Well his location says pacific ocean, but I figure that isn't very truthful. BC Shaver is in Victoria so I believe that the island is correct, and the place I linked has a branch there as well.
I modified one of my Black Prince/Duke of Edinburgh AC hulls to Minotaur before selling the hull mold to Strike Models. It was relatively simple (other than cutting the hull in half and lengthening it by 1"). Cut off the stern embrasures and casemates. Glue 1/32" balsa sheet over the outside of the gap, level with the deck edge after beveling the interior edges of the gap. Apply gelcoat to the inner side of the balsa, then fiberglass, overlapping the gap by 1-2" to each side. Sand off the balsa on the exterior of the hull. The result should be a smooth hull aft suitable for the Warrior Class. That part of the BP to Minotaur hull conversion took only a couple of hours (not counting curing times for the gelcoat and fiberglass).
Hmmmm..... I will look them up. I found a dollar store that had Bamboo Coffee sticks... Woot...Woot. I have decided to just keel it! May my insanity continue.
Warspite is a big ship people! I have half the bulkheads and half the keel underway and half the boat is Huge in 1/144 scale! Ha ha... I could have built myself a canoe!
Everyone loves Raymond! Oops! I meant photos .. Damn my scattered brain... here is the progress on the Boat.... It has not yet been tossed on the campfire... not yet. ! So what do you think? The boat seems stronger than I figured it would be! I have plans to put in braces to support the bulkheads and give me a place to add balsa sheets. One brace will be 1" below the waterline... The other near the caprail and deck. This section is the bow to midships.
It may work yet. I'm still worried about some of your ribs, in particular the upper bits of #4. There's not a lot there at that upper edge.
The rib you speak of I think is part of the Casement area... I am not sure yet...but I think it will be re-enforced with casement material... The entire hull will be covered by fiberglass after it is planked. I wonder if any of you could answer me this... I will have to look at the other build forums, but if I plan to fiberglass the hull, do I need to fully plank the entire hull? Or can I leave a few areas be? What I mean is if there are gaps between planks will the fiberglass hull hold up to a BB? Or does the fiberglass need to be supported by the planking? just wondering.
Fiberglass should only be on the bottom of the ship and come no higher than the bottom of the windows. So, you will not be getting BB hits down there. What you could/should do is use balsa blocks between the ribs and sand to shape. This gives you water channeling on the interior and a smooth hull on the outside to fiberglass
More photos. Today was saw day. I know what you are thinking about those ribs... some are damn thin. I will have to re-enforce em. I will look into balsa blocks, but I may take a different route. In the end the guy in Duncan isn't sure about his Iowa Class and I am thinking this Warspite might not be strong enough for all out combat? But I will Keep Calm and Carry on.
Unless you want to use a fairly thick layer of fiberglass, you need to back it up. You can use just about anything to back it up, including foam or balsa. If you have large gaps between the planking, just fill it in with bondo or epoxy with some filler mixed in. I've found that a layer of 6oz cloth is enough to resist any BBs that make it into the hard area. I do generally add a layer of 2 oz cloth on top of the 6 oz cloth, but that is more to get a smoother finish than for strength.
More photos then my reply...Progress started.... but the rear bulkheads are a bit of a mystery to me as how they relate. But I am learning as I go.
Hmm.. thank you for that valuable information. I am looking in the future to start buying some sort of fiberglass, probably autobody filler...(BONDO). I am not sure what kind of cloth the kit comes with, but they have a 1L kit, I am assuming this is way too much for a boat like mine? But, I think this is the smallest amount. I don't know if any of my local hobby Stores have any fiberglass sealers. Looking at my ribs, some of them are pretty thin, so I assume some sort of fiberglass would help protect and strengthen them? I am starting to put cross members between bulkheads. things are a bit wonky as I progress. I am having to adjust sloppiness or mistakes as I go. How big are the batteries used these days? I am hoping to put a lot of power in the boat, not for speed, but endurance. If I am going to haul this boat to a pond, I might as well have a lot of running hours. I have no idea how much weight this boat can handle. Future plans are to plank, put in the propeller shafts and tubes... fiberglass the hull... put in all the motors batteries etc... then see how she sits in the bathtub. If she isn't at her waterline, then I plan to add weight near the bottom before I start really creating a water channel. What is the best type of weight to add? Do you put some tile grout in the bottom? Just wondering.
You can calculate what your displacement should be. Convert the original tonnage to lbs and then divide by 144×144×144
Nick, the number I came up with must be wrong. My Math talent is low at times. Warspite was 33,410 LBS as first built in 1913, a Tonne to Lbs converter gave me 668200001 Lbs. This divided by (144*3) = 223.7 Lbs.. that makes my model boat about as heavy as myself... so I think this is wrong. Unless the "1" was the L in tonnes, that would make my Warspite 22.3 LBS. That seems reasonable Ha Ha! So, my green boat building brain thinks, one must add all the bells and whistles first? then add weight to balance etc... but then me thinks Ugg! How do I add weight after components are in etc? Ideally the lower the weight the better right? Just my brain at work. I was thinking of adding a layer of resin or maybe even a tile grout between my floor frames to keep weight low.... I guess what I do depends on the weight of my components? A few extra batteries might be the ticket.
You have listed that Warspite was 33,410 LBS. Assuming you meant 33,410 Tons, To convert to pounds just multiply by 2000. This gives you 66820000. So whatever the converter appended to the end shouldn't be there. Then you are correct, I also come up with 22.3 (22.377) Lbs model weight. I'm sorry if I missed it, are you building fast gun or big gun. Big gun does not typically give a weight, only that the model float at the scale waterline. Of course, if you were building big gun and wanted to get an approximation of weight of the finished model, the calculation would also get you in the ballpark.
Yes that is exactly what I was interested in... estimating the final weight of the model... or the amount of gear and weight I could put in.
As a general rule of thumb, collect your bottle, regulator, drive motor(s), esc(s), pump with motor, driveshafts & props, batteries, servo, guns, gun firing mechanisms (poppets or solenoid valves). Pile all that into your partially built hull & put on scale. This will tell you how much remaining weight you have for superstructure, remaining framing, etc. Note I put batteries in bold, because this is what you want to use up spare weight on. Deadweight is deadweight. Bigger and / or more batteries means longer run times. Don't put any kind of ballast into the hull unless, after it's complete, you still have weight to spare and no room for more battery power.
