im about to head out and start building a nelson superstructure but i wanted to get a little info first. does anyone have any tips or tricks to designing (eg making simple the structure) or building the structure. ps sorry bout the terrible grammar
Frame Work setup and layering on the skin. I used this with ABS for the skin on my Des Moines. It did it purposes, but since it was my first Super I found it to be a little plain.
For my new superstructure, I ran an old boogie board through the bandsaw, cut out each deck profile, layered it together with contact cement and sheeted it with thin birch ply. Joints were silkspanned, the whole thing was spraypainted with grey enamel. It's light, and test sections stood up remarkably well to cannon fire.
My SS will be Styrofoam, cut to shape and sanded, with armor on the lower levels and then just painted higher up.
I build mine from wood; 1/4" ply on the 01 level, and 1/16" ply above that (on big battleships). Alternatively, I build a structure from balsa, and use .040 polystyrene sheeting glued to the outside to take hits.
For my first attempt after getting back into the hobby, I used all abs plastic. For the veticle surfaces, 0.060 was used and for most deck part I used 0.10 THe 0.10 is a bit thin, should have used 0.020 I did strengthen up the deck with 1/8" balsa and used a abs glue to bond the pieces together. I started out by measuring the side height (5/8" for my Wichita) and cut out a bunch of strips. Then laid out the deck and started to build up every level. Looks a little plain but will see how long it lasts. I know it will see the abuse with me being a rookie. Kim
and how are you deciding what a good amount of detail is, i want to put everything in but basically time and the fact that it gets shot off make it suck, i was thinking only major superstructure parts eg the buildings anything much less then a full room left out
Some good pictures here: http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/battleships/nelson/hms_nelson.htm
Up here in Canada alot of us have started using a lightweight plastic callled sintra. It can take a beating and it easy to repair, though it will not work for smaller ships any model over 10lbs should be fine.
For my first superstructure, I had cut Styrofoam blocks for each deck. I then cased each deck with foamy sheets. Though this is light and strong, it proved to be too heavy for very small ships.
