RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) Mikey, both the Alaska and the Le Terrible superstructures are gorgeous. Nice work!
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) Mikey, She's coming along Great! Cant wait to see her on the water! Nikki
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) Thanks all. They will be on display this weekend at the R/C show. Hopefully, I will remember to take a few photos, and post them. Mikey
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) I have been skirting the task of dealing with the stringers, for the armor belt. I layered the belts on my Hood, so that they stick out. And it really looked nice. But to be honest. It was a pain to do, and I am not entirely happy with the results. I have always made a habbit of avoiding building ships with belts, and/or bulges, mainly because I like to keep things simple. Slab-sided ships are nice and easy. I want to keep the armor belt on my Alaska, and have it stick out. But beyond layering the belt over the hull sheeting, I have not been able to come up with a workable plan. I could just sand the belt off, and slab-side the ship, but I think that takes too much away from a ship. Thoughts?? Mikey
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) Hi Froggy, Very cool looking ship, for an Allied Are you using thin ply or balsa for the flat portions of your SS? I can't tell. If so, what are you using to water proof it? I like the look of yours and would like to try the same thing with Scharnhorst, if I can find the stuff. Thanks, J
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) One or two more questions if I may, what do you use to cut the stuff? Will exacto knives do? How about glue. I bought some 6mm foam from Michaels and need to glue the sheets together and am thinking contact cement. Right or wrong? I looked at the wood there too. the .8mm stuff was $28.00/ sheet and all their thin ply was warped. Didn't get any of it. J
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) J I am using light aircraft-plywood for the deck levels. Generally either 1/32", or 1/16". I like the 1/16" best. For the levels that will get splinter-shields wrapped around the edges, I will go with 1/16" as it is easier to make sure the splinter-shields are straight. The buildings themselves are foam. I seal everything with hobby-poxy. Mikey
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) I use my scroll-saw to cut both the plywood, and the foam. The very thin blade gets the best results. I have been planning to try the round blades on the foam, to see how it cuts. But I have lost the blade holder. I use medium thickness super-glue for everything. I considered contact cement, but wasn't sure if it would disolve the foam. So I would try it on a small test piece first. Just in case. The thin plywood is really expensive. And often warped. But I really like using it. So I spend the money for it, and then take it home and place a bunch of books on it on a flat surface for a day or two, in order to flatten it out. If I don't have the time to let the books flatten it out, then I go ahead and do my glueing, and cutting, and then lay the pieces under books, or batteries after they are dry. Mikey
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) I tried two different glues, both may seem over kill. Gorilla glue and contact cement.the gorilla glue has one issue that I found. It expands and it is strong when it does. These are the same pieces. I had 2 packages of 8 1/2 by 14 paper on top and it still lifted the sheets apart. I used Lepages gel contact cement, the same stuff I use for sheeting and so far so good. It didn't eat or damage the foam in any way and it has been 1 1/2 hours and the pieces are held together very strongly. This is the label from the foam I used. I got it at Michaels and they call it craft foam. Don't know if it is the same as the Foamie, but it is good with contact cement. J
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) I used Ca and goop, no evil side effects, yes the gorilla glue expands, that's bad. You have the same foam as I do. Same place of purchase also.
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) Good, now I know I can get 'Foamie'. There are so many things we can't get up here in the North. J
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) Interestingly enough. It was recently pointed out to me that we do not have the "over 800 feet" rule for allowing twin-firing sidemounts on capitalships in Treaty. We just have a list of ships that can have them. So the Alaska will not have the duals. Not all together a bad thing I suppose. As at 4.5 units, the offensive units would not go very far if one adds by 2s. The up side is that the Bismarcks do not get the duals either. And they can't keep up with me. So now I have to figure out how I want to arm her. I am leaning towards having a cannon in each forward turret (pointed one to each side). And then rotating the stern turret so that I can cover both sides as well. Mikey
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) Mikey's USS Alaska, and Dave's USS Alaska at the build-session in Red Lion. It was love at first sight. Mikey
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) My USS Alaska after returning home from the road trip out to Pa. MIkey
RE: USS Alaska (Treaty/fast-gun) Hey! Who is that following me? Is there someone lurking there in the shadows? Is that? Phil Donahue? Sorry. That was from one of my favorite movies. Anyone like to take a guess? Mikey
