CharlieZardoz

Aside from that all the lines for where the planks will be set are done including the steelers and drop planks. These are suggestive and I expect them to change a bit in actual practice. To help understand the flow of the wood I used these two pre-bent strips.

The garboard should not rise up the stem like that. See the planking tutorials (pinned) on this site.  Revising this will get rid of those pointy-ended strakes and drop strakes!

Charlie - check out this link for the cutter Alert built by a Japanese modeler as an example of a realistic diorama. It's quite extraordinary. Scroll down to the middle of the page:
 
https://www.theropetokyo.org/%E5%B1%95%E7%A4%BA%E4%BC%9A%E4%BD%9C%E5%93%81%E9%9B%86/%E7%AC%AC32%E5%9B%9E%E5%B1%95-2007%E5%B9%B4/%E7%AC%AC32%E5%9B%9E%E5%B1%95-3-4/

Hi Charlie -
 
Just got a chance to review the last page or so.  Wow, lots of thought going into your artistic choices.  The experiments on wood species and finish will be referred to often, I'm sure.  They certainly would make for a top notch Shop Note in the Journal.
 
My two cents on some of your questions and techniques that worked for me:
 
   - both 'naked' and finished holly look good, but look best if they match in tone the surrounding bulwarks and deck pieces.  In your last two photos both decks look good, although one is much lighter than the other.  But both sit well with the rest of the model.
 
  - If you are finishing the deck, just make sure that the ink in your marker is not dissolved by the finish you use. I had to scrap a whole deck once before I learned that lesson.
 
  - the planking diagram you are using is very good, but has a small problem.  Just ahead of the main hatch there are butt joints indicated that are about a foot from the coaming.  No shipyard would have created an extra leakage point, just used a longer plank.  Don't be rigidly locked to the drawing if it does not match common woodworking sense.
 
  - if you are scoring the butt joints into the veneer, try highlighting the groove with a sharp pencil.  This has to be sealed to prevent smearing, so it will not work if you are leaving the deck unfinished.  I have used a similar technique for the plank fasteners using a dull mechanical pencil.  I hold it vertically on the desired spot and give it a quick spin, making a round mark.
 
Really looking forward to seeing how your models evolve.
 
Dan     
 

Well everyone a lot of this is a matter of preference. Some people I've seen like their models to be essentially wood sculptures, basically a form to display the beauty of wood. Models where coloring is very uniform and clean, nothing wrong with this approach it's just preference and reflects that traditional way of building. Then there are models which emphasize realism in action. A lot of these models have a rugged and weathered look sometimes coloring is exaggerated to create false shadows like a scene from a film. This is sort of how I like to build if at the end my fingers are covered in paint, putty and lacquer then I'm happy, like a 3d painting. So the holly turning a bit yellow and uneven when I'm done will actually work well in this approach (though it's dark as it is so have to be careful). I added a few examples of what I'd like to accomplish as time and experience allows these revenue cutter models looks much like what I am hoping to achieve. Also if anyone knows plastic models and is familiar with Kostas he is truly amazing in how he adds all this energy to his builds that resin water I plan on learning how to do that!  

Two more quick updates. Ive started looking into construction of the deck furniture. Made measurements on a plan (altered from the bluejacket kit), then put a prototype cabin in place. I may make the real one with the laser to be more precise not sure. But not bad and the cannon pic shows scale (need to find alacart caronnades) pew pew!

So enough of that. Next up was an attempt at deck caulking. I tried pencil (didn't work too well for me), then charcoal (messy got everywhere), then paint (kinda the same). I also tried the black paper thing but with these veneer strips they are just too thin and the tiny 1/8" strips by 3/128" thickness just seemed silly at that scale. I used wood glue, welding cement and both made a horrible squishy mess. What worked best for me was the archival ink pens, which don't bleed and does the job. Will I change my mind? Maybe but for now this looks like the best way to go.

This chart on basswood shows a breakdown of some common stains. After natural, there is golden oak, fruit wood, early American and cherry. Basswood may varnish and oil lousy but it shows stain really well and serves as a good neutral. I tried some stain on the other woods but unless I want something deliberately tarnished (like simulating tarring on wood to which early American on cherry wood could look nice), generally fancier woods really just need polish or oil. The strips on the piece are pear, cherry, and various holly strips. The darker parts are oil or stain while the lighter parts are poly. The strip cherry is lighter than that scrap I used and there are 3 holly variations all offwhite but I circled the section that will represent the deck of the revenue cutter if I choose to use those dark holly strips. Also you can see the 3 strips change a bit when I use the flash.
 
I think this process overall taught me that what I thought I knew about the color of wood needed to be thrown out the window. Holly finished has a yellowish brown look similar to basswood at it's darkest. Cherry can vary sometimes much darker than pear.

