The Face of the Beast This is why you should be afraid. Yep, that's right. Viribus Unitis, Tegetthoff, Szent Istvan, and Prinz Eugen. With all twelve guns, 600+ rounds of ammunition, and a 20-oz CO2 bottle. And only 3/8" added depth. It took three years of design work, careful measurements, calculations, and computer modeling, but the engineers at Bitondo Brothers Productions finally made the last necessary breakthrough several months ago, allowing production to commence. Construction officially commenced on the first Saturday of December, and we've been moving along quickly since. Target launch date is the Maker Faire. Here's a few additional photos, showing the "Guts of the Beast":
looks to me like he has a full boat rob! no really, it all looks really cool, maybe do a more indepth show and tell of how you did the hull.
Re: RE: Doomsday Device Yep, just glue on the subdeck. No joinery is required. The superglue soaks into both pieces of wood, and forms a very strong bond. It's not perfect, however; the hull is still delicate at this point. It will get much stronger once the bottom is planked.
Re: RE: Doomsday Device Time for an update! Gascan and I have assembled all four hulls, and are preparing to plank the boats. Note the upside down "subdeck-first" construction method and the lack of joinery between ribs and subdeck. This is standard construction technique in the WWCC, and it's been the standard for almost 10 years now. Also worthy of note is the big block of solid aluminum. This is a framing device that measures 2.1" on one side and 3.1" on the other. It allows me to do three things. 1) install the ribs perpendicular to the subdeck. 2) install the ribs parallel to each other. 3) guarantee beyond any possible error that the rib spacing is legal. WWCC requires 3" inside-to-inside between ribs, and the aluminum block measures 3.1" so as long as I use the block, there is no possible room for error. This is a recent addition to the upside-down construction style that greaty speeds up the assembly process once you get the first rib in place. Currently the build is on hold until a new bandsaw blade can be located. The last one converted approximately 1% of its mass into pure energy to protest the construction of a secret project of another club member. Unfortunately there are no local hardware stores that sell a 82" long 1/4" thick standard bandsaw blades with 6-8 teeth per inch.
Another update on the Doomsday Device status: we got a bandsaw blade. There was a place in Sacramento that does a lot of saw blades, and they cut and welded a custom one. Time to investigate getting a modern bandsaw with a standard-sized blade. Meanwhile, we are back in business. Gascan and I spent wednesday evening cutting planks. We cut a whole bunch of pine boards into 1/8" x 1/2" x 4' planks. They are flexible, so hopefully we won't suffer any hogging effects like stiffer planking materials, and they're also strong enough that we shouldn't need any major reinforcing. Just CA glue and a few layers of epoxy on the inside, plus putty and paint on the outside. we hope to do a GIF animation of the planking like we did for the framing.
The table is not very straight. There is only one really flat surface in the whole garage, and that's usually in use by the shop master himself. So instead, Gascan and I plan for it. The whole upside-down assembly stems from the fact that a 1/4" subdeck, using very high quality baltic birch plywood, is pretty flat to begin with, and that provides most of the flatness from the beginning. A keel-up approach on a non-flat table ends up with the tops of the ribs wobbling back and forth and causing ripples at the subdeck level. Since it's the subdeck level that's most visible, and thus most important - first we square the parts that have to be square, and then worry about the other stuff. With the ribs attached squarely to the subdeck, and the subdeck being a sturdy, flat surface, we can then consider the bottom of the boat. A solid, wide piece of 1/8" baltic birch plywood forms what in other ships could be called a keel. Some people also use the term base plate. I call it the Big Plank, because unlike keels and base plates, the Big Plank doesn't contribute to the shape; it simply reinforces the shape that's already there. After that comes the small planks. For this build, Gascan and I are using soft pine, cut up into 1/2"x1/8" strips, for the planking. Earlier builds using harder materials caused hogging in the curved sections, and we're hoping to avoid that issue on these boats. No fiberglass will be applied to the outside of the boats; their only reinforcement will come from the thick mixture of epoxy and lead shot we will pour to fill the sides of the water channel and ballast the boats. I don't have much progress to report right now. The shop master is sick, and hasn't opened shop the last few times. Hopefully he will be feeling better tomorrow, and/or the weather will be warmer.
