Cap San Diego 1/160

[wefalck]

I am also working in 1/160 scale and I would not use real wood, neither as a whole sheet nor in individual planks. The wood structure and surface would be completely out of scale. It is much better to simulate the wood by paint. Also saves you a lot of trouble with gluing wood onto styrene etc.

[Fliger747]

We all use various techniques depending on our skills and available materials. A number of people have made very convincing individually planked decks on 1:200 Bismarcks. I individually planked my 1;192 Missouri scratchbuild and like the result. By contrast my 1:192 Alaska uses a scribed plastic deck. In her warpaint the decking is painted anyway which would remove the greatest (only?) advantage of real wood stripping which is the random color variation and richness. The material I used for Missouri which was a lovely veneer with a paper backing, peeled off had a very good adhesive. Painting this with a goodly amount of a flat varnish solidified this into a cohesive mass, and then sanded back down yielded a smooth and convincing surface. Unfortunately I used the last of this wonderful material. Is it a major project? Well yes. People have definitely done a better job than I did the great number years ago when I laid that deck.

Thankfully my current and future projects do not have wooden decks!

I am glad to see that you are not afraid to experiment with various materials and techniques! Solving problems is one of the great satisfactions of the hobby!

Regards: Tom

[mikegr]

I planked the decks of my 1:192 Missouri with a wood veneer which peeled off of an adhesive backing. With a tool to do so I ripped these into appropriate plank widths (your 1 mm is good). I then finished this with a flat varnish and sanded to get an even surface. I liked the rather nice random effect of the wood grain. There are many effective planking techniques and I am glad that you have chosen to take this step, I much prefer it to the laser striped wooden decks available for many of the popular kits. You are experimenting with some novel techniques which is always a wonderful approach to modeling!

Regards! Tom

Thanks for the sharing these info Tom.

I was lucky to match quite well the color of the planking with the original as you can see in the photos, at least looks better to some models available on the market. The first deck is almost rady some finishing details will do later after bridge construction. There is a considerable planking job on this model as all deck need to be planked even the roof of the bridge deck, And then comes the rigging.





Now speaking about planking im thinking of starting The Gambier Bay in 1/144 based also on a detailed paper model i have. The ship itself has not great difficulties except i dont know how to make the deck looking wood. There is a marvelous project here done by a user but he doesnt show how he turn the wooden sheet to a fully detailed wooden planked deck.
However on a closer search i found this
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=144168&start=200

[Fliger747]

Mike:

For his escort carrier he hand planked the deck with thin and narrow wood strips. Every so many feet (10+?) there was a segmented metal strip which served for tie downs of the aircraft on deck. With a stained wooden deck, not long out of maintenance one could probably use scribed styrene or one of the Evergreen pre scribed sheets to approximate the planking. My Alaska (1:192) used this method and it looks OK, the deck is finished a little lighter and duller than the painted steel portions. However the steel tie down strips remain an issue. Model Railroaders are masters at making plastic look like almost anything. In these pages Pascal (Iceman) has done a nice job on his Nomadic with the wooden decks of that small steamer.

For a carrier with a wooden deck, the hand planking offers a major appearance advantage. To start with the planking will be little uneven but sealing and then lightly an carefully sanding level yields good results. The major obstacle is making/obtaining the planking material. Suitable veneers are available from hardwood/woodworking suppliers and you just need to find a suitable method to cut the strips. One guy for his Prinz E (could have been Bismarck) used a micro table saw to cut the strips. I have cut veneer strips with my huge cabinet makers saw but it is not suitable for the thin strips. Been so long since I planked Missouri (20 yr?) but my vague recollection was I used some sort of strip cutter with a #11 exacto blade. I have a rotary cutter the I use for paper and thin styrene, whether or not this would work with wood, I don't know.

Even a small carrier has a lot of small detail, light AA, sponson's, walkways etc, which man not be initially apparent.

Sounds like a fun project!

Regards: Tom

[mikegr]

Mike:

For his escort carrier he hand planked the deck with thin and narrow wood strips. Every so many feet (10+?) there was a segmented metal strip which served for tie downs of the aircraft on deck. With a stained wooden deck, not long out of maintenance one could probably use scribed styrene or one of the Evergreen pre scribed sheets to approximate the planking. My Alaska (1:192) used this method and it looks OK, the deck is finished a little lighter and duller than the painted steel portions. However the steel tie down strips remain an issue. Model Railroaders are masters at making plastic look like almost anything. In these pages Pascal (Iceman) has done a nice job on his Nomadic with the wooden decks of that small steamer.

For a carrier with a wooden deck, the hand planking offers a major appearance advantage. To start with the planking will be little uneven but sealing and then lightly an carefully sanding level yields good results. The major obstacle is making/obtaining the planking material. Suitable veneers are available from hardwood/woodworking suppliers and you just need to find a suitable method to cut the strips. One guy for his Prinz E (could have been Bismarck) used a micro table saw to cut the strips. I have cut veneer strips with my huge cabinet makers saw but it is not suitable for the thin strips. Been so long since I planked Missouri (20 yr?) but my vague recollection was I used some sort of strip cutter with a #11 exacto blade. I have a rotary cutter the I use for paper and thin styrene, whether or not this would work with wood, I don't know.

Even a small carrier has a lot of small detail, light AA, sponson's, walkways etc, which man not be initially apparent.

Sounds like a fun project!

Regards: Tom

in 1/144 i have the opportunity to get some PE parts to cover little details as well as SK radar

this is the project i talked about, a superb job done on deck and decals but not info provided. This is in 1/96 scale though.
Also i noted in this pic that planks need to be cut in pieces, if you want to give the perfect look maybe 3 pieces to fully cover the deck width

[Fliger747]

Mike:

I am guessing that the lengths of the individual plans was more like 5 to span the deck. That would make for a fairly convenient 12' or 14' board. Planking the deck goes faster than you might think, once you have the large pile of the scale boards.

in 1:144 that would make a convenient length ship model!

