so i am currently laying the main gun deck and will be doing the grates soon, but i notice in the instructions it says nothing about paint colour, surely the grates would be painted before putting in position. it mentions painting the bits black,i dont think these grates would have been left natural wood colour, can anyone advise me the colour to paint them, the model will be painted not stained, also is this an error in the instructions or will i need to research every part for colour before i fit it. many thanks in advance.cheers Andre

Hi Andre.

I've checked through my reference books on Victory but there's no mention at all about the finish of the gratings. I would think they would be left natural wood as all of the gratings were designed to be lifted out of the frames to allow stores to be brought up or sent down during the voyage (such as spare sails and timber for repairs which was stored down in the bottom holds). Any paint finish would be soon battered about by the lifting gear used to raise them up, so (knowing how penny-pinching the navy was) they would probably have been left in bare wood. The last restoration saw some of the gratings replaced with new ones of Douglas Pine which would fit quite nicely with John's pics.

Robin.