So it has begun. My building of the Skunkwork/Swampworks kit from a long, long time ago. According to the paperwork, she is designed for the 94' ircwcc. Which works out because the local club(SCRAP) uses the fast combat rules. The sanding, and straightening of the wood has largely gone well. The forward subdeck does not fit the ribs. They are 1/4" thick, and the subdeck is cut for 3/8". The forward subdeck also cracked while I straightened it out. So currently, I'm not certain if I'm going to try to fix it, or make a pattern and cut a new one. Dry fitting still has left me with questions as to what fits where. There's still a lot of random holes in the ribs. She also comes with 23 ribs, and looking at the IRCWCC rib calculator she should have 16...
Looking pretty good. Make sure the rib calculator is set to 1/4” not 3/8” ribs. Also double check your bow and stern hard areas.
https://www.ircwcc.org/resources.php?show=rib Shows that the ship should be just under 48", which she is. 2" from the bow is the first rib, and 1" from the stern is the 23rd. It still comes up with 16.
I would assume that the extra ribs are for stability during construction. I have no idea how they did it back then, but if it was me now I would build it with all the ribs, epoxy everything, fiberglass the bottom of the boat, etc. And then come in with a dremel tool or oscillating tool and remove ribs where you want/believe you can to get her down to 16. Edit: Also remember, the ship had a curve to her bow. Assembling her upside down like that and forcing the "keel" to be anything but straight and flat will result in a boat that looks wrong.
According to my plans & pictures, she has a rather flat modern looking bow instead of the bulge at the bow.
Yeah that's got a curve to the bow, you need to set the keel as "flat" and let the subdeck follow the ribs. I have better plans of Exeter I'll look at later.
I was looking at the old rebuild of the exeter https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/hms-exeter-rebuild.446498/ and I don't see a bulge at the bow. I see one one on the stern that looks to be annoying to model.
