Sorry not to be able to answer your questions faster, as they have to be (still?) approuved by the mods.
Yes it is a cast from the heller hull and the backside is just thinned to get rid of the overcast. The display started as a mere test piece that suddenly got a life of its own, leading to several twists and turns, just for the sake of enjoying the trying out new technics :-)
After the first coat of primer I left the can on the cold balcony, stupid idea, as the color got to cold ...
... which I was made aware by an apart giraffe pattern on the model :-(
So back to zero and take down the paint with the help of a scaler.
... reworked the splitlines ...
... and saw (PUN!) the results of this unexpected action. The scratching down the color left some rattling marks.
One needs to be able to see and realise, but these rattle marks look very much like the marks of handsawn wood, also seen on older ships.
As I was already looking for a long time how to differenciate a painted steel hull from a painted wooden hull, I got aware taht with the slightly uneven levels of the different planks, the different dimensions of the gaps in between the planks and the rattle marks, I am coming quite close to the look I was looking for :-)
XXXDAn