Regards: Tom

[mikegr]

Mike:

I am guessing that the lengths of the individual plans was more like 5 to span the deck. That would make for a fairly convenient 12' or 14' board. Planking the deck goes faster than you might think, once you have the large pile of the scale boards.

in 1:144 that would make a convenient length ship model!

Regards: Tom

i choose 1:144 for the PE availability and the planes. But looking at the market i can hardly find models of WW2 USN airplanes. Revell offered some but discontinued production. I would rather buy some instead of sratchbuilt so i can present more details like the canopies etc. I hope by the time i start this project something may come out at the market again

[Fliger747]

It is possible that some 3D or resin aircraft might be hiding out there, or become available.

Good luck! Tom

[mikegr]

I have finished the decks of the superstructure apart from the roof of the command bridge, all from MDF 2mm , aluminum sheet 0.2mm and some balsa.

[mikegr]

I have finished the upper deck. I planked it with veneer and made the swimming pool. Added some ladders and fireplaces. Marked the lines where the upper and final deck will sit on.

[mikegr]

I work at the bridge deck in the same way I worked for the hull. I use polysterine to shape the roof. Then I will use putty, sand it and prime it. Sides were made by 0.5 mm plastic sheet. Easy to work with but I try to limit its usage for small parts only. I find wood and aluminum more quality materials

[mikegr]

? Have finished the decks and i made a test fit. There are many details to be added but now i need to get back to figure out how to finally shape the hull

[mikegr]

i went back to the hull to get the final shape.
Now things got complicated. I bought some superfine car putty. I tested a bit on a piece of polysterene and noticed a slight shrink. However i have used some in the past for the superstructure and had no issues. so i coated a layer with it over the hull.
After a few minutes i noticed that polysterene had shrunk in many areas between the frames. I spend considerable time giving a smooth finish to polysterene hull to minimize sanding but now this.
I let it dry then covered the hull with a second layer of acrylic putty, quite easy to work with. I sanded it but still gaps are visible, acrylic is easier to be sand but it has far less grip than automobile putty. I should have done the opposite: Cover the hull with acrylic thick primer or filler, then using the car filler for smooth finish. Im kinda trapped now, should i keep the work on this piece or making a new hull, which will set me back 7-10 days?

[Fliger747]

Mike:

What I have used is not the putty, but the Auto Body Filler, known in the USA as "Bondo". This material is set with a hardener that is mixed in and one has a few minutes to apply before it hardens rock hard. One can then get of heavy tools to work it to shape. For roughing out there are the shore form tools which resemble a cheese grater in style and application. Then the heavy duty sanding tools as used in an auto body shop. After the hull is to shape, sometimes needing small additional applications and the final surface is approached I will use auto primer/filler and then use the glazing spot putty on any imperfections. It may be that the putty ate your foam causing it to shrivel?

Good luck! Tom

[mikegr]

Mike:

What I have used is not the putty, but the Auto Body Filler, known in the USA as "Bondo". This material is set with a hardener that is mixed in and one has a few minutes to apply before it hardens rock hard. One can then get of heavy tools to work it to shape. For roughing out there are the shore form tools which resemble a cheese grater in style and application. Then the heavy duty sanding tools as used in an auto body shop. After the hull is to shape, sometimes needing small additional applications and the final surface is approached I will use auto primer/filler and then use the glazing spot putty on any imperfections. It may be that the putty ate your foam causing it to shrivel?

Good luck! Tom

this is exactly what i used. Auto body filler with extra hardener. There is a great selection of such products here: standard, reinforced with fiber glass, with aluminum etc. I opted for the standard one, in the superfine form. I also have another one without hardener, in a tube, liquid form. I use it for plastic models.
i had the same problem while making another project using adhesive rubber glue.

At the beginning i started planking the hull with aluminum strips using PVA to avoid foam shrinkage. It worked good but found it too much time consuming so i scrapped this idea and went straight for the body filler shaping

[Fliger747]

Mike,

It may be that the filler reacts with the foam. I haven�t used this set of materials together. The cataylitic process generates som heat which could cause issues. I am sorry to hear you have encountered this setback!

Best regards. Tom

[mikegr]

This is exactly what happened.
On another project , an Alfa class submarine. I did the opposite. Covered the polystyrene with acrylic putty then I gave it a layer with automobile body filler. I got the desired smooth surface even work is not done yet. No issues whatsoever.

[Fliger747]

Mike:

With all the compound superstructure curves, you didn't pick an easy subject! I hope that you are working out the hull setbacks. Often a project may be punctuated with several setbacks, but we learn from each and it's never as bad as we fear if we just get after it. A day's work and you can be back to where you were with the hull. later on a small item when you have been fussing for a week on rigging or making winches.

Regards: Tom

[mikegr]

Thanks for the advice and the interest on my project. However there are some bad news :
The project Cap San Diego is over...

Why? Because Cap San Diego Lite is on!
Learning from the rookie lessons I already started the process of a new hull with different approach. With better materials and lighter as the previous one would require a big amount of filler. Also I would use thinner wood for main deck as the 2.5 mm MDF proved too heavy and problematic (don't forget I use paper model plans so I need to to adjust wood thickness according to plans.)

image hosting
4 mm plywood was used instead of 8 for the keel so can work easily the sharp bow and round stern. Besides , its the filling between the bulkeheads that keeps the hull straight. Frames will be 2mm think instead of 3. With propel tools now on hand I expect to have a new hull in few days more delicate and balanced.

[Fliger747]

Mike:

Forging ahead is a sure way to success! looking forward to the new hull!

Tom