Sooner or later, I think it's going to be worthwhile to explore alternatives to balsa wood for hull sheeting. An ideal material would, of course, be flexible enough to wrap around complex hull shapes & would have to be penetrable. In fact, an ideal material would be superior to balsa in terms of penetrability, in the sense that it would be more consistent vs. various grades of balsa, & not affected by change in humidity, age, exposure to elements, etc. It might also be desirable that it not need to have silk span or dope applied, making installation easier/faster/cheaper. Cost should also be approximately the same as balsa/dope/silk span. Thickness may or may not be consistent with balsa for an equivalent penetrability; I don't think that it's necessary for a given thickness of to be equivalent to the same thickness of balsa, but some equivalence would need to be determined (i.e. of equivalent to 1/8", 7/32", 1/16", 1/32", etc. of balsa). Of course, rules would have to be written for clubs to allow balsa alternatives. If it can be demonstrated that there is some suitable alternative(s), it would be up to individual clubs to approve it/them (or not). Any ideas for alternative materials to investigate? JM
Aluminum sheet... can specifiy by thousands I'll bet. Should bend and dents not leak. Silkspan should be able to stick to the painted outside for patching. Should glue down with contact cement too Mike
I did a great deal of testing on plastic sheeting, and self adhesive plastic about a year or two ago. I never found a way to get the plastic to not fracture in a sufficiently weak plastic. I did get some decent holes in very thin UHMW but it simply took too much force to make them. I had to run the cannons at the best I could tweak them to at 150 psi (which far exceeds big gun allowable speeds) just to get through some of the time. Gridding the plastic with score lines worked somewhat, but I was never able to get rid of the fracture lines. the first section here http://www.rcnavalcombat.com/rcnavalcombat/FileManager/ViewFile.aspx?id=209 details what I tried
There was some research into this in the past. Foster of IRC used monocoat one Nats which seemed to pass everything but split when holed. Danny Schultz of the IRC tried some kind of metal that is used in the printer trade (very thin) it punctured under bb fire but did not pass our drop test. marty hayes
I tried plate material. In IRCWCC, it was done at either the '86 or 87 NATS. At the time I worked at a printing company doing what else printing. I saw the plates as a possible hull sheeting. Don't remember the size of any of them. But the ones I tested holed beautifully with a very high consistency for hole size. Just about every hole was the same size (.177). There was a little splitting of the hull on some that didn't make all the way thru but no long rips. However multi hits in the same general area did produce some tearing. Applying it to the ribs was tricky . CA would work fine BUT after getting hit the glue would fracture thus "peeling of the hull" would happen. On the test that was preformed the starboard forward quarter was sheeted with plate material. I had to use RTV (silicone) to get the plate to stick to the hull and then waited 12 hours. D.W. Fluguel and I did a 1 sortie one on one. He did hit the area once (didn't see any dents) and it was pretty. one round little hole. Silkspan dope and/or ambriod would make a easy and quick repair. That's as far as the testing was done. I was told to re-sheet that part of the hull if I wanted to battle any more that week. At the rules meeting it was suggested and the main reasons it was shot down was the following: we are shooting BB's at balsa wood it might be harder to keep insurance if we are shooting bb's at metal. So with that statement away went plates as hull material. Other reasons for it's denial to be further looked at was: it did not past the drop test, the only way to tell it's size is with a mike, applying it to hull, their were always sharp edges on the exit side and on the edges of the plate itself, at the time the only way to get it to stick was with RTV so no quick job of re-skinning. After a few feet it got harder to hole the stuff so close quarters combat would be the end result. Used plates would have images or words on them thus some would think electroplate gave advantage. I did write a Hullbusters article about it (don't know what issue). I liked the idea of metal hulls then and I still like them. BUT you might get a splinter working with balsa wood if your really really lucky. Unless your wearing leather gloves you can count on getting cut sooner than later with that size of plate. Those cuts are as sharp as a exacto blade and sometimes deeper. Danny
Something I wanted to test but never got a chance to was using a thin 3mm Depron sheet foam. It should hole nicely without splitting and flexible enough to bend around most hull curves. It wouldn't need a layer of silkspan for waterproofing. Contact cement would easily hold it on a hull. I was hoping to sheet my little Mogador to test it. I might still do the test if I can find the stuff here in Korea.
A thought on the aluminum. Could an aluminum hull skin be stamped out based on the plug? Then it would be a thin shell that could adhere to the ship as one or two pieces. What do you think?
I don't think stamping would work... If we are talking about the litho (photo) plate, I'm not sure what sizes it comes in, but being leftovers from photo printing, I doubt you get to choose... Even though the plate is soft, I doubt most of the current hull plugs are strong enough to use as a stamping die. The last issue is wrinkles or stretching around tight curves. You won't get a consistent hull thickness by cold stamping the sheets.
no way to know how it does other than test. if it leaves chunks o foam (likely) then it will probably not work out well. If not, for whatever reason, then great. Never try never know.
What could work would be waterproofed cardboard. (If there is such a thing, or a way to make it). Perhaps cardboard soaked in diluted dope would become waterproof on drying...might have to do a few experiments.
I wouldn't expect too much litter from a thin foam layer being shot up... it's not like glass, where the fragments fly on both side of the plane when shot. Most if not all of the shreddage should go inside.
