What can I put on the Deck?

I'm thinking of putting a few items on the deck of my ship such as barrels or piles of cannon balls. Any more ideas and who sells these kinds of things? How to make? {Don}
Well. . . in my not so humble opinion, the details you put on the decks are what really make ship modeling fun. I always overdo this -- or at least try to.

What goes on decks -- all sorts of stuff. Bucket racks -- with buckets. A binnacle box. Deck cargo -- anything from barrels, bags of stuff, or even stacks of firewood and fodder. Coils of rope -- either from extra line for rigging or perhaps hawsers laid out on deck preparatory to use. Spare sails could be folded up, or being unfolded for repair or to be dried. A bosun's seat or two. Kitbags with tools for the carpenter, cooper, calker or his mates. A scuttlebutt. Sponge tubs, and gun training equipment. Fishing nets. Pissdales and roundhouses on the bulwarks and at the chains. Spare spars.

Naturally, not all of these would be on the deck at once. You would not be mending sails and splicing line while doing gunnery practice. And you don't have fishing nets on a warship (usually). But you would have a bailing bucket or two on just about any ship. And deck cargo would be most likely at the beginning of a voyage, when the holds are filled with provisions.

I like to tell a tale with the deck items. For example, I am now building a model of a first century Galilean fishing boat. The crew is pulling in a net filled with fish. I have a stone anchor and anchor rope in the front. Two of the paddles have been shipped inboard so that the nets can be worked. Two other paddles (on the opposite side) have been dropped as the crew pulls in an unexpectedly large load of fish. There are a couple of canvas bailing buckets in the bilges, and under the quarterdeck are a couple of sandbags (used to trim the boat). There are also some cast nets on the forecastle. The message is that this is a working fishing boat.

Similarly, I might build a privateer or naval brig with the gunports open, the gun handling equipment on the deck, and crew arranged for firing practice. How do you know that it is practice, rather than battle? Because one gun is run out, and the officers are at that gun, while the other crews are watching.

Or you might have the Endeavour or Discovery about to set out on a voyage of exploration. Extra firewood is stowed on the deck. You can see extra spars in the channels -- more than you would expect normally. And so forth.

How to make these things?

That's the fun part. Barrels can come from train sets or doll furniture. A full-sized "N" scale barrel might be a water breaker in the launch of a 1:64 scale ship. An HO scale barrel might be a water barrel on a 1/96th scale ship.

As for bucket racks, binnacle boxes, roundhouses, etc -- these can easily be scratch-built from sheet styrene, cardstock or wood, depending upon the scale. Buckets can be turned from dowels, using a dremel tool to shape the wood. Glue thread on for a handle, and scribe stave lines with an X-acto knife.

Spare sails can be made from tissue, cloth or paper, again depending upon scale. Use a rotary cutter and a quilter's rule for delicate pieces of tissue or cloth, and glue the pieces together. Netting can come from unfolded gauze pads or tule (wedding veil fabric). Firewood can come from twigs or pine needles. Stone ballast can be made from modeling putty.

You can use your imagination, and really have fun with this stuff. If your materials are free -- twigs from the back yard -- you can throw stuff away if it does not work right the first time, and try again.
{Mark Lardas}

Despite the many references to it being " cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" cannon balls were not put in piles on the deck of a ship. They were stored in shot racks, or garlands, alongside the guns or around hatch coamings. As for barrels, except when storing ship, loose items would not be found on the deck of a warship. Most items such as rammers, spongers, and other necessary equipment would be stored in racks next to the guns. Try Bluejacket or Model Expo for various shipboard items.
{Al Blevins}
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