Just bug stephen for the provence kit... and now back to "annoying features of predreads...." I have not yet carved out / added the casement guns yet but due to armor belt/hull shape, the red lines are 1/8" stringers, the blue are 1/4" deck and the yellow is 3/8" deck. In keeping with my standard method, 3/8 will be made by laminating 1/4 and 1/8 ply together. I was not certain that I believed the bow armor bulge in the plans until I finally saw a picture of the schlesien clearly showing the bulge. it will be created by overlapping balsa in this region. the top half will be applied first and then trimmed to fit the 1/8" stringer. the bottom section is then applied. this stringer sits about 3/8" above the waterline in the bow region and goes back to just in front of the first turret. The two bow casements will also add a lot of bow hard area.
I've asked about it a couple times, but I think he just sends my emails to his spam folder. No big deal... gives me time to work on other wanting projects...
I'll pester him. I realized the above drawing is not right in yellow. there are some features there I need to get clarification on from a stringer perspective...
Stephen just got back from a trip yesterday, and is getting his head above water. Expect to hear from him soon
See hull below. looks to me like double stringers are warranted for almost the entire length of hull between armor/funky step at bow, the dual stepped casement guns, and the sharp hull transition for the aft 1/4 of the ship...
Lucky for me, I don't have a lot of good detailed superstructure information, so IRC legal block construction it becomes. Now i just need to find decent drawings for the turrets (smacks forhead) and figure out what to do about the stringers in the mid section with those stepped portions of the deck underneath the casements....
Alright. now for the important stringer question. if I look at the hull shape, it needs stringers as shown with the ribs shown in grey. blue is 1/4" green is 3/8", red is 1/8". I believe this is allowed but I am not 100% certain.
Maybe something in here, not sure if you have this link: http://dreadnoughtproject.org/plans/SM_Schleswig-Holstein_1908/
Great build that was never finished: http://www.kaisersbunker.com/pommern/introduction.htm Guns: http://www.kaisersbunker.com/pommern/geschutzen/geschutzen2.htm
From a "is it legal like this" standpoint, looks good. Not sure you'd really need the dual stringers right on top of one another like that, though. Could you see yourself skinning the area between them? If not, make it a single stringer and blend the two steps into one. In our scale, I don't think anyone would notice.
The top stringer is not needed because the pedestal of the casement is not penetrable. This would allow the 3/8 deck down the line. In addition you have to leave wood on each side of the casement corners so that balsa has something to attach to. So the casement assembly including the cupola would be hard area. This is how the Baden's that I have seen are cut out (including mine), especially if they use Koehler's molded casements.. which I do.
I guess I missed the part of the rules where the pedistal can be solid (or it was unclear). if that is the case it greatly simplifies my life here and would make me happy.
It is solid on every ship that models it. Some don't model it but in those cases the cupola extends from deck to deck. The pedestal is NOT a deck so it can only be part of the casement. In any case the size is so small that the cutout would be 1/3 the size of a bb so no reason to bother.
So I am back working on this again. I am considering an ABS or Polycarbonate superstructure rather than plywood simply for impact resistance. thoughts?
Maybe Rcengr has a recommendation on what is working well for him, He has several superstructures he has made on the water and they seem to hold up well from what I saw.
partly I am looking to make the super lighter and more resilient with less waterproofing. 1/16 abs ought to be sufficient from what I have seen if properly restrained at the edges.
I also like the fiberglass sheets. I have some that I used to make the SS on the Baden and it worked great. It also takes glue better than other surfaces.
good. I will look at it and see if there is a good way to do it. May be skin over wood frame, and ABS requires a little edge cleanup as it gets a little stringy when laser cut and can not be practically cut thicker than 1/8". Polycarbonate was also suggested but ABS bonds easier. Downside of ABS is that relative to 1/4" ply the material cost is 2x and the laser time is 1.5x for 1/8" ABS. that being said, 1/16 ABS is plenty thick for our purposes when used as a skin if proper edge restraints are used, which would bring that back down and pull out a lot of topside weight.
