Update of the week up to now: My Table saw is till at my friend house (helping roing some work on the house) Scroll saw still out for repair... I guess that is the reason why I am still playing with my 3D model, and trying to get the all parts ready for cut! In the usual Order: Stringer shape, Subdeck (half of it) ribbs then Keel I still have to work on the bow and stern section of the subdeck, then a copy/resize will do the trick to extract the deck shape. also need to plan for the Bilge keel, but that can still wait. I went with a 2 hole in the subdeck (including a brace section on the supporting rib #14). My concern at the moment is that I feel that my subdeck is bit woo wide. To keep a regular shape I had to use a width of 3/4", that is due to the notches on the firt few ribs that need some material to hold together... That would also leave me with a lip of around 3/8". Is that excessive?
It would probably be better to go 3 or 4 hatches for your deck. I think 4 is typical for all the Bismarcks I've seen here. 30+ inches is a little long for a single hatch, not to mention your cross braces provide strength to your hull preventing it from warping/stretching/contracting.
My last ship, the Viribus Unitis, was built with a 3/8" wide sub-deck. But if you ask me, that isn't enough. Not by a long shot. The sub-deck provides the strength of the hull, its protection against collision damage, and a good place to mount switches and pump outlets. I only built such a narrow sub-deck because it was for a small dreadnought, and I needed the space in order to fit the guns in. On the two ships previous to that, the Montana and South Dakota, I built them with 1.5" wide sub-decks. I also took full advantage of that width to mount pump outlets, the CO2 on/off switch, and the electrical on/off switch. For a battleship like the Bismark, go big or go home. your current size of 3/4" width is fine. do not go any smaller.
Thank you for your comments! it means a lot to me! I trully appreciate. I revised my drawing to include 4 deck sections. This granted me 3 crossbrace to reinforce the hull. I made sure that the deck section start and stop right at a ribs centerline, which also allow me to link the top part of the rib shape just under the crossbrace for added strength. Here a comparison of Rib8 versus Rib9 I also increased the width to 1". You managed to scare me with nightmare of collisions, ram damage and side crushinginch: I am now in this state: Sub-Deck at the bottom, 1" wide. Red section are left-over that will be glued to the deck to reinforce it. Lips of 3/8" Deck Rim + Deck in the middle. Not shown on the drawing but there is a small tolerance betwen the rim and the deck to ensure that after epoxy application the deck still fit. On top a Mockup of the Superstucture and gun mount. This stage is NOT to scale at the moment. I made it to get a general idea of the placement of those item and ensure that the support on the deck and lower is appropriate. And finally, Saw status: Still missing... Which means that I will probably just cut my sheet using the handsaw this weekend to get coarse section. Finer cut will be as soon the scroll saw make its way back.
How did you lay out your ribs? tracing on a jpg to get half, and then copying the lines and flipping them 180? Same question, but for the subdeck. I've been wrestling with this. Easy-peasy to do small things but the big ones with curves are giving me fits.
Tugboat, here is my process for a rib with complex curve I start by getting a JPG out of my plan. I import it in Sketchup. I then add "Helper" mark that I can use consistently for every ribs to attain exactly the same height and centerline. I make sure that every elements are in their own proper "Layer" so that I can turn them on or off as needed I link all of my "Helper" lines together so that I have a staright canvas and plane to work on I turn the transparency to ON, and start to draw using lines and arcs (mostly) I like to ensure that my arcs are matching at the vertex. it ensure a smooth flow of curves I then clean up my guide lines, mask the plan and also mask the "helper". (They wont be needed anymore for that rib. Using the offset tool, I creat a rib "width". Any stange line can easily be removed using the eraser. I use the offset tool only for compound curve sections. for straight section, I use the "Move" tool. Tip, by pressing CTRL once while moving a part, you actually perform a COPY of that part. very usefull to move a copy of a line to be at a specific offset. I then select the full rib, and still using the move COPY trick, I duplicate my rib ( I also like to constrain my move location to one axis by also pressing the SHIFT key, it ensure that my rib copy stay aligned in the others axis) Then the nice opperation, Sketchup has a mirror image capability (Rotate does not work for every situation...) I use a flip along Red axis for all of my Bismarck in my case. After a last move (I ensure to start the move location by picking a corner that I can translate to an matching corner on the other half) and voila! You can now move the complete rib to its own "Layer", and move it on its keel location. Then start over for the next rib.
Very nice tutorial, I think that got most of my issues. Are the small blue squares in the top two drawings your 'helper marks'?
Not as pretty as in 3D... but now ready for printing (In 2D, not as lucky as some other around here... he he) Keels, Stringer, Bilge Keel, rudder shape, re-inforcement plate for rudder shaft, Deck, subdeck and lots of ribs. the drawing bureau is now transerring the set of plan to the Shipyard!
Very nice work in sketchup! I didn't realize it was that robust of a software until I saw some of Tugboats 3d parts. Looks like Bismarck is nearing time to start cutting! Great job!!
It'd be cool to scale it to 1/96 and then cut it into pieces that would fit on a 48" long piece of plywood
Got a nice surprise today! hand delivered and repaired scroll saw! (Table saw still missing, will have to start with the jigsaw for rough cut) I had plenty of time to also do a complete cleanup of the shipyard in anticipation of this moment! Never saw it that clean in the pst 15 years since I own this house!!! And probably will never be that clean again
Any chance you will make your file for the Bismarck available to be posted on the Free Plans section of this site so that other prospective Bismarck/Tirpitz captains might be able to use it?
I am thinking about it, but I need an advice first: I have used two paper source as input. A set of plan from Strike Model and also a German set of plan. From those 2 sets I have performed extensive modification, scaling, modeling and of course drafting in a 3D software.In fact, no single part of my 3D model and computerized set of plan is coming directly by either set of plan. Question: Will sharing my 3D files would be allowed and respect the 2 "paper" plans copyrights?
I think you're okay copyright-wise with all the modification you've done. If you're willing to donate it, that would be a spectacular donation, given the time and effort you've put in it. You might find a printed gearbox and pump and stuff under the tree.
I am not a lawyer, but I've run into similar questions in the software domain, and the answer has always been: Even if you didnt directly incorporate part of the original work, or none of the original copyrighted work remains, if you stared at the copyrighted work while doing your own (or in this case traced it), or started with the copyright work and mutated it beyond recognition, your work is a derivative work. Now, that may be a bit of a overly restrictive view, I don't know.
