Deckwork on Soleil Royal

Well, I used the sanding technique on my Cutty Sark deck for the raised grain and the results were pretty good.  I'm going to do a little testing to see if drybrushing would look better on the Royal and Victory.  I do like your idea JTilley of varying planks with just slight differences in tone.  I'll start working that in.

I don't have facilities to post pictures myself, but our good Forum friend michel.vrtg has been kind enough to post some pictures of my models on his webpage:  http://www.hmsvictoryscalemodels.be/johntilleygallery.htm

The Bounty is based on the old 1/110-scale Revell kit, and the Hancock is scratchbuilt.  Both have decks made from basswood strips, 1/16" wide x 1/32" thick.  It's actually a fairly simple process.  I started by cutting the planks to length and running a fairly soft pencil around all four edges of each plank.  (The pencil line represents the caulking between the planks.  Since it runs all the way through the deck, it will survive any sanding, scraping, etc.)  Then I glued the planks down to the deck beams (also basswood), using either Franklin Titebond or Elmer's Carpenter's Glue.  (They seem to be pretty much the same stuff), being careful to follow the rules about the locations of the butt joints.  When the glue was dry I sanded the deck with extremely fine sandpaper.  Then came a thin coat of Minwax "Driftwood"-colored wood stain, followed by a light sanding, followed by a thin coat of diluted white shellac.

Basswood isn't a bad wood for decks, but it's not the best.  After I finished those two models I got hold of a stock of holly veneer, which is much better.  It's harder, and the grain structure of holly is such that, with a touch of stain on it, it looks amazingly like miniaturized wood.  A good source is Constantine's:  www.constantines.com. 

Laying a deck like that with individual planks really isn't difficult, and once the planks have been prepared the work actually goes pretty fast.  If I remember correctly, the Bounty's one weather deck took one evening to plank; the Hancock took one evening for the main deck and one each for the forecastle and quarterdeck.  The biggest problem, for a financially-struggling grad student, was the cost.  All those dozens of basswood strips added up in a big hurry.

The Phantom is a not-much-modified Model Shipways kit.  At the time I bought it (about four years ago, I think) MS was selling it with a cast-resin hull.  The decks had nicely-cast grooves between the planks, but none of the "wood grain" detail that one finds in plastic kits.  I painted it with my favorite brand of acrylic hobby paint, PollyScale, starting with a color called "Aged Concrete." I then highlighted some of the individual planks, as described in my earlier post, and used a dark grey wash to bring out the "seams" between the planks.  I don't claim this is the only way to do a deck, or even the best, but I'm pretty satisfied with it.

One decking material that I don't care for is the scribed basswood sheeting that comes with many wood kits.  It's high-quality stuff, but I have three reservations about it.  One - the deck of a ship is a compound curve, and it's difficult to get a sheet of wood to conform to it.  Two - any stain makes it obvious that the wood grain runs across the planks.  Three - the grooves between the planks are too wide.  (There really shouldn't be grooves between them at all.  In a real ship the caulking material in the seams turns the deck into a nearly flush surface.) 

Hope that helps a little.  Good luck.

I've played around quite a bit over the years with tricks for making decks look like they're made of individual planks.  Conclusion:  the most convincing solution is to make them out of individual planks

 

Can you post pictures?

I think the key word here is subtlety.  No two boards, even if cut from the same log, are exactly the same color.  But after they've spent even a few months being bleached by the sun, submerged regularly in saltwater, and stomped on by hundreds of feet they come pretty close.

I've played around quite a bit over the years with tricks for making decks look like they're made of individual planks.  Conclusion:  the most convincing solution is to make them out of individual planks - which really isn't particularly difficult or time consuming.  Well-molded plastic decks can, however, be made pretty convincing.  I've had most success by starting out with a single, overall color (a medium-light grey with a beige tint; sort of like the background color of this Forum screen but somewhat lighter).  Then, when that's dry, I pick out some of the individual planks with colors that are slight variations on the base color - one with a little white added, one with a little yellow-ochre, one with a tiny bit of brown, one with an even tinier bit of green, etc.  When all that's dry, I apply a thin wash of the original color to "even out" the visual texture of the whole piece.  The idea is to introduce just enough variation that the eye doesn't perceive the deck as being one flat, uniform color - but doesn't sense that all those different colors are there, either. It's an easy thing to over-do.

The "wood grain" detail also calls out for highlighting.  How to do that depends on how the manufacturer has treated the "wood grain."  If it's in the form of countersunk grooves, a thin dark grey wash will pick it out nicely (and represent the caulking in the grooves between the planks, as well).  If the wood grain detail is raised, dry-brushing is a good way to highlight it.  (Some folks have also had good luck in dealing with raised "wood grain" by painting the deck with a dark color first, applying a lighter color on top, and, after everthing's dry, sanding away the light color paint till the raised detail shows through.  I haven't had much luck with that one, but other modelers like it.)  Again, the idea is to make the effect as subtle as possible.  You don't want the viewer of your model to think "wow, this guy actually painted all those planks individually."  You want him/her to assume, without being conscious of it, that the deck is made of wood. 

Before deciding on a technique, examine the model parts carefully and figure out just how they're made.  Also, take a good look at a piece of wood; you may be surprised at what you see.

Grymm wrote:

Quick question before I get going on the deck of the Royal.  I was thinking about making the deck look like a few planks had been replaced over time.  So, would these individual planks be just a shade darker than the rest?  I was assuming this was true since decks tended to lighten (bleach out) over time from constant cleaning.  And with that, should I use several different shades in order to show planks that have been replaced at different times. Thanks, Grymm

There are a lot of discussions about what wooden decks on wooden ships look like.   It seems to me the the key point is whether the deck is frequently holystoned as would be the case with the RN.   When a deck scubbed daily with a block of pumice stone the size of a Bible (Thus "holystone"), the wooden, new or old, would acquire pretty much the same shade of newly polished wood with stone flour ground in.    If the deck is not frequently scrubbed, then there would be a clear tonal gradation between new and old planks.     RN prides itself on the cleanliness of its ships and the daily holystoning that is a rigourously observed ritual.   RN also make sly comments about the amount of filth that can be present on a French or Spanish ship.    But I don't know if that means the French didn't frequently polish the deck the way the RN does.

I rather think they may be lighter -   consider new floorboarding or new oak somewhat yellowish when new but taking on a grey patina when weathered. Look at the decks of HMS Victory.

I would think the modification you propose may be tricky at 1:100 scale to ensure that the 'new' boards don't come across too strong or even worse end up looking like a flaw in the paint job.

A case for practice on spare decking, or perhaps areas that don't show.

Interesting idea though.