shipmodel

So on the topic of can a 37mm Hotchkiss cannon be printed at 1/72 scale - the answer is yes - I think....

small one is actually too small (at 12mm) for 1/72, and the large one is too large (19mm) 
 

- so I've adjusted to the proportions (though it's still about 1mm longer than it technically would be at scale but) and added the shoulder brace and magazine and printing another one and hope it turns out!

Hi HG - 
 
Those small guns moved around a lot.  You can put them in several places.  It's your choice as Captain.
As just an idea, I chose to mount gatling guns near the base of the boat cranes.
Here are some images that I relied on, although you probably already have them, and the final result.
I hope that helps a little
 
Dan
 
The design of the gun

 
 
The gatling mounted on a ship's rail

 
The gun on the finished model

 

Hi again - 
 
I forgot to add my two cents to the discussion of the big gun tactics for the Maine - 
 
She was the first "ship of the line" the United States designed after the Civil War, almost 30 years earlier.
(The USS Texas was designed later but launched earlier)  However, it is not a line of battle if there is only one ship in it.
The design of the ship changed radically over several years as the ideas for its proposed use evolved.
The final design of the Maine, with its two turrets overhanging the beam of the ship, reflect the final tactical doctrine.
If the Maine ever came up against an enemy line of battle, the plan was for her to turn towards the largest of the enemy ships.
All four turret guns would fire forwards, ignoring any self-inflicted damage, until the Maine could ram the enemy with her reinforced bow.
Fortunately, she was never called on to do so. 
 
Here is what the enemy might have seen.
 

Hi HG - 
 
Love the progress that you have made on the Maine. 
The 1-pound Hotchkiss gun and the boats are beautifully detailed.
Looking forward to seeing how the gatling guns will print out. 
I don't do R/C models, so I can only imagine the added technical problems that have to be solved.
I agree that she is a bit light at the stern at the moment, but with a slower speed she should look really impressive.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

Hi Marc - 
 
Not sure I remember which pieces of tackle you mean.
If you mean the hooks, they were probably from Syren.
Wooden blocks from Warner Woods, but Lloyd is out of business.
Small metal blocks in your scale are available from Bluejacket.
If you can send me a photo I can check again.
 
Dan 
 
 

Hi Dan yes have that or a version of it - one think I might try is printing without the barrels and then use small pipe or rod for the barrels - but I'm going to try to print one later today. 

Hi HG - 
 
Those small guns moved around a lot.  You can put them in several places.  It's your choice as Captain.
As just an idea, I chose to mount gatling guns near the base of the boat cranes.
Here are some images that I relied on, although you probably already have them, and the final result.
I hope that helps a little
 
Dan
 
The design of the gun

 
 
The gatling mounted on a ship's rail

 
The gun on the finished model

 

Hi HG - 
 
Those small guns moved around a lot.  You can put them in several places.  It's your choice as Captain.
As just an idea, I chose to mount gatling guns near the base of the boat cranes.
Here are some images that I relied on, although you probably already have them, and the final result.
I hope that helps a little
 
Dan
 
The design of the gun

 
 
The gatling mounted on a ship's rail

 
The gun on the finished model

 

Hi HG - 
 
Those small guns moved around a lot.  You can put them in several places.  It's your choice as Captain.
As just an idea, I chose to mount gatling guns near the base of the boat cranes.
Here are some images that I relied on, although you probably already have them, and the final result.
I hope that helps a little
 
Dan
 
The design of the gun

 
 
The gatling mounted on a ship's rail

 
The gun on the finished model

 

Hi again - 
 
I forgot to add my two cents to the discussion of the big gun tactics for the Maine - 
 
She was the first "ship of the line" the United States designed after the Civil War, almost 30 years earlier.
(The USS Texas was designed later but launched earlier)  However, it is not a line of battle if there is only one ship in it.
The design of the ship changed radically over several years as the ideas for its proposed use evolved.
The final design of the Maine, with its two turrets overhanging the beam of the ship, reflect the final tactical doctrine.
If the Maine ever came up against an enemy line of battle, the plan was for her to turn towards the largest of the enemy ships.
All four turret guns would fire forwards, ignoring any self-inflicted damage, until the Maine could ram the enemy with her reinforced bow.
Fortunately, she was never called on to do so. 
 
Here is what the enemy might have seen.
 

Hi again - 
 
I forgot to add my two cents to the discussion of the big gun tactics for the Maine - 
 
She was the first "ship of the line" the United States designed after the Civil War, almost 30 years earlier.
(The USS Texas was designed later but launched earlier)  However, it is not a line of battle if there is only one ship in it.
The design of the ship changed radically over several years as the ideas for its proposed use evolved.
The final design of the Maine, with its two turrets overhanging the beam of the ship, reflect the final tactical doctrine.
If the Maine ever came up against an enemy line of battle, the plan was for her to turn towards the largest of the enemy ships.
All four turret guns would fire forwards, ignoring any self-inflicted damage, until the Maine could ram the enemy with her reinforced bow.
Fortunately, she was never called on to do so. 
 
