HMS Sovereign of the Seas - Bashing DeAgostini Beyond Believable Boundaries

Today the last planks were laid on the middle gun deck, glued with PVA glue and scraped with a razor scraper. A chisel razor knife was used to cut the notches in the waterboard for each plank which intersected it. Next, the remaining trenails will be marked with a straight edge and a mechanical pencil with brown tinted lead. See you a million trenails later. This is more boring that ratlining.

686 Completed Planking of Middle Gun Deck.jpg

687 Progress So Far.jpg
 
Oddly enough, that’s exactly how I do it. That way I don’t have to worry about pencil lines. ;)
But I use a sharpened punch to make a tiny holes along the edge of the tape.
Erasing pencil lines without obliterating the trenail dots would be a huge pain. The markings aren't the most precise as in other master modelers builds, but at this scale they are close enough. Plus, this deck will be covered over and only visible with a borescope or by peering in through a gun port.
 
Erasing pencil lines without obliterating the trenail dots would be a huge pain. The markings aren't the most precise as in other master modelers builds, but at this scale they are close enough. Plus, this deck will be covered over and only visible with a borescope or by peering in through a gun port.
Makes sense Kurt!
I use a punch to make holes or indentations. That way I have a few options. I can add wood treenails, or use putty to simulate treenails, or I can let stain get in them and darken them (similar to marking with pencil).
I am no authority on deck nails, that’s just how I do it. There are so many techniques people use.
 
Makes sense Kurt!
I use a punch to make holes. That way I have a few options. I can add wood treenails, or use putty to simulate treenails, or I can let stain get in them and darken them (similar to marking with pencil).
At 1:75 scale (DeAgostini claims incorrectly that this ship is 1:84 scale), the trenails are so small that even these pencil marks are still too much contrast compared to how they appear on a real deck. If they fade a bit before applying spray varnish, they would look more realistic. Wooded peg trenails would be many times larger than real trenails. Most modelers still use wooden trenails because, as modeling can be considered an art form, making them demonstrates the builders understanding of the parts of a wooden ship, despite them being oversized. I am leaning toward realism instead of an art piece, so the trenails have to be very small. It's up to the modeler to choose the appearance he desires.
 
At 1:75 scale (DeAgostini claims incorrectly that this ship is 1:84 scale), the trenails are so small that even these pencil marks are still too much contrast compared to how they appear on a real deck. If they fade a bit before applying spray varnish, they would look more realistic. Wooded peg trenails would be many times larger than real trenails. Most modelers still use wooden trenails because, as modeling can be considered an art form, making them demonstrates the builders understanding of the parts of a wooden ship, despite them being oversized. I am leaning toward realism instead of an art piece, so the trenails have to be very small. It's up to the modeler to choose the appearance he desires.
Agreed! I used a punch on these and let the stain enhance them. They are barely visible at a distance, but very noticeable the closer you get.
9149D8F1-5D85-4247-AC1A-11D545823FD5.jpeg
 
Agreed! I used a punch on these and let the stain enhance them. They are barely visible at a distance, but very noticeable the closer you get.
View attachment 299789
The effect your trenails make is better. Tell me more of your technique, describing the type of planking wood you have, and the stain and putty you use. Your deck has more grain contrast. I may want to use this on the weather deck since it will be fully visible. Thumbsup
 
The effect your trenails make is better. Tell me more of your technique, describing the type of planking wood you have, and the stain and putty you use. I may want to use this on the weather deck since it will be fully visible. Thumbsup
Thanks!
First I used a black charcoal pencil on the edges of beechwood. Then when I sanded them flush, it got in the wood grain and tinted the beechwood, which I wanted.
I then clear coated it, to seal the charcoal in the wood grain. After that I lightly steel wool it with 0000 steel wool.
Then I added the nails holes with a punch sharpened to a point. I just pushed the punch in by hand about 1/32 - 1/16” deep. I used the painters tape as a straight edge.
Then I stained the wood by wiping it on with a rag, the stain remains in the nail holes. I used a golden oak water based stain.
If any nail holes need to be darkened, brush across them with more stain and wipe with a rag.
Then finally I steel wool lightly to weather it. Then once I like it, I use a water based clear polyurethane matte finish.
It’s a process, but you can practice on a small test panel. The nice thing is you can adjust any part of it to your taste. ;)
 
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One more thing about the deck. I prefer Ramin wood for decking, because it has a tight grain that looks very nice to scale. Beechwood grain is more random and doesn't usually look that good to me. So I want to try Ramin wood using this technique on my next ship! ;)

Here is a pic showing the wood as provided in the kit (bottom of pic), then you can see the wood above it has already had some light sanding to spread the charcoal. It doesn't even look like the same wood! ;)
wood1.JPG

Then finished below...
wood2.JPG
 
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One more thing about the deck. I prefer Ramin wood for decking, because it has a tight grain that looks very nice to scale. Beechwood grain is more random and doesn't usually look that good to me. So I want to try Ramin wood using this technique on my next ship! ;)

Here is a pic showing the wood as provided in the kit (bottom of pic), then you can see the wood above it has already had some light sanding to spread the charcoal. It doesn't even look like the same wood! ;)
View attachment 299957

Then finished below...
View attachment 299960
Ramin wood? Where you find that? Here is what I do for decks.
I use tanganyka wood, usually supplied by Corel, in 4mm widths for 1:75 scale ship. I usually cut 82mm long strips and stain one long edge with a brown Sharpie marker, then use a jig to mark the two end trenails with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil that has brown tinted lead in it. The deck is scraped but not sanded, because
I actually do not want to embed the pencil graphite into the grain and gray the wood. Spray Krylon Satin varnish is all I use to coat it, trap the trenail marks, and bring some of the color out.
 
Ramin wood? Where you find that? Here is what I do for decks.
I use tanganyka wood, usually supplied by Corel, in 4mm widths for 1:75 scale ship. I usually cut 82mm long strips and stain one long edge with a brown Sharpie marker, then use a jig to mark the two end trenails with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil that has brown tinted lead in it. The deck is scraped but not sanded, because
I actually do not want to embed the pencil graphite into the grain and gray the wood. Spray Krylon Satin varnish is all I use to coat it, trap the trenail marks, and bring some of the color out.
I get Ramin from the hobby shop, Ages of Sail. ;)
I use stain because Ramin is a light wood, and also I can control the shade with stain and steel wool. Need it to be darker, add stain. Want it lighter, sand with steel wool.
 
A jig was made for locating where the holes need to be drilled for the breeching line and gun tackle eyebolts for the guns of the middle gun deck. These are drilled from outside the hull. The jig ensures that the holes appear in the correct place on the inside surface of the bulwark. You don't care about holes on the outside surface of the hull because you will cover them up with the final planking later.

696 Make Jig to Drill Breeching Line and Gun Tackle Eye Holes.jpg

697 Drill Breeching Line and Gun Tackle Eye Holes.jpg

698 Holes Viewed from Inside.jpg
 
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