Embedded Files
Scratch Building a Battleship
HMS Vanguard
"Filling-Out the Hull"
It was time to cover the bottom of the hull with fiber glass
(being sure to leae the side panels open so that bb's would be able to penetrate)
Before laying the fiberglass down to give solid shape to the bottom of the hull, I decided to use Styrofoam to fill in the spaces and keep the fiberglass from "sagging" between the ribs while it set. I cut Styrofoam blocks the exact width to wedge into the spaces between ribs (as seen at left) and then used a hot-wire cutter dragged along the rib (see below) to contour the Styrofoam to an exact match of the rib contour.
As you can see at left, the final result was fairly smooth and really brings out the shape of the hull.Note: on a small ship the use of styrofoam might make the ship too boyant and keep it afloat (illegal in our hobby), but I knew this was a 40lb ship and would easily sink this much foam!!
The bow needed to be made of something a little harder, so I glued balsa block into the pocket at the front and sanded it down to the shape we desired. Note: I would later coat the balsa with epoxy to make it harder and more bb-proof.
For fiberglass I did something a little different (and probably not as strong, although easier) than the usual. Instead of the standard 'glass mat' typically used in fiber-glass work, I used the asphalt-coated glass mat used for roofing repairs (it was readily available at my local Lowe's). It does, however have a larger weave/hole so I had to lay each piece overlapping the previous piece to make it a more solid glass-mat. The bottom edges I pulled into the windows (later cut them out) and then spread large amounts of epoxy over the hull (being sure to press the epoxy down through the mat as I spread it). [Edit: Sculpting the styrofoam with a hot-wire cutter was a great success in holding the hull shape while the epoxy set. However, one change I would recommend is to use normal glass cloth for the hull and not the black roofing mat shown here. Comparing to projects since, normal glass cloth makes a MUCH harder hull than this material made after being set in epoxy].
Using the scale plans, I measured down where the waterline should be and then cut-off the fiberglass at a depth of 1" below that water-line (this is required by our rules so that it is possible to get holes below the waterline when caught by ships with downward firing side-mounts).
I next used the hot-wire cutter again (makes working with Styrofoam so easy!) to cut the tops of the foam inserts so that they would slope downward to the center of the boat and thus guide water to the water channel in the middle!
I next cut small pieces of the black asphalt-coated glass mat and epoxied them into the spaces between the ribs (this was to prevent bb's from punching down into the Styrofoam as they entered the boat.. I only had to go as far back as the rib as I planned to hang the internal armor on the inside of the ribs and that would stop the bb from traveling any further into the ship).
Lastly, I gave the whole ship a coating of primer (I planned to use WeldWood contact cement to attach the balsa sides and I was told by others that this would keep the weldwood from sticking too tightly and make it easier to remove damaged sections later).
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse