Starting a new cruiser project. This one has been in the queue for a few years now. With the loss of Strike and the Northampton hull, I decided to make a mold to fill the gap since it's one of the best Allied cruisers. Hopefully the rule change to allow Class 3 to split one unit passes this year so it can get Triples. I'm also considering making printed internals to make a hybrid fiberglass / printed boat. The idea would be to make a plastic hull slightly smaller than scale, then insert it into the mold while laying up the hull before it cures. I wont be doing that yet, the first one will be traditional to get the layout straight, I also prefer to spend hobby time in the build area instead of behind the computer. I chose Indianapolis because of it's fame, also it's sister ship is the Portland, names after Portland, ME which is a city I visited often growing up. Traditional plug making. By now I know how to make more optimal cuts to save time. Here is tracing the keel, leaving area for the divider plate for when I make the first half of the mold, while on the other side leaving a template to bend the deck piece Most of the pieces fit on one 4x2 sheet Loose fit here, nothing fastened Will start by fastening the deck template, then the keel, followed by each frame. Will fill with foam, brought some 2" home from my parents house
Resumed work this weekend, glued frames down and cut foam. Foam will still need notches for the balsa blocks, tape was for transport Using Steve’s new bandsaw was great, made the process much faster
I like the insert idea. Just spitballing here, but instead of printing, perhaps a vacu-forming? You can crank out a vacuum-forming mold in a manner very similar to making this plug and mass production would be far faster/cheaper with a vacu-formed hull insert You could accomplish the same desired effects. even do it in CAD and then have a CNC machine carve your vacu-form. Might even be able to get those vacu-boat guys to take a swing at it for mass-pro Either way, looks great so far. just thought I'd drop that good idea grenade in your koi pond.
Nifty, but why not just print the hull at that point. I think we've reached the point where it should be plenty doable.
Thanks for the idea, but no room in the apt for a vacuum forming rig - while the variable cost of a vacuum formed part would be less, the fixed cost for equipment is way more than what I already have - I recall Phil saying that he could do something like an Atlanta (maybe 48" limit). I'm not holding my breath for putting in the time to draw up the printed part anytime soon, too much computer time for work. The idea with the hybrid is to deal with tradeoff between impact resistance and weight for printed hull, while significantly reducing build time. might end up just being some keyboard pipe dream haha
I still think it's a neat-o Idea. It's worth at least putting the ideas down on paper for posterity. You never know when those notes could be a game changer. I have been bouncing around with a slightly different concept but.... 18 active timber sales are keeping me busy.
Foam cut and glued in with foam board construction adhesive - use ribs to trace then cut on band saw - way less sanding using this method with the thicker 2” foam. Maybe sand a bit tomorrow afternoon (this is without any sanding)
Nice. it's gonna be cool to see this step-deck process. is that a Nagato I see under the Scharnhorst?
Fuso, a build that keeps getting kicked down the road - maybe this year, will depend how the other builds go
Sanded and painted. Hull shape is good, no major correction needed, just need to smooth out surface a bit. Going to try to not polish the cannon ball this time - funny thing about making the plug is the bottom of the boat stands out the most, but it’s the part that never gets seen. Next layer will be joint compound film.
After 2 years finally have a hull it’s a bit thin so I’ll go over the rib locations with a couple more layers, the boat lines are good though, should be a solid allied cruiser
