Littorio

Pardon the rather poor cell phone camera picture. the rapid prototyped tertiary came out quite good.... surface feels a bit like bonded confectioners sugar, so it needs just a little bit of smoothing but once filled with epoxy and detailed it should work well for mold making

 

shapeways made it and it is their fine durable plastic. they have a superfine and smooth but it quintuples the cost because the material cost about doubles and the increase in required wall thickness further adds

 

my bad, I was using ponoko nomenclature. that is the strong and flexible. I would not pay for the finer graned stuff

 

40mm and smaller on the inner, 33mm and smaller on the outer. those are maxes and are very close to the hull. deviate much from the as modeled hull form and thsoe props will have to be set back a tiny bit to fit.

the sizes were based on big gun scale prop rules.

 

I'm running a set of 2" props turned down a bit on the center positions. They still project below the bottom, but that's okay

 

Note thie white in the shaft holes. that is wax. the trick there is to apply packing tape over the holes, cut out the openings, fill with hot wax from wife's favorite candle... return candle to home, make sure wife does not catch you. shape with X-acto knife. scented candles work best as their wax is softer and never really goes hard.
remove packing tape, glass over shafts (this is my final glass coat on main hull, got the aft 2/3 bow 1/3 still tbd. I did aft first so I can focus on finishing up propulsion and steering. Rudders are getting done but I will take pictures when complete. That being said, I know I said I would skip the kevlar next time but I am rethinking it. it may cut about as well as a high nickel alloy with a dull tool but it does result in thin, stiff, tough surfaces.


and for those that missed the last kit run, this is what you missed

 

Prop shafts are in and clamped. they will have to come back out to put some rubber between clamp and shaft as well as to install mounting clamps for motor mounts, but they fit well now and come in and out easily.

 

Shoot me a PM off line. Kits can be run again, however it usually kicks the cost up a bit to run just one. I am planning on running mackensen kits within the next two months, however, and I could add a few L's to that run. (mack has about 10 hours tops of cad work left before it is quote ready)

 

Get the mack done then work the super as I am getting my L on the water (too many projects). I have the secondary turret master ready to polish up and mold, same with tertiary. I need to think through the super a bit as there are a lot of annoying curves

 

Laser cut / some molded parts time depending. secondary and teritary lend themselves to rapid proto/mold