I am building a Richelieu, and over all I am doing alright with help from Mikey and Phil. My biggest question at the moment is what materials do I need to use for superstructure assemblies. I have read thqat some people use the Pink extruded styrene to good effect, but I drive a Civic and that is not very pratical for hauling a 4' x 8' sheet. I have a lot of sheet styrene on hand, but I am worried that by building it tough enough to withstand a broadside, it will be quite top heavy. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?
Foam covered by rubber(shower pan liner or some thing) Cut the foam before you put it in the car, problem solved...
I use foam from chopped up boogie boards, get them from kurbside cleanups, (free) and sheet it with birch ply. Light, very strong and cheap.
I've heard of people using the foam kiddie blocks from a toy store to good effect. That is what the Omaha's superstructure will be make out of.
If you decided to use the foam from Lowes, or Home depot, then you can cut it yourself at the store prior to putting it in your car. The store folks will also probably be willing to cut it for you. The kiddie blocks seem to work really well. But a better solution might be to contact Strikemodels about purchasing a partial sheet of their closed cell foam that they use for their kits. That will probably be what I use on my Alaska. Mikey
We have found that Foamy works very well for superstructures. I have been enlarging card models of ships to 144 scale then printing it on silk skin. Cut the Foamy to size and dope the slik skin over the top. Waiting for battle to see how well the printed silk skin hold up under fire.
Here is another vote for Foamie - I have found it to be extremely light: The superstructure of my HMS Lion is built up of two layers of 6mm covered by a 2mm sheet and the weight doubled when I painted it. extremely damage resistant: In eight years of use the only damage my superstructure has taken are cracks in the paint and a few times entire sections have blown loose. The sections float, are easily recovered and reattached extreamly easy to work: The material can be cut with sissors, exacto knives, etc and sanded. The reason I cover my superstructures with a 2mm sheet is it allows me to have port holes and hatches. The superstructure I am building for Nassau has stair cases! cheap and locally available: It is carried by many craft store chains (Michaels, AC Moore, etc.) and is marketed for children's crafts (ie: cheap) I really can not say enough about the stuff.
That stuff sounds great. Post some picts of it and your superstructure. I'd love to have port holes...
If you go to the second page of "Show us your floats" you will see a VERY basic superstructure I had made out of foamy. I am building another for that hull now, and I hope to have it very detailed.
Also there is gray foamy out there. I am trying it out now, so that I do not have to paint it. ( to help keep the CG low for small ships )
Is the "Foamy" equivalent to the model airplane material also known as Depron ?? best regards Markus Andersen
After looking at numerous web site, I would say no. Depron is much firmer than foamy. The web sites show numerous aircraft with 6mm Depron wings. 6mm foamy would not make a very good wing.
My next thought is that Depron might be better for the decks of a superstructure. I shall try to check that out!
