It took me a week longer to frame out than expected. After several failed attempts to square off the bottom of the hull, I decided to go with scale rib contours. Converting from the ram bow of the Sverige to the icebreaker bow of the latter two ships was more work than I expected. Since nearly every rib has a different height, I opted to build from the keel up. I ended up with a slight bump on the port deck just forward of amidships. My stern cannon will not fit under the deck, so I am going to have to cut out some rib and keel sections after I add another double keel--so I will have to "box" in a cannon mount below the scale hull shape. I will have two dual 7/32" rotates, two (out of a possible eight) BB secondaries, and two bow torpedo tubes of the single shot variety for simplicity's sake. Over the winter I might be able to arm four more secondaries, but I am already fitting a lot into this four foot boat. Six weeks until the first battle. Can I make it?
Now in the original language: It tuuk me-a a veek lunger tu freme-a oooot thun ixpected. Effter seferel feeeled ettempts tu sqooere-a ooffff zee buttum ooff zee hooll, I deceeded tu gu veet scele-a reeb cuntuoors. Cunferteeng frum zee rem boo ooff zee Sfereege-a tu zee icebreeker boo ooff zee letter tvu sheeps ves mure-a vurk thun I ixpected. Seence-a neerly ifery reeb hes a deefffferent heeeght, I oopted tu booeeld frum zee keel up. I inded up veet a sleeght boomp oon zee purt deck joost furverd ooff emeedships. My stern cunnun veell nut feet under zee deck, su I em gueeng tu hefe-a tu coot oooot sume-a reeb und keel secshuns effter I edd unuzeer duooble-a keel--su I veell hefe-a tu "bux" in a cunnun muoont beloo zee scele-a hooll shepe-a. Bork Bork Bork! I veell hefe-a tvu dooel 7/32" rutetes, tvu (oooot ooff a pusseeble-a ieeght) BB secundereees, und tvu boo turpedu toobes ooff zee seengle-a shut fereeety fur seemplicity's seke-a. Oofer zee veenter I meeght be-a eble-a tu erm fuoor mure-a secundereees, boot I em elreedy feetting a lut intu thees fuoor fuut buet. Seex veeks unteel zee furst bettle-a. Cun I meke-a it? Bork Bork Bork!
As I will have 1.25" of free board, I am going to go with a 1/2" deck and cap rail per rule B-5. That will give me just enough clearance for my cannons without having to cut into the keel. It looks like I might have to get another sheet of 1/8" ply to get all the wood for the extra 1/8". I will have to fabricate new depression servo mounts though. I will probably go with the Traxxas 2080 waterproof micro servos so I can fit everything inside the 3 & 1/8" OD barbette.
Tonight I marked out the bottom of the penetrable area, put notches along one side and sanded the hull contours. After an hour on the random-orbit palm sander, my hands feel like they are made of springs and I can't type worth squat. Tomorrow night I hope to have the stringers to frame out the impenetrable area done and mark/notch the ribs for my stuffing tube. That will be all for this week because Thursday night, I have to get ready for TreatyCon!
Wow - only 4 feet long at 1/96 scale? Coastal BB - right. Very nice work. Looks strange with the double keel instead of a baseplate; not seen that before. Thanks for sharing! More pics as you build please. Do you use wood hardeners on your ribs? I'm debating about using a 1/4" thick aluminum bow keel...be good for ice-breaking Thomas
I've seen one ship with a base plate personally. I have no idea how to make one with that method. I seal my ribs with epoxy. Looking at West Systems for this boat, but I usually go with the hobby-shop finish grade stuff.
Also, I'd not bother with the aluminiuim. Quality 1/4" ply is plenty strong and easier to work with. As I only have a few weeks to get it ready, I probably will not be uploading as many pics as with my Alsace build. Speaking of, off to the shop!
I managed to get the port stringer in as one piece which straightened out the hull a little like I was hoping. I was going to drill rib S for stuffing tubes, but my battery died on me. I am taking a break and will get back in the shop to see if I can finish the other stringer tonight.
I used a brass tube with roughed up edges in my drill to core out my ribs for the stuffing tube sleeves. On my Nelson, I clamped down the cap rail to make sure the deck was absolutely level, and then added the stringers. Also did that when I added the planking for the non-penetrable area, working on one side, one strip at a time alternating sides so that I dont get any tweakage. Absolutely level and perfect. For a baseplate, set the ribs on a sheet of plywood where you marked a center line of the ship and the center line of each rib. Then align the rib with each line, and mark the point where the hull starts to curve minus say 1/4" or so, that way you have a nice edge for the balsa to stick. Then offset that again to the inside for about 1/2" or so to mark the point where you will notch into. Then either hand sketch or use a 1/8" stringer, and some light nails or push-pins to lock the stringer on each side of and bend; at each point, the stringer will have 2 pins locking it in place along the outside points you marked. Then draw a line/curve along the inside edge (or outside, depending where you placed the stringer). That's your baseboard...then trace out your Keel(s) for the Bow and Stern, and then find a spot to lock the keels into the baseboard. Mark and notch etc - best if you notch both in some fashion. Then cut out. Thats it, basically. Pretty simple. I like the idea of a baseplate, as that will be where the most weight (stuff and water) will be focused on. For instance, with the H-39, I'm using a 3/8" baseplate, instead of the usual 1/4" I've read and seen about in pictures. I want that big hull to be tough as nails. I'm also placing 5 stringers along each side in the non-penetrable area to beef up the underside of the hull. Hlaf an inch appart. Took some time to cut out the notches, but each notch is a perfect snug fit for the stringer, and near perfectly alligned. Looks nice...see below. Thomas
Got my rear cannon mount and stuffing tubes in tonight. Hopefully I will be able to finish the forward cannon mount tonight. I am going with wood on three sides and some zip ties for my Indiana mounts.
