Recently, I posted a
review of some wood decks for the 1/350 Trumpeter Z-25 from ScaleDecks.com. Included in the package of decks for the Trumpeter Z-25 was a tinted wood deck for the 1/350 Zvezda Borodino. Here are my impressions of that product.
As with the Z-25 decks, the Borodino deck comes in a plastic wrapped sleeve with a thin heavy paper insert. The deck is on one side of the insert, the instructions on the other.
The decks are unbelievably thin. They require a minimum of clean up - just cut them off the "sprue" and remove any nubs. With the Z-25, the wood decks dropped right into place. How would the Borodino class deck fit?
- Zvezda Oriel, Borodino Class, with plastic deck
The decks are meant to lay over the kits plastic deck - but have to be installed before you add the sides of the lower superstructure to the model. Since my Oriel was past that point, I tried test fitting the wooden foredeck onto the model. I had mixed results, as you can see by the following photos.
- Dry fitting the ScaleDecks product
As you can see, when you got to the rear part of the foredeck, the wooden deck doesn't want to fit at all. However...as I said, these are supposed to be added
BEFORE you get to this point, so it's not an apples to apples comparison to say "it doesn't fit". That being said, it did take some effort to get the forward part of the foredeck to sit down over some of the hatches - but that may be related to the fact that the rear end doesn't fit flush, due to where I am in the construction process. I was unable to test fit the quarterdeck, due to the same issue. My only concern would be filling any gaps between the lower superstructure and the deck without marring the wooden deck. Perhaps white glue - but not too much, lest you warp the deck.
All that being said, I really like the tinted wood. The grain is practically invisible when compared to the other types (refer to the Z-25 review) and the plus it has over the photographic paper is that it IS real wood. As mentioned in the Z-25 review, I don't know if these not being self-adhesive is a negative or not, since I haven't use them, so I don't know if this will be a negative or just part of the build process, like adding any other part.
I'm impressed with what Scaledecks has to offer. I like the thinness of the product and how the wood grain isn't prominent in the tinted deck. In my opinion, this seems to be a finely produced product at a reasonable price. What more could a modeler ask for? Just use caution when handling - these are very, very thin and fragile - use caution when handling.
Thanks to John from Scaledecks.com for the review sample.
