So, some of us have been kicking around an idea for a low-stress, fun ruleset called the Steampunk Flotilla. Read the thread in 'Scenarios/Gameplay' for the full monty. Basic idea is that below the waterline, all the ships have an identical shape. The plans provide the shape, and above the waterlien, you can get more creative with what the ship looks like, as long as you have the minimum penetrable area (basically, 2" high penetrable window centered vertically on the waterline, stringer AT the waterline, and ribs placed where the plans say to place them.) The prop is a spec prop produced by Vac-U-Boat and it costs like $4. I cheated and paid $14 for the stuffing tube, shaft, and prop together. But spares are $4. So! First part first, I got the plans printed and started gluing them to plywood with my mighty 'Uhu Stick'.... (that's 1/4" thick by 4' x 4' ply)... Below is the water channeling plan, I wanted to see how the pump and motor fit. I drew a line to cut extra where the pump discharge would go. These are not the final plans, this is a prototype, so don't give Steve grief The wood looks a little 'meh' but hey, it was free and the right thickness You can see the approximate size of the Armoured cruiser hull. The Battleship is the same length but 1.5" wider. Below, the water channel pieces sitting on the hull bottom plate. Pretty! All fuzzy (not sanded yet), stacked with spacers to show the general layout. Note, this is not even close to scale vertically I just wanted to see the shape. More to come! The belt sander will earn its keep, and I'll pull out the router table and make a lot of noise cutting all those notches!
The plans look very good, nice job, Steve. How soon till the protected cruiser plans come out? Is the waterchannel made out of 3/4" ply?
It is. Didn't have 3/4" balsa around, and I need the ballast, and it's down low where it is, so I'm happy with it.
Bet that will be tricky to cut the notches in. On the second photo from the bottom, is that a whole level just for the stringer? I like how the ribs curve with the sub-deck. No going back and sanding the ribs to match the sub-decks. Nice feature, Steve.
I color matched the parts in the side and overhead views to hopefully bring some clarity to the design. Eventuallly I'll put together a 3D view of the designs for even more clarity.
I was originially thinking of a 3/4" pine board for the water channeling but plywood works also. For the rib cutouts, consider clamping all the plates together (before cutting the insides out) and running them across a tablesaw with a 1/4" dadeo stack. Should be quicker and less messy than the router. You can also clamp or screw the rough cut plates together and cut/sand them as one unit to get to the final profile.
I considered it, but it was much easier for me to pull out my router table that already had a 1/4" bit in it, and just do it. For doing 4 or 5 ships in a day, the table saw would probably be faster, making up in efficiency the time spent pulling my cutting blade and putting on the dado blades. I used 3/4" plywood because I had some old 3/4" ply sitting around (along with nicer same-thickness poplar, cedar, and oak). If I were buying wood for a group build, I'd run across the street to Lowes and get either pine or 'white wood'. I also cheated on the materials because I was short on 1/8" ply; I used 1/4" ply for the bottom plate. The beauty of Steve's design is that anyone can go get the plans printed, cut them out, glue them down, and start cutting. In a few hours with no real technical skill, one can have a strong, seaworthy boat hull. We get a few how-to videos on YouTube and the finer points (putting in the stuffing tube, motor, etc) and a person really wouldn't need a whole lot of in-person guidance.
I'll redraw the plans for the 1/4" bottom plate. See no reason why not and it will make stock procurement that much easier. We could even use 1/4" for the waterline stringer and just mandate that it's cut or beveled to 1/8" on the outer edge.
I did actually chuck up the dado stack to take a shot at the notches on the bottom. Sadly, my tablesaw can't raise the blade proud of the table far enough to make a decent cut, unless you're running the water channel pieces vertically, and that'd be a PITA. It would definitely work on the 1/4" pieces, but not two of them stacked, they start to get onto the curvature of the blade. You can see the water channel pieces being glued to the bottom plate. Yes, I screwed up and glued them before cutting notches. I just made the ribs slightly taller to compensate. The two batteries in the foreground are labelled 'dead weight', as they have long exceeded their useful life as batteries... but they still have a long and glorious life ahead of them as weights for gluing!!! They came from 2 UPSes that are in use at the Casa de Tug for the computers, and they led me to the glorious discovery that I could buy lead acid batteries cheap from Amazon, with free 2-day shipping from Prime! Score! (for reference purposes, the classic 6V12AH battery runs like $18 at Amazon, vice $25 including shipping from BatteryMart.com)(and BatteryMart ain't using 2-day shipping!) Then, I started drawing the cut lines on the ribs. And I was like 'Oh jeez, this'll take forever!', and the naughty Tug in me said, try it as a stack... don't even clamp it! And so in a moment of weakness, I did. And surprisingly, it worked! So I'm cutting them in stacks of 4. Below, you can see just one chunk cut out, but the other 2 went as smoothly, the ribs didn't try to wander or anything squirrelly like that. Yay! See, sometimes you need to listen to your inner naughtiness. In my case, I can't resist, because my inner naughtyness uses the voice of Jessica Rabbit. Resistance is futile.
