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[Akira]

Nicely Done! The gaps will fillin when you apply a finish and be darker than the planks. Perfect!

[785boats]

Yep. That's the effect I am looking for Akira.
I'm all at sea about whether to replicate the trennels in the planking. I think it will just make the deck look too busy.
Perhaps if they are done with a light grey pencil instead of black? I don't know.
Any thoughts from you guys would be appreciated.

[JimG]

At the scale you are building the wooden plugs (not trenails as they were just to cover the metal bolts used to hold the deck planks)  in the planking will be invisible. They were generally made from the same wood as the deck so are the same colour and after any weathering they barely show up on a full size deck. When newly fitted there would be a light circle showing possibly due to tar used as sealant when fitting.
Jim

[785boats]

Thanks for the info Jim.
I guess all the bits I had been reading over the last week or so, refered to older period ships before the use of bolts had been taken up for the planking.
Good to know.
I think I will try some test pieces to see what I can come up with.
Cheers.

[ballastanksian]

I like the planking! It looks really nice when a ship has enough deck area to have loads of it, like some Battle cruisers.


Do what you feel you fancy mate. It's your hobby, do as you like.

[785boats]

Thanks mate. I might just leave it the way it is.


But I've decided to give the cosmetic surgery a bit of a miss for a while, and get into the engineering side of things.
So this morning I decided to have a go at mounting the motors & drive lines.


After marking out the centerlines of the shafts, I drilled the 6 holes in the hull for them.
Then cut 6 motor mounts from some 30 x 30mm aluminium angle and drilled the mounting holes for the motors. Then mounted the motors.
I also drilled & countersank 4 holes in the base for the epoxy to fill up and create sort of rivets to help keep them in place.


Using a hex flex coupler, from one of my race boats, to keep the shafts in line with the motor shafts, I epoxied the motormount and stuffing tube in place as single units.
I had to cut away parts of the ribs that were sticking up through the floor first though.


Then some epoxy putty was shaped around the stuffing tube where they passed through the hull for extra strength.

After that had all set, I installed the little metal universals that came with the prop shaft/stuffing tube units.

I just need to epoxy in some ply braces at the motor end of the stuffing tubes to strengthen them up.

Here's some pics.


 

[ballastanksian]

Its a mad hull shape! Even with the RC gear and batteries, it's going to look half empty. Plenty of room for lead ballast 


How (if you are) are you going to make the conical shaft housings on the outer hull? On Version1 I turned mine out of wood, while the version 2 I bought, they were formed from filler around/over a ply former.

[Geoff]

It looks kind of crazy but the workmanship is excellent - keep up the good work. Fascinating build.


Hmm are you going to simulate gunfire? I think you can take the weight?


Cheers


Geoff

[785boats]

Thanks guys.


ballastanksian.
I've been trying to figure out how to make those shaft housings.
A former of the right diameter at the hull & then a cone of thin pvc sheeting, is one thought.
Carved from balsa & then covered with thin pvc sheeting is another.
I don't have a lathe so turning them is not an option.


Geoff.
I'm going to make the guns turn, and raise/lower, but I haven't given any thought to them firing.
I've no idea how that's done. So that would be a whole new learning curve for me. Worth looking into later.


Cheers.

[785boats]

Had a relaxing day at the club yesterday.
Took along my Higgins PT boat, the English Gentlemens runabout, and my Ferrari hydroplane for a bit of faster fun.
But in keeping with the Novgorod theme I also took a couple of the props to sharpen and balance between running the boats.

[785boats]

Yesterday I decided to add the armour plating ring around the edge of the deck. Not sure if it was actually armour plating, but in the first pic below, there is a band of some sort between the deck and the waterline. I will still be putting those thick plates around the edge of the deck too.


Firstly I had to make & fit the rudder block to the stern? of the ship. Is there a stern on a round ship?
It was simply shaped from a piece of balsa with a piece of 3mm ply, top and bottom.

I had left the deck slightly oversize to allow for final fitting.
I wraped two layers of masking tape around the hull then sanded the edge of the deck flush with the tape.
The theory being that after the band had been glued onto the edge of the deck, and then the tape removed, there would be a slight gap all round. It seemed to work.


The band is simply a 20mm wide strip of 1/16" aircraft ply. I had to cut the strip that goes around the rudder block, across the grain, to allow it to bend easily around those bends.
I simply stitch glued the strip every few inches with a drop of medium CA glue. Removed the complete deck and ran a bead of the CA all around the join on the underside. Solid as.
It will be even more solid when the overlapping plates are added around the edge of the deck.


Here are the visuals.

[tonyH]

9 inch armour and 2inches of bracket behind so, effectively, 11" armour.

[Geoff]

For simulating gun firing have a look at the Iron Duke thread - start from the end and work backwards!


Cheers


Geoff

[785boats]

Great info as usual Tony. Thanks.


Geoff.
I'll have a look through it when I get home from work.


Cheers guys.

[785boats]

Hi guys.
I asked the question to a couple of club members on Saturday, about the conical coverings over the shafts. And ol' mate Graham suggested funnels. What? I exclaimed. Much too broard an angle.
No you dolt he said. Not the main funnel, but the spout part.
Brilliant.

So on the way home from work today, I stopped at the local hardware store & found some packs of 4 small varying sized funnels. At only 5 bucks a pack, I bought 4 of them thinking that should cover the different length shafts.
Turns out I needed 2 of the mid sized ones for the longer outboard shafts, and 4 of the next size down for the other shafts.
After a bit of cutting and shaping, I think I have a good enough representation compared to that photo in my last post.
I've got a lot of funnels left over for future projects.


They aren't glued on yet. I'll do that tomorrow.

[SteamboatPhil]

That is a brilliant tip, who would have thought a funnel has more than one use....   Trust a modeller 

[Geoff]

Great idea with the funnels and they look exactly right - well done.  I once used plastic wine glasses from Tesco's on one occasion just the bottom part of the glass as they were tapered as I needed a hollow taper to push through a rubber hole to make an airtight seal that could be removed frequently. Yes sounds very odd but was an early experiment in my gunfire system on Iron Duke (It did work to a degree but was overtaken by a much better solution).


I do like the imaginative use of other objects in model making. In the past I have used brass wood screws as if you cut the thread off you have a nice tapered shank for binnacles and searchlight bases!


Cheers


Geoff



 

[tonyH]

A brilliant AND elegant solution! Just a minor word of warning in that a lot of small funnels are made of polythene so watch out if you need to paint them....

[warspite]

Cake piping nozzles could be an alternative as well , less plastic wastage 

[Big Ada]

Also, Nozzles that fit on to Mastic Sealant tubes,  you can buy these separate at Screw Fix.

[785boats]

Some great tips there guys. Thanks.
I'll store them away in the vault for future projects.

[785boats]

Not much to report this week.
I trimmed the main cabin with some 3mm pcv angle and planked the roof.
Then I decided to make the two main guns. Mainly because they will determine the depth of the floor in the barbette.
I want to set the floor up to rotate so I need a starting depth.
After sketching up some drawings & sizes, I gathered a few bits & bobs to see what would work and ended up using some aluminium tubing, 20mm conduit and some black sprinkler hose.
Just need to finish them off and make up the bases for them now.

[785boats]

A bit of an update on the last week or so.
I made up the carraiges for the guns out of some pvc sheeting. The wheels were punched out of some 3mm ply, and the pivot is just some 5/32" brass rod with some short pieces of aluminium tube for the bushes. All held together with medium CA glue.


So this gave me the measurement required for the base of the barbette with the barrels of the guns just almost resting on the rim.


I glued in the base and then added some columns around the inside of the barbette which allowed me to then add the inner wall of 1/16" ply.


Some drawings & photos show some plates around the edge of the floor in the barbette. So I cut a ring of 3mm ply and cut the sections almost through the ply but just leaving the bottom veneer to hold it all together. After using a small triangle file to widen the cuts I glued the ring into the bottom of the barbette.


It was then, of course, necessary to sit the cannon in place for a look.


The next step is to add the ring to the top of the barbette, and set up the rotating floor for the cannon.


Cheers.
Paul.

[tonyH]

Hi Paul,
Just in case you want to add a bit more detail . The prop sizes and pitch are in the bit of text re. boilers

[Geoff]

Whilst happy to be corrected I would be surprised if the guns were on wheels. It is more likely they were on an slide mechanism with friction clamps to contain the recoil. At this time there were many different types of carriage some were on an incline so as the gun recoiled it moved up hill.


Guns of this era were all very interesting.


Cheers


Geoff