First Build (The Lonely Queen Of The North)

So after years of surfing these forums its finally time to jump in. Decided on the lonely queen of the north (Bonus points to the first one to identify her). I also wanted my first ship to be a wooden hull just for the fun of it. So i ordered up some plans and went to work.

After much head scratching and eraser dust i figured out what i was doing and how i was gona do it. Cut out my stencils and glue sticked them onto some 1/4 5 ply birch then spent some quality time with the old jigsaw.

 

So i had to make my keel plate in 3 pieces as the plywood i had was 1x2 foot.
the last picture is the hull in 1/350 scale.

 

I decided to make the Bilge channel by putting 1/2x1/2 square stock inbetween the ribs then cutting out the center. Pretty similar to most builds ive seen here.
this point is when i realized the way i converted the plans over left some large gaps between some of the ribs. What i did was traced off the plans measured the width of the rib and then located that width on the top down view of the plans and got my length and placement for that rib. So i ended up having to make up a few extra ribs to splice in.

After sorting that out it was time for the subdeck. How i did this was flip the ship over on some 1/4 inch and trace around the notch i made on the ribs.

After much more time spent with the ol jigsaw the subdeck was fitted and in place.

 

Then i drew out how i wanted inside of the subdeck and you guessed it more jigsaw.

Next step was stuffing tubes, bow and stern hard areas. For the hard areas i just took some of the 1/4 inch scrap cuts from the ribs and glued them on and will sand to shape. As for the tubes i had the location marked on the ribs still so i drilled some holes and sanded a few reliefs out with a dremel and tada! Rough placment atleast.

Comparison shot with the plans for my next project for a buddy. That pretty much brings us to how she sits today, after about a few hours a day for a week. So far i think she is looking decent for my first build atleast. Definitely learned a good bit so far and plan on making some changes for future builds but still not to bad.

 

Very nice!! Tirpitz?

 

We got a winner! Before any allied captains keel over at the thought of another Tirpmarck or Birpitz, have no fear as a few allied ships will begin construction soon.

 

Finished up the stern with alittle more detail of how i did it this time. I sandwhiched a bunch of ply together and sanded to shape, its really that easy.

I also started to tackle some of the hard area on the keel. I was originally going to use 1/4 balsa but i order 1/8 by mistake... Not my first misorder on this project haha so helpful hint pay attention when raiding amazon haha. So i decided to use 1/4 ply scraps since i have a large amount from cutting the ribs still. I hope the extra weight from the ply on the lowest extremes of the ship give me a head start on the ballasting phase. After sanding my hope is the pattern left by the ply will be cool to look at even if it will eventually get covered.

 

This quickly turned into one of those "it will only take a couple hours" to 7 hours later and i have maybe 70% of the first layer of ply in. But i figure taking alittle extra time to cut and sand each piece by hand will pay off in the finished product, and after a day or 2 of sanding to hide the rest of my mistakes and reveal her sleek lines i think she will look decent enough.

 

Another 5 hours or so and made alittle progress. Got a few more keel plates installed and a good bit of rough sanding done and thats about it. Slow going but i like how shes turning out so far.

 

Good mentality. it will serve you well.

I went *maximum perfectionist* with my latest build and it took me..... from 20 Jan 2019 to... today, to get her to the final assembly step where I wire everything up and run the gas lines. That includes the entire gov shutdown and getting cooped up in my house for the last three months. The results are truly worth it, as you say.
If you want to play with some really cool materials, check out the boards on Rockler.
https://www.rockler.com/wood/domestic-lumber

I use 1/8" maple for my keel plate, all of my stringers, and hard area edges. Super strong, especially when given proper treatment.

 

Thank you. That site is awsome, i see a wave of side projects coming now haha. I will definitely keep it in mind for my next builds.

 

I'll post pics when the boat's done. Hopefully give ya some ideas.

 

Made alittle more progress with filling in the hard area/ keel. Just a few pieces left in the stern to take care of and much more sanding.

As you see in that last picture i went pretty heavy on the titebond inside the hull. I didnt think about until today but how does epoxy react to the glue? Would i i need to finish sand the inner hull or can you just paste over it?

 

I love how you designed the bottom of your ship with the hole bottom being a solid pice of wood, I would not had thought to try that. I like that.

 

During the drawing phase i figured i had room for a 1/4 keel plate along most of the ship so i notched the bottom of the ribs and went with it. I think it gives it alot more strength and free space inside.

 

It's nice for strength, that's for sure. I did a hybrid of this on my current build, and bought a solid maple board to use for the next boat's keel.

 

Well got all of the hard area installed, may need 1 or 2 pieces but should be ok. Got all 3 stuffing tubes placed because i like options and not shure how i will setup the drivetrain. Mostly just alot of sanding and shaping now to get ready for epoxy.

 

Nice!

last I checked, the Bismarck/Tirpitz drivers prefer powering the center prop only for max maneuverability. the 2-rudders-one-prop combo makes for some pretty sharp turning.

 

Yea that's what ive seen through out most of the posts on here so that will probably be my coarse of action but down the road my experimenting options are open. Just order a few motors ( 550 35t ) hopefully they will work without to much trail and error.

 

yeah I think Battler's connection sells a gearbox that does two motors to a single shaft. might be worth looking at if you're going with 550 cans.