Suffren Build

Its looking great Beaver, and i like The Algerie as well!

 

Thanks, Craig!
The Algerie is a pretty ship. Might have to build one of those someday. My list of future builds gets longer by the day, (sighs) so many ships, so little time.
Beaver

 

I know what u mean, i have a Mackensen kit coming, have an I-boat Hull and Parts to Build, Same with Konig Hull and parts to build, Liberty ship plans printed and plywood to build her. Plus I wanna do a Tugboat- Inspired EQ, A Bogue By M. Jenks(as well as the rest of his kits). There are some Great people in this hobby that Are going to keep me going till I Croak!

 

What is it that they say? Welcome to the Magnificent Obsession.

 

Sounds like a Great plan TugBoat i will have to institute the same when i get settled in Michigan. I have to practice my " Go Big Blue" as well as keeping up my "ROLL TIDE".

I have Decided that an Atlanta Cruiser and a Michigan Dred are in my future as well! gotta keep it going

 

Well I hope you don't croak before I get to meet you someday. Maybe at Nats in the future. I have a quite a list of ships to build someday. My next ship will probably be either HMS Rodney or HMS Roberts. I'm leaning toward the Roberts because she'd be a pretty quick build.
How is your Foch coming along? I'm still waiting for that build thread ....hint hint.
Beaver

 

I'm going to be fiberglassing today or tomorrow, and I'm wondering if you guys had any tips like:
How much to mix at a time?
How thick it should be?
And anything else that would be helpful.
Thanks,
Beaver

 

Dont mix to much as it tends to heat up. use like the bottom of coke cans cut in half as your mixing tub. for mixxing follow the directions on the stuff you got. typically the can will come w/ a tube of hardener and it will have directions on the can as to how many drops for how many ounces. I took a shot glass and marked a line to fill to for 3 ounces so i knew exactly how many drops. If you were able to get the west systems stuff the guys like then I believe it already comes w/ how to measure it. My Littorio took something like 9-12 ounces of resin but I over killed it a bit.

 

Thanks for the tips, I'll be fiberlgassing tomorrow. With this body work fiberglass cloth, will one layer suffice, or will I need two?
Beaver

 

Like I said, I got to fiberglass yesterday. It took me about half an hour to do the whole process. Afterwards, I calculated the cost of to do this, and it came out roughly about $7.50, and that's for both the epoxy and fiberglass. I think it's pretty cheap.
Well, here are the pictures. I don't have any of me doing the fiberglassing because I was try to get the epoxy on before it set up, and didn't have time to pick up a camera to snap a pic.
Here is the fiberglass and epoxy that I used.

The cloth on the hull.

All ready to fiberglass.

The hull fiberglassed and drying.





In a few spots there are some air bubbles stuck under the fiberglass. I don't know if they'll be a problem or not.

That's everything so far,
Beaver

 

Nicely done! using the close line clips was pretty smart, wish I had thought of that, probably would of made mine much easier. as for the bubbles, according to how thread of bearn you were supposed to use a plasti card to smooth it out, I do not know how they will affect everything but worst case you sand them out and fill the hole with some epoxy.

 

Thanks, guys!
Yup, those fumes are nasty! I was going to set up a box fan to draw the fumes away, but I forgot to get it set up before I put the hardener in the resin.
Do any of you guys know of a good way to make stuffing tubes? A post showing how would even be better.
Beaver

 

There are a couple of build threads with stuffing tubes in them, I personally do not have the confidence to make my own so I go to Battlers connection or Strike models.

 

I use stainless steel tubing with a flanged oilite bearing stuck in each end. Easy to build and should last close enough to forever. Look at Nick's Molke build for pics.

 

The heavier fiberglass cloth may need some extra work to fill in, but it shouldn't be much of an issue at all. The idea behind using an old plastic card to scrape the applied fiberglass is to remove the extra resin that does nothing to add to the strength of the fiberglassing job and forces extra work to sand out the bumps of excess resin.

Don't you love how hulls look after the glass and resin is put on? Really brings out the grain of the wood.

On stuffing tubes, I usually start with 1/4" OD brass tubing and start sleeving in 1/2" long by smaller diameter brass tubes until reaching the prop shaft size. The brass sleeves are usually roughed up with sandpaper and either superglued or red lock tighted in place. Nothing exotic and easy to make with the tubing available in most hobby shops and perhaps craft stores.
Another hint is to always support the prop end of the stuffing tube. Leaving it unsupported may let it vibrate due to an unbalanced or bent blade prop, which in turn could lead to loosing the prop or cause extra wear on the stuffing tube bearing. The support does not have to be exotic at all. Lately, I have been using large cotter pins just large enough to slide over the stuffing tube and anchored in the hull with epoxy. On some ships it is even scale looking. Heh.

 

Nice idea Mike! You are always creative.

Mental note, leave nothing around Mike, it will end up glued to his ship...

 

What I ended up doing for the bubbles was to inject Tite Bond with a syringe.

As for the hull, it's absolutely beautiful!

Judging by the way you described it, I think I can build stuffing tubes. I'll have to remember about the cotter pins, that's a good idea.

Beaver