Do you have any tools or access to any? Really I started my Bismarck with LITERALLY nothing more than a $20 jig saw from walmart and Dremel. A lot of boats are still made with wood ribs. My Bismarck is, @Beaver first ship was (with a fantastic build thread), @Kevin P. probably still has a small lumber yards worth of wood hull boats. And here is a nice set of blue prints with the hull lofts https://www.the-blueprints.com/blue...1028/view/uss_cb-1_alaska_battlecruiser_1945/ Ive used that site before. There is also 3D printing which has been shown to have promise in boat building. I am actually in the process of printing out a buck of the Scharnhorst class to make molds from, and another member fully printed a boat and successfully battled it. I’m not trying to push, just letting you know there are options for making your own that don’t rely on covid-19 issues.
I don't have a huge array of tools, some basics, and some niche tools for gunsmithing. No dremel, which I really should have anyway. I'm trying to see if I have access to a 3d printer atm. It would need to be either a massive printer or print the ship in sections and join them. I would question the strength of the plastic though. Id be more trusting of nylon. I do know of a 3d print model of Alaska, it would need scaled though.
PETG is more than good enough. A fiberglass layer on the bottom will help with strength. You don’t want to print it as a full ship anyway. Things like penetrable windows and subdeck rails need to be added in too. So you need to have some semblance of CAD skill. Look through build threads and get an idea of what is involved with building a ship. Kevin P has a good video series going over all of the ins and outs on building. Beaver’s first build really is a model of going from nothing and having a running boat.
Most ships start from a fiberglass hull (80-90%), 96% of my ships are fiberglass. Some people really enjoy building from wood so there’s some expertise out there if that’s your preference. Alaska’s really long compared with most ships that show up, so not a great ship to start with (too much target area, hard to get guns on target). Salem (des moines) is a good starter ship, hulls are available from battlers connection. I recommend starting with a ship in class 4 or 5, somewhere in the 40” to 52” length range. For new hulls available, that list would include von der tann, iron duke, Maryland, Andrea Doria, konig, nassau, Arkansas, Courbet, maybe a few others I’m forgetting. You could also pick up a used or partially built boat, that’s less daunting to start with and generally would need fewer tools since most of the structural work would be done. We could help see what options are out there for used boats if you’d like. We also have loaner boats you could use at an event while you get your boat put together. Id you haven’t watched the first few videos in this thread, I’d recommend them. Tyler from MN gives an overview of the different ship classes and has a video on wood vs fiberglass hulls https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/building-an-rc-warship-videos.446640/
