SB-101 'Building MN Edgar Quinet'

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry"

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry" Indeed. The cable search is being slowed by herr Professor having a sore throat and cough from the little turds (I mean patients) at work. Ugh. I will try to find it today. It can only be in so many places... and I want to get moving!!! At this point, one should have the subdeck trimmed to fit the tops of the ribs(frames) and ready for stringers and casement decks. There is one important trick with the casement decks which might not leap out at you, so don't glue them in until I can post a pic, it's way easier than trying to explain in words.

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry" While I am sick, and the search for the cable goes on, I _DO_ have a piece of good news that somehow I forgot to post. I accomplished the cannon testing last weekend. The geek-breech guns, fired using a 110 psig regulator (not the 140 psig one that Strike sells, which will be used)... penetrated a coke can at 6 feet. It managed as good a rate of fire as I could manage operating the valve with my thumb (2-3 rounds per second).

RAR! Ph34r t3h nerdz and t3h g33k-br33ch kannonz!!!

(For those who are new to the hobby, a 'geek breech' cannon is a cannon that uses a short length of tubing to hold the BB momentarily before it flies downrange, requiring no tweaking lakeside [in theory], and is therefore something that 'any geek can use'. Or something to that effect. I will show examples of the Geek breech and Foster breech cannons when we get to that point.)

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry" Temporary solution is found... I am buying a USB dingus that I can stick the SD card in and transfer pics the hard way, but at least it'll get us back on track! Pics and a lesson tonite!

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry" Good news, true believers... you WILL have a new lesson tonite... TWO of them, even! First one on stringers, second one on casement decks. I was going to post a lesson last night, but as I looked at the pics, I was unhappy with them as a teaching medium. So today, besides working amazing coolness on the shop (pics to follow on that as well), I redid the stringer lesson to get new, better pics. If you don't understand something in the lesson, (AFTER it's posted ) PLEASE let me know so I can improve it. I will be in the shop all day tomorrow as well; my goal for completion is first week of October, there is a huge IRC/MWC east coast regional in beautiful Oakboro, NC mid-October, and I want this ship there for an Oktoberfest battle

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry"
Achtung! Ztudentz! Vee are at long last back togezzer for more off de boatlearnink!
Today's lesson will address the fitting and installation of stringers. For those among us who are new to RC naval combat, a stringer is a thin piece of wood that is used to help us sheet our hulls, when those hulls have a feature that is hard to get the balsa to bend around. Things like the top edge of an armor belt (the white line in the pic below, running most of the length of the hull, just above the waterline):

Or something like the knuckle at the bow of this County-class cruiser (the horizontal line below the anchors up at the bow):

An added bonus for those ships which have stringers is: they're BB-proof! Admittedly, they are only allowed to be 1/8" high, but hey, it'll stop shots that hit it, and you should take every (legal!) edge you can. Not all ships get stringers, but Edgar Quinet does. The top edge of the armor belt runs darn near the whole length of the ship. Cha-ching! Also, at the very back of the ship, the sharp angle between the upper part of the hull and the lower part of the hull demands that a stringer be there because balsa can't make that turn. The casement decks, while looking distinctly 'deck-ish' are technically stringers, which is why they will be only 1/8" thick (or high, depending on your take on it. A stringer can go as deep into the ship as you like, and as long as the feature that grants it (like an armor belt), but viewed from the side of the ship can be only 1/8" high). I refer to them as 1/8" thick, because that's the type of plywood I'm using to make them. But anyway, how do we do make the basic stringer? You've cut slots for them in the frames of your ship already. We're going to make a section of stringer for the armor belt in the middle of the ship first, where it's not too curved and is pretty straightforward. I used strips of 1/8" x 1/2" basswood to make the majority of my armor belt stringer. TIP: The $9 not-a-dremel from Harbor Freight (or a real Dremel if you've got one) with a wood-cutting disk will make the fitting job MUCH easier. Short of that, a power scrollsaw or bandsaw (if you are so blessed as to own one) is good for the job, as well. If you are one of the hardcore who is using a jigsaw, may God have mercy on your biceps. You'll need to cut the initial notches in the basswood strip by hand, but for fine-tuning the depth, a file will do nicely.
Below, it's pretty obvious that I have several small sections of the basswood already fitted; the process works whether there are other sections around or not. Cut a short section of the basswood strip (hereafter, 'strip') so that it covers maybe 3 ribs, but only half of each rib on the ends, so that other sections of stringer will have somewhere to call home. Hold it up to the hull and mark the strip where the ribs are. You should cut the 3 notches (1 on each end, and one 1/4" wide in the middle) about 1/4" deep. Clean up any splintering, and test-fit the future stringer section to its new home. You want each notch to fit more or less all the way in, but the overriding goal is that the outer edge of that piece must be level with the top of the frame below it, or a little over. if it sticks out a little too much, we can sand it flush later. It the section goes too far in, you'll need to make a new one that fits better. Happens to the best of us, don't sweat it and drive on I personally cut my notches a little shallow at first, test-fit, and trim as necessary a little at a time until it fits.
Repeat this procedure until the armor belt stringer is done. In a few areas, you may have small sections of stringer that only go between two frames, due to the curve of the hull. That's fine, we're going to epoxy the heck out of it later and it'll do you proud in combat. Below is a pic of the stringer section from the example, showing it away from the hull, and also a few friends already slotted into place so you can get an idea of what it looks like. NOTE: the stringer section is upside-down to how it fits in the hull... the notches face INWARD. I know you know, but I want to know that you know that you know. Got it?

