Hi, Does someone have experience working with hardwood maple? Is it good choice for scratch building ship models? Do the planks bend well? Is it good to turn and to mill? I have table saw so I can cut planks of any small size. I have turning and milling ability. My Home Depot has this wood readily available. Wood looks very nice. Thanks.
I have used maple as final planking on La Couronne for the white banded areas for the gun decks. It is flexible enough and has a fine enough grain. The darker areas will be slightly visible if you leave it in the white but less so if it is stained. Since is it is readily available, grab a piece from Home Depot and cut some strips from it to test it. For first planking, I prefer lime wood, which is softer than maple but takes bends well when wetted. If you are trying to simulate oak wood for the final planking, birch wood has the proper sized grain to simulate oak on a scale model. For final planking, mahogany and oak have too coarse grain to simulate the appearance of wood at model scale, although if the grain is not as important, they can be used. The red brown of mahogany and sapele is commonly used in kits for final planking, but there are checks and stripes in it that do not provide grain at scale.
Maple (white), walnut wales and mahogany hull bottom, all unstained and coated with clear satin finish. There is noticeable change in shades in the walnut planks and wales, and I didn't make any attempt to stain the lighter pieces to match.
So can it be concluded that hardwood maple is generally suitable but not a preferable type of wood for modelling? Do you guys see this type of wood in any of your kits?
So can it be concluded that hardwood maple is generally suitable but not a preferable type of wood for modelling? Do you guys see this type of wood in any of your kits?
Maple is in Corel kits where you want pale wood or wood that appears white. It is perfectly suitable, especially in areas where you do not want harsh grain texture. I am waiting for other members to tell us where they use maple. I have seen it used as deck planking on some models.
Harold Hahn used hard Maple to build the ships in his colonial dockyard diorama
i have used it for model building and find it quite suitable. I did find out if your blades are not sharp the wood will burn when cutting. The wood is hard and diffiuclt to cut with knife like when you try to cut a tapper in a plank or cut joinery. Other than that it works well and takes a nice finish.
I used Maple for a replica of an 1800s dinghy and found it quite suitable for scratch building. I didn’t really have any difficulty with bending, forming, sanding or cutting. I intend on using it again if only I could get my hands on some. I can’t seem to find and Australian supplier.
So can it be concluded that hardwood maple is generally suitable but not a preferable type of wood for modelling? Do you guys see this type of wood in any of your kits?
I use maple for decks, hulls if I'm painting or staining. It bends well and gives an acceptable finish. High quality timber, box, pear is difficult to source in the UK so maple is the usual 'go to' wood. I would rather use stained maple than walnut, the colour variation in walnut leaves your hull looking like it's wearing pyjamas!
Hi, Does someone have experience working with hardwood maple? Is it good choice for scratch building ship models? Do the planks bend well? Is it good to turn and to mill? I have table saw so I can cut planks of any small size. I have turning and milling ability. My Home Depot has this wood readily available. Wood looks very nice. Thanks.
I've used hard maple in furniture building. The Home Depot price usually works out to be more than $20 a board foot. A good hardwood lumber yard should have it for about a third that price as long as you can mill it yourself. Getting an even stain on maple requires some reading or perhaps a YouTube video.