Oh joy! Another update! This time it's the Jaws of the Beast, the custom-built six-barrel cannons that will provide these fearsome battlewagons' primary firepower. Here's a few brief facts: 1) The cannon is named "thunderbolt" after another monstrous 6-barrel weapon, mounted on the rear of late-war PT boats. The original gun was famous for putting out a storm of metal from its 20mm cannons and .50 cal machine guns, and the new one was designed with the exact same intent. 2) Unlike the front cannon, which mounts two separate rotating magazines on a tandem gun design, the Thunderbolt was designed from the ground up as a six-barrel cannon. This means it suffers none of the airflow imbalances associated with a traditional tandem mount. The design also provides approximately 2" length savings over the front cannon. In a 43" long ship, that 2" length savings goes a long way. 3) The two separate ammunition trays each hold up to three 12x14 ball layers, or 1008 rounds total per cannon. Since this is far more ammo than I could possibly use with a single 20-oz CO2 bottle, I don't plan to top it off except when "pit-stop time" is crucial, such as during Campaign Battles and the Last Man Standing. 4) The lower body of the Thunderbolt (not shown) uses The Garage's latest innovation: grease gun construction. Specific details are currently classified, but this new construction style makes noticeable reductions in machine time, and cost savings in materials, while maintaining The Garage's standards of robust and durable cannons. 5) Despite the improved specs over the BDE tandem, the Thunderbolt is currently weighing in almost 1.5 pounds under the allowed weight. Please note, however, that it does not currently have an actuator, buna ball, magazine cover, barrels, or barrel risers. 6) Unlike previous projects, the major components (cannons and hulls) of the Viribus Unitis class are being built in parallel. Shopmaster Neil is building the cannons while Gascan and I work on the hulls. Once those are done, other major systems will be split up for further parallel construction. on the hulls: Gascan and I are currently planking our way through hull number three. I expect to be done with the planking by next weekend, and then I will post another photo update.
Hey everyone, sorry I haven't been updating this thread. The model shipyard has been working at nearly 300% overtime to get these ships done in time for the Maker Faire, May 30-31st. Combined with school and work, I have barely had any time to take pictures, and this is my first chance to actually post. That said, a LOT of progress has been made since the last post. The hull is nearly complete, just needing sealing and skinning before it's done. The guts are mostly complete, only lacking steering and firing, plus plumbing and wiring. Superstructure will probably not be complete by the Maker Faire, but the bridge, stacks, and masts will be present. I estimate that there is a 50% chance that Tegetthoff, Prinz Eugen, and Szent Istvan will fight at the Maker Faire. The current condition of Prinz Eugen. You can see the guns mounted, secondary gun-deck structure complete, and other fine woodwork. An earlier photo showing the water channeling rails installed. These also serve double duty as part of the CO2 bottle mount. The stern gun mounted. Note how the gun is mounted directly to the deck. This is to clear the motor mount and the rising curve of the stern. There is less than 1/4" clearance between the bottom of the gun and each of these components. I will probably fill part of this area with foam to encourage the ship to sink bow-first, although I will have to be careful not to restrict water flow. Here is the engineering area. You can see drive motors, DCC, and CO2 bottle mount. Motors are dirt-cheap surplus Mabuchi RS-365-SH motors available in bulk from my local HSC Electronics for $0.50 apiece. Damage Control (DCC) is provided by a pair of Battler's Connection Small pumps with 1/4" restrictors for Big Gun. I have high hopes for these suckers, because I expect to take a lot of damage with my ship. Here is the 20-oz CO2 bottle. This monster is a really tight fit, with less than 1/4" clearance between it and the front gun, and under 1" of clearance between it and the rear gun. I can never remember which way to turn the valve for on and off, so I finally gave in and painted an indicator on valve to help me remember. One glance is all I need to know if it's on or not. This is the front gun, mounted and ready to rock. As with everything in this boat, it takes a bit of acrobatics to get it in and out of the ship, but that's a small price to pay for me to use this ferocious beast. Note the rotation makes use of a massive CNC-machined gear to rotate the cannon. with this setup, I get 360-degree positional control using a common HS-81MG servo. Clean and effective. And incredible traverse rates. Nobody's gonna catch this ship with its guns aimed the wrong way Here is a sample piece of the 3" PVC I will be using for barbettes. It's a little oversize, but it's the smallest material that will fit and allow 360-degree traverse. Note that the holes in the deck are slightly undersize. I plan to use a lathe and cut a lip on the bottom of the barbettes, so that they will set into the deck holes and snap into place. Here you can see a fiberglass turret and my totally cool aluminum steering arms. The fiberglass turret still needs to be cut down, but it currently has two layers of 7-oz cloth on the back and roof, four layers on the sides, and six layers on the front. The aluminum steering arms are really cool in that I purchased them ready-made from a robotics store. I just found out about them halfway through construction of this ship. In previous ships, I custom-lathed my own aluminum or PVC steering arms, which looked and worked almost exactly the same. These ones I had to drill and tap with #4-40s, but that was only because the standard aluminum steering arms with #4-40 threaded holes was too big to fit in my boat. I got the smaller ones with #2-56 holes, only to find that Dubro's was charging five to six times more for their #2-56 fittings than for standard #4-40 fittings. Anyway, that's all for now. The next time I post pictures will probably be after this ship hits the water. Who knows, I might even include an underwater shot of my first victim
I will be using a pair of 7.2v sub-C packs, rated to 4500mAh apiece. One battery for pumps, one for drive/radio. The original plan called for some dirt-cheap 1500's and 2000's, but I found some 4500s that sound interesting.
