This one'll be a slow build, with all the other stuff going on... Today, I got up really early and staggered over to Brian K's house where he and Pete D and I had great fun at the build session. We continued the longstanding tradition of watching John Wayne movies while working, and cookies and soda were passing freely More to the point of this thread, I took a few hours to work on my own ship, the County-class cruiser HMAS Australia. I'm using my first hull from the mold, as it was my learning experience and there are a few imperfections that will be unnoticeable after building, but that I wouldn't want in a hull to be sold. Fortunately, most of the imperfections went away as I applied the dremel tool to the stbd side, and cut away many many windows. Because of the bulged sides, and the well-defined knuckle at the bow, Aussie will be sporting TWO stringers (no more than one between any 2 given ribs)... one forward, high up, and one long one amidships, just above the waterline. Should be great fun in run and gun cruiser tactics for the enemy fire to bounce off I also got the subdeck cut out, but not installed. Brian was most generous in his gift of some fiberglass sheet to make decks from. Very light and strong! I'd like to minimize topweight for good seakeeping. The batteries will likely be 6V 10AH lithium D-cell packs, which will save some weight that I can use for lead shot ballast poured in a thin layer along the very bottom of the hull. I will get some pics posted tomorrow.
This hull has some defects from my inexperience (second one is miles better). The chippy lok around some of the windows is due to my shaky hand holding the Dremel with insufficient sleep and/or caffeine... 8" later after I get the wood backing on them.> Here's a pic of the bow area after cutting out the stbd side windows: Followed by a pic of the stern: This view shows the subdeck fitted with some clamps for fitting prior to a lovely epoxy-based wedding. The bridesmaids will wear balsa, the groomsmen chrome steel.
Looking forward to seeing the Progress on this Clark. I have slowly begun the work on my year long project of the DKM Prinz Eugen. So far she is a hull and planning out the deck design.
For a first hull she looks real good Clark. The small imperfections like you said you cut most of them out, and anything else you can repair anyways. I do have a question, is the bottom cut from the waterline a inch, just from what I see it looks like you may of cut too much up forward, but hard to tell by the picture, no reference. You might of been asleep when you were cutting the bottom of the windows out, lol. But then of course without knowing where the waterline is, it could be right on.
I may have gone a little further than I had to, but I've never had belows that far forward and that far down Plus, nobody can say I'm not in compliance with the rules The first hull, I didn't have some of the special tools, but came out okay. The second one I had the lil rollers to smooth it out effectively, and there aren't surface defects. Looks sweet Brian and Pete were appreciative of how thick the hull was when I was cutting the windows, so I'm doing well on that score. The second one also was a major improvement in eliminating air bubbles. Also on the plus side, I've been getting better with materials use, so I won't have to charge as much as I thought to make a reasonable profit, probably in the $100-$120 range for a Kent. When I have another one done, I'll put the "buy it" button on the website.
I would not think you would take hits down that low either. But the last battle when I sank, and rolled over on my starboard side, Tim in his little SC, said look finally a target I can hit. He pulled up on the Roma's stern bottom, and pumped round after round from his haymaker into my lower windows from the bottom side of the Roma. I said Tim I'm sunk, stop shooting, he said oh you are, I was having so much fun, lol. You could see where the BB punched into the hull from the bottom side up.
Hey Tugboat. In the very top photo, in the upper left corner, is that what I think it is? Post some more pictures, please! I find it very interesting how large of a subdeck you use. For most of the fiberglass hulls in my club, the builder glues in a bunch of small blocks to support the deck, rather than making a whole subdeck and inserting it. Is my club just weird, or are you doing something new?
Ive used both methods, I personally like having a whole subdeck. Using just little blocks I was never able to get a good deck seal without screwing the deck down, maybe thats just me. With an entire subdeck I can run a bead of silicone around that the deck sits on and provides a much better seal. Most of the boats I see use an entire subdeck, maybe its an east coast, west coast thing? Eeeeeeast Sideeeeee
I'm curious too. What is that, Tugboat? In all the fiberglass hulls I've seen in the WWCC, the subdeck is built up with small blocks of wood. The wooden hulls have a large, one piece subdeck, but I haven't seen it in the fiberglass. One reason may be that wood is much more popular than fiberglass here. The other reason I can think of is because they haven't figured out how to stick a proper-sized subdeck into a fiberglass hull.
Most of the subdecks I've seen are the style shown in the pics. The big downside (for me personally) is that it takes more sanding and fitting than I'd prefer. I start with tracing the fiberglass hull top edge onto 1/4" ply and then cutting a shade inside of that. It still takes a mess of sanding to get it right, but with the way some people's guns fire these days, it's good to have the fiberglass backed up. (I think that the MWC is going to have to go with a foam test like many other clubs. I know many people who don't like having BB's chew through fiberglass!) I did do a laminate style subdeck on the HMS Lion I built years ago, building up a subdeck with strips of 1/4"x1/16" strip. I will probably do my next one (whenever that is) in the laminate style. I'll try to get Brian K to take a pic of it (I gave the ship to his son a couple of years ago and its lots nicer than when I first built it, altho my subdeck still remains) Regardless of method, I like to have a good tight seal between deck and subdeck. Aussie's back deck will not need to be removed to reload the twin sterns, so it'll get sealed with a thin layer of RTV for extra protection.
Carl, you have good eyes! I re-read your post a couple of times, and I was like "what the heck is he talkiing about?"... It is indeed the back end of your ship I'll get out there with the camera again
That's Carl's super-special secret-busting technique. He does a thorough background check of any photo anybody ever posts to detect any possible secret project that might be in the works. He learned it when someone tried to build a Rodney in secret. Here's the photo that gave it away: http://www.westernwarshipcombat.com/gallery/Post-Campaign-Battle/HoodDamage_13
I spent a few hours on my own stuff today, got the rest of the windows cut, and the subdeck partially fitted.
