Carp to Gold Ep.7.: Mast Deck It Out

The bad puns are never-ending with this one. The hull varnished and (mostly) cured, it was high time to apply the main wooden deck pieces.

For this, first I made a cradle from leftover EPS foam so I wouldn't rub off anything or get nasty fingerprint marks.

Then I sliced up the deck into smaller sections, followed by a lot of dry fitting and trimming before finally placing them. The self-adhesive material was reinforced with some PVA glue at places.

As a reminder, the aftermarket wooden deck is for the 1917 version while I make the ship as built in 1903, so for example I had to modify this section because of the slanted armoured bulkhead, which was later removed and the 6" guns moved to a sponson for a wider firing arc. All it took was some proper good work with a scalpel.

The main deck and superstructure are now clad in wood. Next up, I had to step the masts, because attaching the rest of the superstructure (air vents and stacks) would have interfered with painting them.

Minor scratch-building tweaks were included, such as using this Frostgrave (I think) plastic buckler, which was the right diameter, to create the main mast fighting top, and 0.5mm plasticard for the colonnade connecting the lower flying bridge to the sides (the kit had these but there was only one left, and it looked ugly).

The sides of the fighting top are fashioned from a folded piece of paper. I tried a sheet of brass first but cutting out the portholes dented it too much.

Fighting top added and a dab of resin seals the top of the mast trunk.

The topmast is a 50mm paperclip which I tapered using a dremel and sandpaper. It is simply glued on and reinforced with a few strips of plasticard.

Doing the same process with the rear mast.

The aft flying bridge is applied, and the masts are furnished with the searchlight platforms and ladders leading up to them.

Final shot before painting the topmast. There is one way to avoid splashing the deck, which is painting the masts while turning the ship upside down.

There was a big gap between the lower bridge tier and the platform supporting it, which I filled up and will cover with another layer of paint. The fighting top received 3D printed guns, which are originally 20mm Oerlikons so might be a tad too big for machine guns, so I'll trim the barrels a bit.

This is where we currently are, with deck added, masts painted (the yellow ochre parts treated with an AP soft tone was) and waiting their yards. Next up is the stacks and vents, followed by arming the ship!