But WAIT!! Professor! you call, 'what about the curvy stringers at the back of the ship? how do we do a stringer in an area that isn't easily done with a straight piece of timber?' Well, my students... I will show you!
Below, you can see where I took a piece of 1/8" thick scrap plywood that was a little curvy on one side (the side against the hull here), positioning it so that one end bumped up against the stern soild area, and so that the whole thing more or less slotted into one or two of the slots in the frames there. If you don't have any 1/8" scraps this big, you can just use an edge of the 12"x24"x1/8" piece of ply that you bought to make decks with (lesson coming SOON). Don't get too crazy hacking it up until we get decks done

Now, with that piece of wood sitting in one or two slots, do like we did for the straight sections... use a pencil to mark where the ribs are. NOTE: the notches that you are cutting into the future stringer are along lines parallel to the frames, not the line of the hull!

And then... we have the notches more or less marked. In the pic below, I am drawing a line that will be a rough outline of where the outer edge of the stringer piece will be cut. This is convenient because it makes fitting easier with the smaller piece. Make sure to draw this line a litte further out than you think it should be. We can always sand some off, but it's hard to put back on.

Below you can see where I have cut the notches and fitted one of the curved stringer pieces. I drew a second, more accurate line around the outside of the frames, which more closely approximates the line of the hull there. I waited to draw this line until I had fit the stringer to the frame notches fully.

And finally, you see a completed curved stringer. It could stand a little sanding, but that's easy to do.

Here's a pic from the Stbd quarter showing the stringer, but not the casement deck (which is another lesson)...

Zo, mein ztudentz... apply vhat you haff learndt, und on ze morrow, vee vill talk uff deckz und casement deckz!!!
Until ze next time, ztudenten!! Dismissed!

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry" Thanks, Brandon! This ship is the only thing holding up your Gangut. I plan to get this one done by first week of October, leaving me a month and a half to get Gangut done by my deadline, although I'm not doing a build log or howto on her, so it should go quickly.

@everyone - the work on my shop that I mentioned is detailed here:
http://www.rcnavalcombat.com/Forum/tabid/58/aff/545/aft/441747/afv/topic/Default.aspx

Still more to do, but boat work must come first!

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry" He has requested the rebuilt hull form. I am doing an extra Gangut for sale, but haven't decided on which version. Probably the original.

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry" I will be posting a lesson, just too tired this morning, still getting over my sickness of last week (and the massive construction work in the shop). I completed the photos for the lesson on casement decks and for the lesson on the main decks, though... My cruiser is sitting in the shop on wax paper, covered in epoxy (well, mostly). I will post a pic of it at lunchtime, it looks awesome.

If you have nothing better to do today (or this week), scrounge whatever material you plan to use for filling in between the ribs (below the waterline). I'm going to use styrofoam and a hot wire cutter. Balsa block is good, too (just look at Mike Mangus' Bearn build to see how it looks!), but costs money usually. If you live close enough to drive to Statesboro, GA, I have plenty of styrofoam. No, I'm not mailing it!

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry"
Zo! Yu haff zawed and zawed until yu fingerz iss fallink off?! Got yu stringerz on der boat, ja? Ser Goot! Ve move on, to ze casement deckz!
So zat someday, yu boat mebbe look like dis!

Above is my CPOE cruiser, covered (mostly) in epoxy. I haven't done the ribs themselves yet, as I want to get the styrofoam fitted in there before I do that. I ove how it looks with casement decks and stringers added. Also, having epoxied it together, it's pretty solid, structurally speaking.
SO! To make the casement decks is a lot like making the simpler-shaped stringers. The big difference is that they have more surface area. Below, you can see that I took a scrap piece of wood to make one of the stern casement decks, and shaped it to fit the two frames that it connects to. It has notches to connect with frames 4 and 5, but butts up against frame 3 on the deck's aft end. One could make a little notch in frame 3 and interlock it there, but I didn't; shouldn't affect the structure any and I like it as it is Anyhow, one 1/4" wide notch in the middle, and a 1/8" notch cut out of the forward end of the deck, and it'll be ready for fitting! Note that I cut the scrap much larger than its final shape, and that it's bigger at the forward end than at the stern. This is sensible because that's the shape of the boat; fatter in the middle and skinny at the stern. NOTE: I trimmed the stern end (the part on the left in the pic below) so that it would fit up against frame 3 as I was sliding the deck notches in on the frames. I sowwy about t3h fuzziness!

