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[Sonar]

The model I have at the moment will be made using all grp.
The deck is on but I was thinking maybe decking boards.

Racking my brain here I thought maybe undercoating some old birthday cards and when dry run them through the paper shredder.

Sticking them down one at a time with a very small gap between them then painting so they are sealed.


The question,s  are has this been done before and what to glue them on with.

or should I use some balsa wood.

[Colin Bishop]

Thin card can indeed be used for decking but don't make life hard for yourself by shredding it! A good way to do it is to get some thin artist's card in a creamy shade and cut out the shapes needed to cover the deck. Next draw the planking on with a fine propelling pencil.


Give the deck a coat of matt or satin polyurethane varnish and while still wet press the card sections down on it and give it another thinned coat on top to saturate the card. When dry you will find that the card has bonded to the deck and that the colour will have darkened slightly. You will then need to give the deck at least one and possibly two additional costs of varnish to ensure a good seal and build up a good surface.


Don't use quick dry varnish as it is water based and is unlikely to bond well to the grp underneath.


Works for me.


Colin

[Sonar]

Many thanks for your help.

[Plastic - RIP]

Why not create your planking size & shapes in a CAD program or PowerPoint and laser print it - then just cut out & stick.

Depending how careful you are, you could put your actual deck pieces in a flatbed scanner and then electronically drop the PowerPoint planking on top as a 'pattern fill' and add all sorts of surface details and then laser print onto card 1:1 (you'll probably need to play with your fine settings to get the print size to perfectly match your scan size)

I do this by scanning 2 metal rulers next to the deck pieces set in X & Y orientations so when you print out, you can compare printed mm to the original rulers which gives a direct multiply or divide ratio for scaling in X and Y.

[Colin Bishop]

Well, I rather assumed that he wanted a simple straightforward solution that did not entail the use of CAD, Powerpoint, surface detailing, laser printer and flatbed scanner.

You can also use Excel to print out parallel lines at any scale you want, the late Dicky D's Wife made me up a useful template.

Nothing wrong with pencil & paper though.

Colin

[Sonar]

Well, I rather assumed that he wanted a simple straightforward solution that did not entail the use of CAD, Powerpoint, surface detailing, laser printer and flatbed scanner.

You can also use Excel to print out parallel lines at any scale you want, the late Dicky D's Wife made me up a useful template.

Nothing wrong with pencil & paper though.

Colin

Nothing wrong with pencil & paper though.  I think thats how it is going to be 

[Plastic - RIP]

Nothing wrong in the old fashioned methods - but as most people have computers & printers & now scanners are really cheap, why not use them.

PowerPoint can do some amazing things like adding faint woodgrain to basic plank shapes and also plank around deck fittings in different directions and you can take it to Staples for them to print it out on good quality card at very high resolution in full colour for a couple of pounds (at better than 400dpi).

You can also drop high-res photographic textures on top - just like buying fake-wood laminate flooring or MDF furniture - great if you want to do the look of an Aquarama for very little effort or money - no farting about with little bits of wood.
Or add rivet lines & rust stains cropped from real photos - Photoshop (or freeware equivalents) can do some good things for textures.

All your deck/surface detailing done in one hit. 

[Sonar]

Nothing wrong in the old fashioned methods - but as most people have computers & printers & now scanners are really cheap, why not use them.

PowerPoint can do some amazing things like adding faint woodgrain to basic plank shapes and also plank around deck fittings in different directions and you can take it to Staples for them to print it out on good quality card at very high resolution in full colour for a couple of pounds (at better than 400dpi).

You can also drop high-res photographic textures on top - just like buying fake-wood laminate flooring or MDF furniture - great if you want to do the look of an Aquarama for very little effort or money - no farting about with little bits of wood.
Or add rivet lines & rust stains cropped from real photos - Photoshop (or freeware equivalents) can do some good things for textures.

All your deck/surface detailing done in one hit. 

Something I should look into.

[Geoff]

I have also looked at paper (thin card) for decks albeit I have not yet got round to building such a system but I think there are some parameters that need to be considered:


1) Use quality card
2) Use indelible ink for the plank lines. A black Biro will fade in the sun. Artist shops sell some very fine pens.
3) Use the right glue to fix the deck. If on fibreglass I'd probably go for Evostick or something like that. If on wood I'd use "resin w" (in the blue bottle which is very water resistant).
4) If you need to stain the deck its probably best done first to avoid any glue fingerprints!
5) When dry saturate the card in thin layers of varnish - not water based as it could attack the card.


As above whilst I have not done a deck this way I plated a battleship in old business cards (above the waterline)and then painted them in cellulose dope and its still going strong 20 years later with no defects so card is a viable material.


Cheers


Geoff