I have finished and installed the ribs. I made 8 ribs per side & included an insert at the top to attach internal armor to.
Water channeling is started I have left space in front of the batteries and aft of the Water proof box for ballast/trim as I finish it up. Water proof box is a GSI Outdoors XS Lexan GSI Lexan Gear Box | Water Tight Cases | BackcountryGear.com it is wedged between foam to keep in place. Here is my foam tool. It is a 40 grit belt sander belt over a piece of ply wood. It makes short work of foam, but the particles are big enough to fall not float about in the air.
Not correct: Warspite retained most of the fore group of casemate guns, deleting the forward pair so her forecastle deck was wider than Barham's or Malaya's during WWII. The aft-most of pair of the forward casemate guns was also removed during the post-1937 refit. The aft casemate guns alongside the quarterdeck were removed well before 1937 but the casemate locations remained visible (barely) aft. I don't think any of the QE Class retained guns in the aft casemates for long after WWI because they were too difficult to use in heavy seas. Will have to check my reference books when I get home for dates of removal. Look up Curt Stoke's photos of my Warspite model - quite a few posted in the last two weeks in media. I used the first type of QE hull made by Ralph Coles, suitable for all QEs in the mid-1930s. I had to remove two pairs of forward casemates and widen the forecastle deck, and extended the bulges fore and aft because they were shorter than scale. Many hours of fiberglassing were required to modify the hull shape before it was cut out. Ralph deliberately simplified the bulge shape on his first QE hull making it easy to sheet because there was no 'step' at the top of the bulge. His latest QE hull (suitable for QE and Valiant only, post WWII refit) has the step but two stringers cannot be used to sheet the step without being in violation of IRCWCC construction rules. It's still possible to sheet the hull without much difficulty - requires butting the edges of the balsa together at the step.
Actually bob, the IRCWCC rules do have provisions for enough stringers for the bulges. Specifically, the 1/8" stringer does not have to be flat. It can be in/on the corner of the bulge with 1/16" on each side to give enough substance to glue sheeting on.
Great. I had issues usong an adhesive that would not eat the pink foam. I like to use it again so this will help. Tks.
I have had bad experiences with other adhesives as well. Bondo is bad........ JB Weld WaterWeld worked good as filler.
water weld works. super 77 works. tightbond III does an halfway decent job if you can get pressure on the foam first.
Work on the Barham got stalled over the summer. Battle upkeep on the Washington used up most of my free time. I had been dreading the stack on the Barham and had been putting it off. 3DP envy. As it turns out, It was quick and came up pretty good. I still need to glass it.