First we have Tung oil. This stuff really is an oil and seeps through anything thin like a veneer strip. It was fascinating watching each type of wood transform. Oil does nothing for basswood but cherry gets all this lovely figure. Pear is pinkish, boxwood and holly is yellowish.

Good afternoon! Well rather than panic about the various shades of holly I decided this would be a good chance to start the process of using the wood finishes I have accumulated and understand wood colorings a bit better. Since this is all new to me I decided to have fun and test everything on scrap. So here we go!

Thanks Mark! It came from the kit. I'm debating whether putting it through the laser was even necessary since as you saw the keel
s via the plans came out just fine (and the bow part was shaped funny). That deck also came from the kit as an etched veneer you can just slap on. The deck lines are worth saving though I plan to do the deck planking with strips but will use the resized image as a guide.
 
Again I've debated on whether to put this log in the kit or scratch section. Sultana honestly is 90% scratch this one is like 99.9% lol

So I returned from the lab with a bag o parts! And while much of it was for Sultana I did the two keels and some of the acrylic templates (ran out of material darn it)
 
Note the pic with the two keels alongside each other ain't that just fascinating how there is a slightly straighter "sheer" on the 51 ton ship.

Well everyone a lot of this is a matter of preference. Some people I've seen like their models to be essentially wood sculptures, basically a form to display the beauty of wood. Models where coloring is very uniform and clean, nothing wrong with this approach it's just preference and reflects that traditional way of building. Then there are models which emphasize realism in action. A lot of these models have a rugged and weathered look sometimes coloring is exaggerated to create false shadows like a scene from a film. This is sort of how I like to build if at the end my fingers are covered in paint, putty and lacquer then I'm happy, like a 3d painting. So the holly turning a bit yellow and uneven when I'm done will actually work well in this approach (though it's dark as it is so have to be careful). I added a few examples of what I'd like to accomplish as time and experience allows these revenue cutter models looks much like what I am hoping to achieve. Also if anyone knows plastic models and is familiar with Kostas he is truly amazing in how he adds all this energy to his builds that resin water I plan on learning how to do that!  

Well everyone a lot of this is a matter of preference. Some people I've seen like their models to be essentially wood sculptures, basically a form to display the beauty of wood. Models where coloring is very uniform and clean, nothing wrong with this approach it's just preference and reflects that traditional way of building. Then there are models which emphasize realism in action. A lot of these models have a rugged and weathered look sometimes coloring is exaggerated to create false shadows like a scene from a film. This is sort of how I like to build if at the end my fingers are covered in paint, putty and lacquer then I'm happy, like a 3d painting. So the holly turning a bit yellow and uneven when I'm done will actually work well in this approach (though it's dark as it is so have to be careful). I added a few examples of what I'd like to accomplish as time and experience allows these revenue cutter models looks much like what I am hoping to achieve. Also if anyone knows plastic models and is familiar with Kostas he is truly amazing in how he adds all this energy to his builds that resin water I plan on learning how to do that!  

Well everyone a lot of this is a matter of preference. Some people I've seen like their models to be essentially wood sculptures, basically a form to display the beauty of wood. Models where coloring is very uniform and clean, nothing wrong with this approach it's just preference and reflects that traditional way of building. Then there are models which emphasize realism in action. A lot of these models have a rugged and weathered look sometimes coloring is exaggerated to create false shadows like a scene from a film. This is sort of how I like to build if at the end my fingers are covered in paint, putty and lacquer then I'm happy, like a 3d painting. So the holly turning a bit yellow and uneven when I'm done will actually work well in this approach (though it's dark as it is so have to be careful). I added a few examples of what I'd like to accomplish as time and experience allows these revenue cutter models looks much like what I am hoping to achieve. Also if anyone knows plastic models and is familiar with Kostas he is truly amazing in how he adds all this energy to his builds that resin water I plan on learning how to do that!  

The end of an era. This is the guy who got me into ship building. More than a mentor but someone who also set me on the creative path always inspiring with your creations. Rest well grandpa after 96 years you've earned it. Perhaps we shall meet again some day... <3
 
<3
The end of an era. This is the guy who got me into ship building. More than a mentor but someone who also set me on the creative path always inspiring with your creations. Rest well grandpa after 96 years you've earned it. Perhaps we shall meet again some day... <3

Ok gentle viewers so I received my decking materials and I am a bit concerned and could use some clarity, Explanation, a waaays back I got some off-white Holly at 1/6" thick, before I decided that veneer would work better for solid hulls. I ordered white veneer and decided it was too white for my taste. I could stain or weather it, or I could use silver maple but didn't like the figure. I also don't like a deck being too yellow or brown (like boxwood) so decided on picking up some off-white veneer. However the veneer I got is very grey almost greenish. While it kinda looks like the deck of current sailing ships (Eagle and Victory as examples which are very grey), I was hoping it would have looked like the 1/6" strips I have which kinda look like basswood. (See images below for comparisons). I mean it could work... but my understanding of historical ship decks actually looked like (and how to work with woods for modeling) is limited.
 
