I am planning 2 ships, they will be for the most part identical except the bow details that are the identifying fetures that distinguish them from each other. I am planning on both of the builds being fiberglass hull construction in much the way Modelshipsahoy builds his hulls, props to the mad genius. I am fairly close to the end of my liberty ship build and am looking forward to the fun and the design changes of what I am planning. I have a 3D model and really good source material although I have not decided on 3D printing the super structure or by hand, if I did I would have to buy a printer. My wife and I had the virous recently for which she was really messed up over and my symptoms wear mild by comparison and I should be going back to work some time soon and will be playing with my ships on my days off.
My self it was allot like a upper respitory infection, my wife much the same but with savere headaches, high fever, and cold chills.
I am going to use the papercraft model plans although I have a 3D model ready but I do not have the plans created yet for them to be of any use at this point, plus I actually have what I needed in 1/144 and printed out already to create the ship hull just for experimentation for S & Giggles see how this all works out.
Aside from Christmas with my wife's mother and younger brother I've been doing allot of part cutting out. I spray glued 3 sheets of poster board per panel for about 3/16 thick pices. Allot of cheese sticks and Pepsi to me this is quiet peaceful fun.
I am awed by how large this ship is, when I met the guys from the Dallas area in early 2017 there ships wear at least 2/3rds the size of this thing, I think they wear working on crusers. Earlier in the day... 10 at night... Almost a complete hull.
The papercraft thing looks cool, but wanted to share a few words of caution if you're building for combat (disregard if this is a non-combat build) I don't recommend starting out with a Nagato as a first combat ship, something like a class 3 or 4 would be a lot more manageable. I also would not recommend making a fiberglass mold for a hull that's already available - it takes a lot of time, quality probably wouldn't be as good if you're new to hull-making, and total cost would probably be more than the cost of a hull if you don't already have the supplies on hand. The Nagato hull shape is fairly complex too. Your liberty ship build was very non-traditional from a combat perspective, so not many techniques will transfer over to a combat boat. Starting with something simpler and following the better build thread on this site would give a much better chance of having a successful build. Are there any other ships in the class 3-4 range that interest you?
this is a fairly fast build for the time I have put in so far. I sprayed the port and starboard at the same time so there has been very little distortion in the spine of the ship. I used two cans of spray foam and got this far, I need to go buy some more to finish up the bottom of the ship. I was using the new palm sander wife got me for Christmas, it went quite a bit quicker then I thought it would I had been.
It seems half the time things go the way expected and the other half of the time no. I think next time I will stick to beaded Styrofoam over spray foam, the issue is shrinkage whitch is causing delamination of the poster board.
I like the time I spend doing things and I am not much for buying something I can make my self, unless I am feeling lazy. I have been in to most things automotive sence I was a teenager, buying auto body books for how to fiberglass a car body from scratch to how to fiberglassing a exzisting dash bord. I am planning on building the two hulls still, although I really wasent prepared for the large size of the ship at this scale. I am thinking of finish up the two planed hulls and start on a Japanese cruser.
Glad to hear you recovered, I can comiserate, I was "cold" for 10 ish days literally shaking so hard that I rattled the glass panes in the windows non stop, wife kicked me out of bed and the furnace said to not come near it or it was leaving, 6 weeks, plus later and body is still sore as heck trying to get my stamina back. LOL, love what you got going on here, But it always amazes me when i see peeps with all the stuff in the dining room and or other rooms in the house. Does your wife have a sister my age cuz my wife would have very large chunks of my A$$ laying on the floor with the rest being chewed up, if i did this in the house.(yes im jealous)
I orderd my self a table top hot-wire foam cutter it should be delivered by next Wednesday. I have discovered I dont like the spray foam as much as the beeded foam whitch I find easier to work with. Styrofoam Hot Wire Cutter Foam Cutter Working Table Tool Foam Cutting Machine. I bought on E-bay the shipping was free and with tax it was around 74$
I prefer the pink or blue insulation foam, sands very nicely. Expanding foam leaves the plug looking like the Michelin man. I haven’t attempted beaded foam but would be concerned about getting a clean surface. I’m not a fan of hot wire cutters, you end up with a melted, hard surface that doesn’t sand well. I use a jig saw, band saw, or a variety of hand saws (stand alone hack saw or sawzall blade). As I said before, I’d recommend putting the 30-40 hours it will take to make plug/mold/hulls into building out an existing hull so you can get on the water this season - there are plenty of steps in the build process to say you created something on your own. starting out with buying some key components (hull, guns, pump, etc) gives a much higher chance of having a successful first build than trying to make everything that’s possible to make on your own, especially if you aren’t meeting up with current battlers in person during the build
My wife and I are stuck in El Paso for the next two years, my wife signed an apartment lease and me applying to a 24 month Ford program, it seems I have the time to build. The plan is to move to an area where there is a club whitch will greatly affect the chosen spot to buy a house.
I was using the hot wire cutter yesterday afternoon. The hot wire cutter works great there is no hard melt skin on the cut surfaces, the bead Styrofoam seems to evaporate on occasions when I start to use the cutter near the start point.
This is where I am currently at with the ship. I had it all sanded down to the ribs but filled the voids so there are allot of little bumps of foam all over.
