Uritski (Russian Orfey Class Destroyer)

Another view. I can't find the pics of it after it was covered with West systems. They must be on another camera.. I will try to find them.

 

Preparing to add some Carbon fiber "tape".

 

The carbon fiber tape is actually just a bunch of strands (which can get unruly) . It comes in 12 ft pieces, so I wrapped masking tape around it in roughly 6 inch sections, then cut the masking tape in half. This left both ends with the tape on them to keep the strands together and make it easier to handle.

 

I learned a lot during the application process.... Like this stufff really spreads out... One pice of "tape" spreads out wide enough to cover the bottom of a small destroyer once it is covered with epoxy and rolled out. Knowing how the stuff is to work with now I could do a much nicer job now.

 

Another view.

 

A picture after sanding and another coat of West. I also covered the areas that didn't get done on the first go around, and did the ribs as well (NOT fun)!

 

Another view.

 

It is...... And isn't, all depending on how it is looked at. The cost, due to the type of product I used was minimal (I probably spent $20 - $30 on carbon fiber material, and have some left for other endevors). Is it necessary? Absolutely not. Is it advantageous? I believe there are numerous advantages. The additional ridgidity in the hull is amazing. I still have to weigh the completed hull to see how much weight I added in epoxy, fiberglass, and carbon fiber, but I believe I will have significantly more strength, and about the same weight as I would have had if I made the baseplate from plywood. I am super interested to see how these little ribs take a 1/4" round! I will post weights soon.

 

Ah Ha!! I found the rest of my fiberglass pictures!
First I covered everything I didn't want epoxy on.

 

All ready to start. I like to keep extra scissors handy in case I make a sticky mess of one pair.

 

Here it is with the cloth realigned and ready for epoxy.

 

I was a little nervous about trying to wrap the fiberglass around the base plate, between the ribs. I made sure to precut everything as accurately as possible.

 

Poor focus on this one. Here I started to work the epoxy into the cloth.

 

Here I have most of the cloth worked into place, you can see it was still trying to lift around the keel, ahead of the rudder location.

 

I Finally got it all worked down. Through the fiberglass you can see the filler I used to smooth things out. I had a pretty hard time working the cloth down around the stern.

 

A view closer to the bow.

 

I'm so stoked!!!! Finally some paint!!!

 

That is a good looking little ship.