QUERIES AND COMMENTS

Aaaaaah Swanrail,

Your patience with those 1mm deck planks is amazing.
The further you progress, the more depressed I become.
I had planned to plank the deck to scale as well, but I think I may cheat and look at planks 1.5mm wide. I won't be able to see a plank that small let alone glue it in the right spot.
I will continue to watch in awe.

Baz

Hi Baz, the planking is very straightforward really, I firstly marked the deck with a grid, athwartships for the 30mm cuts for plank length, and longitudinally to keep the planks straight. (but it can be quite hard as they tend to drift out). I reckon to do 4 off 300mm strips per hour, allowing about 15 mins drying time before I cut the 30mm markers. By taking it very steady, and not worrying if the progress seems to be nil, it is surprising how fast it actually is! To relieve the monotomy, every so often I sand down the planks as a group down to about 1mm finish as my planks are rough sawn at about 1.5mm depth when fitted. This stops me having to spend hours in one go sanding, and also brings out the wanted finish which is very pleasing. It also shows up any slight defects I might have had so these can quickly and easily repaired.
My advice: give it go on one of the smaller decks first, as per my instructional thread, this builds up confidence and you see the results and make sure that they are to your satisfactioin before tackling the big one, the main decks.
I am about 65% finished now, one side complete and moving quite well up the other side. Have to drill the stern deck next for the stern anchor shank before planking over, that way, any mistakes in the drilling can be covered over!!!

Hi Swanrail,

Quick quiry regarding the deck planking of the main deck. I have just been talking about the paint scheme I intend to do. Now if you look on this site:

www.kbismarck.com/drawings.html

There are Red Swastika symbols on the deck (although on other drawings it is just the black swastika, need to clarify this) I am just thinking would it not be better when I come to this area for planking to just put down a flat piece of lime so that the sticker or when I paint it it does not have the deck planking showing through? Or would it in fact have been painted over the planking?

The swastika is still visible on the aft deck of the of the Bismarck wreck even today, and it is painted directly on the deck planks.

I had a look at the pics taken in 2002 of the wreck, and interestingly enough one of the photos clearly shows that there were 21 planks on the bow at the narrowest point between the anchor cluses (or whatever they are called), so this should once and for all settle the discussion on the plank width.

You can see the pics of the wreck on www.bismarck-class.dk/bismarck/bismarck_menu.html
Scroll down to "The Wreck of Bismarck" and look at Part 1 to 5

Don,

A small point which may or may not be of interest to people deck planking their model the correct - and hard - way.

If you need margin planks for eg. a detail in the centre line, make sure that the total width of this margin structure is either in even mm, or if this is not possible then offset the whole margin structure by 0.5mm to either side (hardly noticeable).

Reason: It is almost inpossible to make half a deck plank (width) if you want it to run tight along the margin plank. A gap 0.5mm in the plank structure IS noticeable.

Now for a quick question:
What type of glue would you recommend for the deck planks (static model)?

Yes, I am using the Evostik weatherproof glue, as this is quick setting (about 15 mins for a good grab, 24 hours to fully set), is reasonably watertight, dries clear so any spillages do not show and easy to apply (I use a fine paintbrush, washed out after each application).
Have now finished my main deck, rubbed down and coated with a clear acrylic varnish to protect it. I still have some cutting in to do for the various additives, which means waiting until Hachette supply them.

Come on.........where's the photos, Don!!!!!!!