I am heavily involved in the downward slope to done on the U.S.S. Kidd . I thought I would share this . I have three different ways to go . Now which would you choose .
Number One - take short brass rounds and drill a flurry of holes close to the deck edge and come back behind that , and put these short brass pieces in those holes after dipping them in good old C.A. Okay that’s the stanchions . Now for the rail material .Navy ships don’t have much in solid railing on the main deck .
Cable runs in little hooks serve . broken by the inevitable spaces for boarding , which are closed by chains with turnbuckles with a hook on one end . Paint all .
Number Two - Good old Photo Etch . Same deal , Drill for stanchions and glue in place, leave space for the chained areas and paint. Problem there , have you seen 1/96 scale rails ? They are hard to fatten to the proper look . Yeah , you can use paint , But , how many coats will it take ?
Number Three - To me the best . Do the drill routine and use either Brass or Plastic round rod for stanchions . On the brass you can put carefully teensy drops of Solder or very thick super glue and then hang E-Z-line on it with very tiny applications of C.A.
For the chained openings ? Take the chain made for 1/87 scale ( trains ) ( Tichy Train Group ) has some . Create a turnbuckle from fine wire or use Small turnbuckles from the train source . Install and again Paint all . I know , no pictures , right ? Well ,you all , or some of you have been on ship museums , right ? Well , Duplicate what you saw .
Anyway I think you may be helped by this . I think that Don and " G " would appriciate knowing , I got this whole idea from doing rails on a paper ship ! Yes , 1/250 scale guys ! T.B.
Some of the model ship supply vendors do offer stanchions. Not as many options are available as there used to be, but try Bluejacket, and Model Expo. There are two types, most are turned brass with holes drilled in them, and others are just 2D photo etched. Usually the PE ones are in smaller scales, though, with the turned brass ones for 96th and larger scale.
Useful conversation. I’m not there yet with Compass Rose, but I think about it.
1/144 is kind of a funny spot. I have two types to deal with. On the various bridges and deck house roofs, it’s all heavy gauge pipe with bulbs at the intersections. I’d probably use the kit parts as Gene did. And hide my sins with canvas dodgers.
But the fore deck does have cable rails. I may go the stanchion route and tie the thread around them.
Someone here had a story about being on a FFG where they rushed a firing drill and forgot to strike the deck rails forward. Tore them all off.