Here is what the enemy might have seen.
 

Hi HG - 
 
Love the progress that you have made on the Maine. 
The 1-pound Hotchkiss gun and the boats are beautifully detailed.
Looking forward to seeing how the gatling guns will print out. 
I don't do R/C models, so I can only imagine the added technical problems that have to be solved.
I agree that she is a bit light at the stern at the moment, but with a slower speed she should look really impressive.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

Hi again - 
 
I forgot to add my two cents to the discussion of the big gun tactics for the Maine - 
 
She was the first "ship of the line" the United States designed after the Civil War, almost 30 years earlier.
(The USS Texas was designed later but launched earlier)  However, it is not a line of battle if there is only one ship in it.
The design of the ship changed radically over several years as the ideas for its proposed use evolved.
The final design of the Maine, with its two turrets overhanging the beam of the ship, reflect the final tactical doctrine.
If the Maine ever came up against an enemy line of battle, the plan was for her to turn towards the largest of the enemy ships.
All four turret guns would fire forwards, ignoring any self-inflicted damage, until the Maine could ram the enemy with her reinforced bow.
Fortunately, she was never called on to do so. 
 
Here is what the enemy might have seen.
 

Hi again - 
 
I forgot to add my two cents to the discussion of the big gun tactics for the Maine - 
 
She was the first "ship of the line" the United States designed after the Civil War, almost 30 years earlier.
(The USS Texas was designed later but launched earlier)  However, it is not a line of battle if there is only one ship in it.
The design of the ship changed radically over several years as the ideas for its proposed use evolved.
The final design of the Maine, with its two turrets overhanging the beam of the ship, reflect the final tactical doctrine.
If the Maine ever came up against an enemy line of battle, the plan was for her to turn towards the largest of the enemy ships.
All four turret guns would fire forwards, ignoring any self-inflicted damage, until the Maine could ram the enemy with her reinforced bow.
Fortunately, she was never called on to do so. 
 
Here is what the enemy might have seen.
 

Hi HG - 
 
Love the progress that you have made on the Maine. 
The 1-pound Hotchkiss gun and the boats are beautifully detailed.
Looking forward to seeing how the gatling guns will print out. 
I don't do R/C models, so I can only imagine the added technical problems that have to be solved.
I agree that she is a bit light at the stern at the moment, but with a slower speed she should look really impressive.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

Hi again - 
 
I forgot to add my two cents to the discussion of the big gun tactics for the Maine - 
 
She was the first "ship of the line" the United States designed after the Civil War, almost 30 years earlier.
(The USS Texas was designed later but launched earlier)  However, it is not a line of battle if there is only one ship in it.
The design of the ship changed radically over several years as the ideas for its proposed use evolved.
The final design of the Maine, with its two turrets overhanging the beam of the ship, reflect the final tactical doctrine.
If the Maine ever came up against an enemy line of battle, the plan was for her to turn towards the largest of the enemy ships.
All four turret guns would fire forwards, ignoring any self-inflicted damage, until the Maine could ram the enemy with her reinforced bow.
Fortunately, she was never called on to do so. 
 
Here is what the enemy might have seen.
 

Hi HG - 
 
Love the progress that you have made on the Maine. 
The 1-pound Hotchkiss gun and the boats are beautifully detailed.
Looking forward to seeing how the gatling guns will print out. 
I don't do R/C models, so I can only imagine the added technical problems that have to be solved.
I agree that she is a bit light at the stern at the moment, but with a slower speed she should look really impressive.
 
Stay safe and well
 
Dan

Hi again - 
 
I forgot to add my two cents to the discussion of the big gun tactics for the Maine - 
 
She was the first "ship of the line" the United States designed after the Civil War, almost 30 years earlier.
(The USS Texas was designed later but launched earlier)  However, it is not a line of battle if there is only one ship in it.
The design of the ship changed radically over several years as the ideas for its proposed use evolved.
The final design of the Maine, with its two turrets overhanging the beam of the ship, reflect the final tactical doctrine.
If the Maine ever came up against an enemy line of battle, the plan was for her to turn towards the largest of the enemy ships.
All four turret guns would fire forwards, ignoring any self-inflicted damage, until the Maine could ram the enemy with her reinforced bow.
Fortunately, she was never called on to do so. 
 
Here is what the enemy might have seen.
 

Hi Marc - 
 
Not sure I remember which pieces of tackle you mean.
If you mean the hooks, they were probably from Syren.
Wooden blocks from Warner Woods, but Lloyd is out of business.
Small metal blocks in your scale are available from Bluejacket.
If you can send me a photo I can check again.
 
Dan 
 
 

For some time now, I have been stalled out. This is probably because I am at the point of beginning the attachment of the frames to the keel. I could probably keep fairing the frames, a process that I hate, in order to put off the next step. But I feel like I need to accept the hull shape as it is, and get on with next things.
 
