Ralph Coles laid up the first half of the Graf Spee mold today. Warm weather is forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, so the mold should be finished by the weekend. Next in line is the Utah/Florida (refitted version with the huge bulges). The plug is waxed and ready to mold. 'Tugboat' will be receiving my hull mold for HMS Hood within 3-4 weeks, and has already received the turret mold. Clark also wants the mold for HMS Vanguard, which will be shipped south around the end of May. He'll be able to provide main and secondary turrets. Next to go south will be my mold for the HMAS/HMS Albatross, which can be used as a seaplane carrier or a convoy ship. (It started its career as an Australian carrier and finished WWII as a Royal Navy fleet repair ship.) A nice hull shape with antitorpedo bulges and a very unique appearance - do a Google search and check it out! After a long delay work has resumed on the hull plug for HMS Furious (WWI version). The hull can be used as the planned 2 x 18" gun light battlecruiser, the as commissioned hybrid BC/carrier with one 18" turret astern, or full carrier of 1917-1918. I hope to finish the mold by late June, make a couple of hulls for myself, and sell the mold. Next from me will be a revised Krasni Krim/Profintern hull. I need to make some mods to the original hull plug to correct a couple of errors, then make a new mold, which will also be for sale. Two of this class were converted to tankers - more convoy ship options! Enjoy, Bob
I did the preliminary drawings for an Ikoma/Tsuba Class AC and was all set to start the plug (2006) until I found different LOAs being quoted. My drawings were done to match the length in the IRCWCC and MWC Ship Lists but those lengths may not be correct. After 2 years I've not been able to determine which length is right. Bob
What lengths did you come up with Bob? I know some researchers I can ask to dig around for the correct length.
U571, This is weird, my posts keep disappearing. I replied to your I-400 hull question yesterday morning but the reply disappeared within a few hours. Some of the vanished posts reappeared this morning but have disappeared again. Is anyone else having this problem? Steve Hill of NABS has 1/144 plans for the I-400 which show a larger hull volume than the OOP battlers Connection I-400. The difference is ahead of amidships where the hull is noticeably fatter. We decided to colaborate on a new I-400 hull but I don't think Steve is ready to start yet. I already have the wooden masters for the conning tower and hangar. I made molds a few years ago and used them to make a superstructure to replace the BC version. The hangar mold has been damaged and needs to be replaced, but my hangar and conning tower are a very close match to the new plans. I'll check with Steve and see when he plans to start the hull plug. It's small as 1/144 hulls go and won't take long to finish. Bob Washington Treaty Club
Steve Hill has started on the I-400 hull plug and is making the hull 1" deeper than scale. Hopefully that will solve the stability problems I had with the shallower BC hull. Ralph Coles is fine sanding the Graf Spee mold, so the hulls should be available very soon. The USS Utah/Florida mold should be done in a week or two. The WWI HMS Furious hull plug will be finished by the end of the month and the mold by mid-June. If the plug survives the molding process the bulges will be enlarged and a mold made for the final WWII fleet carrier version of the hull. Next from me will be a more accurate hull for the Russian CL Krasni Krim. I wasn't happy with the first attempt and am modifying the plug to correct a couple of errors: the 4 port and starboard main armament sponsons should have been 1/4" higher on the hull sides and the bow area should have a tad more volume. Bob
Bob those are some nice updates. It is great to see all in the hobby helping make getting hulls easier to others.
Contact Ralph Coles ralphster30@hotmail.com re the Graf Spee. He requires the $$ before he lays up a hull, though sometimes he'll have a couple of hullls in stock. I know no GS hulls have been made yet due to final mold preparation being done this week. Bob
Latest update: Graf Spee - Ralph had some gelcoat problems so had to fill and sand several defects in the mold surface. This is a time conuming job and has to be done slowly and carefully. T mold should be done in a couple of weeks. USS Florida/Utah - the mold came off the plug with no gelcoat problems. Ralph has to do the usual fine sanding with wet and dry paper to prep the mold for production. HMS Furious - shaping of the WWI hull plug was finished this weekend and it's had the first of half a dozen coats of sealer/primer. Each coat has to be fine sanded and buffed before the molding flanges are attached and the plug waxed. I should have the mold laid up within 3 weeks and ready for hull production by mid-July. Krasni Krim - after the Furious mold is done the KK plug will get a few mods and a more accurate mold will be made. Shoud be done by the end of August. G3 Battlecruiser - still no luck in obtaining plans with cross-sections. Bob P.
Sorry Bob, no luck with the G3s. Sean Hert is still taking a look for me, he is pretty sure he has them somewhere but can't find the drawings. He said it's a Nelson hull with Vanguard transom. I guess I was thinking the panzerschiff drawings I had seen were G3s....
Hi Klibben, If the National Maritime useum has G3 plans their fees would make them very expensive, plus they now restict commercial use of their plans (ie for mold making). Might have to wing this one. There are a couple of options: 1) 'Stretch' the Nelson hull plan and graft on the transom stern section from Vanguard. This will give a hull for a G3 though possibly not accurate re the vertical hull sides. 2) The scratchbuilt G3 model I found photos of has the hull sides inclined outward like Hood, but no bulges. For a hull with sloping sides I can modify Hood's lines, removing the bulges, and graft on Vanguard's stern. Wish I knew if the sides were supposed to be vertical or sloped. Bob
Type up what you need to know and I'll send it along to some buddies of mine who are naval historians and researchers... I'll see if they have any answers.
The cross sections I have seen for the G3 have sloped sides. Base it off the Hood, that seems your best bet.
1) Graf Spee I've just bought the first Graf Spee hull from Ralph Coles' new mold. Very nice! There were two of the now OOP Swampworks hulls in the NABS club a few years ago. The lines of the new hull are finer and the bulge shape is more accurate, plus this hull is substantially stronger, having 2 versus 1 ply of glass. 2) USS Florida Ralph is fine sanding the mold surface. Mold will be ready for hull production in a few days. 3) Furious I wasn't completely satisfied with the hull plug so went at it again and touched up a few areas on the bulges and narrowed the ram bow slightly (it's still a bit wider than scale below the waterline to make it easier to lay up). The plug's been sealed again and will get a final sanding of the sealer/primer today. Molding flanges will be added tomorrow and waxing will start. The first half of the mold will be laid up next week and it should be done by July 6, a couple of weeks later than planned. What's the procedure for posting photos on the forum?? Bob
