As I told Mikey and Mike today the HMS Furious hull project is progressing well. I dusted the hull plug off last night and was pleased to see it was more advanced than I remembered from 2006. 90 minutes of sanding drywall compound saw the port side about 80% done with the wide elliptical bulge well defined (much bigger than on Mike's Courageous). The starboard side is 2-3 hours work behind the port but at this rate the plug should be done by early June abd the mold a week or two later. I've decided to build the planned two turret 2 x 18" gun version instead of the actual WWI hydrid BC/CV and full WWI CV versions. After getting advice from Mikey and Mike it'll be armed with 2 sidemounts with either a 75 BB/75 BB or 50 BB/ 100 BB split fore and aft. The 100 BB aft option is probably best - the quarterdeck is very low so Y turret should be more effective than A. The superstructure will be built like that on the Courageous - fiberglass for the lower level, funnel and conning tower. The 'steel' deck will have the same anti-skid 'metal' (styrene) deck strips (hundreds of them) that the Courageous has. The details seem to have held up well since Courageous was built in 1997. I've wanted to get Furious beast built since the Courageous was sold but the gun options were poor under IRCWCC rules (2 guns, 2 pumps). It'll still turn like a barge but will have another gun unit under Treaty rules. Go Treaty! Bad Bob
Bad Bob I have always liked the Furious as a battlecruiser. I thought about building one for big-gun, but never got around to it. My Renown turns better than I thought she would, and she was running a few seconds slow at the Ravenna battle. She does have a foil shaped rudder, and I think that is a big help. I have always made my rudders out of flat sheet brass in the past. Mike M. has one on his Richelieu, and it turnes pretty well also. I think that a 75 round cannon in each turret would be great, and they could both rotate. Keep in mind that if you utilize a large magazine cannon (more than 75 rounds), then that cannon can only cover the bow, and stern quadrants. The large magazine cannon rule is still under R+D. I look forward to seeing her on the water. Mikey
OK Mikey, I'll have to use 75 BB magazines fore and aft because they'll be side mounts. Stern guns were useless on the Courageous because it turned too slowly. Sidemounts were much more effective. I've always used airfoil shaped rudders and made them as high aspect as possible without projecting much below the keel. Hood turned best with a very deep, short length rudder but kept bending the rudder shaft when the rudder hit bottom. It projected an inch below the keel. Have to check your rudder rules. Do single rudder battlecruisers over 700' long get 50% more rudder ara as in IRCWCC? If so Furious will have a 50% larger rudder than Courageous did and should turn fairly well. Bad Bob
2. Except as provided in sections D.3 and D.4, below, the maximum movable rudder area allowed for a ship shall be determined by class as follows: Rudder Area (sq. in.) Ship Class 7 4.00 6 4.00 5 3.00 4 2.50 3 2.00 2 1.75 1 1.50 3. Single rudder Cruisers over 599’, single rudder Battle Cruisers over 700’, single rudder Battleships over 700', and all ships with two or more rudders may have 50% more total rudder surface area than the amount stated above. If the additional rudder surface area is utilized, all rudders shall function to steer the ship. 4. If a ship has a rudder or rudders that, when correctly constructed to scale size and shape, has/have more actual surface area than allowed above, the ship may utilize the larger surface area rudder(s) provided that the scale size and shape can be verified as correct. An interested member may challenge the total rudder area of a ship prior to any event, and the captain of the challenged ship shall provide verification of the basis for the deviation in size. The Executive Board (or the Contest Director if a quorum of the Executive Board is not present) shall determine the outcome of the challenge.
We aren't IRWCC anymore. Our rudder rules are slightly different. For example, we don't give the bonus rudder area to cruisers over 599', I believe our cutoff is at 630 ft. The idea is to help long cruisers that need extra rudder (Baltimore, Takao) not shorties that don't (Cleveland, Aoba)
Is anyone else having problems with their posts? Everything I've posted since yesterday morning has disappeared within a few hours then reappeared hours later. This thread about HMS Furious was started last night but was gone by early morning, now it's back again. On the NABS forum my vanished posts from yesterday morning were back this morning but have disappeared again, though the ones on the General forum stayed put after reappearing. Strange. Bad Bob
I think there are some problems on Justin's servers. It's behaving almost as if it's every so often rolling back to a saved backup. I have noticed the same thing with some of my posts.
Mike, Must be the server. More of my General forum posts have disappeared for a second time, and a bunch of NABS posts by several people have vanished back to a few days ago. Bob
You open your shop because you want to ensure that my Courageous is ready for you to pummel! Go Flyers (Don't get swept)
Gettysburg, No, I won't be furious if you sink the Furious with the Bismarck. I got used to a local Bismarck sinking the Courageous (3 times) and Furious is just a Courageous with wider bulges and 2 less gun barrels. That said, after I replaced the Swampworks pump with a Camurati Courageous was never sunk again in Nova Scotia. Steve Hill's built a working pancake mag that will hold 100 BBs and is rotatable. After I install one in Y turret you'll be welcome to chase Furious with the Bismarck! Bad Bob
Great progress was made on this holiday weekend (Victoria Day - as in Queen Victoria). The Furious plug needs about 5-6 hrs more work to fine tune the bow and stern before being sealed and waxed. The mold should be done by mid-June. I'm trying to find another pair of the 2.2:1 belt drive reduction gears that powered the Courageous (and still may) - waiting to hear from the U.K. hobby shop I ordered them from in 1997. Since a 100 BB load is only allowed in the stern quadrant Furious will have two 75 shot cannons with the stern turret rotating. Need to make a wooden master to mold the unique 18" single gun turret too. Bob
Yep, Courageous still has the belt drive in it that you installed. It's worked pretty flawlessly so far, every time the ship's hit the water she's been dead on in speed. It's never given me a bit of trouble since I've had it. I'm looking forward to seeing a light battle cruiser out there, I think with her speed and 2 75 round side mounts she should be a fun ship to run, and fairly effective if battled correctly. I'm certainly looking forward to taking a spin on the water with the Courageous and seeing how she does. She's nearly battle ready now, so hopefully I'll have a report on her performance here soon.
Bob, I can't wait to see pictures of your project. Sounds very nice. Any other info on the pancake mag?
Hi Bob, I haven't seen Steve Hill's pancake mags and probably won't for a week or two. Will post photos of the Furious plug when waxed and ready to mold (hopefully in 2 weeks). Bad Bob