@Steve, I was thinking 1/4" ply for the deck, too. It's light enough and that would mean that all the wood could be got at Lowe's or Home Despot, no special aircraft-grade ply required, keeps the price way down. As long as the penetrable area isn't reduced (and it wouldn't be, since the deck goes up from the subdeck which is at the correct height), it shouldn't affect sinkability. I think the 4'x4' sheet of 1/4" was like $10 or thereabouts. That and an 8' long piece of 1"x4" wide pine/white wood (since it's finished down to 3/4" thick) would be most of the wood needed, plus a piece of 1/4" (1'x4' more or less) for internal parts, superstructure, etc. Now, I go back out to the shop to finish cutting ribs and painstakingly cutting the notches in the bottom with the bandsaw (not as bad as one might think, just tedious). The hull goes 3D tonight!
Greeting, true believers! (With apologies to Stan Lee) I got a bunch of work done before being called in from the shop to get ready for an early supper. Below, the bow of the rough hull taking shape... She'll probably need 20# to make the waterline, but we'll figure that out soon enough. And below, a shot from the stern, which doesn't look like much yet. I haven't installed the prop top plate nor the prop spacer block yet. The 380-sized brushless motor has drifted back from where it'll go. Mount will go in tomorrow so that it stays put. I got a little... creative with the mount. It allows for quick motor changes and does not require a PhD in Boatology to build. Still working on a name. HMS Thunder Child? Or should that name be saved for a battleship?
It is described as an "Ironclad Torpedo Ram". Make of that as you will. Arrogant Class "Fleet Rams" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrogant-class_cruiser Ironclad "Thunderer": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Thunderer_(1872) And of course the Ram Polyphemus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Polyphemus_(1881) Just combine the bits you like from each design and then you should have your Thunderchild.
It occurred to me at dinner that Thunder Child (as it originally appeared in print) was a ram. I'm doing a flight deck cruiser (or just a cruiser, we'll see). When we do the production line, I've got some ideas that are definitely classical steampunk.
I always liked "HMS Improbable", "HMS Impractical", or "HMS Inconceivable" for the Brits "SMS Uberunterschiff" maybe for Germany "Le Ridiculous" for the French?
Got more done. I was looking at the stern area, and having the rudder where it is (1.5" from the stern) puts it in a narrow space with little room for armor to protect it, and it's hard to get at for maintenance. So, I looked at whether it could be moved forward, and I changed the shape of the prop spacer block as shown below, moving the apex of the triangle 1 inch further forward. The pencilled-in triangle is the new line of the block. The dark circle near the stern is the old rudder location, and the hard-to-see one that my pencil points at is the new rudder location. I plan to cut the subdeck to allow a little access from the top to the rudder mechanism. The stuffing tube and universal joint are pretty short, so I should still be able to use the water channel as it is without cutting. I made a piece of wood the same length as the tube + uni, and it fit. If it doesn't, this is the prototype and I'll hack it up some more So what's it look like? Still got 18 ribs left to insert. You can see the spacer block (yeah, I used vertical plywood, I can live with that). I hated the idea of gluing up a block to cut. Call it end of the day laziness. You can see where the bottom plate was cut to the shape of the as-designed prop spacer block. The two pieces of plywood are 1&7/8" high and 4.25" long 1/8" thick plywood. For mass-production purposes, I'd use the 1/4" ply that we're using for the rest of it and sand a bevel on the ends. I'll give them a layer of fiberglass for strength. If I'd done a solid block, I'd just coat it with paint and call it good. Another view. Looking MANLY as hell! Can't wait to fit a prop and rudder on this ship and make it look like it should A few notes: 1) I've been using Titebond III wood glue for all the joins, a little bit of CA glue on the prop spacer block to help hold it in place. TB III is a glue that is used in building REAL sailboats, so it's waterproof. I spent an entire day sailing with Bill Byrnes in our two sailboats held together with it, so my money has already gone where my mouth is The glue is also cheap and cleans up easily. 2) Lest anyone think that me modifying the design reflects poorly on Steve's work... the plans are awesome. Any new ship design gets a bunch of changes before it's ready for prime time, and the fact that I've only changed a few minor things is testament to how good a design it is. 3) I am really looking forward to battling a Steampunk ship. The minimalist drivetrain and rudder systems make for a fun, relaxed build, and will be easier for new battlers to maintain. They are also reasonably sized and armed (and speeded?) such that I don't think anyone in my local area would object to someone throwing one on the water at a battle. The cruiser is about the size and speed of an Invincible-class battlecruiser with about the same armament, with a single pump. The BB will be about the size of an early 1/144 dreadnought, with similar speed and armament. Same-same for the PC. Having removable ram prows will help with being allowed on the water with conventional 1/144 fast gun boats, too. (Full disclosure, I can only speak for my local area and we are WAY cool.) 4) I've already had several ideas for the forthcoming build weekend at the end of July that will save us a LOT of time. I'll post a list of them after I've sat down to organize the thoughts. A big time saver will be having built one with a mindset for 'how would I save time building 5?' That and hindsight being 20/20... I thought of a way to do the ribs in bulk on the tablesaw and save a crap-ton of time. Etc...
Oh, and I've come up with a name for my aircraft carrier cruiser... IJN Shoko. Yes, it's going to be Steampunk JAPANESE!! Shoko can mean a few things. One meaning is: 'Small Tiger'. The other is 'Drunkard', or 'Lush'. hehehehe
