im new and was wandering becuase ill be getting a von der tann war ship i was woundering how do you cut and make a fiber glass hull have windows for area of were you get hit so youre ship will be able to get bullet holes also how do you put the balsa wood over the fiber glass hull please help
You not only need to know how to cut -- but where and how much to cut, which depends on your ruleset (Fast Gun, Big Gun, Treaty), and it affects the thickness of balsa you use too. The short answer is you use a dremmel tool or something similar to cut the fiberglass. Stephen posted some details about what he uses for a tool here. http://www.strikemodels.com/ship-construction/cutting-fiberglass-hulls-tools/ Other people can chime in with what works for them, as I don't have the first-hand experience of cutting a hull. Depending on where you get your hull, the manufacturer may also include instructions (we do at Strike Models, but we don't sell that ship).
I use a Dremel kit for cutting the windows in a fiberglass hull. I use either a reinforced cutting wheel, or one of the diamond cutting wheels (which are metal). I use masking tape to mark off the sub-deck lip, the hard area below the waterline, the hard area in the bow, and stern, and each rib. Also any stringers. When I have the windows taped off, I drill a smallish (perhaps 1/16") hole in each corner of the window so that the cut-off wheel doesn't cut into that rib itself. But as Keri already mentioned.. How you lay out your windows will depend on which rule set you are building to. There are some pretty good photos of various ships in the building stages in the warship builds section on this site. Mikey
I'd first find out how much of a stickler your club is about square corners in the hull. my typical way to do it is drill a hole in the corner that is equal to or smaller than the smallest diameter shot used in the club (in my case, that would be smaller than BB, so I use 1/8" diameter) as it helps greatly with cracking in the corners and does not in any way affect the area of the window that actually can be penetrated by someone's cannon fire. layout is up to you.
I'd first find out how much of a stickler your club is about square corners in the hull. my typical way to do it is drill a hole in the corner that is equal to or smaller than the smallest diameter shot used in the club (in my case, that would be smaller than BB, so I use 1/8" diameter) as it helps greatly with cracking in the corners and does not in any way affect the area of the window that actually can be penetrated by someone's cannon fire. layout is up to you.
I use this diamond wheel on a dremel for straight lines: www.dremel.com/en-us/AttachmentsAnd...etail.aspx I use this to drill the holes when mounted on the dremel. Its much faster than a regular drill: www.dremel.com/en-us/AttachmentsAnd...etail.aspx They both cut 'like butta' and cut so easy and fast they can get away from you so great attention and control is needed. They were recommended to my by a veteran and I like them alot. They are NOT for wood though.... As far as layout, some like to take the length of the ship and divide it by the number of ribs and place them in equal increments down the length. It was recommended that I first layout the ribs with equal spacing using masking tape or striping tape of the correct width. Then you figure out where teh most damage is and move a rib to that area and re-space the rest. I ended up adding 2 or 3 extra ribs to teh bow of my VDT where the damage is the most.
One of the main rules of thimb. Mask the hull and mark where the cuts should be. Then have someone else double check it BEFORE the cutting starts.
Stephen really likes the tool from Harbor Freight for cutting the hulls, because it doesn't feel like the drill is going to get away from you. A small promotional note for marking the hulls -- we carry 1/4" and 3/8" wide masking tape, which can really help in getting the hull marked with the correct rib width.
fortunately, if you screw up, it probably doesn't matter. I have one ship with different windows on each side because I measured wrong. It doesn't affect the strength and since I sheet each side separately, it really hasn't seemed to matter!
