The Ship Model Forum

Hey, gang... It's been a while since I've posted here. Life has a way of getting in the way of a side business, but we are continuing to work on new releases as our schedules permit.

We still have in the works the USS Arizona and Bismarck in 1/200, and I'll give you some updates on that in a minute.

But we now have, in production and available for order, a deck for the classic 1/96 USS Constitution "Old Ironsides" kit by Revell. It's a pretty nice kit of that ship for folks that prefer to work in plastic (versus wood.) Perhaps its ugliest feature is the Spar Deck (and the Gun Deck) are molded in THREE separate pieces, when in reality it was a flush deck from bow to stern.

The length of the ship is just under two feet, but well under the 17-inch max that I had for printing my wood - so it looked like we were going to have to have a splice in there somewhere...

BUT - I was able to finally figure out how to fake out my printer hand have it roll a 2-foot sheet of wood through there, so now I can offer a single piece, 24-inch deck for the Constitution (or other large-scale kits like the Bismarck and Arizona mentioned above.)

The Constitution is now available for order at an introductory price of $99 at our website.

http://shop.scaledecks.com/1-96-USS-Constitution-Old-Ironsides-Deck-for-Revell-096-001.htm


I'm going to have to ship these rolled up in a mailing tube since they are so big, but the raw wood comes to me from the mill in a tube in good shape so I'm sure that won't be a problem.

Now, as for the Arizona and Bismarck, we've never been able to solve the problem of lining up the super-fine printed nibbing with the laser cutter. It's two different technologies, and since the wood flexes and shrinks and stuff, we just don't have the precision to line up the cutter as fine as we would like to with the wood sheets.

So we are going a new way.

With the 1/200 kits, we've been able actually print scale planks - it is amazing how small they are even on a 1/200 kit to get them scale, but we can do that. If you think about it, a 4-inch plank (like on the Arizona gun AA deck) would have to be printed at 87 planks per inch. The 5-inch planks (like on the Arizona weather deck) come in at about 70 planks per inch. If you think about a 300dpi printer, you're talking about 4 and 5 pixels, respectively. Or, take out a ruler and look at 1/16 of an inch, and think about slicing that into four of five slices. That is incredibly fine planking.

I've looked at what the other manufacturers are doing with nibbing, and it always looks overscale to me. Some of the nibbing around capstans and fire valves almost look like "flower patterns" in the deck, when in reality, they would be so fine that you would not see them - even at 1/200 scale.

So the current plan is to revert back to actual, TRUE SCALE planking for the 1/200 kits (after all, we are SCALEDECKS.com). We'll have to re-plank all of our plans for the Arizona, but that should allow us to finally release our cut on a material that we are satisfied with. And the Bismarck should follow on after that.

Anyway, that's the latest from scaledecks-land!

-- John D. --

_________________
scaledecks.com - Proud Sponsor of the ModelWarships.com community!

Okay, I'm going to have to pick up one of these. I was cruising on my build of that kit until I ran into the three piece, very, very warped main deck. With one of these, I just need to build a set of ribs to support it.

_________________
Current Builds:
1-350 DKM Z-39
1-350 USS Philippine Sea

Looks really good! Any chance of you doing a similar deck for the Airfix HMS Victory in 1/180? There are going to be three photo etch sets for this kit very soon, and one of your decks would be a perfect compliment.

Hello John,

I was wondering when Scaledecks will be coming out with the 1/350 deck for the Arizona. btw 1/96 Constitution deck looks awesome.

Mark

Looks great!

Just curious, will this be of Connie as she is today, in 1812, or as originally configured? Gilmer's book pointed out a lot of issues with her original appearance versus how she looks today, albeit mostly dealing with the quarter galleries and head arrangements. I have wanted to build her as if the Tripolitan War, and there may have been certain differences. Also, are these done from the Humphrey's - Doughty drawings? Sorry for all of the questions, but Connie and her sisters have always been favorites.

Thanks!

Robert

Bless You!

This kit has been around for decades, and is an absolute classic. Given the quality of the kit, and its longevity, I would think it would be a target of opportunity for after-market accessories but, alas, it's been sadly neglected - at least up until now. Many thanks for taking a positive step in that direction.

Okay, some updates!

First, we have improved the deck, and now feature accurate nibbing at the bow, wider planks under the gun carriages, 3-in-1, and full planks between the hull openings. It's looking really sweet!

Here are two photos from a build log, which you can read in its entirety (and see lots of high-resolution photos!) here: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_su ... 55174.aspx

Just a teaser of two of my favorites:



We are also now offering a deck for the Revell "Baby Connie" - or the 1/196 scale kit where the deck is about 11 inches long; see my separate thread about that!

And now to answer your specific questions:

Robert - the cut is to match the plastic as it is molded, but the nibbing and plank sizes are more historically accurate than the current cut pattern and plank laminates and splicing. What features are you specifically looking for? We might be able to do a custom to fit your specs...

Mark - In terms of "Steel" we currently have the 1/200, 1/350, and 1/426 Arizona at the top of the stack. And the 1/226 Glencoe Oregon as well. We're releasing new product again as we have a re-commitment from our engineer (and have brought on a second as well!) If all goes well, we should have all of those out by the end of the year.

Romad601 - In terms of "Wood" we are very close on the Revell 1/96 Cutty Sark, and the Heller 1/100 HMS Victory (we hope to have both of THOSE done by the end of the year, too!) Among the "Next Generation" of sail that we will be looking at are the Airfix HMS Victory, the massive Heller 1/100 Le Soleil Royale, and other kits by Airfix and Revell in odd scales (Such as the Wasa, Bounty, etc.)

In terms of the Heller Victory, I am working with Robin Carpenter at Scalewarship.com, and we hope to release sets of brass, resin, and wood decks that will compliment each other on these various kits.

AND, if you can keep a secret... I am now going deep into research on the CSS Alabama, and plan to release a replacement wood deck with ACCURATE GUN SWEEPS also laser-cut to be applied in the proper locations - fixing the biggest problem with the Revell 1/96 CSS Alabama. I am working with the Cottage Industries upgrade which replaces the inaccurate kit guns with very accurate resin and metal representations of the 7" and 8" pivot guns, as well as replacements for the 32 pounders as well.

Things are hopping again. I LIKE IT!

_________________
scaledecks.com - Proud Sponsor of the ModelWarships.com community!

Thanks for the update and for asking, John. I'll email later in the next couple of days, but the main thing is that the Hull model at the Peabody Essex Museum and some iterations of her plans show different grating arrangements. I suspect that they were changed during her later refits and overhauls, but that her War of 1812 and as-built decks were pretty much the same. Certainly, there were no periods of radical overhaul or rebuilding that would necessitate such changes early in her career, yet the Hull model has different gratings, somewhat different fife rail and binnacle locations, etc., than the Revell kit deck has. I'll do some photo comparisons and get back to you. Thank you again for asking!

Robert