Mikey, how is the deck held down? Mine thing about using: 'knurled nuts! and a half inch nut come up! what do you thing? Nikki
I've been using brass knurled knobs on my last few ships with good success. You can really crank down on them for a nice tight water seal. The downside is they take time to put on and take off, and sometimes they get lost in the water or grass while messing with them. In fact, got to pick up 14 knobs and brass machine screws tomorrow ... going to retrofit the Gloire from the nylon bolts it used to use.
Mike, How hard are they to used, and are they the best thing to used, on a first boat? Nikey, did you mean what you said on thsi: The plan is to have the P.E. ready for sea trials (at least) by the Hagerstown event. If we can get her on the water, I will let you take her for a spin, so that we can get some sea trial photos of her. Nikki
I used them on my first ship, the Richelieu. Deciding that they were a pain to quickly take off to get into the hull, I went to nylon bolts on my second ship. Unfortunatly, the nylon bolts stripped when I tried to tighten them enough for a good deck seal. So on the Verite, I went back to the knurled brass knobs and decided to live with the extra time it took to get into the ship. But I have to say, the deck seal on the Verite is awesome because of those brass knobs. As for the best thing to use on a first ship? That is completely subjective. The key for a first ship is to use something that will keep the deck in place and prevent water from entering. There is a lot of diffrent ways to go about it.
Nikki I also use the thumb nuts on my ships, and like them. You just have to keep a few extras on-hand as you will on occasion drop one in the pond (as someone else has mentioned). And yes. I did mean that you can drive her around at Hagerstown, if I get hear ready for trials. I am pretty sure that she will have at least the drive, and rudder installed in time for that to happen. Mikey
Mikey, She not having any guns in right? Its Going to be cool to see her, she will always be one of my favorite ships! from what i remember, ships are consindered baby til there about 10-11-years old, is that true? Nikki
Lowes carries the brass knurled knobs in thier hardware section. I use the 6-32 size. They also have 6-32 brass machine screws.
I used to get the thumb nuts from the local hardware stores. Lowes also carries them up here in Ohio. Nikki. I do not think I will have time to get the cannons installed, and firing. So I anticipate that she will be ready for sea trials only. But it will indeed still be great to get her on the water. Perhaps back in the day, when ships were built in the shipyards by hundreds (if not thousands) of folks, they might have considered them to be babies until they were 10 years old. But in what we do. Where it is just one, or perhaps a few folks building these boats, I think it is probably quite common for the builders to experience a bond with their boats that will last forever. Even when the boats are sold to others. Mikey
Nikki I don't like the idea of the acorn nuts as they have a solid top. They may look better. But you will have to make sure that the threaded rod coming up through the deck is not too long. Or the acorn nuts will not thread down far enough to seal the deck. Mikey
Added bonus for the thumbscrews is that they kind of look like bollards. A chromed acorn nut looks a lot like a chromed acron nut. Nice looking PE Mikey! It's gonna look great with some detailing!
Mikey, How do you have the guns through the SS? Is that hard to do? Can you put them in the sturn that way or with that set up, would it be better in the bow? what do you thing? Nikki
I actually had the twin cannons in the stern to begin with. But I couldn't make them fit the way I wanted the morning before the Denmark Straits battle. So I pulled them out, and mounted them in the bow, where there was more room. It worked out just fine in that case, as I was able to run around and chase the two British capitalships with my bow cannons. But there is no doubt that a pair of stern cannons would be not only more useful, but also more deadly. Capitalships will always try to run down cruisers, and bring sidemounts into play. So stern cannons would be best. I mounted my cannons in the superstructure like that so that I could hide the barrels under the turret covers. I always try to sleeve the barrels with the rubber hose to protect them from dings that will cause ammo jams. But I do not like the looks of the barrels after sleeving them. So I opted to simply hide the barrels in the superstructure, where they are already protected. So I like the looks of the ship up-close. Mikey
Mikey What was the finished weight on your PE? The one I'm building looks like it will be right at 15 lbs. Was wondering what yours was looking at your waterline.
