JSGerson

Now there are numerous items that need to be installed on the spar deck including the captain’s skylight. However, before any of that can be done, the spar deck must be stained first. This gave me some trepidation. As mentioned earlier, unlike the gun deck, the spar deck is open to the elements and weathers differently depending on the foot traffic around all the items on the deck, I must get the stain done right and done right the first time. Area
 
According to the practicum, Mr. Hunt had an elaborate process to accomplish this. Unfortunately, some of the products he used are no longer available, specifically Floquil Grimy Black and Floquil Roof Brown or any Floquil product for that matter. He would have you sand, apply paint, wipe off the paint, and scrape. I really didn’t like the idea of using paint in lieu of stains and physically scraping the wood. Other builders used different methods and color stains to get their weathered look, resulting in effects different from each other. The one thing I noticed was that all the spar decks were stained monotone, that is, no one area on the spar deck looked different than another. Yet, if you look at the images I posted earlier, there are color shifts. My model does not have a fully planked deck, so a lot of the dark areas shown in the photos will not exist. The area where the carronades are located, appear to have a more orange tint, while the foot traffic aeras along the center, bow and stern (on my model) are more brownish-black. This is what I will attempt to emulate.
 
I did some tests with the stains I had available on scrap pieces of wood. I tried straight staining and various over lapping combinations. Based on those results I bought some more stains and experimented again. I think I came up with a simple scheme to get the desired results.
 
I held my breath and took the plunge. The first coat consisted of two stains: Along the bulwarks where the carronades are, I used Minwax Gunstock 231. This has an orange tone. In the center area I used Minwax Early American 230 which is brownish tone. At the border where the two colors met, they overlapped each other slightly. Once the stains dried, the deck was lightly sanded. This time I streaked some dark tones with Varathane Espresso . This somewhat emulated Mr. Hunt’s colors of black and brown. Like it or not, it’s done, but I think it will work.

As I examine the capstan location, I realize that I made the gun deck capstan protrude about a 1/16” above the spar deck. At the time, I was thinking that I would extend the axial of the capstan into the spar deck capstan. As it turned out, there was no reason to extend the axial. First, attempting to get a perfect alignment would be tedious and second, it wouldn’t be seen. I sanded the protruding axial so that its top was just below the surface of the planking. Now I simply planked around the spindle. The area left open will be covered by the spar deck capstan. In the end, it won’t be obvious what method was used to install the spar deck capstan as it will all be hidden.

I've made a note! 👍
 
Jon

I've made a note! 👍
 
Jon

Here are a couple of more photos of the ship's wheel taken between 1940 - 1950. It looks like the wheel in the 1933 picture was removed and shown as a museum piece on the gun deck, Sorry, these images are not the greatest.
 
Jon

I believe the modern binnacle was there for the practical reason the ship was on the ocean on tour under full sail part of the time and others being towed. She went through the Panama Canal all the way up the coast to San Francisco and back to Boston .
 
Jon

Thanks for the clarification. I went through my collection of images and found one, just one photo of the platform. It was taken during the 1931-34 National Cruise in 1933. Since the MS kit is largely based on the 1927 restoration, I'm not surprised it's part of the kit's plans. Therefore, I won't be adding it to my model either.
 
Jon

About the mizzen platform, I assume you mean the fighting top on the mizzen mast. If so, here are a few images of the platform where you can count the number of planks. I hope this helps.
 
Jon

Thanks for the clarification. I went through my collection of images and found one, just one photo of the platform. It was taken during the 1931-34 National Cruise in 1933. Since the MS kit is largely based on the 1927 restoration, I'm not surprised it's part of the kit's plans. Therefore, I won't be adding it to my model either.
 
Jon

I believe the modern binnacle was there for the practical reason the ship was on the ocean on tour under full sail part of the time and others being towed. She went through the Panama Canal all the way up the coast to San Francisco and back to Boston .
 
