Well, since we brought it up, I guess how about a slab sided, simple hulled ship that would be easy for someone to figure out who has no electrical experience and no plumbing experience (for the gas systems)? I just thought that less guns, pumps, etc would be easier to build and maintain. Perhaps no? Thank you for the awesome discussion so far. Cheers, Garrett
"Slab sided, simple hulled ship that would be easy for someone to figure out... would be easier to build and maintain"? Someone should really come up with a format like that!
The QE hull with rounded bulges and the more recent one with accurate stepped bulges were both produced by Ralph Coles, not me. I don't know if Ralph sold the first QE hull mould but he still sells the more accurate hulls, though they're specific to the WWII rebuilt QE and Valiant only. The first hull was suitable for all the QE Class in the early 1930s - I modified one of them to build HMS Warspite in WWII guise. There aren't enough hull cross-sections in Raven and Roberts 'British Cruisers of WWII' to do a Fiji/Swiftsure hull plug but there might be in the Profile Morskie booklet. If I do make the plug it will be quite a while before the hulls will be available. Hawkins, Java, Imperator Pavel, and the unbulged Counties will be ahead of Fiji on the construction list.
Garrett, have you looked at the Deutchland class cruisers (Graf Spee, Lutzow, Adm. Scheer)? Roomy, simple, flat sided. DKM Lutzow It's a great starter ship. And as some guys can tell you, can hold it's own in any cruiser battle.
OK, you know where it is, who has it and are they making hulls from it? If they are not making hulls why not sell it to Strike/BC so there is a source for people to get hulls from when they want them.
Frank Pittelli has it. I'll be seeing him tomorrow and I'll see if he's interested in popping some more hulls out. FYI, Strikes new Yammer mold was supplied by Frank.
This is the class of 2 completed cruisers that includes the Profintern (aka Krasni Krim). I donated my hull plug of that ship to Strike Models last year and the hulls are in production. I'm working on a hull from my original mold and installing a pair of BB cannons in the 2 casemates in the aft superstructure, each trained out 15 degrees. The main armament was divided between 6 casemate guns and 9 in shields on deck. An alternative armament of 4 x 0.5 unit spurt guns in the 4 forward casemates will be tested for use as a base defence ship in Campaign Lite. All 6 casemate guns are close to the waterline. These ships have two rudders in line and should turn well. When planning to build a CL the IRCWCC CL stats were reviewed; I concluded the Java Class and Profintern were probably the best CLs to build for RC warship combat. A Java Class hull mould will be completed after I do the Hawkins Class CAs.
Omaha Class? Sure, they weren't built during WW1, but they still are from the era. They are 2.5 units, and look pretty cool.
Did he buy that mould from Ralph Coles or is it a different one? I haven't been able to contact Ralph to find out if he still has his first QE mould.
Ralph's QE mold was slightly skewed at the stern - I noticed that in 1999 when I borrowed it to make the hull for Warspite. If Frank's hulls also have a bow that's a tad too narrow at forecastle deck level and bulges that end 2-3" further from the bow than they should the hulls are probably from Ralph's first QE mold. The QE was one of Ralph's first hulls; he was working from plans that weren't great and didn't have many cross-sections. His later hulls were based on high quality plans and were superb (i.e. Indefatigable, QE/Valiant, Graf Spee, Tirptiz).
Spoke with Frank. He said the mold is Ralph's. On providing more hulls, he said he'd consider it but as a die-hard Axis captain, he'd want the consent of Marty Hayes or other past or present Allied admiral. He didn't want to be accused of sabotaging a mediocre Allied fleet by diluting it with even more mediocre hulls!
Or HMS Indefatigable: a couple of inches longer than Invincible, more displacement, same combat stats. I borrowed Ralph Coles excellent mold, finished waxing it last night and will be laying up an Indefatigable hull this week.
You can always make a "battlers hull". The original MAG VU was an excellent example as was their VDT. mold was made with flat sides and you could cut and glass the "features" if you wish, or just glue on a split dowel for the casement and lose a little impenetrable surface. You get a semi scale ship that is easier to build and sheet,etc. This works well and several of us have made recent molds this way, myself included. They pop out of the mold easier with less stress on the material and hopefully longer mold life ... and are a piece of cake to make a one off with templates and a hot wire foam cutter as I just did with SS William G mathers. In this image, I have cut out the openings and glued in the sunken casement molded parts and the protruding bulged ones. This is the USS Charlotte, a Memphis /tennessee class Armored cruiser. 3.5 units 26 seconds. Still a work in progress as I made her too top heavy and she ran poorly at Nats 2014. sigh... she can be built without all the extra details and would be quite easy to outfit - that is why I made the mold
