Part 8
04.2023
As I mentioned earlier, I hadn’t worked on the battleship model for
10 years.
But due to the war, I took the model from my parents' house and started calculating the decks. In most kits, the decking is overly simplified. The planks included are too wide for the scale—sometimes 2 or even 3 times wider. Since 2023, I’ve fully transitioned to using John McKay's 'Anatomy of the Ship.' I had scans of the book from the internet, but I still ordered a copy through friends in the USA, as it wasn’t available in Ukraine. As I mentioned before, I scanned this book and combined the necessary fragments to print the plans. It came out to 4 sheets, but I think I already talked about that))). So, armed with calipers, I started calculating the proportions of the deck planks.
But I'll talk about that a bit later. For now, I’ve made some changes to the hull.
The changes will affect the upper deck. I didn’t make any changes to the front part. The wall here will remain. The space between the front two pairs of ports was designated for the sick bay. This wall was constructed to provide warmth and comfort to the wounded or sick. I will continue to work on this wall.
As for the rear wall, I moved it back by one more port. This way, all the ports between the partitions will remain without covers, while the ones in front and behind the partitions will have covers.
For this, I removed the wall again and trimmed small sections from the two planks that hold the dummy cannons.
Then I extended the deck and installed a new bulkhead.
In this case, my mistake was that I should have installed the wall behind the frame. Because there is little space between it and the gun. However, visually it appears very deep and will not be visible.
After that, I divided the quarterdeck into two parts along this frame and glued the rear part in its place. The front part will be removable.
And as a small detail, I slightly adjusted the openings for the lower hatches leading to the middle deck. It will not have any cladding, just painted black, as this area will hardly be visible.
In the photo above, you can see that I have already marked the connections of the deck boards. Based on the printed drawings from the anatomy book, I measured the width and length of the deck board. For my scale of 1:79, these dimensions were 2.5x80 mm.
05.2023
I used pear veneer for the cladding. Unfortunately, I didn't have solid material of that type. I don’t enjoy working with veneer, but it is what it is. To measure these 2.5 mm evenly, I created a jig. Measuring 2.5 mm can be quite inconvenient, and sooner or later, errors creep in. This jig was very helpful for me.
The device is very primitive. The thickness between the blades of the utility knife is static, and the distance between the tips of the blades is exactly 2.5 mm.
Then I mark multiple distances with a puncture at the same time.
I cut the veneer in the usual way—using a knife along a ruler. It took a long time, but it was effective! By the way, the veneer was glued with double-sided tape, and the ruler was additionally fixed with weights from dumbbells.
I started testing on the small deck of the galley. I didn’t do it without mistakes, which I will discuss later.
First, I prepared the base. By the way, there is a significant error in the anatomy drawings. It appears in almost all "boxes" and later caused me some problems. The mistake is that the deck on the galley is not a continuation of the deck with the guns, but rather an additional level above the deck.
But at that moment, I didn't notice this and, accordingly, worked without this small deck. However, looking ahead, everything turned out fine anyway. Many people do it that way.
First, I raised the front edge to replicate the curve of the deck and covered the holes for the knighthead. After that, I made a plate to which I will glue the decking.
I cut holes for the bowsprit and started laying the deck. Below, I will explain the technology I used for gluing. (The black cylinder is a charcoal pencil; later in the text, it will become clear why I used it.)
And the first mistake was that I needed to glue all the veneer strips in one direction, without flipping them 180 degrees or upside down. Because in the dry version, everything seemed more or less fine, but...
...after applying the oil, the color became pronounced. And due to the difference in the grain, some strips started to stand out from the overall mass.
It's good that I applied oil to this fragment and noticed it early, rather than after I had finished all the decks. The second positive aspect is that this deck is not very visible, and looking ahead, under three layers of oil and after some time, the difference was not so noticeable. However, it's still important to follow the principle. I will describe below how I marked the strips of veneer to glue them strictly one way, without flipping them either vertically or horizontally.
...
