About wooden decks

[Skiper]

I have a few quick questions concerning wooden decks. I recently aquired some from Voyager models for my 1/700 KGV, Hood, Missouri and Yamato (which btw are really impressive and subtle enough for 1/700 imo). I noticed they have a sticky undersurface. Is this sticky surface enough or better add some kind of glue. And if needs glue, what type is better? Also, I was thinking to apply them after basic hull painting is finished since they perfectly fit the decks after checking them, so I won't have to do a paintfull masking job. Would it be better to apply them on a gloss or matt finish? Any ideas will be much appreciated.

[JPS]

Hello guys, the same questions here. I planning to start Tamiya's sub-kit of the I-400. I bought me the set from Woodendeck.com. Another headage point for me is the adding form the railigs after the adding of the wooden deckparts.

Any tip and tricks are weldome!

Thank you
JP

[brad]

To be perfectly honest, I don't like wooden decks. I put one on my 1/350 Emden kit and regretted it. It looks fake, requires a load more work to get the thing in and to stop it from warping and takes away from the final look rather than enhancing it.

Having seen the work of some of the people on here where they have painted the deck rather than replaced it, it gives, to my mind at least, a far more accurate look than any "real" wooden deck can.

cheers,

bj

[gott_cha]

im trying to install a wood deck on the 1/350 ICM konig,...am having a bear of a time with the warping,...any ideas.....anyone?

[brad]

G'day Gott_cha,

I glued some lengths of square profile evergreen rod across the width of the deck to stop mine from warping - so far so good!

cheers,

bj

[gott_cha]

Thanx mate!

was also told to "seal" the wood with a non-water based sealer first,...I hadnt done that,...that I believe is where my problem started. I will remove the deck and steam it back flat and start over...

Oh well, live and learn.....it makes this hobby fun.

[brad]

I've read for and against on sealing. The against arguments revolve around the difficulty in getting the glue to stick to the sealer. Also, sealer tends to darken the wood.

cheers,

bj

[gott_cha]

Brad,.....yeah on the "darkened wood" that was a concern of mine as well,....

ok then here is what I've now done,...Ive sprayed the "wood" with Testors dullcote lacquer (top and bottom),.....when it dry i sprayed "ELMERS" spay tack adhesive to the underside letting it tack up for a moment ,and then set it in place.
The medium set time of this glue allowed me time to work out any air pockets or voids and to make any shifting adjustments needed. I did have to trim again around various deck fittings to get a "perfect" lay/fit. that was this mornig, its now 3:44 pm.,..the adhesive is set,....its a very humid day here today and so far so good!!! No warps. It is still very very flat and stuck tight!

If this works out for the better,..I may use this method until some better comes along,..I have 2 more decks to fit,...both 1/350 Arizona and Missouri....so I do hope this is the ticket ol boy!!

Wish me luck here!

Thanx Brad for the input

[robertmelvin]

im trying to install a wood deck on the 1/350 ICM konig,...am having a bear of a time with the warping,...any ideas.....anyone?

gott_cha, my remedy would be 1) remove wooden deck; 2) relieve frustrations by reducing wooden deck to splinters; 3) go back to kit deck and paint as needed; 4) start a nice fire with kindling produced from step 2 and have a drink by said fire contemplating how good the painted kit deck really looks after all.

I've debated back and forth about the wooden deck issue. A few things have kept me from trying it. First, I can't seem to get a sense of any consensus of "yes" or "no" from all the comments I read. Some people obviously like them, others seem to hate them. I have also wondered about the question of the grain of the wood and the issue of scale. Finally, I'm just not sure from what I've read about them that the probability of the results being good enough to justify the extra work and expense is really there.

To kind of broaden this out just a bit, and not to hijack your thread, I take the approach to after market that I'll use what I'm comfortable I can successfully use given my skill set (though I'll often try something new as a "test" or practice effort to see if its something I think I can do with a little more practice), and which have enough of an impact on the appearance of the final build to make the effort/cost worth it. Railings, obviously, I'm going to do. Things like catapults and cranes, I'm going to do if I can - they really look a lot better than the kit parts. PE guns, like 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, I probably won't do except adding the PE shield to the kit part, since I don't think the PE lite AA guns look any better than most the kit pieces - they are just to one dimensional for my taste. Other things I'll just decide on a case by case basis, maybe giving folding it, mounting it, etc., a try and if it works without driving me to the "stomp on the model" stage I'll use it, but if I can't make it look decent, or its just to big of PITA to glue onto the kit (some are), I won't. I guess its a bang for the buck analysis.

