How to make curved deck planks taper correctly

[tkay11]

I continue to experiment while learning the art of scratch building. The latest stage is figuring out how to taper and size deck planking that is curved to the lines of the hull, as in the following diagram from the plans of La Jacinthe at a scale of 1:96.

 

I can see that from the middle to the stern it might be a simple job with a plane, but the taper does seem to be variable, thinning mostly at the stern where the planks go down to 1.25mm width. The same goes for the forward end where the nibbing of the planks makes it more complicated.

 

I don't want to waste a lot of wood with endless imperfections, so would be grateful for any suggestions or hints from those with experience of doing this. I have seen many examples of this in build logs, but none that have explained the technique of doing it.

 

Thanks in advance for any help,

 

Tony

[Bob Cleek]

I presume you are familiar with spiling plank for hull shapes. (See: 

 

Planking decks is done using the same principles as planking hulls, but, being as decks are more or less flat (discounting the deck shear and camber which at smaller model scales is usually so negligible as not to be a consideration,) it's actually easier. To plank a deck, however, there are several layouts. Primarily, the options are to 1) run the planks of equal width and parallel to the center line or 2) run the planks curved to the shape of the covering boards.  Then you have the options of 1) nibbing or hooking the plank ends at the covering boards (and king plank in one version)  to one another avoid pointed ends, which are to be avoided because of the difficulties they pose in caulking a tight seam. These options will be determined by the vessel you are building. Generally, curved planking dictated by the covering board curves is "fancier" and more labor intensive and would not generally be seen in larger vessels. You will have to research the planking method employed on the vessel you are modeling.  The plan you pictured is, on my screen at least, difficult to see in detail, but it appears that it is a "sprung" plank deck that generally follows the curve of the deck edge at the hull, but forward, where the curve is sharper, accommodates the plank ends by a notched covering board. In full-size practice, the deck planks would be straight and the entire plank bent (or in this case, "edge set") to the curve desired. In modeling scales, the deck planking can be "bent on the flat" with a plank bending iron or clothing steam iron, as in this video: 

 

Once the type of planking is determined, I find it easiest to draw a paper or card template of the deck (or each level of deck, as the case may be) and draw the covering boards, king planks and planks on the template and then trace the template to make patterns for the planks, etc. Generally, whether planking is laid straight or curved, the the planks are generally not tapered. In cases where tapering deck planks is done, they can be spiled in the same manner as hull planking and cut to shape. 

 

The use of a template also allows the deck framing to be drawn on the template so that the "schedule" of plank butts can be accurately represented on the model, making sure that butts fall on frames where there is some "meat" below to which they can be fastened. 

 

Particularly in smaller scales, some modelers find it convenient to use stiff card (or in larger scales even thin plywood) for the deck template and glue thin deck planks directly to the card (or plywood) template and then glue the entire "planked" section of deck to the model. It's a lot easier to work with thin "planks" and covering boards that can be cut to shape with a scissors or knife and glued to the deck template underlayment than to fiddle with scale thickness planks one at a time on the model.  Such "faux" deck planking may be gotten out by shaving long, thin, strips from the edge of a piece of suitable stock with a sharp, properly tuned hand plane. In this fashion, it's easy to produce long curled shavings of any length desired, limited only to the length of the stock you shave them from. These curled shavings can be placed in hot water for a few minutes and then, while still hot, uncurled and laid flat between a couple of flat surfaces (e.g. sheets of window glass) and they will cool and dry flat and uncurled, like veneer, suitable for cutting to shape as planking, covering boards, deck furniture trim, or what have you. The edges of the planks can be blackened with a pencil to simulate the seam stopping, if desired and the decking, once dry on the underlayment can be stained to the finish desired. For those who use "wipe on" finishes, it is far easier to obtain a good wiped-on finish on a flat, unobstructed deck built in this way before it's installed on the model.

 

But, as said, you have to ascertain how the planking was laid on the prototype, or may have been laid on the prototype if that is otherwise unknown, so you know what planking layout you will need to devise. It seems you have a plan which may have that information on it, so copying that deck plan will easily give you the template you need, particularly the covering board notching, and your deck frame spacing.

