Thats pretty much what I'm planning to do. Somebody else in my local club (Ontario Attack Force) did that for his South Dakota (?), and it turned out pretty good. The only thing that concerns me is adding a little too much material once the fibreglass is added on. I probably won't get to finishing my Mehoshi Maru until next spring because I'm trying to finish up the mold for Bretagne so I can get atleast one hull out of it before it gets too cold outside. --Chase
Yeah, I didn't plan for the added thickness when I constructed it, as a result its going to be a little out of spec. On the other hand, its just a cargo ship, the plans are really of an unknown pedigree - I have no idea how accurate they are to any ship that ever existed. The final kicker on it is that I'm really planning on using it for moving target practice and/or pushing other boats back to shore that have failures - my local club doesn't really use cargo ships for combat scenarios. But if I use the same method to build up a hull for a combat vessel later, I'm going to have to take some material off the ribs and such to compensate for the fiberglass. Building this Maru has been an interesting adventure in learning things and gives me a great way to experiment without (potentially) ruining a combat ship's hull.
You might want to down size them for the forums. What is the white stuff you shaped the hull with? --Chase
Yeah, realized after I linked them that I hadn't chopped em down before uploading. Wood Filler, Elmers indoor/outdoor. Shapes pretty well, easy enough to sand. Never doing it again though, not confident that it will hold longterm the bond between the frames and the fiberglass. If it gets wet and stays wet even after its dry, it gets soggy, which means it has to be sealed up real well. Pain. Few more pics to come in a few minutes. Sort of had it on the pond today...
We had our last battle of the year today, so I spent the morning kludging together a quick drivetrain and a rudder/ I was intending to bring balsa with me that i had silkspanned already and side it pond-side, but in my haste this morning I forgot the balsa, so I decided the next best plan was to sheet it in painters tape. This would have been a fine plan, if the thing had even remotely enough ballast in it. Needless to say it drafted about an inch, making the prop and rudder nearly ineffective. Attempts to ballast with available ballast material (rocks and batteries) proved unsuccessful, and my silly attempt to tape a battery to the after deck caused it to roll over and drench my non-waterproofed, held together by alligator clips electronics. Oops. Unfortunately, as a result of its only brief time on the water, no photographic evidence of its brief floating exists. Next test will have to be in the bathtub I think. Anyways, some pictures of the kludging. Also note that the hull has 2 layers of fiberglass on the bottom, bow and stern, painted up grey. The prop is actually set into the skeg a bit -it was too long to be able to mount the rudder in a semi-reasonable position. The rudder was formed by plating sections of styrene around a brass shaft - angled to dodge the prop and then carved to rough shape with an xacto knife. It will be getting redone (the glue didnt dry fast enough for me, so it too got hit with the hot glue gun). The bottom end of the rudder's shaft is also not supported by a bearing currently.
The fact that you were able to get her on the water is a big deal, as it will give you an idea about how you want to install the batteries and such. A very cool little ship indeed. Well done. Mikey
Thanks. I'll make sure to update the thread when I redo the propulsion and rudder systems properly and finish her up topside. Hoping to find a local pond that I can just sail around in this winter, maybe get some 'glamour' shots in.
Nick, if you ever get access to machine tools, consider turning down the hub of that prop so it fits better. If a lathe isn't available, consider using a dremel and grinding wheel. Also, a skinnier (more hydrodynamic) rudder would help a lot, too. I like making rudders out of soldered sheet brass, but I've also seen them built out of wood in the same fashion you did, and then sanded down to shape. Question: what did you think of the ribs in the stern area? Did they get the correct shape across? that area was particularly rough on my CAD-modeling skills, and I was never very confident about those ribs.
The rudder is definately getting replaced. It sits too high, is too short and as you pointed out, it has a horrible profile. But seeing as I made it in 15 minutes and stuck it together with a hot glue gun... it is what it is. As for turning down the prop - I'd rather actually cut into the keel section and remove 1/4" of material, that way I'm not reliant on a specially modified prop - we have a lot of rocks in our ponds up here and breaking off blades does happen (Phil's river tugboat left on sunday with only 1 blade left on each prop, originally 4 blades each a few months ago - largely a product of his young son running her backwards into shore). Stern area, when I drew up my plans for it I actually had to adjust some ribs and interpolate new positions and scale them in order to meet IRCWCC rules, so I can't vouch for how close mine ended up being to yours, though I think pretty close. I'm actually fairly happy with the general shape back there, any real issues with it stem more from laziness on my part than a failure of the plans I think.
So could I take a planset for the maru and lengthen it so it is the same length as a Great Lakes freighter of WWII?
I guess so, if you re-arranged the superstructure appropriately it would probably roughly pass for the right thing from 10+ feet away on the water, but if you want a great lakes freighter, I'd suggest finding a set of plans for one rather than trying to force the Mehoshi to fit.
