decking

You probably could, but it would have to be extremly thin and i recon you would have to be very skilled with wood to do it right. I have a 350 wooden deck and its paper thin. There is no way i could produce the planking and get it that thin myself. So i am happy to buy them.

Hand laying a wood deck is one of the most satisfying parts of ship modeling...at larger scales. As Bish notes, a 12" wide plank (which is overscale) is .003" at 1/350 scale. I have a micro table saw that reliably can make wood strips about .05", following some careful set-up and testing. That's close to 6" on 1/96, a nice sailing ship scale.

Even better on 1/64:

Balsa wood is usually a last choice for modeling. If it's all you can find, it has to do. If you can find basswood, the results are so much better. It's a variety of linden, and has a nice subtle grain, cuts well, paints well and you can find it in the back corner of most hardware stores sold under the name "Midwest". 

armor 2.0

why you can't just make a wooden deck for ship out of balsa wood in instead of buying a high price wood deck

As pointed out below, thickness is an issue.

The other ts that balsa is far, far, far too soft.  You'd have better luck making the deck out of fast food restaurant naplkins.

Let's say you bought Trumpy's USS Texas and wanter to put a wood deck on her.  I real life, Texas is decked with 4x4x20' set on steel "s" sleepers about 1.5" tall with 3/4" flanges.  To scale, skipping the sleepers, you could use 3.5" x 5" as a working dimensnoi.

From there, rounding to 6", that would be 0.0014" thick at 1/350 scale.  That's a hair under 0.05mm (0.036 if you want to be precise). 

So, you'd need a wood shaving thinner than a 1/256" thick to be close to scale.  Which is tough sledding.

So, what you are paying for is all the time it took to take off every dimension off a kit deck, prepeare and check that cad, then gin up a CNC routine to cut that out of a thin sheet of hardwood on some industrial doublestick tape.

Everybody knows that the decks on BB-35 were poured concrete. At least they were when I saw her..

I see no reason to use wood decks if they are blue. All of the problems, and they are many, involved in making those...merkins... work, can be solved with a coat of paint.

If it's spit and polish teak, ok and then there's the width scale issue.

GM,

I can see a variety of reasons someone might prefer to use wood decks in lieu of painting, even if the deck is blue.  The individual builder might simply wish to simplify the building process. He/she might have a physical impairment that precludes painting a straight line between the deck and the bulkhead, deck fittings, etc., or he/she may not see well enough to mask accurately, especially for those troublesome fittings.  There are novice builders who wish to simply build a little more quickly.  I can think of more reasons but will not be pedantic.  

Like you, I do prefer to paint a deck.  But, to each his/her own.

Bill

I have a 1/350 enterprise aircraft carrier that was given to me brand new in sealed box . Now what I'm going to do is make this a really cool model or screw it up completely I am going to cut out plastic deck completely and replace with basswood. I have stuff to make this work . We're talking alot of work .and a very extensive build .Could end with burn out before done or a pile of worthless plastic I'm not out anything so why not.

Which 1/350 USS Enterprise; the Tamiya kit of CVN 65 or the Merit kit of CV 6?

Bill

Assuming it's the older ship, there's a bunch of details to track down. Barriers, tie downs, arrestor wire reels.

My Trump 1/350 Hornet (the older one) actually has a pretty decent deck. I worked at the seams for a while and got them under control. There'll be B-25s all over the rear one anyways.

Tamyia kit and I also have a bunch of hardware from a wooden ship build. That's close enough as far as scale even have tie downs for aircraft.

armor 2.0

Tamyia kit and I also have a bunch of hardware from a wooden ship build. That's close enough as far as scale even have tie downs for aircraft.

Modern USN carrier decks are not planked

Unlike WWII tie-downs which were "Greek Key" format which replaced one of the wooden strips,  modern tie-downs are 5-point stars imbedded in the deck at spacing intervals of about 8 feet.    

Your left overs from a wooden ship build may not be appropriate

Normally I try to build model time peroid correct I'm ready for something different and more involved . I personally think this will be really cool if I can pull it off one of a kind might start a new trend LOL!

Ed,

That is precisely why I asked the question.  I appreciate your answer and photos!

Bill