Topic: Advice on hms kelly decking

[Latestarter]

I am just about to purchase a hms kelly kit.This will be my first kit . Its taken me over 70 years to get round to it . I have noted that on some other models of Kelly the decking is shown as planked. 99 (The Maratime museum for example). I noted you can buy sheet decking material from dean marine . An thoughts on the matter or tips and advice would be appreciated.

[ship's doctor]

I think the maritime museum model is showing the decks covered in 'cemtex' which was an anti-slip coating applied to decks of destroyers, light cream coloured in the early part of ww2.
HMS Kelly should make a great model with a really interesting history. There is a book called 'the Kellys' which has lots of photos and drawings of the class.
Good Luck!
James

[Latestarter]

Thanks for that. On closer inspection I had mistaken th cream to be timber decking. I still have a notion to modify/add to the kit laser cut timber decking . Did Kelly have a timber deck covering or was it exposed metal ?

[ship's doctor]

I think most of the WW2 fleet destroyers (Tribals, J's, K's, N's etc)  had steel decks with some sort of synthetic covering - 'cemtex' or 'corticene', there would have been some wood areas on the bridge near to the compass platform and other instruments. The larger units (cruisers) had planked decks though in some cases I've heard this was removed to save weight or more often painted over dark grey as part of the camouflage. I think I have seen wooden planked areas on some of the small vessels (eg. HMS Bramble, HMS Royal Marine) though I would need to check photos.

Hope this is helpful,
James

[Latestarter]

Many thank for your help. It's now full steam ahead