i enjoy laying down hulls but abhor placing down the stuffing tubes and rudders for some reason, fedex is slow, and wooden boat hulls are just pretty even half finished. I have gotten the keel cut out and started to plan the weatherdeck, casements, and superstructure and have questions about how i should go about doing so. the keel is 1/4 plywood and is butjoined with reinforcement over the join (1/32 spruce) if i had thought abit further ahead i would have gotten 6 sheets of 1/8 and just made my own laminate 1/4 for significantly more rigidity but it seems to be holding up to my current handling and the keel can always be glassed. ribs are slotted into the keel with a split in the center for waterchannel. weatherdeck will be 1/4 and extend to just inside of where the casemates are visible to give plenty of room to attach the stringers required to build the deck up the 1 inch or so. and here is where i begin to ask questions of those who have built ships and have fully armed them already. i am considering making the upper casement deck out of 1/8 and the superstructure out of either foam or plastic. i am considering cutting the entire upper casemate deck around a single rim and running some 1/4x1/2 balsa strips underneath it so i do not have to router out the rim. this seems to be working fairly well on my shimakaze but the weights are significantly different. i plan on having the rim at least 1/2" and finding some place i can install some lockdown mechanism discretly up near the superstructure (simple bolt through a crossbrace and a nut at the top should suffice)
this thread may belong in builds now as i have gotten further on this now casement deck is 1/8 and the rim has not been cut yet. still trying to figure out how i can cut it with the tooling i have. my scroll saw does not like the length of the deck sadly. if i am reading the rules correctly i need to make certain that the inset areas are penetrable does that include the areas where the guns sit or not. rules are somewhat poorly written for new members. does the entire lower deck need to be 1/8 or is taper acceptable.
Can the blade on your scrollsaw be turned 90 degrees to the side? Many saws have this capability, and it lets you do any length piece that you can hold on to That's how I do subdecks with my scrollsaw.
fairly certain i cannot turn the blade but nonetheless shall try that. and does the entire lower subdeck need to be 1/8th or just the thickness at the edge sufficient for bb pen?
The Craftsman (can't remember the model number off the top of my head..) saw that I have has this feature. It is great for cutting decks. The Kongo is looking sharp; keep up the good work!
on a not entirely related note i finally finished a 1/44 scale model of a different persuasion.. well at least got further on it. it still needs arms but the paint i want for it i can't get until january or so due to freezing. by far the largest plastic model i have built and here are picture of it next to the 1/144 kongo hull little guy on the table is also 1/144 and from the same series but not related. not finished the one that actually goes inside the red armor.
back to the kongo. i have like 2 weeks to get it finished (up to getting guns at least) so i glassed the keel and aft where planking just would not work. you can see where i marked it to stay with the 85% pen and 45% keel ruling going to cut that out once the epoxy hardens fully monday (shop is sitting at 60f) then i will mark out the stuffing tubes and order some. the 4" set i have will be far to short it looks like any recomendations. i plan to use the single 550 motor and gearing reduction i have. also need to order props.
and my scroll saw will not turn sideways. cheap porter cable freestanding unit. but i have a nice jigsaw and some fairly thin blades that worked fine on the 1/8th im using. going to have to put some stiffeners on the underside of the deck and slot the crossbraces but not a huge issu.
Where did you get your plans? And how much where they? What where your spacing on your ribs, and size of your ribs?
i got my plans at strike models don't remember the price now but they where under 20 for 2 sheets and one sheet was setup for 1/144 scale combat already including the 2" forward section with 1/4" ribs. and i have questions about turret locations now. looks like you cut all the locations out but what size hole do most people use? just big enough for the cannon to fit or roughly as wide as the base of the turret is? and if i am reading the rules right the area directly behind and up to 1/2" from the sides of the inset guns can be non penetrable correct? this includes the 1/8" solid at the edge? and i will ask everywhere so if you answer me somewhere i will find it. should a 10" shaft be long enough and what size props should i use?
I prefer to mount my barbettes to the deck rather than through the deck, so I use the nearest size hole saw that fits within the barbette. 1.5 inch is a very commonly suggested size for props. It's a very flexible size in that it can be used in many different ships. Maybe not always the best choice, but often a solid one. Shaft length is dependent on where you decide to mount your motors. Typically you don't want to mount the motors directly beneath a turret, and you need to leave room for your rudder servo and pump, and you generally don't want to bring the pump too far forward. Start by marking in your hull where the turrets are, then use components (or stand ins of similar sizes) to find a suitable arrangement. Eyeballing some pictures, I would guess you should aim to put your motors a little aft of C turret. I don't have a set of Kongo plans, so that's about as specific as I can be working blind - hope it helps. Also check out this page on Port Polar Bear: http://www.portpolarbear.com/reports/Inside the IJN Kongo.htm
Barbettes are installed and the last one is drying. It will need some paring down when it drys but not much. Sometime next week I hope my cannons arrive and I chose the dual rear 50 forward 75 config for the Kongo. Just realized I don't have a pump yet so that needs to be taken care of. Need to do water channeling now that i know where im putting all my parts in. Sometime next week baring schedule change im going to go pickup a regulator and co2 bottle for the kongo and maybe find some west system at the west system store in Jacksonville.
put standard spray foam in to form a water channel and it is gonna be a pain in the ass to cut right but meh.
If coated the slightest void will pipe the water in, you will have to rip it out (you may be able to solvent it with Gasoline or some other liquid solvent)
Got the foam out. not hard for once. (don't recommend using gasoline to clean only diesel and kerosene) may or may not have the water channeling done by saturday. regardless i should have more of the SS done then.