Edited November 20, 2021 by Bob Cleek

[tkay11]

Thanks, Bob. Very helpful, and thorough in your reply as usual. The trouble I face is that I am trying to stay to scale, and that means that even with the smallest veneer I have (0.48mm) it would still provide a plank 1.8" thick.

 

The plans of the Jacinthe and those of all the other French ships of the same type that I have studied from the period have the same approach to the deck planking.

 

I had considered most of the options you suggest, and I do understand spiling (which I was preparing for), but was worried about the various options that would mean cutting the planks with a scalpel rather than planing the sides, especially with with the rolling taper of the planks which looks as though it is slightly different on each side. I was thinking that might end up without the perfect curves necessary.

 

I am also prepared for edge-bending the planks as I am quite used to that with thicker planks. I haven't yet tried it with thin veneer, though. I certainly can try.

 

In terms of the options, I'd been thinking about preparing the deck flat on a card or paper base (as you suggested and which indeed is the option used by Lloyd McCaffery in his book Ships in Miniature). Lloyd says that for a rolling taper such as the one I have, he uses trial and error, but after having glued several planks together.

 

With my 0.48mm veneer laid on top, I could try this but am still worried about getting the curves right as the curvature seems to differ on each edge of the planks. It may well be that gluing the veneer to the base will help prevent the splitting that I find often with such thin veneers.

 

Another possibility is scribing a sheet of veneer through a mask, but that would require me to buy some wide sheets of veneer, and I would still be worried about scribing it perfectly.

 

Another possibility is printing the deck on to card as do the card modellers, but I have tried that with the Allège d'Arles at the same scale, and couldn't get the paint or card colour to really mimic a wood deck.

 

A very expensive option is to have a sheet of veneer laser-etched, but although I've seen that done on thicker sheets, I'm not sure that that can be done on such thin sheets.

 

What may help is to use a harder wood such as castello or holly. I'd been thinking of lime, but it's harder to cut without splintering.

 

I think, in the end, that I'll just have to experiment a bit, as I nearly always do, and see what I can come up with. I have learnt to work through imperfection and some day it might come out right!

 

Thanks again for your vast experience and helpfulness!

 

Tony

 

 

[wefalck]

This may be a sacrileg here on this forum, but at a 1:96 scale it may worthwhile to look into alternatives to actually planking the deck.

 

One option could be to look for a piece of veneer or thin plywood with very little graining or virtually no graining, sand and dedust this carefully and then using a method called thermo-transfer to 'print' on the pattern of seams. There special thermo-transfer papers for laser-printers. The print-out is then put face down onto the wood and the pattern is iron-on - much like what the T-shirt guys do. So far, I have not done this myself for decks, but I used the technique to transfer drawings onto heat-resistant materials.

[tkay11]

Hmmmm! That's something I'll definitely look into, wefalck. I don't have a laser printer, but I can find out if someone else does.

 

Thanks!

 

Tony

[Bob Cleek]

You should have no problem finding an electrostatic ("Xerox") laser printer at your local copy shop. These operate by creating a "picture" with static electricity and then blowing black powder across the surface, which the static electricity makes stick to the paper. The black powder is a sort of ground vinyl powder which, when heated, melts and bonds to the paper. 

 

If one makes a laser print, particularly one with the "darkness scale" adjustment turned up high, This piece of paper can be laid print-face-down on a surface, such as a sheet of wood, and ironed with a clothes iron. This will transfer the printed image to the adjacent material when the heated iron causes the black printer powder to re-melt. This, of course, produces a mirror image, so that has to be taken into consideration and a "mirror flip" done on the printer in one fashion or another if the mirror image is a problem.

 

As for veneer, I would be very hesitant to use it on a model for most purposes. Grain orientation is a problem with most all veneer because it isn't sawn off the tree, but rather it is peeled off the tree with a sharp knife as the tree is rotated in a lathe. The stability of the sheet is in great measure dependent upon the adhesive holding the veneer to the substrate. 

