Hi all, Just a note to see what everyone is working on? Myself, HMS Abdiel had her dog bones and battery packs waiting when I arrived home, today was spent sanding the hull for paint, and doing a few modifications to the deck/hatches, as my BC order came in while I was away so she has a brand new 50 round straight cannon. USS Little Rock, not started yet but the regulator,a third cannon,deck kit, 6x Dual 5" AA guns and 4x Triple 6" Turrets came in my BC order, only thing she is missing now are the batteries, once Abdiel is finished up Little Rock should be a quick build. Scott
im going to check on vtd's speed and pump this week and tweak as needed and New Jersey is going to have the same and J needs it cot hooked up then on to glatton and lab
I bought the armored cruiser HMS Black Prince back from Rob Helliwell a week ago. It's in great shape and will be a loaner to Ralph until he gets a 1/144 ship built (Florida or Graf Spee?). Armored cruiser Minotaur needs the warped plexiglass front hatch replaced, but in the meantime can be secured flat with 2 additional deck bolts. (Got warped by the sun at the 2006 Cannats.) Pump capacity on both ships needs to be measured, but with small pump motors is expected to be under the allowed limit (same for Gorgon's and Prince Robert's pumps). Speeds have to be reduced on all 4 models. The armoured cruisers should be easy to slow down by fitting smaller props. Gorgon will need drag discs added right in front of the props (which are already the smallest made by Rivabo) and Prince Robert may need the same treatment, though already under allowed IRCWCC speed. Both ACs are weaker under Treaty rules, going to 2.5 units from 3.0 and 3.5 (Minotaur). Pump output reductions will take care of a half unit for both ships. Minotaur will lose another 0.5 unit from the 1.5 unit cannon. Several other hulls are on hand but I'm not sure which to build next: Roberts Indefatigable Vanguard Rodney Krasni Krim Graf Spee Furious (hull will be done by the end of the month) I need a capital ship so will probably build a Class 4 (Indefatigable or Furious) or Class 6 (Vanguard or Rodney) depending on fleet balance. Bob
AHHHHH, I like that Indefatigable. Not too much superstructure. Just enough to make it interesting. Mike D came up today. I got a good amount of building done. May even go out to the shop this evening to do a little more.
Bob P I can guarantee you will like the performance of the Indefatigable under treaty rules. I loved the way my Invincible handled, and I'd assume you would be able to take damage a little better with the bigger Indefatigable.
Yeah, I've wanted to build an Indefatigable for a long time. That's why I drew the hull plans for Ralph and kept bugging him to make the mold. It'll be a better battler than Furious - an Invincible put a beating on Courageous in a one to one battle - but the Furious is so weird I have to build it too. I'm tempted to build the hybrid battlecruiser/carrier version. The port side of the Furious plug is getting several coats of mold release wax tonight, gelcoat tomorrow, and glass Sunday. The mold will come off the plug Monday night - hopefully with no defects. Bob
Steve Hill confirmed he'll be battling IRCWCC with NABS and Treaty with NATCF. He's going to drop the HMCS Ontario off this week for me to convert it to Treaty specs. The conversion will be done when I get back from vacation in 3 weeks. So far the fleets for the first Treaty battle in August are: Axis - Nagato, Von der Tann Allied - Minotaur, Black Prince, Abdiel, Ontario Pretty close in point totals. Later in August we may have the Iowa and Konig joining, plus Hood in September. Bob
after talking to club members it appears several more ships are under construction or conversion to Treaty specs: Tom Cromwell is completing the large T2 class tanker for convoy battles and may build a more accurate superstructure. He's building the Class 2 WWI monitor HMS Erebus started by me (my 3rd model of that class since 1984). Scott Foster was in touch last night and is working on the USS Little Rock as his second ship, after the small cruiser/minelayer HMS Abdiel. Rob Clarke may build a Russian predreadnought if the mold is a success. I believe his SMS Konig is nearly complete. Ralph has just finished the mold for the USS Florida/Utah Class battleships. I'm encouraging him to build that or the Graf Spee. For now he'll use my WWI AC Black Prince. Jason Clark is working on HMS Gorgon's sistership Glatton and may finish the Class 1 monitor before the end of the season. After conversion of Black Prince, Minotaur, Prince Robert and Gorgon I'll build a fifth Treaty combat ship in August-September. Hulls available are: DKM Graf Spee HMAS/HMS Albatross - small seaplane carrier or convoy ship HMS Indefatigable HMS Furious - hybrid carrier/battlecruiser HMS Dorsetshire - heavy cruiser HMS Rodney HMS Vanguard HMS Roberts - WWII monitor (Class 2) Krasni Krim - Russian CL I don't have the storage room or time to build so many models - have to sell some hulls! My interest has shifted to small ships that are easier to build, maintain and transport (in a Smart car!), so the most likely candidates for the next Treaty ship are the Indefatigable (to replace one of the 2 WWI ACcs), Krasni Krim, or Albatross as a convoy ship. Bob
