Yamato hull question

I have a friend who acquired a Yamato hull and we're trying to figure out who the manufacturer is. How can I tell the difference between the Battler's Connection, Swampworks, and Ralph Coles versions?

 

Greg, you may be uniquely qualified to answer the question since it's my understanding that you know the original owner of the hull. It belonged to an old college classmate of yours, George Mizushima, and he did a fair amount of work on it in school before giving it up to find a new home. George doesn't seem to recall where the hull came from.

If that doesn't jog your memory, I'll try to get pictures posted later this week.

 

There are plenty of pics of my Yamato from Ralph Coles here on the forum in the ship photo gallery. If it looks like that and I mean by the bow then it's a Ralph Cole hull.

 

The bow shapes are the most obvious distinguishing features between a Ralph Coles and a Battlers Connection Yamato hull. I have no idea which is more accurate. I think the Battlers hull has a more vertical bow profile than Ralph's between the waterline and the flare of the bow. Stokomoto can correct me if I'm wrong but I think there are some differences in hull proportions too. If I remember correctly a fiberglass Battlers deck Stokomoto bought needed mods to fit his Ralph Coles Yamato hull, especially at the bow.
Hull thickness isn't a reliable indicator of manufacturer. Some early Battler's hulls (pre-Yamato) were thinner than later production and the earliest Ralph Coles hulls were very thick. After working in the fiberglass industry for a couple of years Ralph refined his technique. Hulls made by him in recent years have a higher glass to resin ratio and are thinner but he usually makes them more robust than hulls from other manufacturers.
Bob

 

That's correct. The Battler's has a more accurate hull line and bow profile. However I know Ralph purposely made the hull with less of a prominent bulge at the waterline to make the sheeting of the hull easier which it is as Chris Osborne advised me that he had issues with the balsa at that area of the armor meeting the bulge at the wateline as it is extremely indented and very difficult to get the balsa to shape there without splitting even when soaked. The BC deck was a few inches shorter than Ralph's hull. It would line up at the bow but leave a wide gap at the end of the flight deck .The sides near the end did not quite lineup and when you did line up it would leave a large gap at the bow. I went with lining it up at the flightdeck end and seal the gap at the bow which worked out very well. The armor belt on Ralph's hull is not straight or accurate but I remember his first mold and the plans he had were not very clear on that part of the hull. I added a styrene edge to the belt to make it straight and give it an edge but depending on the light and how it reflects off of it it makes it very prominent and out of proportion to the real belt but at other angles it's close but not the same appearance as the BC hull.The BC hull is just a few mm deeper also.
I have a several YAMATO models of very scales and some show the bow as not straight stemmed and others do. Either will work.
BC's hull is a great hull to work with. It's too bad the FG deck kit is no longer available unless upon request however no FG hatches. I was lucky to get the deck kit and hatches.

 

I'm pretty convinced it's a Ralph Coles hull but haven't had time to take and post photos for confirmation yet. I'm transitioning to a different computer and still need to get my camera software installed.

 

Here maybe this may clarify the differences. I forgot to point out that the Ralph version does has the stern rounding to a point whereas the BC hull it has the very stern tip squared off which is correct on the real ship.

Here are some pics of Chris Osborne's BC Musashi and my Ralph Yamato duking it out. Note the armor belt and the stern overhang of the flight deck. Note the boat hanger indent beneath the overhang. Chris's Musashi was using the Ralph Cole Superstructure which is what I have also on Yamato. Chris has a more accurate BC Superstructure nicely detailed that he uses for shows. Too bad BC stopped making those. I was going to get it for my Yamato.

 

So the Coles hull has curving sides whereas the BC is more slab-sided? That provides yet more evidence that this one is from Ralph. I finally got my camera working with this computer:

 

That looks like Ralph but I think it's more like the ones from the Australian BG group. The Stern block has a little dip or indentation just beneath the lip. Mine does not have that. I know the AUST BG guys had hulls like Ralphs but unless I sanded mine down in the stern or filled it in by mistake you may be right there that this is Ralph's work. Is that your own FG deck you made? The hull looks great!

 

The original owner says he bought the same hull as Greg, so it must be a Ralph Coles. What you see in the photos is the hull as received from its previous owner. I don't know where he got the fiberglass deck. It also came with fiberglass superstructure.

 

The deck looks familiar . Ralph did make a FG for his later Yamato hulls. The superstructure Ralph had several of those that came with the hull. I have a Spare Ralph Cole Superstructure here and one is on my Yamato. Agreed this is one of Ralphs hulls.