In my experience, and I'm open to correction here, before a hull is planked, it is "faired". Strips are fastened to the frames, such that they "appear right" to the eye. They are use to determine the width of each strake, at each frame (plank edges are almost never straight lines, and the shape of the hull determines where and how much the width of each strake varies). In many cases, strakes would become so narrow that they could not be fastened (at the stem, and at the sternpost). In these cases, "stealers", short strakes that run aft from the stem, or forward from the sternpost, take the place of the "too narrow" strakes, butting against the ends of the long strakes. Generally, a stealer widens to two plank's width. Using the fairing strips, makes determining where, and how often stealers will have to be used, and what their shape should be. Scribing planking, would be best done following the process used to cut and shape each strake, and would allow for the same number of strakes between the fairing lines at each frame, until the need for stealers is reached. That said, again, in my experience, the first plank applied to the hull, is the garboard. This is the strake that lays to the rabbet in the keel, stem, and sternpost. The rest of the strakes, can be layed up from the garboard. The fairing strips can also allow planking to procede from the gunwhales down. I know of at least one hull where the strake, at the turn of the bilge, was the last strake fitted in. In the case of scribing the planks on a model hull, you could use thinly cut strips of masking tape as fairing strips, and taping a scribing guide (thin strip of hardwood?) in place as needed, for each plank line.