Mike -
Roger. I still have the BWN disaster in my stash too. Except it looks much better than it did originally. Really wish I had the Merit kit(s) back before I sent away big coin for the resin kit, though. Sanding down the offending Merit hull plating is very small potatoes compared to carving, cursing, sanding, cursing, grating, cursing, chiseling, and cursing the resin hull into shape.
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As I'm sure you know from previous conversations, I really like a wood deck made with veneer thickness wood strips. I have done two carrier decks and I really like the results from every angle. The two sets I've used had companion P/E sets that add the details such as the flight deck elevators and other normally metallic flight deck fittings. In the two sets I used, the elevators fit into the decks (after the wood is removed from those places) with near perfection and the metal parts are split such that the elevator could be posed in the down position. I have painted the wood decks using Colorcoats enamels without any issue. I am careful to blend the rounddowns into the wood flight deck with a strip of .005 plastic on the rounddown that I taper to the existing plastic of the rounddown. I also find any and all details laser etched into the wood to be crisp.
In general, it is my opinion that a P/E deck would be challenging to get down as smoothly as a wood deck. The problem of unequal expansion of the metal and underlying plastic could result in the P/E deck pulling up - maybe the very day it is on display at the Nationals as would be my luck. I know some worry about the same problem with wood decks, but I have not had that problem so far in the three years I have had the two decks attached.
As always, I respect what others choose to do. This is what I did.