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Reference · Techniques

Deck fittings: capstan, ship's wheel, gratings and bitts

The deck carries everything that makes a ship a ship, and it is exactly there that the kit most often supplies something not quite right. The gratings from the manual are too tall, the wheel here was rebuilt from ten walnut segments, and the shot garlands were laid with a small jig so every ball sits at the same spacing.

What I only understood later about the bitts and pin rails: they are not deck furniture but belaying points, and before long each of them will carry the pull of a handful of lines. Piet (pietsan) therefore puts a headless pin under every bitt in a drilled hole, with glue, and fixes the pin rail with two or three pins; he cannot bear the thought of a pin rail coming loose with all its belayed ropes (Dutch forum, ‘Vaardigheden, tips en weetjes’, 21 March 2020). HMSFly (Marc) did it on Ships of Scale with pins in drilled holes and glued his cavel cleats a millimetre off the bulwark, because otherwise the rope cannot pass round them (December 2024). My bitts abaft the mizzen mast have no pin holes yet; they get them before the masts go in.

How-tos (8)

6 steps Shot garlands with every shot equally spaced, using a small template
Keep advancing a plastic template with two small circles one step at a time so all the shot hollows come at exactly the same spacing; then file them in with the pillar drill and lay the shot in wet varnish. 5 steps Making the upper deck gratings lower with a camber
Do not make the upper deck gratings with the 2x2 mm coaming from the manual, but 1 to 2 mm high with a subtle camber along the length of the ship, as the sources indicate. 5 steps Bending a strip for the planksheer in a PVC pipe of water
Soak a 5x2 mm beech strip for five minutes in a PVC pipe of water and bend it round a jig of nails, so the planksheer of the forecastle deck runs round the curve in one piece. 7 steps Building up a drumhead from seven layers of walnut
Scratch-build the drumhead of the upper deck capstan from seven walnut discs of different thickness, with square capstan bar sockets in the 1.5 mm layer, after the example in The Anatomy of the Ship. 8 steps Turning and fitting rail stanchions for the ladderway
Turn walnut stanchions on the lathe, exactly to size, with a pin in the bottom to fix them into the deck and a brass ring at the top for the rope, which you let sag with water and a small weight. 6 steps A mast coat from dyed lining fabric, after the masts of the Victory
Replace the bare kit ring round the mast with a mast coat of wedges covered in pleated, tarred canvas, imitated with lining fabric. 8 steps A ship's wheel rim from ten walnut segments, turned round on a faceplate
Build up the rim of a scratch-built ship's wheel from ten equal segments, glue them together on a small wooden faceplate and turn them round on the lathe, as a replacement for the brass kit wheel. 7 steps Turning spokes for the ship's wheel with a pre-shaped blade
Turn ten identical spokes about 1 mm thick from a perfectly square strip, using a blade as a jig for the spacings and a small turning tool for the final shaping.

Problems you run into here (13)

Problem	Fix
Shot garlands Unknown how deep the shot garlands should be and how to fix the shot.	Lay the shot in wet varnish; once dry they are held fast. in the register
Upper deck gratings The manual prescribes a 2x2 mm coaming, which makes the gratings unnaturally high.	Gratings 1 to 2 mm high with a subtle camber. in the register
Planksheer The kit strips for the planksheer (2x4 mm) are too narrow and the walnut strips for the forecastle too short.	Bought bendable 5x2 mm beech strips; bent his own strip in a PVC pipe with water. in the register
Upper deck capstan The first scratch-built capstan in oak was 'a botch job'.	Redone in walnut after Anatomy of the Ship; the third version of the drumhead with square bar sockets was chosen unanimously. in the register
Upper deck capstan The kit's walnut plate under the capstan is a different colour from the walnut of the capstan.	Made his own plate from oak, like the edges of the grating. in the register
Ladderway stanchions Stanchions from satay skewers failed ('cheap soft wood'); the kit stanchions are brass pins without any shape.	Thinned down round sticks; later turned walnut stanchions (three attempts). in the register
Ladderway stanchions The first stanchions came loose halfway through the model builders' day in Hillegom.	Attempts two and three in walnut, with brass rings from the smallest Caldercraft hooks; a pin point underneath to stick them in. in the register
Ladderway stanchions The rope between the stanchions is taut and does not hang realistically.	Wet the rope and put a small weight on it; 'just some water and a weight was indeed enough'. in the register
Mast coats According to zu Mondfeld the mast coat consists of separate wedges covered with tarred canvas, so the kit ring is not right.	Trimmed the ring and stretched black fabric over it; later a version with folds modelled on the Victory. in the register
Ship's wheel When freeing it from the faceplate the wheel rim broke in three places.	Next time glue it completely first, then free it with heat (heat gun or hairdryer). in the register
Ship's wheel The wheel in the kit is brass, which Eduard finds 'a bit odd'.	Scratch-built two wheels with ten spokes each, after the Syren PDF and the NRG articles. in the register
Ship's wheel The 1x1 mm walnut spokes break easily and are hard to align.	Ordered cherry, pear and boxwood (edelholzverkauf); method with a pre-shaped blade on the lathe. in the register
Ship's wheel Dilemma: the prettier spoke is not to scale (10 cm thick at full size), the spoke to scale is less attractive.	With practice more detail can be worked into the thin spokes; chose the thin spokes. in the register

In the build log

22 December 2019Shot garlands evenly spaced with a small template
First shot garlands around the hatches, with a step-by-step method: a small plastic template with two holes puts all the shot holes at exactly the same spacing, then filing on the pillar drill and setting the balls in wet varnish. 10 January 2021Gratings on the upper deck
The manual wants a 2x2 mm coaming round the gratings; after doing the sums with Stephan and reading up on gun decks I make them lower and with a camber. 27 February 2021Planksheer, stanchions and the first rail
Gratings fitted, the lower part of the planksheer with an open rail aft as on Piet's model, a beech strip for the forecastle deck bent in a length of PVC pipe, home-turned stanchions, and the first rail is on. 20 September 2021A drumhead in three attempts
The oak capstan was a botched job; two new versions in walnut after Anatomy of the Ship, of which the third (seven layers, square capstan bar sockets) wins unanimously. 3 October 2021Third attempt: stanchions turned, rope left to sag
The stanchions are now turned exactly to size, fixed into the deck with pins at the bottom, and after a tip from Hans Groenenberg the rope sags realistically thanks to water and a small weight. 10 October 2021Mast coat in wind and weather
Despite the forum vote a third version: brown, pleated after the weathered masts of the Victory, with the wedges just visible; the black coat moves to the gun deck. 23 October 2021The first rim
The first rim of the ship's wheel is done: ten identical walnut segments, joined with epoxy and glued to a small faceplate with yellow glue, following the pdf Stephan pointed me to. 6 November 2021Good-looking or to scale
A handsome spoke that is too thick or a spoke to scale that is less pretty: it will be the thin one, and after a day of practice the method is settled, starting with a perfectly square strip of 1.06 mm.