So, do I just fill in where the hard area should be, and ignore the waterline even if the hard area is going to be higher than the WL. Thanks, Beaver
Sounds like you might be planning to float a bit high there. But yes, if it is legally hard by the 1" rule or 45deg rule, you can make it solid. Edit: if youre not sure, take some pictures, we'll be happy to help clarify.
Does it look like I'm going to be a little high in the water? Here's my problem, the red lines are the waterline, the green ones are the hard area. So, what do you think? Beaver
I don't have the ship anymore, and I've moved since, so I'm not sure if I have the waterline from deck or waterline from keel numbers. I'll tr to find some more reference shots and will shoot an email to the guy who has her, see if he'll grab a measurement.
Looking at pictures, I'd say mine sat about half inch down in the water from your marked waterline, so maybe 2 1/4 ? That said, having your initial waterline (and thus hard area) too low isn't a problem unless it causes sheeting issues. If you set the waterline too high though you may have to remove hard area later.
Thanks for all the info, Nick! 2 1/4 doesn't sound all that bad, and the lower it sits in the water, the less target there is to shoot at! Also, Tugboat is building a Foch, so maybe he could chime in on where it should be. Beaver
These are the plans from the French site. Looking at this, it seems that mine is OK. Right know I'm kind of confused as to what I should do. Beaver
for the hard area use the water line on the plans. these ships tend to float at scale waterline anyways.
Or wrap it in duck tape and put a full load of weight in it and find the floating waterline. Ron Hunt
I tried what Ron said, and I ended up with complete failure. ( It was my own fault though) Here is kind of what happened. I had already started to glue balsa in the middle of one side of the hull a few days before I tried this. Being dumb, I never thought that it would raise the buoyancy on that side, so when I put the hull in my tub with 10lbs of lead in it, it flipped over and sank. ( I guess it really is a French ship) After that ALL the Duck Tape came off! So I think I'm going to just go with the waterline on the plans, and if I'm wrong, I can always fix it in future refits. Thanks for all the help on figuring this out, Beaver
Live and learn, Beav! I once did that with a destroyer, in my pool, in the middle of winter! That was a PAIN to retrieve! So remember, if you've done something stupid, there's probably someone else out there that's seen and raised ya on it!
When it comes down to it, you could always just use the 45 degree rule for the entire ship and then add hard area later if it is to far below the water line. downside is your enemy has a larger target area to use which I am sure they wont mind using > hahahaha
I cut my windows based on the scale waterline, plus 1/8" just in case. 45 degree rule is applied where appropriate Still better to float at scale weight and see if the scale waterline is good, but if you can't, just go with the above procedure. Some people deliberately run deeper than scale, but that's their business I like scale look, regardless of whether it costs me an advantage
I like scale looks too! I've been thinking on what I'm going to do about guns, whether I should make them, or buy them. I'd really like to make them if possible, I know that a lot of people say to buy them. Looking at the "Geek Breech" that you did that tutorial on has almost convinced me that I can make them myself. I wanted your opinions on whether to make, or buy. Here is a list of large tools that I have access to: drill press, torch set, soldering gun, vise, Plus a lot of other smaller tools that would be helpful. So what do you guys think, can I make them? Beaver
Read the pdf that Pete Dimitri put together, someone posted it on here recently. I would really like to finish the work on those, getting them decently reliable is the trick, which means I need a better way of holding the silicon tubing to the copper parts of the gun. Apart from that, they work great and produce decent power.
I've read that already, but I'd need someone to put together a tutorial; I'm not very good at building something that I haven't seen done already. Do you know of someone that could put together a tutorial? Beaver
