Wooden decks on ships

[tutaenui]

I am modelling an O gauge wooden decked coaster out of styrene. This is a forground model so detail and finish is important. I am interested in techniques and paint colour mixes to represent the wooden deck.

[Anonymous]

Well built-High value vessels and yachts had teak decks. Working vessel's likely had pine decks. Scribed decking in O scale is available from Micro-Mark. The color of teak would be from a golden brown through light gray. Pine decks would be from tan, again to light gray. The caulking would be best represented with a dark color, chocolate brown to black. The caulking goes between the planks. A coaster would probably have pine decks. The gray colors of both represent weathered decks and the oposite side would be new or well cared for decks.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

I believe the decks would have been oak for working vessels. Pine has too much pitch in it and would become sticky. Imagine if you were a sailor on one of those ships, you'd be tracking pitch all over the place - much to the ire of the first lieutenant. Oak, on the other hand, being a hardwood would be more durable over the course of years and certainly wouldn't be leaking pitch all over.

Of course, that applies to naval ships and to the more successful merchant lines. The decks would have been cleaned every morning with a holystone and plenty of seawater unti they were almost white. The caulking, or oakum, was usually fibers of old rope or other material, pounded into the seams with a caulking tool and hammer, then the whole thing was covered with hot tar to seal it.

[Anonymous]

O'contrar, Mon frair! Although pine certainly has pitch in it, it would not take long before the pitch would have been removed through "holy stoning", sun light and water. I can not say for certain whether or not oak would have been used as decking. I can say that pine absolutely was! Why would a sailor be worried about tracking pine pitch around, when the caulking is tar? Live oak was used in framing and as the heavy structural members: keel, keelson, horn timber, stem, knees and gripes.

However, none of this matters as we're representing decks with scribed venier wood, all that matters is that they look right!

[Eriediamond]

Ahoy, mate. Having served in the fleet of "iron men and wooden ships" I can tell you Laddy, the chief bos'in is the one to worry about, there ain't no first lieutenant. Aye lad, may the good lord have mercey on the poor soul that has the wrath of the chief bos'in bestowed upon him. Aye, you'll know the spud locker well and no liberty in Hong Kong and confinement to the ship for 30 days and mess duty for the duration of the deployment.[(-D][(-D] To represent the wooden decks, the planking on my ships were about 3 inches wide, with about a 1/4 to 3/8 spacing. The caulking was a black rubberized caulk. The color of the decking was a very light tan, close to the shade of those manilla folders used in file cabinets or like doctors use for their records and the caulking would be black. Both the planking and caulk would of coarse be done with flat paint, not gloss. I did serve aboard the USS Bulwark MSO 425 and the USS Lucid MSO 458. They were all wood constructed mine sweepers. Aye lad, few of us left that sailed the last of the wooden ships and when I finally get to where I'm going and my old chief bos'in is there, I hope he don't remember me!!! [(-D][(-D][(-D]

[dknelson]

Our friends the model ship builders have lots of parts available to them that we model railroaders don't have much experience with. Ditto for tools.
Dave Nelson