Hello. You may remember me from 2-3 months ago. I have a lengthy thread on the construction of my Scharnhorst, which has gone absolutely nowhere. So, I have decided to look elsewhere ship-wise. I have discussed this some with John, and he seems ok with it. I am looking at cruisers, and I have contacted rcengr about his Baltimore hulls, and have gotten a response. I realize that it was a bad idea to go straight into building a boat like the Scharnhorst was a bad idea, especially without any experience in this hobby before. Also, time is a problem as well. So, what does everyone think? I would like some advice. What class? What type of ship? What country? Thanks!
What are you stuck on with the scharnhorst? Its not exactly a challenging boat to build. Better to finish what you have than to acquire more. That's how you end up having a shop that looks like @Tugboat and to a lesser extent mine.
Best to build? The one you have a hull for. You already have a hull. That puts you about 100$ or more ahead of where you would be picking a new ship. If youre concerned about arming costs, you don't have to arm every unit right away. Stop waiting on that custom subdeck that you'll have to do fitting work to anyways and go buy a BC one or ask someone local to cut you for you (trace the upper hull edge for a template)
I would just get the BC decks. The strike scharnhorst is a different mold and there may not be enough margin to fit it properly. Plus it's only 1/4" thick, which is thinner than the 3/8" of the BC deck.
Thanks, everybody! I forgot to mention that another problem is time. That is why I think a cruiser(preferably Baltimore) would be a good choice. I would prefer a Baltimore is that the ribs are already cut. I am not trying to shy away from the Scharney, it is just that I am trying to make my life easier.
Typically, after filling in all the ribs on the bottom of the boat, you will place a layer of fibreglass cloth and resin on the bottom from bow to stern to protect the wood against bumps and scrapes whether from other ships or rocks or just handling. You will not save any significant amount of time switching to a different ship, especially not a wood kit. Just plug away at it when you have time and it'll get done.
If you're still in Richmond, I am babysitting a couple of Big Gun battleships for a fellow MABG member. I'm getting back into building a SoDak and some other projects, too.
