Don't take the plans at face value. Check the photos, too. On a lot of these predreadnought-era warships, the designers actually tried to make some parts of the armored and non-armored portions flush with each other. No idea why, but it's a thing that they did. This is particularly common in the bow area. For instance, here is a decent collection of photos of the Tennessee, including one of her in drydock: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-t/acr10.htm The drydock photo in particular clearly shows what is probably the bottom edge of the armor belt along the full length of the hull, but no upper edge of the armor belt in the bow. Other photos show a very nicely defined, stringer-worthy upper edge, but again it doesn't run full length. That said, if that really is a hard bottom edge to the armor belt and not some element of the work they were doing in the drydock, it still provides some serious ram protection. A quick google search for the Kurama also shows no protruding upper edge to the armor belt. Photos of that ship are harder to come by, however I did stumble across some very detailed cross-sections. At least one good stringer-worthy knuckle amidships, but no protruding armor belt. https://iiif.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/repo/s/hiraga/document/a92f6efd-cdf6-4733-bec9-5d78b2c4e41a#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=347,1162,6707,3027
yeah I'm using a bunch of shipyard, wreck, etc pics for the Tennessee that show a good protrusion confirming the frames and the plans. With Kurama, I'm running into a similar problem to you. but the stuff I have feature a belt prominently enough to say "I'm making these plans available to you all for free. if ya have a problem, take it up with the scant source material, and don't model the stringer on your boat."
Montana's Hull Lines are up in the resources. I'll keep cranking on stuff, but I wanted to get the ribs and keels out there first. casemate deck, turrets, and superstructure are the next objectives. I figure it'd be appropriate to use one of the ship names that wasn't used on a later battleship. we'll never legalize the BB-67 class in IRCWCC
Probably gonna model the old mast instead of that godawful cage mast. but luckily, the cage mast fetishists can easily do a switcheroo.
Montana's fully uploaded in the resource section. there's a PDF of the Hull and ribs, and I just dropped in the Superstructure PDF. That's enough to get crackin'. I can make the source file available on request if anybody wants to do a lasercut hull, 3Dp the superstructure/turrets, etc. Only requirement being that whatever digital work you do, has to be shared with the community. I just burned a month of free time making this available for the good of the hobby, and there is no hoarding allowed with this project. I did the pre-cage mast version, but if you want to model a cage mast, the conversion is pretty simple. make the bridge a bare-bones platform on top of the conning tower, dump the pole foremast, and plop a cage down aft of the conning tower.
after being extinct for more than a century, wild packs of armored cruisers shall soon take to the water again. *Nature is Healing.* I'm gonna post a V2 of the superstructure plans tonight that features the pattern for the casemate deck stringer, and stick a fork in her. I'm aware of two other projects using this fusion doc. @Xanthar cranked out a cage mast pretty quickly for the Gen 2 Montana, and there's another project in the works to do cool stuff which I am not at liberty to discuss. Tomorrow, Kurama work begins.
managed to accomplish in two days on Kurama what took me nearly three weeks with Montana BTW The Kurama is fat like a frickin beer can. after reviewing dozens of photos from the shipyard, active service, and one of the Shipbuilder models still maintained in the Library of Japan's National Defense Academy (courtesy of the HIJMS Mikasa Twitter account), the verdict is that she indeed has Monster Stringer and Casemate Energy. With how Short, Fat, and ridiculously decked/casemated she is, the Weebs will be pleased. Montana v. Kurama fights are going to be interesting to watch.
Awesome! Yeah, the more you do, the faster you get. It took me months to do my Iowa class hull, a few weeks to do my Bismarck and a week to do my Scharnhorst and Derfflinger. Just comes down to practice and repetition! They are looking great so far.
yeah I was just talking with @bsgkid117 about that the other night. Something just *clicks* In my case, I figured out how to not waste a ton of time doing superfluous things.
I'll Allow It. lmao hey guys if you have anything. ANYTHING that can help me with drafting HMS Minotaur, send it. PM me. whatever. Older related ACR classes would be nice to have. If I have to, I'll reverse-engineer the Minotaur. Anybody have stuff for Rurik or Blucher?
Hey on the Kurama, that raised bow section once it gets 1/2" back from the edge of the deck it can be solid, so, probably around the front of the A turret barbette.
Yeah @Anvil_x and I talked about that and I advised similar. This is supposed to be a wooden hull set of plans/kit, so that stringer being present just makes it easier to assemble as a wooden boat and then you can backfill/etc to make it solid where it needs to be. You are making awesome progress @Anvil_x . Now I don't know if I want a Tennessee or a Kurama!
yeah hey no worries, I verified that section's deck/stringer/etc stuff with a few guys and spent quite a bit of time reading that section of the rules. the main deck is 1/8" thick from the bow hard area to rib 02. BH-R01 there is a casemate there, and R01-R02 is where the main deck goes from 0 to 0.70" wide. If people want to keep the deck at 1/4" thick all the way to the 0.5", it's feasible, but will make that 1/8" stringer portion a PITA to mount. But yeah, what Will said. I'm using this model to make wooden hull plans and uploading them onto the forum resources page. If people want to try and 3Dp this model, I'll email the f3d to them, with the understanding that whatever work they do on my model, that they be willing to share with others (with some understanding, of course. I don't expect Will to give away his proprietary motor/pump mounts that he'd incorporate into the model). If they want to make a FB hull using my stuff, I'll be over here in the bleachers cheering them on. @bsgkid117 might wanna hold off on building/shenanigans. I spent a few hours last night rooting through the internet. *guess what I found* I think I have enough to get Rurik and Minotaur done. a metal cover of "Rule, Britannia" is gonna be blaring at my place on infinite repeat for the next few weeks.