Jon

Here are a couple of more photos of the ship's wheel taken between 1940 - 1950. It looks like the wheel in the 1933 picture was removed and shown as a museum piece on the gun deck, Sorry, these images are not the greatest.
 
Jon

Here are a couple of more photos of the ship's wheel taken between 1940 - 1950. It looks like the wheel in the 1933 picture was removed and shown as a museum piece on the gun deck, Sorry, these images are not the greatest.
 
Jon

I believe the modern binnacle was there for the practical reason the ship was on the ocean on tour under full sail part of the time and others being towed. She went through the Panama Canal all the way up the coast to San Francisco and back to Boston .
 
Jon

Thanks for the clarification. I went through my collection of images and found one, just one photo of the platform. It was taken during the 1931-34 National Cruise in 1933. Since the MS kit is largely based on the 1927 restoration, I'm not surprised it's part of the kit's plans. Therefore, I won't be adding it to my model either.
 
Jon

Thanks for the clarification. I went through my collection of images and found one, just one photo of the platform. It was taken during the 1931-34 National Cruise in 1933. Since the MS kit is largely based on the 1927 restoration, I'm not surprised it's part of the kit's plans. Therefore, I won't be adding it to my model either.
 
Jon

About the mizzen platform, I assume you mean the fighting top on the mizzen mast. If so, here are a few images of the platform where you can count the number of planks. I hope this helps.
 
Jon

About the mizzen platform, I assume you mean the fighting top on the mizzen mast. If so, here are a few images of the platform where you can count the number of planks. I hope this helps.
 
Jon

Yes, a very impressive service record. I never got any further than 3rd year Army ROTC while in college, when I was released from the program for medical reasons in 1969. But that's another story.
 
Up to now, I have not looked too deeply into the deadeyes yet as I have not gotten that far in my build. (In case you haven't noticed, I'm very slow). So, I took a look at the real ship's hardware and discovered that for the lower deadeyes, the wire is not twisted, but doubled. It's a loop that goes around the deadeye and is bolted to the chainplate from both sides of the loop. At your 1:96 scale, a single larger gauge wire, twisted just at the meeting point at the bottom of the deadeye might be easier to do and would look more real than the twisted wire going around the deadeye.
 
Jon

Yes, a very impressive service record. I never got any further than 3rd year Army ROTC while in college, when I was released from the program for medical reasons in 1969. But that's another story.
 
Up to now, I have not looked too deeply into the deadeyes yet as I have not gotten that far in my build. (In case you haven't noticed, I'm very slow). So, I took a look at the real ship's hardware and discovered that for the lower deadeyes, the wire is not twisted, but doubled. It's a loop that goes around the deadeye and is bolted to the chainplate from both sides of the loop. At your 1:96 scale, a single larger gauge wire, twisted just at the meeting point at the bottom of the deadeye might be easier to do and would look more real than the twisted wire going around the deadeye.
 
Jon

That will work.
 
Jon

That will work.
 
Jon

Peter: When I planked the gun deck, I started from the center and worked to the edges because I wanted to ensure the planking to look symmetrical. Any inconsistences would be at the waterways and would not be visible due the guns and visual access. On the spar deck, I also started from the center for the same reasons. However, at the stern, the planks taper to match the narrowing at the transom and curve following the shape of the bulwarks. I wanted clean looking planks especially at the waterways due to their high visibility, so I also planked from the water waters inward. Following the method from the practicum, the planks were tapered from full width from the last hatchway to half their width at the transom. That worked pretty well. As the two planked areas approached each other, I had to make some minor adjustments due to my workmanship and subtle differences in the supplied plank widths.
 
For the bow, once more, I started from the center to ensure symmetry. This time the planks did not taper, but the planks bordering on the waterway had to be custom fitted as they intersected the bow curve. Once more for their visibility, I started the planking from the waterways inward to ensure proper fit. As the two planking areas approached each other, I could see that some planks had to be narrowed a bit to ensure the last plank to fill the gap between the two areas was the proper width.
 
