Now we come to the third option and this is the option I used and that was to plank the deck with individual planks. I kid you not, it is not a job you do in 5 minutes! Also, like everything else in modelling there are more ways than one in which to do it. So this is my way of how I planked this model.
I began by laying a sub-deck made from light ply 2mm thick. This light ply bends easily, so, it could take the shape of the camber of the deck as well as the curvature from bow to stern. What I did was cut a piece of light ply slightly longer than the hull and slightly wider – laid the light ply on a soft surface, don’t tell the Mrs it was on top of the bed pillar – the Mrs wasn’t in bed at the time! I then laid placed the light ply on top of the pillar and placed the hull on the light ply upside down. I pressed the hull firmly into the light ply and then drew round the outside of the hull, giving me the shape of the deck. Then, I cut around the mark which I had drawn on the plywood leaving about 1/16 in size. I then sat the hull firmly in its building cradle and then I spread the yellow PVA glue onto all of the frame tops; and around the edge on the top of the deck stringer. Centrally, I then placed the plywood on top ensuring that there was an even overlap all the way round. I then weighted the plywood down to press it firmly onto the hull with various heavy objects. I used batteries etc., anything heavy I could lay my hands on, I fitted it on, to press the deck firmly onto the hull. I left it overnight for the glue to dry. Once the glue had dried in the morning, I removed all of the weights.
With a sanding block I gently sanded the edges of the plywood flush with the side of the hull. Be careful when doing this; don’t forget we have plastic plating on the side. Once I had finished doing this, I then drew a centre line down the centre of the deck from bow to stern.
I then referred back to my plan and on the plan I picked an item off the deck to use a reference i.e. to form a reference mark on the hull and this was the front of the bridge where it meets the deck. So, I took a measurement form the stern of the vessel to the front of the bridge. Now, from now on, all measurements I make on this deck or off the plan will be made from this central mark The reason I do this is, if your hull is slightly bigger/smaller than the plan, it is a lot easier to adjust the measurements and correct your mistakes working from a central mark.
I have marked the position of the bridge front and now I need to transfer positions of every item which is on the deck of the vessel. When I say Items I mean the positions of the fish hold, forward hatch, companion way and I need to draw in the bridge superstructure the little cabin at the aft; and the small circular fish holds, the position of the bollards – everything must be drawn onto the deck.
Last but not least, we must draw in the edge of the deck planking, where it meets the side of the vessel. Now, if you notice, the deck planking doesn’t go right up to the edge of the side of the vessel. It stops short. It does on 99% of large vessels. This gap around is where the water gathers when water is running off the deck of the vessel. It runs to this part and then from here, it will either run down through drains overboard, or, through scuppers overboard. We must mark this border line around the deck.
The next stage, we must decide on what lengths of plank/planking we are going to use.
I decided that the scale length of the planks I was going to use were going to be 12 foot, giving an actual length of plank of 4.5 inches long. Now, the other thing we have to take into consideration is, what they call, the butt line. Don’t panic – WHATS THE BUTT LINE – this is where the 2 planks butt together. If we have a look at any deck planking we will see that none of the planks butt together and align across the deck. They are all staggered. There are two common butt patterns as they call them – a 4 butt pattern and a 3 butt pattern. Imagine us then standing on the deck of a real ship and looking down at the deck – we are looking at the planking. We will pick a joint on the first plank we are looking at; we will count 1 plank in front of the first plank and we will see that the joint is further down the vessel. We will count 2 planks away – so that is 2 planks from where we are standing and the next joint will be further down the plank again. We will count a 3rd plank from where we are standing and we will find that the plank joint on that particular row is further down again. Yet, when we could the 4th plank – the joint we are standing on is directly in line with us. If we look back, we will see that the joints are like a set of stairs, working their way down. The same will happen and we are standing on a deck and it had what is known as a 4 butt deck. The only difference is - it would be the 5th plank that would be in line with us that would be for a 4th butt joint. How do we achieve this? First thing we must do, decide if we are going to have a 3 butt deck or a 4 butt deck. I picked a 3 butt deck.
So, what I had to do first of all was to take a scale length of plank which I was going to use and divide equally into 4 segments. This works out at 1⅛ for my particular model. Now, on the centre line of the deck which we have drawn previously, remember where I have said – we put a reference mark on – well, from this reference mark we mark off the length of equivalent to one of the portions of the plank as referred to above. We repeat this dividing of the centre line all the way up to the bow and from our reference mark all the way to the stern. So, now we have divided the full centre line into small segments which is equal to one portion that our scale plank has been divided into.
Now, at each mark, on the centre line we draw a line at right angles to the centre line – right across the deck – we repeat this operation all the way up to the bow ensuring that the lines that we are drawing are at right angles to the centre line. Now, the lines we have drawn on now are our plank butt spacing lines.
