Hi,

I am going to use a wooden deck on my ship model for the first time. I would like to know what is the best moment to add this deck. I am worried that if I add it after I put on the PE railing I might damage the PE, if I add it before my washes I will get stains on the deck. Any tips? Also, do you guys cover wooden decks in some kind of transparent coating?

cheers,

Matthijs

Hi Mat,

I would say you would definitely want to add the wood decking prior to any photo etch railings. As for when, that is up to you more or less. If you are working in sub-assemblies, you could build the hull and superstructure parts, paint and then install the decking. This is one of the more common ways to do it. Application of washes and any other weathering can be done to the sub-assemblies without the decks installed. If they are installed and the deck was installed, just go easy with the washes meaning be more selective with smaller brushes with less wash on them. You can always try to build up the effects over a couple application rather than in one shot. That is of course unless you intend to weather the decks as well or not.

You can clear coat the wood decks with basically any medium of clear coat you choose. I would stay away from gloss, just because it is a bit too shinny for decks...but your call. If you apply the clear coat before installation, you will want to keep the deck pieces as flat as possible after until they dry...which can be tricky since you can't just plot a book on top of the wet clear coat. Doubled over masking tape or two-sided tape on a flat surface and still the deck sheet to that with the protective film on the back side still in place. Otherwise, install the deck onto the sub-assemblies and clear coat in place. This could be done before weathering of the sub-assemblies. Any washes that might get on the deck , you should be able to remove off the protective clear coat.

Check out a few of the latest builds going on here. Many of the builders show their process for adding the decks and you can see how they manage to work the deck.

Good luck!

Hi Matthijs.

A lot depends on the layout of the ship you are building, my general rule is:-

1. Remove any deck detail required to fit the deck, or being replaced by etch (a lot of decks don't require any removal of detail, but best to check.)
2. Build and paint the hull.
3. fit the wooden main deck.
4. seal the wood with a couple of mist coats of matt clear.
5. repeat process with further deck sections.

I try to avoid fitting the wooden deck sections around pre-fitted superstructure sub assemblies, (deck first, then superstructure down on top) however this is not always possible due to the breakdown of the kit.

Planning is the key.

And as Todd says take a look at some of the build logs, there is more than one right way to do this.

Cheers

Si

Hi Todd and Simon,

thank you very much for your advice, I know what to do now. To test my skills, I will first try it on the RM Roma which only has planking on the quarterdeck, If successful I will take the next step and try to add it to the SMS Konig.

thanks!

Hi Mat

Good plan indeed, and all the best with it, would be great to see some pictures.

Cheers Si

The wooden deck is the first part I add to the model. First I paint the entire deck the color the metal parts will be - ie., dark gray (deck gray), then carefully apply the wooden deck. I find the deck sticks better to a matte surface, but that's just me. Also all visible metal parts are already the right color - no need to paint after the deck is applied.

so this is what I did: I kept sure the plastic deck was flat, I painted all the vents on it, then placed the wooden deck, then added all the stuff that goes on top and finally I added the PE railing. I must say this wooden decking is very tricky, the glue is VERY sticky and I was afraid I would damage the wood, but I found this glue layer is also very tough, is does not tear. I am surpised how well these decks fit, I wonder if the manufacturer got he CAD drawing of the ship from Trumpeter.... Anyway here she is, still a million things to do but at least she already looks like a ship.

Mat,

The Roma looks great!! The camo and deck stripes look perfect. What did you use to mask them? Wood decks usually fit great and add realism to the ship in my opinion.

Nice job Mat,

Roma looks great.

Cheers

Si

thank you for the nice comments

I used ordinaire yellow masking tape (similar to the tamiya one). First I painted the deck white. I then measured from the lenght of the deck between the the bow tip and the breakwater. I divided this by the number of stripes. Using some basic math I calculated the actual width of the stripes which are placed at a 45 degree angle. Then I cut strips of tape with this width and covered the whole deck. Then I removed every second strip. The whole deck is covered in vents and oher stuff. I cut with a sharp exacto knife the tape around these "bulges" to make the tape stick to the deck. The bulges were then covered with tiny strips of tape (took me ages). I then put on a layer of red paint.

For the camo on the sides I used the CAD based drawing that came with the Trumpeter kit. Since the drawing shows every porthole etc it was easy to get all angles correct. I did have some issues since the Trumpeter drawing does not completely match the drawing in the Warship pictorial book. I used actual pics and some "guesstimating" for certain spots.

I now need to finish the PE, add the planes, add the AA and do some paint touch ups before I can start my favourite part: rigging I need to investigate the white fake bow waves as weel, they had been removed at a certain moment and I need to check if I should add them or not