Gregg: The bowsprit dowel has not been shaped other than the base to fit into the square hole in the bulkhead. It is not glued into place. It does however slide into its seat easier enough when I move it in and out of the model. All the mast holes have been tested to accept their respective dowel pieces at their proper rake angles. The mast seating and rake angles were set when I was adding the structure elements to support the spar deck.
 
As for staining the deck, I’ve made some initial tests of different stains and combinations but have not yet taken the plunge and committed myself yet.
 
Jon

Peter: When I planked the gun deck, I started from the center and worked to the edges because I wanted to ensure the planking to look symmetrical. Any inconsistences would be at the waterways and would not be visible due the guns and visual access. On the spar deck, I also started from the center for the same reasons. However, at the stern, the planks taper to match the narrowing at the transom and curve following the shape of the bulwarks. I wanted clean looking planks especially at the waterways due to their high visibility, so I also planked from the water waters inward. Following the method from the practicum, the planks were tapered from full width from the last hatchway to half their width at the transom. That worked pretty well. As the two planked areas approached each other, I had to make some minor adjustments due to my workmanship and subtle differences in the supplied plank widths.
 
For the bow, once more, I started from the center to ensure symmetry. This time the planks did not taper, but the planks bordering on the waterway had to be custom fitted as they intersected the bow curve. Once more for their visibility, I started the planking from the waterways inward to ensure proper fit. As the two planking areas approached each other, I could see that some planks had to be narrowed a bit to ensure the last plank to fill the gap between the two areas was the proper width.
 
Gregg: The bowsprit dowel has not been shaped other than the base to fit into the square hole in the bulkhead. It is not glued into place. It does however slide into its seat easier enough when I move it in and out of the model. All the mast holes have been tested to accept their respective dowel pieces at their proper rake angles. The mast seating and rake angles were set when I was adding the structure elements to support the spar deck.
 
As for staining the deck, I’ve made some initial tests of different stains and combinations but have not yet taken the plunge and committed myself yet.
 
Jon

Peter: When I planked the gun deck, I started from the center and worked to the edges because I wanted to ensure the planking to look symmetrical. Any inconsistences would be at the waterways and would not be visible due the guns and visual access. On the spar deck, I also started from the center for the same reasons. However, at the stern, the planks taper to match the narrowing at the transom and curve following the shape of the bulwarks. I wanted clean looking planks especially at the waterways due to their high visibility, so I also planked from the water waters inward. Following the method from the practicum, the planks were tapered from full width from the last hatchway to half their width at the transom. That worked pretty well. As the two planked areas approached each other, I had to make some minor adjustments due to my workmanship and subtle differences in the supplied plank widths.
 
For the bow, once more, I started from the center to ensure symmetry. This time the planks did not taper, but the planks bordering on the waterway had to be custom fitted as they intersected the bow curve. Once more for their visibility, I started the planking from the waterways inward to ensure proper fit. As the two planking areas approached each other, I could see that some planks had to be narrowed a bit to ensure the last plank to fill the gap between the two areas was the proper width.
 
Gregg: The bowsprit dowel has not been shaped other than the base to fit into the square hole in the bulkhead. It is not glued into place. It does however slide into its seat easier enough when I move it in and out of the model. All the mast holes have been tested to accept their respective dowel pieces at their proper rake angles. The mast seating and rake angles were set when I was adding the structure elements to support the spar deck.
 
As for staining the deck, I’ve made some initial tests of different stains and combinations but have not yet taken the plunge and committed myself yet.
 
Jon

Unlike the stern, the 3/32” x 1/32” planks are not tapered as they approach the bow. The planks remain straight and those bordering the waterways were customed fitted into the curving bow. I planked the bow in the same manner as I did the stern, from the waterways inward and from the center outward. It did not surprise me, as the planking approached each other and as open space narrowed, I had to taper the widths a bit of some of the planks to ensure a proper fit when they merged.