Hey everyone! As I am new here this will be the page I will use to document my new build. Being from Knoxville Tennessee I have chosen my build subject. The USS Tennessee. "Insert Rocky Top theme music here<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<" This morning I am off to the plans shop to try and print off the plans so I can get to work on the hull. Thanks to WillCover for the plans and McSpuds for some info on sizing! I am still on the hunt for building material here local in the Knoxville area. I have seen several sites that others have mentioned for 3/8 Birch. My Father in Law is a hell of a wood worker, a great deal of the cutting will be done in his workshop sshhhhhhh he don't know yet! I will pick his brain this afternoon for a local source. I was was also researching the idea of using 1/4 in. Now before I get broadsided let me lay this out. I was curious if anyone has utilized kevlar in their layup. Not only on the exterior of the hull but also the interior. it could even be used to assist in the creation of the water channel. Again this is just my over active brain thinking here. That and every cop loves kevlar lol! Like I said I am new here so I hope to post any build questions here. Trust me there will be a lot of them. So far everyone has been very gracious and this group seems like it is made up of some great guys. I cant wait to get to building! I am also a bit of an amateur photographer so expect lots of pics!
Greg used Kevlar in place of fiberglass on one of his builds. Here is a link to the page where the application of the Kevlar begins. When it all came out in the wash, I think his thoughts on it were that the disadvantages out weigh the advantages. Essentially, it was quite a bit more difficult to work with without any real world advantage for our purposes. The fiberglass that is typically used is cheaper, easier to work with, easier to obtain, and is plenty strong enough to not succumb to damage for our purposes. The Kevlar is of course more bullet resistant, but it's overkill.... we aren't shooting at our ships with assault rifles. Here is a thread with some discussion on the topic.
I use a local woodcrafter shop here for my plywood. linky www.woodcraft.com/ I dont like using the cheap 3 ply crap at Home depot or Lowes.... Your father in law most likely knows where to get quality thin plywood... My advice is to use the good stuff. It pays in the long run.
I would personally go with the 1/4". The disadvantage is that you have to design and build more ribs. The upside of that is that there are more ribs for the balsa to conform to, making sheeting a bit easier in the curvy areas, and providing a more accurately shaped hull as the balsa has less distance to span from rib to rib. It is also easier for me to find decent 1/4", as most Menards stock 4x8 sheets of 5 ply 1/4", but your results may vary. Others, of course, will have varying opinions, reasons, and experiences.
SAS - Ships for Sale find the ship and figure out how many ribs you want to make vs how many you can have in a certain size. more ribs= more detail if done right but larger ribs are simpler to sheet. also can use the plywood from Michaels for the ribs at least. rims do better with a single contiguous sheet but i've done 3 ships now using michaels plywood.
1/4" Ribs are the de facto standard in the fast gun world. Smaller than that and there isn't much space for attaching balsa, larger than that and you loose ribs which can make sheeting harder and warp the balsa in strange ways that typically aren't good. And as others have said spend the extra money and buy good wood (ie 5+ ply birch), some of the not as good wood doesn't stand up to the abuse as well. (and we do abuse these boats.) While we're on the topic of material buy good epoxy too (ie West System or similar), the standard epoxies (the 5,15,20,30 min cure stuff) that hobby stores sell doesn't preform well under the abuse.
Using the rib calculator it shows I need 19. Does that include the solid area in the stern and bow, or just the ribs in between? And 19 seems too few a number. reading the rules it says the space between ribs cant be less than 1" on center. Looking at the plans the ribs are currently 1.5 in on center. Oh and I got my plans scaled, and my rib sheets ready to start. I also found a sheet of nice 1/4 in plywood at woodcrafters!
19 is right with 1/4" Ribs, and that includes the 2" of solid at the front and 1" of solid at the rear (19 1/4" ribs + 3" solid at the ends). There are always fewer than you want, and the other guy always has too many. The number (and even location) of Ribs on a set of plans is rarely a match for building a boat in this hobby unless they were drawn with the hobby in mind. Ribs have to be at least 1" on center, they can be(and very often are) much further apart. Also you dont have to space them evenly. (if you want more in an area that has a hull shape transition to make it easier to sheet or if you want to try and guess where people are likely to shoot you, AKA the bow, and you want to put more there to try and block a few more BBs)
Looks like the wife did a much better job of hiding than the dog did. Looks like you got your plans scaled. If you haven't already, make sure to put a scale on them and make sure they came out to the proper model size... nothing worse than getting most of the ribs layed out just to find out the plans weren't the proper scale.... take it from someone who has been there...
I measured them at the printers and when I got home. 52.08 Length by 8.17 Beam. I shaved a little off the beam to ensure I had enough room for the sheeting later. As this is my first ship I hope all is well
Looks like a nice plan set. And thank you for your service John. As others stated, you can spread the ribs out uniformly, or concentrate them more closely where you have complex curves or bends for the balsa skin to adhere to. Long, flat areas (usually the middle 1/3 of non-bulged hulls) can get away with only 3-5 ribs, allowing more for the transitional areas.
The big plans on the wall sure are good inspiration! For big, long keels, I do a bow keel that comes back like 1/3 the length of the ship, and a stern keel that comes forward the same amount, maybe less if it's a long ship and I want to put a pump more aft. In between the two, I use wither a flat board a few inches wide, or two parallel amidships keels 1.5"-2" apart, which nicely forms water channeling for feeding water to the pump.
I think I will work in parallel amidship keels. I think I will install them once I have the ribs, deck and main keel in place to get a good visual idea on how I want to lay it out. Speaking of the deck I have it traced out. I didn't have a compass so I created a hobo version.
Forgive me if you have already planned for what I'm about to try to explain...... I am under the assumption that you are building for a fast gun ruleset. Judging from what i can make out on the plans, and the ribs you have laid out on the plywood, it seems it may be an advantage to doing a small amount of reconfiguring..... In all rulesets, you are allowed to have a solid area at the bow and stern, typically 2" in the bow, and 1" in the stern, although this may vary. What this means is that you can safely measure back from the bow 2", and forward from the stern 1", and eliminate any ribs from these areas, since they will be made from a solid block. Those ribs (since you are only allowed 19) can then be moved to a spot that will make the build easier. Keep in mind that where the hull profile lines are on the plans are rarely always where you want your ribs on your model. For example, if you want one of your ribs on your model to be 2/3 of the way between hull line 3 and 4 on the plans and closer to hull line 3, you would draw an interpolated line 2/3 of the way between the two hull lines, closer to line 3, and use that as your rib profile. Normally what guys do is measure off the solid areas, then decide how they want to distribute the ribs in the remaining hull area, and draw a vertical pencil line on the profile view of the plans at those locations, and then come up with the rib profiles based on those locations. I am only mentioning this because it looks like you have a couple of ribs layed out that will fall within the solid areas at the bow and stern that could be better placed to make sheeting easier. Again, I apologize if you have already planned for this, I am just trying to keep you from getting to a point in your build and wishing you would have done it differently.
I am planning on the solid areas. A few of the smaller solid pieces will actually be part of the solid areas. I will use these to help shape those areas.
Looking for some direction for filling in the stern area. I know that the rules say solid one inch, but what about around the rudder and propshafts. What am I shooting for in these areas. I am planning on a solid stern from the 39th rib back. That and I am confused by the placement of the armor belt stringer. I have seen a few other ships and theirs. I'm just not certain and don't want to screw it up.
