Gundeck features… ladder/stairs, hatch gratings.

by John

The upper gundeck details need to be completed before adding the spar deck and poop decks.

So I started by making some hatch grids. Remember that although I am “scratch building” this model, I am using Amati/Victory Models plans.

For the hatch grids I tried cutting the combs on my laser cutter. Firstly I machined some 1mm thick material in Huon pine, and then meranti. The laser cutter performed beautifully, cutting the combs accurately and quickly from the 1mm thick material. But when I assembled the combs into grids I experienced multiple breakages of the comb teeth, despite several alterations in tooth dimensions.

So after several sleeps on the issue, I decided to use 1mm thick plywood, which in model ship building is a bit of a “no-no”.

But Hey! It worked. The plywood teeth did not break during assembly. And although the layers of the plywood were visible, I decided that paint would hide the layers.

I made the hatch grids slightly oversized, and sanded them to the finished size, making sure that the borders of the grids were intact combs, not holes.

Then cut the hatch borders from solid 3mmx2mm strips, dimensioned on my homemade drum sander. You will notice on the photos that I did not join the corners of the hatch surrounds with 45 degree mitre cuts, but butt joined them. In reality I believe that the joins were half laps, but that was a step too far for me. So butt joins it was. Thankyou for CA glue.

Showing the “combs” on the right, the assembled and glued with dilute PVA gratings middle, and the hatch border strips material left. My old microsurgery dissectors were very handy, left.
Hatch with 2 removeable gratings, and a bare area which was later filled with a stair/ladder. Experts will notice a mistake. But I am not going to fix it. To be added to the sides of the hatch are the shot garlands, which held cannon balls. I am unsure whether the garlands were used during long voyages, or just filled when action was imminent. The iron balls would have been exposed to the the elements and rusted, so maybe they were just filled with balls if action was imminent. See later photos.
Note the shot garlands next to the left hand hatch covers. The model balls will be 2mm diameter which is very close to the actual 1:72 scale size. The capstans are made but yet to be glued into position.
There are quite a few ladder/stairways between the decks in the original and the model. Cutting the tread rebates in the stringers was a challenge. I tried a scalpel, sharp chisels, and grinding but non were satisfactorily neat. So I tried lasering the rebates AND the stringer outlines. After some power adjustments that worked perfectly! Just a bit of a fiddle to glue the assembly.
Then a further fiddle to drill 0.9mm holes to accept the stairway ballusters…. (and another view of the error.)
A perfect use for my tiny jewellers drill press. A tricky setup, but worked a treat!

Homemade rope for the handrails.