Hi! In the build thread on Le Requin, Mike and I found a conflict in the solid area rules: on one hand, we get 1" solid from the stern, apart from the stern galleries which get 1/2" solid around the edges (on the back facing)... and on the other hand, all vertical surfaces of the stern galleries must be penetrable (apart from the 1/2" solid around the edges). How much solid area do the stern galleries on the aftmost end of the lateral faces? (i.e. the back part of the port and stbd sides) 1" from the stern, like the rest of the stern (as viewed from the side)? 1/2" from the stern, like the aft side of the stern galleries?
Welp, based on the reply in the Requin build thread I was going to make the back inch of the hull sides from keel to 3" above the waterline into hard area. The stern plate would have a 1/2" hard area on the outside edge up to the 3" from waterline mark. The Requin in that respect is pretty simple. It does not have the side galleries like the larger ships. Even so, the 1" stern hard area could still be applied to the stern galleries? I think I actually need to see a ship with galleries to visualize how it would work out. No doubt that the complex sterns of these ships are far more complicated to figure out than the simple WW1 and WW2 shp sterns. heh.
DasButts, Gascan, and I discussed this a while ago, due to some confusion I had about the stern of the Constitution. The challenges on that ship are readily apparent: it has a broad, nearly-flat stern gallery, with two bulging side galleries, and a complex transition section between the blocky gallery and the sleek underwater section. Which of these parts should be impenetrable, and which should be balsa? Under the strictest possible interpretation, we concluded that all of them should be balsa. However, some of the features could not practically be made from balsa. So we discussed where the line should be drawn. Obviously there must be something back there to shoot at, but by the same token it isn't reasonable to expect someone to carve balsa into some of the more complex shapes there. We concluded that the mostly vertical surfaces of the stern gallery and side galleries should be penetrable, but the tops and bottoms of the side galleries, along with the complex transition between gun-deck and underwater profile, should be solid. That was only for that ship, though, we did not draw up a rule for all situations.
A lot of stern galleries have those issues and that sounds workable, but most of the tops of the stern galleries will be solid anyhow
I think it is going to be a moot point on most medium to large ships anyway. The galleries will be above the 3" line.
Montebello's 3" mark falls in the middle of the lower solid area on the stern galleries. Minerva's falls above the first row of windows. Smaller frigates and post ships will have more or less fully penetrable stern galleries.
Remeasured the Requin's stern plate last night and had to cut another 1/2" up to meet the 3" requirement. The ship has a really high stern. Heh. I really need to look at a set of scaled frigate plans to get an idea of where it all falls. Sounds like a good reason to go get more plans printed.
Heh. My sainted wife is off work today, and she graciously took a jump drive to the blueprint place for me to get two Montebello prints, and two pages of frames drawings printed out. Monty is so big in scale that I can't print frames drawings on a regular nor legal size sheet. So I made a tiff that had 12 frames drawings on it, and will get two of those. Not that I have thought about building Monty one day. Minerva gets done and sailing first. Of course, I also have plans for HMS Victory. Hard to call.
