Woodgrain

jtilley wrote:

I certainly agree that most of the wood-grain effect on most plastic sailing ships is overdone.  But I'm not so sure I'd want to see such detail eliminated entirely.

sumpter250 wrote:

When building a scale model of a wood item, think about it. Understated is usually better than overstated.

    Divisions between hull planks, and deck planks are needed to give the model character, and because they are somewhat visible, in reality. I was addressing the grain of the individual plank, or timber. In deck "appliances" especially, wood was finished smooth.  In the way of a re-statement, if you can see it in the prototype, and it is an important detail, model it. If you can't see it in the prototype, artistic license still permits it, accuracy does not require it.

Regarding Heller kits - there's a tremendous amount of variation in how they handle "wood grain."  (That's true of how most manufacturers handle all sorts of details - but it's particularly conspicuous in this case.)  In the first generation of Heller kits, the "grain" was represented by more-or-less arbitrary scratches on the molds, which then showed up as raised lines on the parts.  At about the time the Soleil Royal and Reale appeared, the moldmakers started making an effort to represent genuine grain-like shapes (including knots), and making the necessary scratches on the masters (rather than the molds), so the detail on the finished product was countersunk, rather than raised.  It was pretty heavily overdone, but much better than the first kits the company made.

In this area as in so many others, the designers unfortunately didn't do their research.  Sometimes they scribed the edges of "planks" in reasonable places; sometimes they didn't.  In some Heller kits from the seventies, the "deck planks" are more than a scale foot wide.  The head knee of the Soleil Royal, if memory serves, has "grain" engraved on it in such a way that it looks like it's made entirely from a single board.  And the ship-of-the-line Superbe looks like its entire hull was hacked bodily from a single log.  (I'd like to see the tree.)

By the time they got around to the Victory, the Heller artisans had learned a great deal.  The planking on that kit is beautifully done - with each plank, straight or "anchor-stock" style, in the right place.

The hull and decks of a sailing ship present the same problems to kit designers as the wings and fuselages of aircraft do.  Even the finest of the aircraft kit manufacturers puts surface detail on its models that's far out of scale.  The grooves in the surface of a Hasegawa or Tamiya 1/72-scale airplane scale out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/2" wide and 1/2" deep.  Real airplanes don't have grooves like that on them.   I certainly agree that most of the wood-grain effect on most plastic sailing ships is overdone.  But I'm not so sure I'd want to see such detail eliminated entirely.

Another point that comes up sometimes in this context concerns the grooves beetween hull and deck planks.  In real life they're actually wider than many people realize.  In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was standard practice to chamfer the edges of the planks, in order to leave a substantial groove between them to receive the caulking that made them (more-or-less) watertight.  The typical wood sailing ship did in fact have grooves in its hull and decks.  The caulking, when fresh, would stand slightly proud of the surface; as it wore away the surface became virtually flush, and eventually shallow, three-dimensional grooves would show up as the ship worked and the caulking got older.  When that happened, it was time to think about recaulking. 

In contemporary photos it's usually possible to see the edges of hull planks.  The kit manufacturers overdo it, of course, but I don't think I'd want to depict a hull on 1/96 scale as perfectly smooth.

Thanks Jose, You've put into words exactly my feeling about the accuracy / Character balance in ships of this type.

The wooden dowel stump masts were initially used for deck alignment and subsequently to act as anchors for clear acetate sheeting to cover the decks temporarily to reduce dust adhesion to the deck fittings whilst working on other areas.

The masts are quite complex in form so I intend to use the kit provided ones, but I have inserted dowel inside the plastic masts to give a greater degree of rigidity.

I agree - while woodgrain on some models is perhaps a bit overstated, the woodgrain adds character to a build. Many styrene ship modellers who work with more modern vessels are highly concerned about scale accuracy - we get very involved in getting the tiny details right, adding resin and photoetch to give the model a "wow" factor beyond what the oob build might give; we work this to good advantage, and the extra effort yields great results.

Builders of plastic sailing vessels have to bridge a gap between the styrene world, where scale accuracy and virtuoso detail technique are paramount, and the wooden model builders, whose materials by default lend a warmth and feeling that styrene models of modern vessels cannot convey. I think the wood grain in the styrene sailing vessel is, in a not-so-small way, an attempt to bridge that gap. If you remove the wood grain, what you gain in accuracy is lost in character.

BTW the Victory looks stunning! - (nice entry port) - are those wood dowels you have an indication that you plan to use wood for your masts?

Jose Gonzales

I cannot comment on the Revell Spanish Galleon but I do have knowledge of the Heller Victory.

It is of course a subjective matter but I would take issue with Scottrc's comment about ‘Heller leaving the bark on the tree.’

The graining on the Victory Hull may be a little over scale but the overall effect once painted imparts a period look  and  sense of realism to my eye and personally I like it.

Sanding off the grain would I think reduce that ‘aged’ look that I think is so important in period models. For the same reason I think spray painting of period ships gives a more artificial look.

The real Victory which I have visited twice this year currently has a very smooth ‘showroom’ look to the hull sides, derived no doubt from years of restoration, layers of paint, and use of modern tooling, but to replicate that effect on a 1:100 scale model would not in my opinion enhance the effect or indeed reflect on how she probably looked during her time of active service.

The photo shows my current build of Victory, very much work in progress, and I leave to you to judge whether the ‘ grain’ makes the model  look odd.

Whatever one’s opinion I would think long and hard before taking the sander to the hull.