When I started this ship build back in 2020 I knew I wanted a wood deck. At the time I thought of using stripwood to do this .. but that was basically just a thought for the future. Since then I acquired a laser cutter .. a Omtech Polar 350 and my plan now is to laser cut the decking.
Since the model has “evolved” over time I need to get a good plan of said deck. To start I used double-sided tape to stick cardstock to the deck and then traced around it with a pencil. I could then scan the cardstock so I would have something to eventually create the DXF file needed for the laser.
This was a bit more involved than I had hoped as after bringing the scan of the three cardboard pieces into Paint Shop Pro I had to join them into one seamless photo then using a trace outline function. I imported this into Lightburn to convert to a vector file .. with limited success. I then went back to PSP and used the pen tool to trace around the lover half of the photo and mirror vertically since if you look at the scan at the top of the page, the top and bottom of the model at this point is not a mirror image. Makes sense as the model was made by hand and so I need to match those sides better.
Where to put seams? The drawing is a bit different than the outline of the model hull which is fine since this was made up pretty much. The drawing shows the deck planking running seamless from prow to stern. That’s fine for a drawing but I simply can not engrave something this large on my laser. Sure .. I could interweave the planks where the pieces join but it might be better to have something that the planks dead end against .. possibly around the large hatch.
Nib Strakes and Deck Planking .. Here the Nib Strake is in blue and the deck planking in green. Apparently .. if I read the source right, that angle on the deck planking where it is socketed into the Nib Strake is cut where that length exceeds 1-1/2 times the width of the plank. In the 19th century plank width was around 12 inches. The small circles are wood plugs covering the deck spikes and ~1′ dia.
Just eyeballing making the width of the Nib Strake minimum also 12 inches from the innermost notch to the curve where it touches the inner hull. I’m only trying to make this look right for other modelers .. not necessarily ship modelers.
At this point I need to locate where the fore and aft superstructures and main hatch are located as between those I want horizontal planking/structure so I can have reasonable length planking sections that will cut/fit on my laser.