 

As for thickness, shaving off the edge of a plank or billet with a plane can yield a nearly transparently thin shaving for use as scale planking stock. I'd consider 0.48mm quite thick for 1:96 scale if one were using any sort of underlayment. At that scale, it's often a matter of faking the appearance artistically rather than duplicating full scale construction practices. I'd give great weight to Eberhard's advice above. He's one of the masters at what I call "artistic modeling" when the skills of an artist are brought to bear on the skills of an engineer to create a compelling impression of reality in miniature.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Bob Cleek

[wefalck]

Thanks for the praise, Bob ... ☺️

 

Sawn veneer is available down to 0.4 mm thickness, I believe, but rather expensive due to the waste generated during its production. There are sheets of low-grain veneers available in Europe for WW1 1:32 scale air-craft models, which are meant to be laminated onto styrene or polyurethane fuselages, that may be worthwhile looking into. However, the thicknes of the material is inconsequential in a scratch-built model, as one can account for it in the design. Say, sawn veneers 1 mm thick tend to be relatively cheaper than thinner veneers.

[georgeband]

Tony,

 

I am a little puzzled by the desire for scale thickness of deck planks. If they are grossly over-thick then it might show as the deck surface being too high, too close to the gunwales. If they are slightly too thick then this would only be evident where that thickness is directly visible, and I cannot see where that would occur on Jacinthe. I certainly admire the desire to make as much as possible true to scale, but there are practical limits. I am currently applying copper plates, 0.1mm thick, to a hull in 1/64; the real plates were about 0.8mm thick and I would struggle to achieve this thickness with a coat of paint on the model. However, the edges of the plates are not visible anywhere so who is to know that they are too thick (apart from the model maker and the crowds who read these forum confessions). 

 

Best wishes,

 

George

[tkay11]

Thanks, George. I agree totally with the sentiment. I, too, often go beyond scale, especially with ropes -- as I will on this model should I ever get the masts up. All the same, I am treating this model as another way to learn about handling wood and how far I can go in following scale and plans. I may well discard it once the hull is finished.

 

The problem is that the edges of the waterways go right to the edge as the deck has no bulwarks other than at the bow. They are the same thickness as the deck planking. The real scale thickness is 0.5mm. However, as you suggest, I am tinkering with the idea of going ahead with 1mm, and sanding that down a little in the recognition that few would ever notice that the scale was not correct. None of my family would ever look at plans, as they would just appreciate the lines of the ship, which is pretty much what I like to do.

 

My next option is to print on cream-coloured card, though I don't like the fact that it doesn't look much like wooden planking (even though it is made of wood!).

 

Thanks again for looking in with your usual wise words.

 

Tony

[wefalck]

Well, as I said earlier, in a POB construction or similar, where the interior of the hull is not visible, one can make the deck as thick as is practicable. Of course, one would need to make the bulkhead correspondingly lower and the waterways would need to be correspondingly thicker so that their difference(!) in thickness is to scale. 

 

I would advise against using coloured cardboard, as very few such materials are really light-fast. Also, it is rather difficult to get a clean sharp edge onto the cardboard, so that it butts cleanly against the waterway.

 

I have been tossing for some time also with another idea, facing a similar problem as you, namely to print the pattern of the seams onto a decal sheet and apply this to an appropriately prepared piece of wood. Not sure, how well such a large decal would handle. Decal sheets are available for laser- and ink-jet-printers. Both need to be sealed e.g. with acrylic varnish. In my case I did not follow the idea through because I had to deal with a pattern of radiant planks and could not find any wood with a suitable grain.

[tkay11]

You're right, wefalck. I've discarded card as an idea (I suppose I could have just said I've discarded). I've found I can cut and form these planks using individual plank templates and a cellotape backing to prevent splitting. It's a bit fiddly and takes a long time, but that's the essence of the hobby. And the enjoyment if it turns out ok!

 

Thanks for the continued thinking!

 

Tony

[georgeband]

Tony,

 

You mention a cellotape backing to prevent splitting, which reminds me of some hooked scarf joints I made in 0.5mm thick planks for a waterway. I gave them a paper backing for the same reason and it worked a treat. A possible advantage over sticky tape is that the paper will glue onto your sub-deck substrate. I guess that the thickness of the paper is acceptable? 😉

Some veneers are sold with a paper backing to provide strength during handling, and one supplier I found was quite proud of the quality and thickness of the paper they used. 

 

George

[tkay11]

George, I remove the cellotape before gluing. I am using a paper template glued to the deck to make sure the planking is correct, and as the paper is only 0.13mm thick the final result is only just over the ideal 0.5mm.

 

I had the idea from Frolich's book on the Art of Ship Modelling, but had forgotten it until a few days ago.

 

Tony