My .02 cents worth,

Bob

[gott_cha]

music please!!
The verdict is;........Brad it didnt work,.....I used tung oil to seal,....dullcoat lacquer to seal that, drying time, adhesive to the deck and ..........still no good! Wrinkle!

In my arrogance I had the belief that I was skilled sufficiently to lay a wood deck... a taped and painted deck with multi-colours looked to much work for me to deal with, plus,...I was ( bad word) in a hurry,...yeah-boy,...I will just glue this baby on and the world will swoon at my abilities..................NOT! ! !

I Said to me-self,...says I,..."I will not go this route again!"

>>>............................

BOB!

Thanx for the .02 you gave.

When I got back in the hobby I decided I would try new techniques and improve my general skill level. Well,..Ive learned quite a bit and improved a bit also. This time I reached just too far too soon. The wood printed decks are dang gorgeous, and are the "correct plank pattern for the scale,...(about 4 to 6 in.) and would bring off a much realistic rendition of a subject if the person had the needed skills in all area to deal with these decks. First off,..all superstructure components and deck fitting are attached on top of the deck,....ok,...the scale height now is thrown off and a good bit of scratch building is required to form bulkheads and other components,...I hadnt accounted for that and I am still timid where scratch is concerned.

I like your method to our madness,....if its not to much of a PITA and Im not ready to "stomp" it as you say,...LOL BEEN THERE1,...then I will include it in a build.
These days when I buy a kit,...before the correct colors are bought,...Ive got the P.E. in hand,.....hahaha what happened to the good old days,...oh well! Yes sir,..I will do radars,...cats.,....rails,...davits,..hand wheels and such,....but for these days,...im gonna settle back to being happy with just plain old good workmanship and skill improvement.

Thank you both for y'alls imput. Im going to remove the wood,...sand the deck back down.....scape alot of glue too I assume,....and Have a cold one when its thru!!

Cheers my fellow seafarers!

Mark

[MM2CVS9]

AMEN

I do some PE, mostly railings, some radars, but some other stuff if it's not to frustrating, Some scratch work to alter errors in the model, again only if I can do it without messing things up, ( I discovered this after breaking off every gun barrel on the USS ESSEX I was building in an attempt to correct wrong hangar bay doors, requiring finding replacement guns as I'm not skilled enough to drill guns in 1/700 and replace barrels with wire or tubing) and a few oddball things, like, I like to add lighting to my hangar bays.
My personal most difficulty is painting. After all the effort building, I somehow manage to mess the model up when painting, so I try to keep that as simple as possible too.

After all, This is supposed to be FUN!

EJ

[Skiper]

It's been like a month since I put KA Models wooden deck to my Scharnhorst, very easily and without problems. It does looks nice and convincing. Yesterday I noticed lift up areas, meaning the self adhesive layer is NOT enough to keep the deck down. It was laid over a primer surface and pressed down firmly in first place. Now I'm afraid that with time, in the not so distant future I will see this problem getting worse and my built which at the moment going very smooth end up in the fire place with me cursing. Striping it of the plastic is out of the question since all the superstructures, turrets etc are in place already, doing railings, rigging and fiinishing touches

[skulstov]

i have just started building my 1/350 scale tamiya bismarck and i wood like to now is there any thing i have to do before i lay this wooden deck ? this is part number md 35013 1/350 wooden deck dx for tamiya . please help ?

[mermaid]

i have just started building my 1/350 scale tamiya bismarck and i wood like to now is there any thing i have to do before i lay this wooden deck ? this is part number md 35013 1/350 wooden deck dx for tamiya . please help ?

Hi! I put the same maker deck on my tamya Tirpitz 8 months ago and I it is still in place with no current "side effects".

