3D printed hull that could be used in battles?

I've been away from the forums for quite some time - but I've still been designing boats in fusion 360 and printing away... We'll today I was tinkering with the hull of the Fylgia (Swedish cruiser) and put in some cutouts.... for things to be printable and minimize assembly something like this is likely not going to be matching current battling requirements but would take far fewer hours of labor to produce and finish and there's an easy opportunity to work in mounts for motors and anything else into the design.

As for what covers the cutouts - aluminum foil of an appropriate thickness as there are many grades to choose from finding one that lets the typical round through should not be difficult to find. Of course that idea opens up varying degrees of "armor" where BB's have thicker foil and CA's have thinner... etc..

 

Talking about something like this .....

 

Using the skills you've already demonstrated, you could definitely produce a plastic hull that was compatible with one of the major rules sets. I currently have a plastic cruiser prototype out in the wild, a major revision of that design about to hit the shelves, and the first prototype of a plastic destroyer that is waiting to get built.

 

Very nice! the lines are beautiful and the changes for combat are easily within your skills from what I see. Some tweaks to the ribs basically. One thing we have found with 3D printed parts is that the most common filaments do not hold up to BB fire. PETG so far is the exception. Consider making the ribs vertical and designing in a hollow to bond in a carbon fiber rod using roof polyurethane roof cement. Believe it or not, these are now relatively cheap in the soze needed. Also, use one of the better base filaments such as ABS, Ultrat, polycarbonate or HIPS.

Good Luck. And please continue to experiment and post.

 

Nate - The reason I went with ribs in the diagonal is for printing purposes - I could do frames that are perpendicular to the deck but that would require support material which I always try to design things in a way to avoid that. I believe the ribs can be as wide a ~9mm but I'll have to check the if the requirement is to make them perpendicular to the deck. I might have a go with HIPS but would need to move the printer in to the garage since there's so much styrene.

I am more of a pre-dreadnaught era modeler but I suppose could whip something up that's more WWI vintage and see what I can do for a completely printed battle capable ship -

 

Those angled ribs are a very interesting idea. Much easier to 3d print. Not really addressed under current combat rulesets that I am aware of, but a very good idea.
I'm not as big a fan of the portholes, though. That's a lot of solid area, but you still have to make the hull watertight. A better solution, I think, would be to make the area penetrable like everything else, then make a separate pattern you can use to draw on the portholes with a sharpie. See below.

The old superstructure. Note how many details like portholes, hatches, etc. are barely visible. Only the portholes, highlighted by a small dot of sharpie, are visible from more than a few feet away.

The new superstructure (not yet assambled). Note how the old portholes and doors are removed, and a separate piece is used as a pattern to draw on the details. This simplifies repairs and repainting, while allowing a high level of detail visible from a distance.


And just for fun, here's my own 3d printed ship project. The 5-masted clipper ship Preussen, under construction:

 

Oh Hell Yeah! Look at that beautiful Clipper.

Speaking of which, have you seen the Naval Action models on GameModels3d?

http://gamemodels3d.com/games/navalaction/vehicles/all

 

I've used the aluminum duct tape and it works OK. In the WWCC we came up with one layer of standard fabric based duct tape and a second layer of aluminum duct tape as a covering. This tends to take a fair amount of damage because as a round passes through the hull it keeps the hole open with the aluminum foil tape. Fabric duct tape alone tends to want to re-close and prevents the degree of flooding that you would see with a balsa hole.

It looks really cool though because the paint spalls off leaving a bright metallic surround.


BTW, your CAD skills are really great getting this hull into its digital form. Very nice lines and the angled ribs are a cool idea. When I print mine, there are a ton of supports that have to be removed.

 

1. pre dreads are becoming popular and a number of them are legal for IRCWCC. please continue. I , for one, would enjoy battling one. They add a lot to destroyer and cruiser battles especially well.
2. good on the HIPS. I have used it and it works.. That said, I have been doing 90% of my printing with ABS. it is strong enough and solvent bath-able to smooth and increase bonding strength - and available at a good price.
3. do eliminate the holes. make a thin wall for superstructure and add thickened areas for details. keep structure below deck solid, strong and stable then add details,etc.

you are doing great and I encourage you to proceed.
The shape reminds me so much of the small ship Mike had years ago. looked so good.

 

For those that might be interested - I'm starting to post the STL's for the hull of the USS New York (ACR-2) here: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/uss-new-york-acr-2-hull-section-stls.446528/

it's in 1/144th scale but no cutouts in the hull that would be needed for battling but could be a good RC boat just the same.

 

Those 2 sections look great. Did you use Fusion 360 to create the ACR-2 ?

 

Yep, I used fusion 360 -

 

So started working a Kaiser Class German Battleship (it's on the IRCWCC list) and will try designing it with the IRCWCC design requirements in mind....

 

Ooh, you'll make some friends with that one.

 

It's been awhile and I've mostly been pursing my main passion (1/72 scale pre-dreadnaughts) but have come up with a base hull for the SMS Kaiser

Will still need to put in some provisions for the motor mounts and stuffing boxes and rudder - then deck/ turrets/ and superstructure.

 

Slowly starting to mock things up as I pick through the IRWCC requirements for the casemates....

 

I know some people are doubtful if a 3d-printed battleship hull can stand up to fire. I've seen enough printed parts blown apart myself, from my own ships. But with the right treatment, I think it is entirely reasonable:

View: https://youtu.be/DyAKtS1b3SQ

 

Yeah, I agree... 3D prints can be fairly durable. Here's my strategy:

Hull: PETG works great. I like to embed a threaded rod in the keel and along each gunwale to make sure everything stays together and rigid.

High-Impact Zones: This would be casemates, turret covers, SS, etc. I like to use a Flex polyurethane material. This is totally bulletproof and durable.

Static High Pressure Components: Accumulators, valves, etc. I like to use metal. Preferably components designed for the job and pressure range expected.

Pulse pressurized components: Magazines, etc. I use PETG with lots of fasteners to hold things together.

 

More on topic... This is a beautiful hull. Excellent work.

 

Hi Folks - does the bow section highlighted in blue need to be penetrable?