Ron, have you seen this personally? Can you describe the nature of the failure? I ask because it is still in use in a good number of ships in our club, to very good effect, and I have never seen it fail. It is also in my little Maru which has been pounded by just about everything in the club and has not failed - though it has been dismounted from the hull several times due to being poorly secured.
That material always gets shot up. The only guy we know that uses that with success wraps it with duct tape. It still gets hammered but the duct tape holds it in place. There are much better materials to use and in a Bis you have the weight and room for it. You can use it but expect bb's to get past it. I have seen it many times. One guys' gun magazines were taken out after bb's broke through that. Dented them all up.
Ron and Iceman are right, I too have seen that stuff fail numerous times, it just doesn't stand up to well built high quality guns, they blow right through it. Use shower pan liner (home depot/lowes sell it off a big roll by the foot) or thin (0.030") polycarbonate film. Both are cheap, easy to get, easy to work with, and work well. Heck the sides of 2 liter soda bottles works well too, they are just annoying to work with and with the newer shaped bottles aren't as good an option.
I've got the shower pan liner in my Derf, and will be using it for all my future ships - its far too easy once you have it. Not eager to add yet another thing to the retrofit list for the older ships. Still, I'm curious enough that I want to see what it takes to punch through that mesh. Think I'll be setting up a test rig this weekend.
I used it in my Scarnhorst in 1993, typically when it failed it stretched one side of the plastic square enough to let the bb pass. It might stop larger calibre rounds just fine. It might stop single hits in one spot fine, once or twice. But I always ended up getting shot up enough that multiple penetrations and even through shots happened. Ron Hunt
The deformation issue would make sense, especially if the weather is warmer. Do you remember if it was fastened on the verticals to hold it tight or if it was just fastened along the length of the ship? I think all of ours are attached along the length of the ship, which lets them hang a bit looser, am wondering if that has saved us from failure. Or maybe just good fortune and fewer ships...
You might not necessarily know if it had failed to stop a bb or not, unless the bb broke something important inside or went all the way through. I just had it thumbtacked to the ribs near the top. I doubt the air temperature mattered much. I found some really thin (.030") flexible black rubber with some kind of cloth sandwiched inside at Skycraft in Orlando that year and bought about 10'. Works great, but now I have run out and I can't seem to find something that is a similar thickness. My googlefu apparently isn't good enough.
Have you tried the mesh rubber place mats? They may work if you still like going with mesh and they can be tucked in easily like shower liners.
Do you mean the rubber mesh stuff they use as drawer liners in cabniets and toolboxes? All of that stuff that I've seen either isnt strong enough to stop a bb or stretches enough that it would easily stretch and let one through. What is the benefit of mesh armor anyway?
you can buy it a michaels, it is easy to work with, not very expensize. and have not seen any BB get thru it yet.
I have used it in my Scharnhorst since the first year I had her. I have never had a BB go through and I looked because Steve Crane said the same thing about it failing. I know Craig used it in his Bismarck and it was fine too. I do have enough pieces for each side that it is almost doubled up now but that wasn't like that until last year. It is put in the boat so it is flexible, which makes all the difference I think. J
I have used the mesh in many ship for many years. A couple of cautions. Don't get the colored stuff, only the semi clear. It is more pliable than the white version. I hook the mesh with small screws to the sub deck. I don't screw the screw heads in tight. The plastic mesh can move back and forth. When the bb hits it, it gives, absorbing the energy as it does.
There you have it. Both sides of the arguement for square knitting needle armor vs other materials. Whatever you decide is good for you is what is best. Both work most of the time. Choose wisely.
I finally started work today on the Bis. Planned Repairs: Rewire one pump fix two cannons resheet hull ---------------- Time: 1 long day Actual Repairs: Rewire Pump Fix Two cannons Replace support beam resheet hull add base to dummy guns Reposition enire prop shaft ---------------------- Time: 3-5 days My poor baby is almost completly gutted except for the radio box and drive motor. I think joe's tirp is farther along now than my Bis. lol!!
ahah, our fleet is in such sorry shape, you should see Hovey's NorthCarolina. Old swampie hull, when he took the sheeting off most of the stringers came with it.
I need to do a quick bit of fiberglass work on my derf for those new stuffing tubes I put in (did you see the thread on A Superior Stuffing Tube?), but after that it can sail again.
No I didnt. Your talking about for the prop shaft? I think Im going to completly redo that too. Buy all new rods and tubes.