I had some ploblems in the beginning (sticking out in places and bubbles) which I think was likely anyway because of wood natural structure. Also as a result of not enough degreasing. So I would degrease the surface with aceton nail polish remover before sticking your deck.
But after I put varnish on the deck and it seems to help it so set in place. Bubbles I cut in on the length of the plank and it settled in, dumpen with varnish.
It did not create any undesireble gloss or change of the color of the wood (I used "pine" varnish).
I hope this helps.

[hartlyred]

Good topic! I bought wooden decks from Scaledecks for my New Jersey. I've primed and base colored the kit decks and currently doing all the masking for the deck color. After spraying the deck color, I was gonna lay down the wood. One thought I had was using hairspray for both an adhesive and sealer. If I could find the kind my mother used, I'd need a crow bar to get them back up.

Any thoughts on this?

[johnd13]

Hey, alll... I want to make you folks an offer here. I have some scrap and reject decks that I would be happy to send to you if you send me your mailing address in an email to johnd@scaledecks.com. Absolutely no charge to you...

Wooden decks are a matter of choice, but I can say that I tried using the KA decks with the self-adhesive backing and absolutely hated it. I also hated the look of the planking burned into the wood - and the end cuts were way too dark and too think, making the deck look "speckled" to me.

My frustrations there led me to start up scaledecks.com, since I had a friend with a laser cutter for his model aircraft business. We've been making decks for a little under a year now, and we've learned a ton over that time. I now offer four separate materials - teak, maple, black gum, and paper. Teak is "the real thing" but it's grainy - some people like that, some don't. Maple is a lighter wood, also grainy. The black gum is something pretty spectacular - that's my favorite. We actually tint in individual plank color variations, and do the separation lines in gray (not burn them with the laser making them chocolatey brown.) The colors are very subtle, and I am very pleased with the results. If you don't want any grain at all, we can print the same planking pattern on paper.

We use a totally different manufacturing process - two stages where we first print on the wood to get the pattern that we like, then carefully align that with the laser cutter template and then cut out the deck from there. By doing so we can print thinner plank lines, and closer together, than is possible with a laser scorch. Also, since we print the pattern, we can control the color. I'm also now starting to work on delivering colored decks to match camouflage schemes. I'll be introducing those for the Tamiya Missouri.

Our materials are also thinner than other manufacturers. The wood varies from .007 to .009 inches thick, depending on the production run (every sheet of wood is different and has it's own individual character). All of the woods are backed with a fleece fiber layer (incredibly thin) that gives strength across the grain so the deck won't split. We do NOT use self-adhesive backing at scaledecks.com, allowing you to use epoxy, or white glue, or styrene cement - whatever you are comfortable with. Most glues bite really well into the fleece. And, the combination of fleece/glue is thinner than the self-adhesive film - and it won't deteriorate with age and have the deck come up.

Sure, I'm biased, but I think we have a winner here. And, like I said, I would be more than willing to cut up some scraps of all four varieties and send them to you so that you can see them, touch them, try gluing them to scrap plastic - whatever. All that I ask is that you send me a note with your honest feedback so that I can continue to improve the product.

Again, just shoot an email to johnd@scaledecks.com and I'll send a free sample on the way to you.



-- John D. --

[WWIIshipmodeler]

I think a wooden deck on a Carrier would be a must try. wooden deck on a small scale like 1/700 seems more for the "truth " of knowing its wood , rather than the actual detail. painting I think is a better choice.

a carrier deck however, seems such a perfect use of a wood flight deck.

last. I think some of you should explore a Model Railroad shop. they have like 70+ yrs experience with wood and have all the sealers, stains, and other wood related stuff you can imagine.

I also tried on a wood deck to offset darkening, a light bleach wash, worked perfect lightened it right up. again.. Railroad wood trick.

Floquil .. clear ( Railroad model paint ) works awesome as a sealer, no discoloration, and it is so fine and smooth works on almost any scale.

cheers!

[Guest]

I find that carefully adding a little bit of Gator glue to the back of the wood deck does the trick. Just make sure to clamp the deck down :)

[NGaged]

Just wondering, but do you need to sand the deck down prior to applying a wood deck?

[johndon]

Just wondering, but do you need to sand the deck down prior to applying a wood deck?

You certainly don't need to with the Scaledecks decks.

John