up version of the motor launch plan above with buttock lines for the lifts.

The plan I had was of poor resolution, so I had to refine it and true it up. Here is what I ended up with. I
wanted to make the bread and butter hull from inexpensive wood and with enough laminates to
illustrate the method well. To meet those goals I had to figure out what scale to build to.

 The dimensions of the motor launch (or pinnace):

 Length: 12.9m (42ft 4in)
 Beam: 2.8m (9ft 2in)
 JDraught: 0.8m (2ft 8in)
 Displacement: 12.5 long tons

Using trial-and-error I eventually settled on 1:16 scale. The hull will end up 806mm (32in) long and weigh
in at right around 3kg (6lbs). More importantly, I'll use ten layers of one-by (19mm thick = 3/4 inch) pine
construction lumber I happen to have laying around. The width of the hull will end up at 175mm (just
under 7 inches).

Templates cut out for the lifts.

I had never built a bread and butter hull on the buttock lines before, but now I'm sold. For more on the
pros and cons about bread-and-butter and direction of the lifts, follow the link.

First I had five copies printed out of the shear plan (side view) with the buttocks lines shown. Each was
then cut out. There is no need to be all neat about it - staying 3-6mm outside of each buttocks line is
fine.

A typical bread and butter hull is carved with an open top and the deck constructed using deck beams,
like you would on a real ship. I decided to divert from this idea and integrate the deck with the rest of
the hull and cut it out later for cabins and hull access.

Part of my decision was to use the middle part of the deck (that would later be cut out) to attach a block
of wood for holding the bread and butter hull temporarily as I was carving.
 For the top (deck) I decided to stay above the highest point of the deck. This way
the laminated stack would have the curved shape from stem to stern roughed
in, but straight from side to side. This decision was also to make it easier to hold
the hull while carving and shaping.

The lifts

Next I attached the paper templates to the wood using 3M Scotch-Weld™

75 Adhesive. This is a great product that is suitable for temporary
positioning - perfect, that's what we're doing. Follow the directions on
the spray can.

A note on picking out your wood. The laminates doesn't have to be

perfectly flat, but use your flattest pieces in the middle. If a board is bent
or cupped, if possible orient the left and right like mirror images so they
pull in opposite directions and hopefully cancel each other out. Watch out for twisted boards - there is
no fix.

Also, avoid knots - if they are in the middle of a cut out board, that's OK. You want to avoid having knots
where the finished exterior of the hull will be. It is likely that the resin in the knots will mess up the finish
of the bread and butter hull. Knots can be drilled out and plugged with a plug of clear wood (if you're
equipped to do so).

After attaching the template in the boards, I cut them out (roughly) with a jigsaw and doubled up each of
them for the opposite hand. Holding each pair together with clamps I drilled and pinned each pair
together. The pins I cut from bamboo skewers. Then I cut each pair much closer, about 1-2mm outside
each of the buttock lines.

The first step in creating an internal cavity - poking holes

Now is the time to think of how to hollow out the bread and butter hull. It's a good idea whether the model is
a working model or static. A hollowed out hull is more flexible and is less prone to cracking. It makes the
model a lot lighter too.

Here is the bread and butter method's great advantage over a solid block hull. You can hollow the boards out
before gluing them together. A word of caution: make sure there is enough surface overlapping for when you
glue up the stack. I left at least 8mm (5/16 inch).

The hollowing out part is more critical for RC model boats than static. You need to make room for the RC gear
and get rid of enough material to make it seaworthy. Having said that, don't go too far. There will be
opportunities later to gouge out from inside.

I used a Forstner bit in a drill press to get started with the jig saw, but any method will do.

I left some material tying the bottom of the hull together with the deck, like pillars. The intent was to leave
some rigidity for clamping and holding the hull. I'm not sure it was necessary.
 To lighten the hull and make room for motor and RC gear I hollowed out much of each lift
ahead of laminating. Here I'm setting up to cut between the holes O made using a jigsaw.

Now is a good time to transfer the water line and stations from the paper
template to the laminates. These are critical when the time comes to line up the
laminates to each other. Use a good quality square to transfer the lines to the
edge of the boards.

Getting ready for the jig saw. Move the clamps as they interfere but don't remove them all together.

The lifts are now hollow and paper templates can come off

Time to peel off the paper templates and peek inside. Once the paper template is off, draw the waterline
and stations on each side that will face out. Mark the middle station (zero station) - typically where the
hull is the widest so you won't shift the locations.

The lifts have been marked with the stations and waterline to aid the task of lining up and later carving to shape.

Now is also a good time to number the boards and identify the left and right individual in each pair. Mark
them where you can read it as you glue up the stack, I did it on what will become the deck side.

Separate the pairs.

Here is a dry-fitting just to see what there are no gaps and mistake

By using the station and waterlines the laminate can now be dry-fitted. Locating the laminates is fairly
critical. There are a few different ways to do this. I chose to dowel each board to its neighbor using the
same bamboo skewers used earlier. Make sure the dowels are shorter than the thickness of the two
boards it is locating.

Another dry-fit but with dowels in place this time.

By first locating the relation between two neighboring boards I held the two together with clamps. I then
proceeded to drill the first dowel hole - inserting a dowel - and then drilling the second.

When you're done - dry fit. Fix any issues that may crop up.

Glue-up time.

Glue-up time.

laminating the lifts

Glue up the bread and butter hull. I used West System Epoxy by the Gougeon Brothers, Inc. This is some
heavy duty stuff - I'd say overkill. In hindsight I found epoxy is extremely hard on cutting tools like
spokeshaves, planes and chisels.

Looking back, I should have used regular woodworking glue. My favorite is Titebond I, but many others
will work too. Some may think you absolutely need to use a water safe glue for working model boats. I'd
 say not necessarily if the model boats get a good quality finish on it. Think
about it, even if you visit the lake frequently, the boat will most likely spend
99% of the time out of the water.

Don't skimp on clamps! There is no substitute, and there is no such thing as

too many clamps!

The carving process has begun by defining the shear/deck outline. This will help visually when
continuing defining the hull shape.

Once the glue has cured/dried remove the clamps and mark the deck outline. I ended up making a
template and cutting it with a router. I made the template 1.5mm oversize. I'd like to think I saved some
time this way.

Next step is to carve down the high edges in the "stair-step" shape.

Start carving. Start by rounding off the high edges using whatever tools you have and are comfortable
with. I used a spokeshave and a chisel until I got close (see picture below).

As you carve and sand, fill in the hull stations with a pencil every once in a while so you don't loose
them.

It is really hard work using handtools. At some point I opted for bringing out the angle grinder and some course-grit sanding
disks.

The next step is to refine the form with surforms and sand paper. Alternatively, various sanding and flap
discs and on an angle grinder. Be careful not to take off too much. I found myself going at it for a a
minute max at a time and check my progress.

Here is the bread and butter hull after being sanded with angle grinder and subsequent passes by hand.

Eventually it is time to bring out the hull templates just like when carving a solid hull to finish the bread
and butter hull.