Before anyone asks, yes, I am finishing Malaya. This is a build thread, so no bugging me about that please This is the build log of the Ersatz Hannover. It began, as many good build stories do, with accquiring proper wood for the task. The wood that is being used is 1/2" thick hardwood plywood, one 4'x8' sheet at a cost of $32. The nice kid at Lowe's used their wall-mounted saw to cut the sheet into three 16" wide strips 8' long, thus saving the Freiherr von Tugboat the trouble of cutting it solo on his tablesaw. So below is the wood arriving at the shipyard: (The shovel that's visible in the bed of the truck is for burying her opponents) Below, I've cut one of the strips down to 1.28m, the length of Brigitte (Bree-git-ah) (the back 'half'). The front 'half' will be 'Anna', 1.32m. I did not use Anton and Bruno because all my ships are girls, and I don't want confusion with that and the turrets. Yes, SAE fans, that is a 48" ruler on top of the subdeck...
I've been waiting for this build! Can't wait to see pics of the ribs. How does Scharny feel having another German boat around? Beaver
@Beaver - Lil Scharnie feels nice and safe keeping company with another German ship big enough to hold 4 of her inside. I laid out the aft end of EH on the subdeck, so I could figure out where I wanted cross-braces. This shot looked cool to me, so I share it here. It looked so cool that I felt bad cutting out that section. But Hood and POW won't sink themselves, so the greater good had to be served. I got it all figured out, and then realized that I had forgotten that I needed new cutting things! So, I ran back to Lowe's and obtained new blades for my handheld jigsaw. Not too shabby that they had them at Lowe's, given that my Dad bought that saw sometime in the mid 70's. I'm impressed that I can still get blades for it anywhere. I guess more impressive is that it still works like a champ. Must've had a German engineer at Skil back in the day... So! I chucked in a new blade, and started cutting, being careful not to ding the tablesaw that the wood was sitting on... There are two cross-braces for Brigitte, to help strengthen such a wide hull (14.75"). After the ribs, keel, and keelboard are epoxied together in blessed matrimony, the router will do its dance around the inside of the 'holes' in the subdeck, making a lip for the deck to sit on. The edges look rough, because they're outside my cut lines so that I can sand everything fair when I get Brigitte assembled. In the background below, is David Winnette's SoDak work-in-progress. Getting to this point actually took a while, and the wife compelled me to cook dinner (chicken and rice, using my new rice steamer) in the middle of it. So, after dinner, I went back out and worked on getting all the ribs glued to the 1/4" birch that is for the ribs. The frames are freaking HUGE, too! I leaned the subdeck against one of the 1/4" ply sheets. You see how few ribs fit on a sheet? That's 60" long 12" wide plywood! *Yes, I know I could have cut out the inside of the ribs and nested them. BUT. Ribs done like that tend to lose their squareness, and I am only doing a leviathan like this ONCE. I have plenty of the 1/4" and all the scrap will be put to good use, I promise. Ask anyone who works on boats in my shop. My scrap pile has helped build more boats than Lowe's has. Heh. Lower left is the elder statesman of portable saws in my shop, still strong as it was 40 years ago.
I think V-106 feels about the same way as Scharny about Schlachtkreuzer, but I'm afraid that Suffren is going to be a little scared. Your sub-deck looks nice. Beaver
I will post some pics shortly. I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, but I got Brigitte 3D yesterday, 2 frames, a keel, and the subdeck. With the impending federal shutdown looming, I put in a few minutes on my 'budget-battler Gearing', getting it fiberglassed.
Answer: no idea. The hulls behind EH are a SoDak with a Goloqnd a T-103 on top. The Gearing was about 8 feet behind the camera on the main workbench. Behold: Brigitte (the 'aft half') as she is with 2 ribs, subdeck, and keel. The sharper-eyed among you may note the gaps at the bottom of the ribs; these are where the keelboard will slide under that section of the keel and those two ribs, so that the keel-keelboard joint is strong. Those who were not as sharp-eyed, you just got a freebie Below you can see the keel at the stern. The subdeck still has notches that need to be cut out for these aftmost frames. The motors are there as I try to decide what size motor I want. She's huge, yes, but not very fast. This is Gearing, with a layer of thin fiberglass on her. The epoxy is fully cured in this pic, looks pretty! Gearing, right-side up. The top deck is in 3 pieces, and the forward and aft pieces will slide in and lock in place, and the middle will be held down God knows how Leading edge of the bow needs shaping and glassing.
Go back to page one and check the pics I snuck them in ahead of your last post by editing my last one
As I have been furloughed until Congress unscrews itself, I will have lots of time to work on it!! I have the materials on hand to build the hull, and I can 3D print parts, so I won't be limited by money per se for a while. If we stay shut down for 3 weeks like back in the 90's, I'll have it floating and maybe driving [Bills are taken care of, as, unlike Congress, my wife can generate a budget that includes savings. Oh, and she's a lawyer and makes a lot more than I do.] So expect pics of a much-more complete Brigitte tonight!
Any updates? I haven't seen anything about the government pulling their heads out so figured you had more to show.
Sadly, no. I went in to sign my furlough papers, and was told that I'd been declared 'essential', and so I'm working a heavier schedule than normal, for no pay until they fix themselves.
