There are pictures on the first two pages of the thread. I'll be adding more after I remove the completed deck sections from their molds this evening. Decks for Indefatigable, Profintern and Rodney are to be installed over the next week. Rodney is flush decked so its gelcoat and fiberglass deck is in one piece.
Here are photos of the decks for Indefatigable and Profintern. Sept. 30, 2017: Deck sections for Indefatigable removed from the one use mold. Much of the balsa used to outline the deck shape and make the hatch recesses has come off the 1/8" styrene base board used for the mold. Deck sections for Indefatigable and Profintern with balsa pieces removed and excess fiberglass trimmed. A few small dings in the gelcoat.
A few more photos: These are the deck sections for Profintern and Indefatigable in their one-use molds. The yellowish ones were made in the fall of 2015. The greenish one is the main forecastle deck section for Indefatigable laid up and just starting to cure last week. Aft deck sections photo, which didn't appear when the previous message was posted for some reason. I make quarterdeck rudder access hatches just big enough to use an Allen key on the rudder gear system and remove the rudders and gears easily. The hatches will be held down by small bolts so very little water can enter the hull if the quarterdeck is awash. This system worked very well on my HMS Hood, which often had the q-deck awash at speed (like the real ship). The other hatch in Indefatigable's quarterdeck is the location of the aft turret with side mount. The motor connections to the shafts will be further forward and accessed through the rear hatch in the forecastle deck. The second quarterdeck hatch in Profintern allows access to the drive u-joints, and will have the aft section of superstructure mounted on it. The 2 stern guns will be to port and starboard in the main armament casemates. Quarterdeck of Indefatigable trimmed to fit the hull and ready to glass in position after the prop shaft slots have been cut. Forecastle deck sections resting in place before trimming for exact fit. Before they can be installed I have to mold the v-shaped 'wall' from the quarterdeck up to forecastle deck level. That should be finished by next weekend.
Running a few days behind schedule. Got the quarterdeck installed yesterday and made a waxed balsa mold last night to sit on it for the wedge shaped aft extension of the forecastle deck. The same building technique was used for HMS Courageous and Hood more than 15 years ago. Gelcoat will go into the mold this evening, resin and fiberglass tomorrow evening. The mold will be removed Wednesday and the forecastle deck will be installed Thursday, just in time to have the smell out of the house before Kim returns from Europe.
The 'walls' for the aft extension of the forecastle deck will be finished this evening and the balsa mold removed tomorrow morning. The main section of the forecastle deck will be installed tomorrow. Photos of the deck installation process will be posted in a couple of days.
Here are the latest build photos: Waxed balsa mold in place on quarterdeck with gelcoat applied. The stringy fiberglass threads hanging from the inside of the deck stringer are from glassing the quarterdeck deck to the hull. Fiberglass applied last night. Balsa mold removed this afternoon. New deck extension trimmed and main forecastle deck section fitted. Ready to glass to the hull tomorrow morning.
More work on Indefatigable's deck installation: Forecastle deck sections trimmed for tight fit and supported level with the hull edges by strips of balsa glued to the deck. Area with 3 pieces of balsa is where the 2 sections of the forecastle deck meet and both are ca glued to the middle, wider piece of balsa. The widest pieces of balsa cover the gaps where the protruding 'armour plates' abreast the wing turrets left spaces between them and the deck edge. After masking tape was applied along the deck/hull seams the hull was flipped over and a bead of resin laid along the joints. Tomorrow resin and strips of mat will be added inside to reinforce the joints between deck sections and hull. (My standard method of installing fiberglass decks since 1996.) Hull right side up this evening about to have a bead of gelcoat laid along the exterior deck/hull joint to fill imperfections.
The deck/hull seams inside the hull were reinforced with light weight fiberglass matt yesterday. Now I can start installing the working and dummy prop shafts I'd originally planned to install before the decks. Had to get the glassing done before it got too cold to let the fiberglass cure outside.
