hmmm one of the guys in WWCC came up with a ingenious modification to indiana cannons for small clearances such as a rear turret sitting over the center shaft like in Bismarck. basically he took the accumulator and moved it over to the side off center, and by doing this it forced him to push the accumulator up to bottom of the magazine so that it would clear everything. Now it made the height of the thing pretty small in comparison to your typical cannons but I am not sure how small, could very well be 2" of space. I can ask and see what it is.
Interesting. I will have to keep that in mind. I have five weeks to finish her, so maybe for next season...
I made some progress today. I finished sanding the putty. and fabricated my 4" secondaries and 6-pounder deck guns. I also finished the upper mast and added the platforms to the mast. Two of the secondaries make an "L" And the L ends in a cap The idea is that these can act as pump outlets for either the gear pumps or the BC micro pump. All secondaries are held in place on the model with rare earth magnets, so I can reposition if necessary. All of this is theoretical at this point and has not been tested. If it doesn't work out, I can just go with a standard outlet or other option without too much difficulty. If it does work, COOL! Additionall, I attached deck two and three. Deck two's interior is also scale correct except fot the stairs which I decided to forgo on this build. Ok, the LHS is out of stock, so I am having to make due without.
I attended a build session hosted by Matt today. No less than SIX Battlestations ships were worked on. Bat worked on Nikki's USS Artemis, Mikey worked on Vance's Surcouf, Valerie worked on her Pompeo Magno, Mark and Matt worked on MIGHTY Hood, Matt worked on King of Barts, and I worked on my Arkansas. On the shelf, but not worked on were the Strassborg, USS Texas, USS Siapan, Tashkent, and DKM Scharnhorst. Three of these are battle ready. What did I accomplish today? Well that is a loaded question I worked on the gun barrels Mark made for me, fabricated my turret, and made what ever you call it at the bow circled in the picture below: I interpreted the side view of the plans, marked the deck, measured along the deck contour. and transferred those numbers to some 1/16" ply. I cut out two pieces, sanded them to shape together, and got Matt to apply CA to the joint while I very carefully held them in position following the curve of the deck. After we hit the CA with kicker, I used the last of my 1.5oz fiberglass cloth to glass the "thingies" to the bow and caprail. I will post pictures of that as soon as the epoxy fully cures and I cut off the excess fiberglass. I also confirmed my suspicion that the Arkansas would fit inside the Hood Alas, it was determined that the secondaries as pump outlets idea will not work. At the very least, I got some practice in on my brass work yesterday. Matt also gave me some drive motors that Mark had picked up and I think I will go with a flex shaft arrangement for this build.
So I had some time to kill before bed, and I went out to the garage and applied the first coat of spar varnish to the deck and superstructure. I checked the epoxy I laid on earlier and it had cured, so here is a pic of the "breakwater" or what ever that thingy is called:
Hmm ... think I would double the glass on that front piece. It is going to take the brunt of every missed bow shot on a ship that already sits very low to teh water. Better safe than sorry.
^^ I'd also epoxy in a small fillet on the inboard side of those parts, too, to resist flexing too much. It'll be a lot stronger, and no one will notice from 5 feet, let alone 20.
Yes. Two layers of that, with a triangular cross-section fillet of wood at the base of the bulkheads should do okay. Nothing that is that exposed is going to be bulletproof but you can make it hit-resistant.
Success! I backed the 1/16" ply "breakfarter" (sorry Tugboat) with more 1/16" ply cut to shape. I staggered the pieces so that the bow seam for the forward piece is port and the aft seam is starboard. I glassed the front and back with some 1.5oz scraps I rescued from the trash. It is now six layers of veneer and triple glassed, so I think that is about as strong as I can make it. My deck should still have enough clearance to slide under the protrusion if my dry fitting tests hold up in practice. Mike, Clark, thanks for the suggestion.
Another late night in the boat shop...after the work on the breakwater, I re-enforced the vertical sides and back of the turret with about 3/16" of a 2 part epoxy putty that cures hard enough to machine. I cut out the barrel slots on the sloping face, and cutout and attached the top of the barbett platform to the turret.. The top and face of the turret are 1/16" ply, so I will glass them and hope that layer combined with the likely glancing shots will be enough for these two pieces...
Do you think I should glass the inside or outside of the remaining 1/16" sections of turret? I might be able to glass both on the front piece if I have enough scrap left. I also ordered two 10A ESCs, 1" 4-blade 27 pitch props, and various detail bits from Strike Models. Mark/Matt gave me some 24V motors Sunday that pull 0.6A at 6V and run a Golo at Treaty speeds (38 seconds) at this voltage with 3/4" 3-blade props, so they should be good for 44 seconds with 1" props.
And now for the part of the build I hate: sealing all that wood. When I do this I feel like I am not accomplishing anything--I have so many things to do that I can't do until the epoxy cures or the spar varnish dries... The hull below the sub deck and the outer edge of the subdeck/cap-rail got hit with some finish grade epoxy. The stuff I laid down last night on the inside of the turret is still tacky, so I didn't get the mix right when I killed those bottles. My old LHS in Little Rock carried the epoxy mixing cups with lines covering every conceivable measurement (oz, ml, drams) for the low price of 100 for $6. The only local source I've found charges $0.33 each. Online you say? Shipping would kill the savings and I prefer to only buy general hobby stuff locally to keep the mom & pop shops in business. I'm weird like that. Ok, I'm just plain weird. In other news, my gear pumps arrived from Hong Kong today. I tested the flow rate with 12" of 3/32"ID fuel line hose on each end. The results were one liter in 70 seconds at 6.5V and 3.5A, so this lines up to the manufacturer's specifications and Marks previous test on a very similar unit. Shipping was only $3, not the quoted $8, so at $11.45 each, delivered, they were quite the steal. I am now officially tempted to build an I-400. Once the epoxy in the hull cures, I will play with placement to see which pump solution works the best. I have two or three pieces left for fabrication, so I will try to knock those out tonight.
So not much fabrication happened like I planned, but I gave everything that had one coat of spar varnish a second. The underside of the deck, cap-rail, and underside of the turret are still awaiting the first coat. I still need to fabricate the line well for my recovery float, rudder servo mount, and solenoid mount. I will probably also end up making a bottle mount, CO2/power switch bracket, and battery tray once all of my components are in and my layout is finalized. I did manage, in addition to sealing some wood, to add the last bit of detail to the turret. I hope you enjoy my not very impact resistant, but hi-larious range finders: James, for you and the other purists out there:
