I was talkin to Kotori87 a while back and I am still on board to pay for hull to make sure they get cut
The Constitution is coming along, I'm starting to get back to it since our major battle of the year is over. I think the ribs, sub-deck, deck, and keel are pretty much done. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to piece together the stern gallery. So the rules are: *Solid material on the stern penetrable window shall extend 1/2” from the edges of the stern, following the contour of the stern. *The stern penetrable window shall extend from 3” above the waterline down to the bottom of the stern galleries. So the second rule is easy, the area with the horizontal rule is 3" above the waterline, so it can be hard. Now for the first rule... 1/2" following the edge of the stern. Normally this is from the end of the stern forward. Is it supposed to be from the outside of the stern gallery in? So the triangular hatched area would be solid right? Next is how is the balsa over the stern galleries supposed to attached at the bottom? Since the galleries have to be penetrable to the bottom, is it expected the that balsa will wrap around the bottom?
The channels are planned to be cut as part of the 1/8" deck and therefore permanently attached. On each channel, there are slots cut so the shrouds can be slid in to rig the ship. The shrouds themselves will be attached to a carrier board that serves to keep them all tied together. Each mast will be stepped in a brass tube that is permanently attached to the sub-deck and the keel. Instead of having the mast itself extend all the way to the bottom of the tube, I plan for mine to end about 1" above the bottom, held in place with a pin. That way I can step the mast, letting it settle to bottom of the tube, insert the shrouds on each side into the channels, and then lift the mast and pin it, tensioning the shrouds. If you wanted to be slightly more sophisticated, you could put a strong spring in the bottom of the tube and replace the hole for the pin with a slot. The spring would tension the shrouds, adjusting for variances of line length with the weather, and the pin in the slot would act as an anti-rotation device.
I've re-read some rules threads and I think I understand better how the stern galleries work. In the picture the blue represents solid area above 3" or below 45 degrees. The green represents the 1" stern solid area. The top red line is the sub-deck, while the bottom red line is a "stringer" that forms the bottom of the side gallery. Right now I have the stringer as 1/4", but I'll redraw it for 1/8". I would like to make the lower transom (yellow) solid. With it solid, it can serve to anchor the upper transom, be used to attach the lower edge of the balsa, and a guide for the rudder post. The fairing of the lower transom (orange) would also be solid - right? Originally I thought the keel would make an additional hard area in the middle of the transom (purple) but after looking at it some more, I think the keel will have to remain forward of the rudder post and therefore will not be a problem. Comments/criticism appreciated. I know blowing through the stern galleries is spectacular in the movies, but I don't see the holes contributing to sinking the ship in our scale. So are we making this overly complicated just to have more area to score points? Maybe we could make the galleries solid and put a replaceable witness panel on for battles if the points are that important.
I agree. Let's make the stern area solid. Just makes sense to do that as I really dont think it will add that much to a score, as as you say, we can always add something to mark the hits if it's that big a deal... But I think when we finnaly start letting the bb's fly, we will see that stern rakes are not going to be that much. Just like in the other club formats, yes we like points! But sinks are fun part of this! Captains are going to push those broadsides to get sinks! One more quick thought before I stop hijacking the thread, lol. We all need to keep an open mind to the rules and be very open to any changes we have to make later on. Until we have bb's flying around and a few boats on the water at a time doing it, we are not going to get a firm handle on anything. So we all need to be prepared for the possibility of any changes that need to be made, even after we have the ships built and outfitted.
How close are we to having a hull done? I'm itching to start... BTW any cost estimates for the lasercut?
We talked about how to do the sterns a bit in the Requin build thread. What we came up with was how the Requin's stern was done. So take a look at that thread and see if it helps any. Currently, there is one AoS ship launched sans cannons (not this thread's ship). I'm still waiting for another ship to be launched before I start shoehorning in the cannons. heh.e
I posted in the other discussion, Mark, Kotori and Gascan and I are in agreement with McSpuds on the stern galleries, make the legally solid and let people get their inner decorator engaged and really personalize the ships. In our conversation, we brainstormed 3D printing window frames and scrollwork, although now that I think about it, lasercut windows that could be cut to fit individual ships would be cool. The big scrollwork with the ship's name would be fun 3D printed, because I could have the ship's name in raised relief like on the real ones But I think the consensus was to let the stern galleries, including the part on the sides, be solid.
I imagine I have a couple of months of work left to finish the Constitution kit. There is a significant amount of detail work to finish, some of which I will need to prototype before I can complete the drawing. After the drawing part is done, I will put together at least one prototype to check the fit and design of the kit. Price is unknown right now. I don't expect it to use much more material than a cruiser kit, but I expect a lot more laser time. So the target will be $100 or less for the initial run. I have to make decisions about how much detail to put on. For instance, I can have lines inscribed in the deck by the laser to represent the planks - but it could raise the cost of the kit by $5-$10. I could also include 80 triple deadeyes in the kit, which need almost no material, but might add another $5 worth of laser time.
Ditto. I would pay the extra $15 for sharp inscribed planking. It adds so much character to the ship to combat the plain drabness of solid wood.
So how thick should the planks be? I have them drawn as 6" planks (1/8" between lines) but I was thinking that I would change it to 8" planks. I considered 12" planks but they just seemed too big.
I can mill the deadeyes, but it's a pain in the arse, so having them incuded would be a plus.... Since you still have a way to go I will go ahead and start on one that I have drawings for. Thenlargements will run about 20 bucks for 8 sheets or so... Of course it will be a POB hull for a plug. I will try do get us a fiberglass hull that looks decent. I can put recessed lines for the gun ports and planking so that painting will look good up close. Also with the recessed lines, those who choose so can cut out their gunports. Brings up a question. Can we add to the rules that guns must be placed where the cannon exits an original gunport! I know captains... some will push the grey area and we will have guns sticking over the sides with a 100 degree down angle! That is a for another thread though... I will head to my print shop to get my enlargements done... another ship in the shop, the Admiral is going to shoot me!!! I have to find a way around the government shutdown (the wife)....
I have to comb the rules discussion threads and compile that into a single document. We had a long-ish discussion on location and arrangement. I myself hope that someone puts guns on with 30 degrees or more downangle. It will make my surviving unsunk/unstruck much easier.
I'm pretty sure the rules already require using original gunports for gun locations. It doesn't require that they be put in the heaviest caliber gundeck though, so I thought of mounting the Ingermanland's atop the aft castle where the four-pounders were on the actual ship set up so that all the BBs hit the same spot about an inch below the waterline just a few inches away from the ship. (protruding barrels would probably interfere with the mizzen sails though, so I probably won't do that) The rules also restrict the number of guns you can put facing fore and aft, to prevent someone from building the Couronne and having all fourteen guns facing foreward.
yes. "All cannons shall go in historically accurate locations." I have no objections to placing cannons high in the hull with a lot of down angle. At the very least, you could heel quite a lot without pointing guns above horizontal. Since we aren't using different hull thicknesses or cannon sizes, placement should go wherever it is most practical.
Are you getting any closer to having a hull kit for us to buy? If your close enough, I could take the risk and pay for a laser cut to test out the patterns... My Mutt is now done and I need a project...
