I'm new to this hobby and recently picked up a Von Der Tann hull and kit from BC. I'm building her for the IRCWCC ruleset. Well, here is the hull the day I got her unpacked and looked over. After a refresher on the rules I taped what I believe are the allowable impenetrable areas. I went with 16 1/4" ribs spaced roughly every 2.75" and the scale waterline. I think I'm going to slide a few ribs around to match the edges of some of the casements for ease of cutting and strength. Now for questions: Do the impenetrable areas look right? Am I allowed an 1/8" inch stringer between the various casements and the small subdecks? Also, I'm looking to order the final pieces in the near future, so any suggestions on batteries, servos, ESC, or radio would be greatly appreciated.
Solid areas look good, but that one on the casement bulge at the bow should go straight up, not angled to the corner. I heartily concur with your plan to move the ribs a little to line up with the edges of casements, etc for an easier time cutting. I think you'll enjoy the VDT, it's a good solid ship with a decent amount of room. And it's Axis.
It looked to me like he was splitting the 1/8 above and below so that he had a lip to glue the balsa to; is that illegal? (honest question, not being an @$$)
It is as the width is still 1/8", however only having 1/64" to glue to on the bottom pannel is going to be bad for leaks. You can glue the balsa to the flat top of the big casemate deck and then back it with silkspan/weldwood. This is what I did on the Nagato and Moltke, and haven't had any issues. If you haven't already, check out the diagram in the MWC rules section at www.mwci.org. The IRCWCC uses the same casemate hard area rules. VDT is a great first boat, try to build light if you can and get with your local battlers for help. Where are you located?
