need ideas for scratch building a wharf


JeffH

Well-Known Member
I'm beginning to plan for this Winter's buildout of my river scene. I'm going to scratch build a wharf that is about the length of a football field, and 60 feet wide. This will be N scale, so actual dimensions will be 4.5" x 21." There will be 2 structures on the wharf, in addition to some cranes and other "dock" stuff.

I have a sheet of styrene cut to the right shape, and I've tried my hand at painting the planks, and no matter what technique I try, it looks like a kindergartner did it.

I want the wharf to be made from wood planks, so I was thinking about using scribed wood sheathing with the "planks" being 1/16" or even 1/32"

At scale, 1/32" would look like a 5 inch wide plank, while 1/16" would look like a 10" plank. Both are OK sizes for N scale.

However... all the scribed sheathing I can find is only 3.5" wide, yet I need about 4.5" width. And.. the sheathing is a little too uniform, and perfect... I think I want old looking, where planks have been replaced over time, and also have some planks 1/16" and others 1/32"... something that looks like it was hand built using timbers on hand, or sawed locally...

So then my mind started wandering to me making like 300 or so of my own planks, and glue them all down to the styrene. I came across a video by MArklinOfSweden where he makes his own planks by stripping off 1/16" off the edge of a sheet of balsa wood to mass produce planks. Then, we dyed "batches" of planks various tones of wood / creosote color to add variation. He was making lumber loads for HO scale, but the concept would work for a wharf too.

Do any of you have any other ideas? I have quite a while before I start the build, so I have time to come up with a good plan.
 
Most planks used in a dock surface would be in the 8-12 in wide range, so 1/16" is better than 1/32.

Get a piece of brass material at a hardware store or craft store, something in the range of 1/2 in or wider and 1/32 or so thick. Take a piece of styrene (or wood) thicker than the material you are using for the planking and glue it to the brass strip, leaving a 1/16" lip of the brass beyond the filler material.

Turn it over with the brass on top and drill two holes in the brass and filler, then screw it to a piece of plywood, particle board or MDF.

Take a piece of planking material, slip it under the lip and run a hobby knife down along the brass strip. Viola, you have cut a 1/16in strip. Repeat for however much you need.

Hint: Reverse the direction of alternating planks so in case your planks are not exactly parallel, they will come out straight.

Plank.png
 
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Most planks used in a dock surface would be in the 8-12 in wide range, so 1/16" is better than 1/32.

Get a piece of brass material at a hardware store or craft store, something in the range of 1/2 in or wider and 1/32 or so thick. Take a piece of styrene (or wood) thicker than the material you are using for the planking and glue it to the brass strip, leaving a 1/16" lip of the brass beyond the filler material.

Turn it over with the brass on top and drill two holes in the brass and filler, then screw it to a piece of plywood, particle board or MDF.

Take a piece of planking material, slip it under the lip and run a hobby knife down along the brass strip. Viola, you have cut a 1/16in strip. Repeat for however much you need.

Hint: Reverse the direction of alternating planks so in case your planks are not exactly parallel, they will come out straight.

View attachment 149562
Thanks for that!!!

I just bought some 1/16" thick pieces a basswood from Hobby Lobby. I think I'm going to make a jig to slice off strips that will endcep being planks. I paid less than $5.00USD for 2 pieces that are 3" x24". I should be able to make scad loads of planks.

Thanks again!
 
YOUR baseboard should be made out of a hard material such as brass, steel, aluminum, or glass to prevent your cutting knife from making a groove - the groove cut in the base might "waddle" and cause your planks to not be straight.

A piece of 1/4 plate glass would be the best?
 
Here is the video I came across about how to mass produce planks of scale size wood. He is building stacks of dimensional lumber for a lumber yard, but the same concept will work to produce planks to scratch build a pier.

I picked up a couple 24"x3" sheets of basswood from Hobby Lobby. One is 1/32" thick, the other is "1/16" thick. I'm going to fabricate a slicer that will slice off 1/32" from the edge of each piece. I figure if I go with the grain, and make all the planks about 4.5" in length, I will end up with about half timbers that are 5" and half that are 10" wide at scale.


Hobby Lobby has really inexpensive balsa and basswood. I paid lass than $5.00 for both pieces. Shipping would have been $8 at the cheapest online source.
 
Using this method, I will end up with all planks being 1/32" tall, with half being 1/32 wide and half being 1/16" wide.

In other words, the scale equivalent of 5"x5" and 5"x10' planks of wood... with a good variation of "creosote treated wood" color tones.

After dying the planks in various color batches, but before building the pier, I'll set the colors with diluted PVA glue, or perhaps a clear matt spray paint. Once the pier is built, a final black wash, wiped off the surface should give the "cracks" a nice definition.
 
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That was my impression when I first found the subject thread on a great forum that I think has gotten very diminished by a software upgrade.

Very thankfully a good number of the images are reproduced on that forum link I gave you
 



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