Okay – so now we are near enough ready to begin planking our deck. Now, the material I used was 1mm x 6mm maple. The glue I used to secure the planks to the deck was just pure white PVA – I didn’t use the yellow PVA because it tends to stain the timber. I also had a permanent black-felt tipped marker – it has a broad tip to it & used that – so first of all I cut about 5 planks to my scale length 4.5 inches long; on the very edge of the plank – you know where the plank is 1mm thick; I drew on here with the black felt tip marker. One long edge and actually did the 2 short ends too with the marker. This will eventually represent the black caulking which is in between the planks.
Now, where to start the planking – we must first of all put the marginal planks in which run all the way around the outside of the deck. These planks are the ones which run next to the waterway which runs around the deck. So, the first end of the plank – or the first butt must coincide with the reference mark which we originally first put on and it must coincide with the butt line which runs across the deck.
So, it is really up to you which way you plank – either towards the bow or the stern when you are putting the margin planks on.
We have now completed our outer planking, putting our outer deck marginal planks on. If we have a look at pictures of decks on life size decks, we will see that the planks do not run straight up and butt against a hatch or a bollard or even the side of the cabins. There is another marginal plank around all of these fixtures and fittings on a deck so, we must reproduce this marginal planking on our scale deck. This is where time must be spent because when we put marginal planking around the likes of a hatch or a bollard the planks have a neat 45° angle on them. When we come to round objects such as a capstan or a round fish hatch – or a coal scuttle, this also has marginal planking which is in a circular form but it is put in – in sections. It is always good to try and have to use real size decks as a reference so you get it as true to life as possible. It is the end result which matters and it is worth the extra effort. REMEMBER NOW – KEEP THE MARGINAL PLANKS TO SCALE LENGTH & remember also if there is a butt in the length – it must coincide with the butt joint which you have drawn on the deck. Once we have all the marginal planks in position and secured, we can then begin to do the main deck planking. Normal tradition of laying a deck is to start with the very centre plank – also known as the King Plank. This plank runs all the way up the centre of the vessel on the deck. We can start by laying this plank first from the centre line so half the width of the plank is either side of the centre line which we have drawn on the deck. I began at the reference mark which I had drawn on the deck – just in front of the bridge.
This turns out to be a very short plank, due to the fact that there is a winch in front of the bridge. The actual end of the plank would finish somewhere in the middle of the hatch, if it were a full length one. So, what we do is, we go along to find where this plank would end and there should be a butt line drawn across the deck. What we do is we carry on and find out where the next plank ends after the hatch – we start to plank from the marginal plank which butts up against the hatch, to the next butt line. We carry on with this procedure until we come up to the marginal planks at the bow.
Now, this is where we have to do a sequence called plank-jogging or nibbling what it is you actually take half the width of the plank which is square to the inner edge and from the half way mark, it is angled to coincide with the angle of the marginal plank. When we have cut this angle on the end of our plank – we cut the corresponding angle into the marginal plank. So, we have our first run of King Plank from the front of the bridge superstructure to the bow and we repeat the process from the rear of the superstructure to the stern. It is always handy to have some dressmaker’s pins handy and some heavy weights to put on top of the planks to keep them in place while the glue sets. I then moved on and began to plank the next plank to the king plank and don’t forget – the butt moves up towards the bow – it is not in line – before we lay this plank in place, we mark 3 edges of the plank with a black felt tipped pen. Those who would like to try the method of using electrician’s tape or black card – now is the time to try it. To use the electrician’s tape cut 5-6 planks, clamp them all together and lay them edge down on the sticky side of the electrician’s tape. Rub the electrician’s tape firmly so that it bonds with the edges of the planks and then trim off the edges to suit.
Carefully then, with a scalpel blade, cut down the length of the plank through the electrician’s tape – so – you are left with a very thin strip of electrician’s tape on one edge. The same procedure is done with the black card, but, you use PVA glue to bond the black card to the edge of the planks.
I did originally begin cutting all of my planks to the scale of 4.5 inches. However, I found, when I was working around all the hatched and the bollards and so forth, I was left with a lot of waste pieces of planking. I therefore opted to actually keep the full plank in its full length and just cut off the required length; this I found was less wasteful and easier to do. It took me 3 days to plank & in some cases re-plank this deck – so, be prepared – it is not a job to do in 5 minutes.
Finally, as we are planking towards the deck edge- we will find that our jogged planks – the taper becomes excessively long and care then must be taken whilst doing this. One of the best methods I found was to cut the angle on the plank to be laid first – and then lay this plank over in position and lightly score with a scalpel blade the outline of the plank onto the margin plank.
I had one or two planks which did split down the length – so – finished the deck, we allow the glue to dry – what is the next stage.