Hi Guys, I've moved back and am up in St. Croix. Still have my stuff and still want to play! I've seen posts from Bob and Paul, and saw Ralph mentioned is there anyone else around?
Hi Paul, that's great! I couldn't find anyone in my area, or on Vancouver Island, who was interested in getting into the hobby. Lots of people thought it was cool, (as they do) but no one wanted to get in. I will see you soon, and have a Merry Christmas.
Hope everyone is having a great Christmas so far. Paul and I have 3D printers now so we are looking forward to building structures and parts for the ships for combat. 3D material has been used in Combat and is proving to be very workable for the game. Not only that we can take those details on our structures into combat and not have to worry so much about them getting damaged. Parts lost..no problem we can print replacements. Paul printed a Cage Mast for the South Carolina and it turned out Great! So very excited as to what we can do now with these ships.
Oooh! Would Paul mind sharing the cage mast file?!! Christopher (my son) just started cutting out the windows on ARA Rividavia, and we've been discussing how to make a cage mast when we get to the point of superstructure -- good thing about those old WWI ships is the SS is pretty darn simple.. except that cage mast! BrianK
Chase sent me the file. It looks like it may be near max height for my printer. I am contemplating it, possibly splitting it where there was a building-level within the cage mast. But also thinking of calling Lou and Tim to ask them about how they made their jigs to crisscross piano wire into a rather hardy cage mast. Either way, when we print or make his cage mast, would you like us to make you one as well! (anything for you, Marty ;-)
Doing it in wire is easy and very robust. I used picture hanging wire (comes in a roll). Here is the build on this site: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/cage-masts.407552/
Thanks Lou. I remember beautiful hand-made cage masts back in the day (I think you and TimK brought the ones to southeast battles that I saw), and that's what Chris and I are aiming for. He finished cutting and smoothing all the windows on his Moreno, so I am going to install the subdecks and drive while he heads back to Chattanooga (job - he graduated already, can you believe it!).
Where does the time go?! Not only graduated, but employed! Tim did an elastic thread on his, was nice but after a few sinks it started to get "fuzzy". Mine was the wire, you can solder or use super glue.
I use elastic thread, but have done in several over the past several years. One at Night battle in Minn. , one running under the pier at a Md. regional, one when cradling the ship under an arm and probably some more which I have forgotten. Seems like I am always making replacements.
I took the file that was on this site and printed it off. I was using pla filiament. It looks good but some of detail prints thin so i suspect it wont take bb hits very well. I am going to try and play with some of the print settibgs to see if that works. I might have to consider using another type of filiament to make it a bit sturdier.
The tower is too tall for my printer however if someone can split it into two pieces, I could run it here. I have a Dremel 3d printer.
I saw the articles on making them with wire (either the balsa form or the two discs separated on a wooden dowel the length desired for the height of the tower. One question: to get the form out from inside the soldered wire, does one cut out the bottom of the tower after it is soldered? BrianK
Get a piece of balsa the correct length. Put it on a drill or drillpress and use sandpaper to get the form you are looking for (narrow at top, larger on bottom). Make two disks so they are slightly larger (diameter) than the top and bottom. Decide how many wires will look "correct", and cut the same amount of notches in each one. Attach to top and bottom (dry fit) of the form shape using pegs (small pieces of wood/dowels/whetever). The idea is the first couple of wires will hold the top and bottom on. When you are done with superglue/soldering, cut the wires with a dremel on the bottom/top disk and the form will fall out. Make sense? Here is the original on this site from a few years ago: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/cage-masts.407552/ In this image you can see the wire still attached to the bottom after being cut:
