Deck Improvement
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Guns, bitts, companionways, hatches - there's a mounting list of things that will impede access to the deck itself in the coming weeks. It's important that I'm completely happy with that deck before I stick anything down. Today then, I made a tiny improvement, I think. Bearing in mind that it's not quite finished yet, can you see the difference?
That's right, it now has treenails. Actually, many more than three!
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Here's a close up.
Whether or not to make treenails on a 1/64 model is a matter of taste, in my view. There's a strong argument against in the fact that they are more or less invisible close up and from 128 feet away (scaled up from looking at my model from two feet off) totally invisible. Yet am I to be enslaved by the evil mistress
Accuracy?
I'd rather be seduced by
Accuracy's nicer twin,
Beauty. I decided that my deck would be slightly more beautiful, or at least would appeal to Beauty's second cousin
Interest if I had a bash at suggesting deck beams and other underlying structure. And that's my reason for simulating the treenails that held the deck planks down. I'm an old engineer as well as an old romantic.
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I made a tool by fitting a paintbrush handle to an old hypodermic needle I found in the park. No' not really. It's a blunt ended hollow needle for applying glue with a syringe. I sharpened it on fine wet and dry paper so that it would act as a cookie cutter. In use I press it onto the shellac'ed deck and move the handle in a circle which cuts through the varnish and impresses a circle on the planks. The needle isn't glued into the handle because over time it fills up with debris that needs to be cleared by pushing a fine wire through it.
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Then, to develop the effect into visibility, I applied a thinned coat of Button Polish (dark shellac) This either penetrates the cracked layer underneath or just fills in the circle, I can't tell without a microscope.
The final step, which is not yet completed is to rub away the rest of the dark shellac with 0000 wire/steel wool. I put too much button polish on so it's a long job.
The deck is slightly more yellow at the moment but since it wasn't oak planking but the cheap softwood, Deal, I don't think that's a problem. It might be a little darker at the edges and in places across the deck but again, I think a pristine white surface is inappropriate here. If they had holystoned it, they would have been through to the hold in a month!
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I did one more thing today which will move matters along - I sorted out the mess in my Alert's cardboard box. It was full of scraps of wood, various paints, empty frets (never make empty frets, my Dad used to say), unread notes, copper plates etc etc etc . Now it only contains the things I actually need. It was a pleasure to tidy that lot up and find out how little wood there is yet to use. It was a caution to find packet after packet of blocks and deadeyes and rather a lot of string...