Looks great Dustin. Today is the first day checking out the thread ... I should have looked sooner. The double keel method can be strengthened to prevent bowing by adding the bottom of the waterchannel and some of the bottom filler pieces between the center ribs section of the ship before the hull is taken off the building board. It is easier if the hull is built upsidedown (such as the Bearn, Verite, Erin builds on this siite) but can be done right side up with care (such as the Requin build). Hmm ... which gives me an idea of making a raised building block to build a curved deck ship upsidedown without using the leg method used for the Omaha builds. The block would be tall enough to put the double keels on without having the deck touch the building board. Clamp the keels on the block and build downwards with ribs and subdeck, then fill in the bottom of the hull for stiffness before removing the ship from the building board. I'm going to try this on my next wood hull project. Bring the ship to the September event, Dustin. Would like to see it and the Alsace first hand.
I saw a neat series of photos in a "Ships in Scale" magazine recently, where a guy sawed a channel in a board and inserted the keel for his model ship into that, and worked upwards from there. Kind of a cool idea I thought. http://www.seaways.com/ Thomas
We had a build session at Mikey's today and progress is as follows: The bow torpedo tubes are in. Torpedo barrels are fabricated. The bow is blocked out, and my depression servo mounts and linkage are done. In addition: yesterday I fabricated fore and aft rotation servo mounts, put in the rudder stuffing tube, and redid both cannon mounts. The cannons now mount via a 8-32 tap on the bottom of the ball valve assembly to an 8-32 brass insert through the keel. A 3/4" stainless machine screw holds them in place. I will fill the screw holes with white lithium grease and tape over to minimize leaks. The wood bracing is still in place for support. Mike, I hope to have both this and the Alsace battleing that weekend. Would love to see you again my friend.
The internal layout is set except for the exact placement of the firing servos and the pump switch servo which will go in once I get farther along in the build. I have general areas set aside for them, but I will need to check clearance (Clarence) of the shafts, etc... to permanently mount the servo trays. I will be running baby Wah-Mings for drive motors running on LiFe cells at 4S. Battery capacity will be 4600mAh. Since my pump is a 6V motor, I picked up a 1700mAh NiMH 6V pack today to run that. My pump draws 5A under load, so that only gives me about 15 minutes of pump time under ideal circumstances, but that was the largest 6V pack my LHS had, and with time short until the first battle, I decided that it would have to do for now. I kept going back and forth on arming any secondaries, but decided not to for this battle. Space is going to be very tight, and I might be able to fit a couple in, but I figured to spend my time getting it on the water, battle ready vs. squeezing in all the bells and whistles. I realized I am going to have to redo my stuffing tubes (I just learned that with soldering thin walled brass red-hot is a no-no. I guess I didn't do the flux right), so tomorrow I am going to get new ones in, block out the stern, and start sanding to shape. If all goes very well, I will sheet the bottom of the hull Thursday night. My ribs ended up about 1 or 2 degrees off vertical, so that may take a while. This is the last curved deck, curved bottom ship I will try to build without a building board. Ever. I have about 1/8" of hogging vs the 1/64" I had on the Alsace. Not very happy with the hull, but I am determined to get this ship on the water.
I pulled my stuffing tubes and sanded the bow and stern to shape tonight. Eye-balling the icebreaker bow without reference material was a bit of a challenge, but I think the result came out fine. Tomorrow I will probably find detailed hull stations for the bow I also placed an order with BC for 3" barrels and other various bits in case I have time to arm secondaries. I also ordered some more LiFePO4 batteries from Hobby King for this boat. Three packs plus some charger adapters came out to $77, but shipping ended up being $45. Tomorrow I am going to start sheeting the bottom of the hull and hope to get about 50% done.
I got the new stuffing tubes in and the bottom of the hull sheeted today. Tomorrow, I am going to try to get the deck cut out if I can fit in some shop time.
I got a little shop time in tonight. I ran out of glue and had to travel for some more. By the time I got back from the hobby shop I got distracted by the superstructure for a while. Bad Dustin! I can do that when epoxy is curing.... The good news is that my pump switch is shipping, as are my SMAV-3s, and my batteries were delivered to UPS after five days. So, the $45 three day shipping is at day five--if all goes well, I should have them by Friday--but I am not holding my breath. For the pump switch I am going with a Hansen Hobbies NERS and Onboard Mechanical Relay because it gives me more placement options and I can waterproof both parts in one go.