So, here it is being fitted, again, just like the stringers. You may have to trim the notches on the frames themselves, if the casement deck doesn't fit level with the keel (i.e. parallel to the keel, aka 'not at a funky angle', aka flat)

And here it is fitted in place, seen from the underside. The line across the outer edges of the frames is where I will cut the deck to make it pretty. A naval architect would say that the casement deck is 'fair to the hull'. NOTE: when cutting, cut on the outside of your line (in this pic, above the line), we can always sand a little bit off!

And this is what it'll look like, fitted and trimmed; your mileage may vary, but it should look pretty close.

The cool thing about attention to detail: if you have good straight frames and don't have any warp, one casement deck can be the pattern for the other side, saving most (but not all) of the fitting!

Tomorrow, mein schtudenten, ve haff de lesson on making ze deckz!!!! Until zen, Heil Fluegel! Dismissed!

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry"
Hey, thanks for posting to let me know you're starting It helps keep me motivated! If you have any questions that aren't covered by the lessons, feel free to send me a pm through the forums here! I know I've already posted this, but the full boat plans are at www.myfatherswar.org on the menu bar on the left side at that site.

To all ze schtudenten: I vill be postink anuzzer lesson soon, on cutting out ze deckz!

Edit: Correction, website address was corrected to .org You'd think I could remember my own website... shouldn't type when I'm tired!

 

RE: "The Cheapest Point of Entry"
Zo Schtudentz! Ve haff come togezzer anuzzer time for makink mit der boatzlearnink! Vhat's dat? You zay dat your boat hass no top?! Zhat is eet zhould be, mein studentz... for TODAY, ve build ze deckz!
As the professor says, we move on to add decks to our cruisers. This is glorious because it gives us something to do if our ADD strikes while working on internals... you can do superstructure! For the new captains, 'superstructure' is a term that refers to the 'buildings' on top of the deck. WWI ships tend to have much simpler superstructure (abbreviated SS) than do WW2 ships. Most clubs require that the superstructure be in place to battle, although in my experience they will allow a rookie to play without SS a couple of times (or more, in my case), although you may be the target of good-natured ribbing about your 'aircraft carrier' Ships look a lot better with their SS, so we will be doing work on that in due time. I will post a simplified drawing to use, or you can figure it out from the plans.
CAUTION: If you have not epoxied your hull together yet... Do so BEFORE doing the decks. The hull needs to be solid before we fit the decks so as not to shift afterwards!
But anyhow, it's time to deck this ship! You will need the 12"x24" sheet of 1/8" plywood that I told you to buy a while back. Some people use 1/8" plastic or whatever comes readily to hand; the key thing is that our subdeck + deck combo must NOT exceed 3/8", and since we used 1/4" ply for the subdeck, that means the deck can't be thicker than 1/8".
Below, you can see that I have placed the 1/8" ply under the back deck, close to one edge of the ply. This is so that we waste as little of the ply as possible. If you used some of the ply for stringers and casement decks, this is important. The ply is pushed all the way up to the step in the deck.

This side view of the above shows the blue foam that I used to hold the ply up against the subdeck for tracing. You can use any material that is readily at hand. With the ply held snugly against the subdeck, trace the outline onto the ply, and cut it out. As before, when cutting, make sure that you are just outside of your line, so that you can sand to fit the subdeck.

Now, the main deck. This is the section that will be removed regularly for rearming and changing batteries. The main deck starts like 8&5/8" from the stern of the ship, and is 24" long (i.e. the length of our plywood!). This is coincidentally long enough to stretch from the SS aft of the step, all the way forward to just behind the forward main turret. Convenient! So I measured up 8&5/8" from the stern, and laid a poop stick across the subdeck there. You can see the cut-out stern deck, next to the hull.
I measured from several points to ensure that it was square, and made marks on the subdeck at that point. these marks were extended to the SIDES of the subdeck at that 8&5/8" point.

Below, you can see where I have flipped the hull over and set it on the plywood. The white object is a 3x5 card, being used to line up the marks on the sides of the subdeck with the edge of the plywood. Again, try to do this so that the hull is oalong one edge of the ply, but completely ON the ply.

Aaaaaannddd.... TRACE! Make sure that you get the indentions over the casement decks traced! They're hiding under there!

This is what it looks like after tracing the main deck. After this point, cut the main deck out. NOTE: At the stern end, just take the lines straight aft from the step; we'll cut the back end properly soon.

Now, I fit the main deck to the hull, and clamp it on with 4 film clips... Making sure that it lines up well with the hull. I then took small 1/8" scrap pieces from the floor around the saw, and placed them on the underside of the main deck, up against the subdeck, and CA glued them in place. DO NOT use too much CA glue, we only want the scraps to stick to the deck, not the hull! These little bumpers are there to locate the main deck with respect to the subdeck consistently. Note one big one across the back, and 2 smaller ones just forward of that.

Then, up at the front end, I put 2 more bumpers (on diagonal parts this time) to help keep the front located. This actually works pretty well. You can go ahead and make bumpers for the stern deck at this point if you like! The bow and stern deck will be held down with screws, but these bumpers will help keep the wood steady while we drill holes for the screws later.

Repeat this process for the front deck, which should be a really easy task by now

Zo unteel next time, schtudentz!!! Heil Fluegel!