Planking

[bluenose2]

I have a question. I am working on my next build the Beagle. I would like to do something different. I believe that ships of this era where planked primarily with oak not walnut as supplied by the kit suppliers. I have some old growth in my stock and would consider milling it for planking etc. Would this be a good idea and how would I finish all the components? Thnx Les.

[Jaager]

Neither Oak nor Walnut are really suitable for use on a ship model if they do not have their open pores sealed and then painted.

The Walnut used is not Black Walnut of North American fame.  The open pores and grain of either Red Oak or White Oak do not scale at all well.  If it is hidden, the wood is certainly hard enough for most any part.   But, it can be friable and brittle at model scales.

 

Hard Maple, Beech, and Birch are in the same shade range and scale more appropriately.  If you do your own milling,  You can pick and choose the grain presentation.   The same Hard Maple board can produce a wide range of grain display.  It depends on the way the cut plane is oriented to the grain.   If you wish softer wood,  Yellow Poplar works well, but the color variation is such that only about 25% will match a light Oak shade.  The various Soft Maple species are the correct shade and are indeed soft, but I find the grain to be unstable and not reliable and better used for pallets - essentially trash - It lacks enough heat content to make good firewood. 

 

 

[allanyed]

I heartily second Jaager's response.  Why kit makers use walnut I will never understand (except maybe it is cheap) as it looks awful due to the grain and is brittle.   Oak is great at 1:1, but looks as bad as kit walnut at our typical scales and is just as miserable to work with.  

 

In addition to the woods recommended above, if you cannot mill your own planks, you can get sheets or strips of Alaskan cedar which is gaining in popularity or castello.   If you do mill your own, you can buy billets or boards of cedar and castello or use any of the hard woods Jaager recommended. 

 

For decks, you can use the same, or add holly that has been properly harvested and quickly kiln dried to be sure it is white.    

 

Allan 

 

 

 

 

[bluenose2]

Thank you for your responses. I can only imagine a ship rolling out of a yard fresh as a daisy. What would it have looked and smelled like? My new build on the Beagle has made me think if I should make it pristine or like a ship that has done a few years at sea. I don't build any of my models overly weathered as this, only in my opinion shows disrespect for the craft. As this will be my final build, I agree whole heartedly that the final planking of especially walnut may add some limited interest for those who don't know anything about how ships were built in this era but thats not the point. I would like to get this one right so I can look at it and say it's as close as I could get it. Luckily a have a wood supply store in my city so I can get what you have recommended. 

[wefalck]

I gather kit manufacturers are sort of in the artisanal trade and like to give their model this hand-crafted cabinet-maker look with darker and lighter woods, that's why the use e.g. walnut. Walnut also sounds expensive, because it was use in the old days in furniture making etc.

 

At the time of HMS BEAGLE ships would have been painted in pigmented paints everywhere above the water-line. A ship foreseen for waters south of the North Sea would have been coppered - there is a drawing that shows here hauled out on a beach for repairs that shows the copper plating. According to a water-colour by Owen Stanley of 1841 shows BEAGLE black all over with painted gun ports, but I don't know, whether this is correct for the time of Darwin's tour de monde. The lower mast were also black. So the only parts not painted would have been the deck and the spars.

 

Hence, for a realistic model the kind of wood doesn't really matter, as long as it works well. The wood will not be visible. 

[druxey]

Also, kit 'walnut' may or may not be....

[Roger Pellett]

Woods are like fish,  they have different names depending on where you live.  The poplar that Jaager mentions is called a Tulip Tree in Ohio, and I agree that it is a nice wood for modeling.  Here in Northern Minnesota “Poplar” refers to wood from the Aspen tree, or locally referred to as Popple.  These trees take over logged areas and are fast growing but don’t get very large.  The wood is used for paper pulp, but is now being stocked as poplar in the specialty lumber department of our local Menards store.  It is very soft and unsuitable for quality ship model work.

 

I have never built a POB kit but suspect that the wood supplied is not true Walnut.  American Black Walnut is my favorite wood for ship model cases.  It is a nice wood to work with, but not for the models themselves.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Roger Pellett

[Jaager]

24 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

Here in Northern Minnesota “Poplar” refers to wood from the Aspen tree, or locally referred to as Popple.

It is unfortunate that Yellow Poplar/ Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) suffers in any way from confusion with any tree in the Aspen/ Cottonwood family (Populus sp.).  Both have relatively soft wood,  but Yellow poplar has fiber stability and a crisp edge and smooth surface that compares well with much harder  (also) closed pore species.  Its only negative characteristic is that it can not decide what color it wants to be.  Stain or paint or hide it inside and it will work as well as any of the more famous, favored, and certainly more expensive species with current cachet.

Wood from any of the trees in the Populus family is purely awful for our purposes.  It even exceeds the various species of Soft Maple in it awfulness.

 

When I look around the commons  area of my condo, and see all of the Sycamore trees (American Plane) -I mourn the missed opportunity to have Tulip Poplars in their place.  I grant that they would need harvesting eventually because the trunks can get large enough to conquer the street, but it is dead on straight and tall with large leaves that have the same shape as a tulip flower.