Gangways

 The gangways are on either side of the waist at the quarterdeck and provide access to the quarterdeck as well as assist with boarding the ship and loading and unloading of materials.  In additional, two gangplanks extend from the gangways along the waist to provide access from the quarterdeck to the forecastle without having to run up and down ladders and navigate the main deck.

  The gangways have a specific curved shape that narrows from the quarterdeck which is framed then planked. I used a thin ply false decking as a templated, then Swiss Pear planking that matches the rest of the deck.

After mounting the gangways, I discovered a significant problem. Well, significant if you’re a 1/64 scale sailor trying to get from the gangways to the quarterdeck.  There should only be a small step from the gangway to the quarterdeck, but because (once again) I’m using a thicker wood for my planking, the “step up” is more like a leap up or a climb up – not so good.  As a solution, I fabricated an additional step up to the decks from the waist.

     The gangboards run along the rest of the waist and connect the gangways to the upper decks and provide that walkway between to the quarterdeck and the forecastle.  They’re pretty straightforward planking with knees attached that brace them to the bulwarks.  They mount just below the gangways and then need a slight curve that matches the curvature of the bulwarks along the waist.

      Finally, treenails are added to indicate where the planks are mounted. You’ll notice the additional step added the the fore end of the gangways here as well.        The ladders that provide access the the gangplanks are a tricky affair. They actually curve and slightly twist to match the shape of the gangway at the top, and then straighten out when they get to the deck. This was a challenge to create at this scale, especially when you end up having only four steps per ladder. I started by using the same materials that I used for the hatchway ladders – cutting notches in the sides into which the steps will fit.  However, the basswood used here a softer wood – which is easy to cut, but makes very precise sanding and shaping quite difficult because it shreds easily.

I felt like I got pretty close on the design, but the second problem the basswood presented was that it just looked weird in contrast to the Swiss Pear decking. I like that contrast between the boxwood fittings and the deck, but I didn’t like it with these ladders.   My second attempt involved Swiss Pear to match the decking and was worth the effort. The denser wood allowed for much more precise sanding and shaping and looked like it belonged.  So – two problems solved, but a third problem created – As I said, I had already made the ladders for the hatchways out of the lighter material – so now they seemed out of place. The only solution was to re-do them in the Swiss pear as well.