The Austrian pre-dreadnought may be salvagable. I had a lot of trouble extracting the plug. The gel-coat came away around the casemates leaving some voids; there are a few deep scratches, and the mold actually cracked at a weak spot when I pried too hard (hence the scratches). But the big problem is that the mold covered with a layer of hard plaster. It looks like the plaster bonded with either the foam or the gel-coat because it is really hard. I am soaking everything in my kid's splash pool to soften it but after 24+ hours it's still hard. I may get something out of it, but it won't be pretty. I have started looking at the Konig. I think the pump is okay because it is an old Swampworks unit that never pumped as well as my BC pump. The units are the same, so no changes there. I can't find the rudder size chart -- does that stay the same too? The big issue is speed. It was already running a little fast (around 27) and now I have to drop the speed to 38secs. It has a 550 with a 3.3:1 gear, a 34mm prop, and 2x 1.25in drag props. I can change the prop to 30mm and add drag disks. Do you think this will drop it enough? I'll also look to see if I have any speed resistors laying around. I am also working on the Altmark as a convoy ship. I hope to attach the deck this afternoon. I do have the Tirpitz, but it's never been in the water. Everything is ready it just needs to be assembled. I don't want to use it because it is too big, when somwone brings in a big ship, I'll dust it off and send it out.
I think I can get something out of the Radetsky mold. I tried to scape off the plaster with a putty knife (after soaking 2 days) but no go -- it was still really really hard -- so with nothing to lose I used a FG paint scraping wheel and my electric drill. It seemed to do the trick. Of course it removed some of the gelcoat and ruined the finish -- but what the heck -- it was that or nothing. There are a few voids and the casemates need patching but I should get at least one hull out. My experience with my Mississippi(Kilkis) mold was that with each hull the patches would pull out and take a little more original gel-coat when they did -- so each one after the first is a bonus.
Well yesterday was spent in the shipyard. HMS Abdiel would be out back on the pond already but it's raining here in the valley. Just have to make the three stacks and the aft deckhouse and she will be 100% done, except of course she'll take a few runs to get all the kinks worked out.
You know, it sounds like you guys are on the right track, no exec, just a bunch of people doing what they like and i'm starting to miss it already. I have got some of the boats and with the carrier rules for treaty, it only makes sence to put them to use, so where do i find a list of rules, and I'll see how it goes. John
Hi John, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TreatyCombat/ Is the Treaty site. In the file section they have a set of rules. I believe their pretty up to date, although as Bob said in another post they have a new set circulating.
"I can't find the rudder size chart -- does that stay the same too?" Only some cruisers are impacted under Treaty rules. The 50% extra rudder doesn't kick in until 630 ft for cruisers under our rules. This helps out some big ones that need it (Takao, Myoko, County etc ) and doesn't help ones that don't need it (Lutzow, any of the stock 608 ft long USN cruisers, etc) So Konig would not be impacted.
Another update.......spent the last few days getting Abdiel ready to roll. Amazing how many little things pop up when you think your pretty much done.Tomorrow morning she will have a few small details finished up and hopefully have her first trials later in the day. Will post some pictures tomorrow night.
Hey HMCS, that's great news. Do you have any pictures? Try to take some pics during trials to document the event. Good Luck.
Hi Bob, I have lots of pictures of her. It's getting them online that sucks! I live in the Valley aka Farm Country and the house is 15km too far out for wireless and 6km too far for high speed so I'm stuck with dial up access, which means it takes years to upload photos.
But I will be a posting a picture or two tonight, regardless of wether she hits the water or not, just finishing up all the little stuff this morning, adding a few bits to the SS, touching up the paint etc...
