I let the clear sealer coat over the paint job cure for two days. Today - apply the wood deck. I'm very apprehensive about it as I've not done it before. A trick I found on the forums was to spray water on the plastic deck and on the sticky backing of the wood deck. Seems counter-intuitive but worth a try.
By placing the wood around the plastic projections on the deck, it guides it in place pretty well. Then, gradually push it down around everything, smoothing out the open areas with my finger and the edges pushed down with a burnishing tool. The only place I had trouble was around the stern gun tubs. It fit very tightly there. I might have to touch up the paint on the wood there. Took a while to smooth it all out, but amazingly, the adhesive stuck very well. I had no issues even along the deck edges. I'm quite amazed at the overall fit though.
The wood fits up VERY tightly around the deck furniture and against the main deck bulkheads. I really had to work at getting the PE on after the deck was finished without bending it all up. Turned out ok though I think. I'm using a new to me CA glue called Flexy 5K. It's supposed to have something in it to make it less brittle, plus it takes a bit more time to kick so it can be adjusted some if needed during part application. Seems to work pretty well for me.
The aft deck section done;
Close up;
The bow section prepped;
Close up;
All the bits (most, anyway, removed;
The rest of the main deck PE cut out;
And primed. I soak it in vinegar to etch the brass a bit before priming with Tamiya aerosol primer, seems to help adhesion;
Nice detail on the stuff.
I'm gonna let the deck dry overnite and rub it down one more time. The primer on the PE will have kicked too, so hopefully the fore deck will go on at least as well as this one did. I'm gonna apply the PE first though, to eliminate the issue of forcing it in between the wood and the plastic. Hopefully, it won't make the wood fight to tight and cause an issue there. The rest of the wood parts are quite a bit smaller so should be easier to handle.
EJ