The main thing is I want a bit of consistency in my models what I use for one I'd like to use for others down the line. Unless in situations where more weathering is required (military vs non-milary ship) etc. So what say you all? Is this holly veneer too grey/greenish would you consider using it? Maybe I am wrong and the color is perfect for decking! I mean I have limited funds and not sure what to do now..

First we have Tung oil. This stuff really is an oil and seeps through anything thin like a veneer strip. It was fascinating watching each type of wood transform. Oil does nothing for basswood but cherry gets all this lovely figure. Pear is pinkish, boxwood and holly is yellowish.

Next was wipe on poly and then natural finish stain. Natural dries similar to tung oil while poly seems like more of a varnish. It's not oily like the others and doesn't look as nice on cherry. However poly looks great on holly. I don't feel holly needs oil makes it look weird. So I am already envisioning the deck will have wipe on poly while the other woods could use tung oil and then maybe poly over that to protect it. Is this common practice? Also is natural stain an oil like tung?

This chart on basswood shows a breakdown of some common stains. After natural, there is golden oak, fruit wood, early American and cherry. Basswood may varnish and oil lousy but it shows stain really well and serves as a good neutral. I tried some stain on the other woods but unless I want something deliberately tarnished (like simulating tarring on wood to which early American on cherry wood could look nice), generally fancier woods really just need polish or oil. The strips on the piece are pear, cherry, and various holly strips. The darker parts are oil or stain while the lighter parts are poly. The strip cherry is lighter than that scrap I used and there are 3 holly variations all offwhite but I circled the section that will represent the deck of the revenue cutter if I choose to use those dark holly strips. Also you can see the 3 strips change a bit when I use the flash.
 
I think this process overall taught me that what I thought I knew about the color of wood needed to be thrown out the window. Holly finished has a yellowish brown look similar to basswood at it's darkest. Cherry can vary sometimes much darker than pear.

So enough of that. Next up was an attempt at deck caulking. I tried pencil (didn't work too well for me), then charcoal (messy got everywhere), then paint (kinda the same). I also tried the black paper thing but with these veneer strips they are just too thin and the tiny 1/8" strips by 3/128" thickness just seemed silly at that scale. I used wood glue, welding cement and both made a horrible squishy mess. What worked best for me was the archival ink pens, which don't bleed and does the job. Will I change my mind? Maybe but for now this looks like the best way to go.

So last bit of intrigue for today is the concept of actual deck planks. I tried the scouring to simulate breaks but with tiny veneer strips perhaps that's not possible? Also the little nail spots which will eventually have treenailing, tried an awl, maybe a thin drill will work better.
 
Regarding the planking layout on this very helpful template sheet I see planks in an angle pattern is my understanding on how planks flow historically. Buuuuuut I noticed they all go the same way regardless of port and starboard side. Is that accurate? Shouldn't they mirror each other when they hit the center of the deck? Not mirror exactly but I assumed the flow would go in reverse?
 
 
Well that's it for now!

Interesting! I mean miniwax wipe-on poly seems sort of like a lacquer or are they different? I would not use an oil or stain for holly it just doesn't look right. I suppose I should ask around what people put on their holly decks... if anything.  Btw here is the planking pattern I was mentioning, I believe this is the right way using the red line as center.

Two more quick updates. Ive started looking into construction of the deck furniture. Made measurements on a plan (altered from the bluejacket kit), then put a prototype cabin in place. I may make the real one with the laser to be more precise not sure. But not bad and the cannon pic shows scale (need to find alacart caronnades) pew pew!

Well everyone a lot of this is a matter of preference. Some people I've seen like their models to be essentially wood sculptures, basically a form to display the beauty of wood. Models where coloring is very uniform and clean, nothing wrong with this approach it's just preference and reflects that traditional way of building. Then there are models which emphasize realism in action. A lot of these models have a rugged and weathered look sometimes coloring is exaggerated to create false shadows like a scene from a film. This is sort of how I like to build if at the end my fingers are covered in paint, putty and lacquer then I'm happy, like a 3d painting. So the holly turning a bit yellow and uneven when I'm done will actually work well in this approach (though it's dark as it is so have to be careful). I added a few examples of what I'd like to accomplish as time and experience allows these revenue cutter models looks much like what I am hoping to achieve. Also if anyone knows plastic models and is familiar with Kostas he is truly amazing in how he adds all this energy to his builds that resin water I plan on learning how to do that!