Please see the title before you try this at home. I am an expert, I took excessive care, and I'm still not entirely satisfied with how it worked out. Modifying a 3d-printed hull is very difficult because it exposes the hull's infill. If it is not properly re-sealed, terrible things could result. You may also wreck the hull's structural integrity or destroy other designed features of the hull. In this case, I needed to perform specific modifications to install my 3d-printed cannons, and re-printing the hull was not an option. First up, the cannons themselves: As you can see, they are round. Easy to install in normal round barbettes with an ID of at least 48mm, they feed well and hit hard. Loading is through a port on the top, so below-deck access is not required. Unlike traditional copper tube cannons, they need a big round hole to mount in. This was no problem for the forward and aft turrets of the battlecruisers, but I didn't have that option for the wing turrets. It was time for extreme measures. Out came the dremel. After carefully and precisely locating the scale turret locations, I actually began my attack with the drill press. A 3/16" drill brit removed most of the deck material where the barbettes were supposed to go. I then switched over to the dremel with a fresh sanding drum to get precisely to the lines. Once the deck holes were correct, I traced those holes onto the hulls themselves and prepared to cut. This time I used a 1/4" drill bit in a handheld electric drill for the initial bulk removal of material. Finishing was done with a dremel 199 multi-use bit. Note: sanding drums and 3d-printed parts do not mix. Instead of cutting, the sanding drum will melt the plastic and quickly get gummed up. A cutting bit like the 199 will remove plastic mostly without melting it, so I use it for all of my plastic-cutting needs now. This opened up the space I needed, but also exposed the infill of the hull. I also needed the new deck/subdeck structure. My printer knocked out a couple of quick test parts in about an hour, then I got to fitting and revising the design. The final products in the required quantity were printed overnight. Today I did final trimming, fitting, and gluing. The original hulls were printed with grey ABS, and the new parts were printed with grey ABS. This made gluing very easy: I slathered all of the gluing surfaces with an ABS slurry followed by acetone. I was very careful to ensure that all of the exposed infill was covered by slurry and new plastic. The end result was pretty good: Without decks, and with decks. I'm still not 100% done. Gotta finish the work on the I-boat. Even worse, I didn't realize until after gluing the barbettes in place that I forgot to include sub-decks for deck-seal, so I'll have to go back and add that. Also, the deck currently hangs slightly under the cannon barrel, which makes removing the deck more difficult than it should be. Lastly, I'm not done hacking up my hulls yet. Fortunately the next mod will be less destructive. These are 3d-printed bilge keels. I saw what a difference good bilge keels can make on a ship's stability, so I will put them on every ship I can. These come in 4-inch lengths, with a 2.85mm channel down the middle so I can string them all onto a piece of un-printed ABS filament to ensure proper alignment. Adding these bilge keels to both of my battlecruisers will be my next project, and I will be sure to document the process.
All jokes aside, very well done. If you are going to void your car's warranty, you might as well do it correctly!
Looks fantastic. I'm sure the hull is stronger now after modifications because the printing direction of your gun components is oriented with the top of the ship, whereas the hull was printed oriented to the bow.