First of those things is to go ahead and attach the bow filler blocks and frame 1 to the keel, as well as attach the transom assembly to the sternpost. I also attached the penultimate frame, which is #50. This is shown above. On the building board, the frames at each station are waiting in their slots for the keel to be attached to them.
 

 
It was terribly important to get this step right and to ensure that the keel is completely inserted into the notch on each frame. So I glued two frames in place at a time, elevating the keel just enough to get the glue into the space between them before lowering the keel down onto the frames.
 

 
After applying glue and getting everything in place, I weighted the keel with a piece of wood. FYI, that is a piece of “African boxwood” from rarewoodusa.com in Maine. The species is given as “Buxus macowanii”. I have not used any of the wood I bought from them in the model yet; thus far I have been testing it out for its carving qualities.
 

 
All of the station frames have been attached, yielding this delicate structure when it is removed from the building board.
 

 
And so begins the process of adding in all the frames between the stations. This was even slower, because of the need to once again make sure that each frame articulated correctly with the keel. Failure to do so would cause focal unfairness at that frame that would be most noticeable along the bottom of the boat and at the rabbet.
 

 
 
 

 
The last two frames are about to be glued in place.
 

 
Most of the frames are in the form of the one on the right on the table top. However, about every fifth frame has been trimmed to its proper molded dimension, and that information comes directly from measuring the dimensions of the frames on the real ship.
 

 
All frames are now glued in place. I ended up finding one frame, about #11, which was not fully lodged into its slot on the keel. It is not evident on this photograph, as the difference is probably only 1/32”. It is visible if one gets up close to it. But I decided not to do anything about it.
 
The whole reason for this exercise? I may have covered this before, but will go over it again. I wish to be able to leave part of the hull unplanked and show the interior structure of the hull. But building this model in the same way as one might build a fully framed fifth rate of the Royal Navy would be very difficult, as the frames would become very fine and fragile. It just wouldn’t be possible to accurately plank a structure consisting of a backbone keel and rib-like frames that are very pliable. So the plan is to plank up nearly all of the hull, leaving part of one side unplanked.
 
I don’t yet know if I will fully plank the hull and then remove some of the planking, or if I will simply leave an area unplanked as I go along. I am favoring the idea of fully planking the hull, but only lightly gluing the planks that will later be removed. This is because I am planning on trimming out the majority of the material that forms the frames once the planking is finished, bringing the frame dimensions down to their proper molded dimensions. Thus the importance of having every fifth frame trimmed down to its proper molded dimension, so as to serve as a guide to that process. I will probably only do this for a certain portion of the hull, leaving the frames untrimmed in the bow and stern. In order to have the hull as stable as possible before doing the interior trimming, I think it would be best to have the hull fully planked.
 
Feel free to offer opinions in support or in critique of this plan!
 

 
So, all frames are in place. This really was a big psychological step, because from here one has no place to go besides getting on with the planking. And I certainly like planking far better than fairing the hull. Honestly, I could have spent more time fairing, and there are areas where there will be gaps between the frames and the planking. But it was time to move on, and gaps can be dealt with later.
 

 
This process illustrated in the two pictures above was very satisfying. As has previously been suggested by a commentator on this log, I used black thread to lay out the top of the sheer plank, where it meets the covering board. The plans indicate that this point is to be found on each frame, very consistently 7/16” below the top of each frame (also the bottom surface of the rail). So this point was marked out on each frame on port and starboard sides. The thread was then glued with white glue to these points, which yielded a surprisingly crooked line that was probably due to marking error. After all, the line should parallel the surface of the baseboard, which is cut to follow the curve of the rail at its undersurface.
 

 
 
This picture of the aft portion of the hull gives some sense of the crookedness of the line, if just left to my marks.
How satisfying indeed, then, to be able to look at the curve of the baseboard, and then simply moisten the glue spots on the thread and adjust the thread up or down as needed in order to obtain a fair curve! It’s one of those moments where I feel like an actual shipbuilder. I don’t have good photos to show the process in action, because to do so requires photos with very great depth of field, and those involve long exposure times. In the end, though, I am left with a very smooth and well defined line to follow when I attach the sheer strake.
 
I am going to stop at this point lest I make the post too long and cumbersome to transfer to the web page. Hopefully the next post showing the application of the sheer strake will follow promptly!

Hi Marc - 
 
Not sure I remember which pieces of tackle you mean.
If you mean the hooks, they were probably from Syren.
Wooden blocks from Warner Woods, but Lloyd is out of business.
Small metal blocks in your scale are available from Bluejacket.
If you can send me a photo I can check again.
 
Dan 
 
 

Hi Marc - 
 
Back in the city where I can get on MSW.  Went back over all your progress in the last months and am really blown away to see how well she is coming out.  
I think your color choices are excellent, and your workmanship, as always, top notch.
I'm looking forward to seeing her in New London, unless we can get a club meeting together before that.
 
Ad astra per aspera, my friend.
 
Dan

Hi Marc - 
 
Back in the city where I can get on MSW.  Went back over all your progress in the last months and am really blown away to see how well she is coming out.  
I think your color choices are excellent, and your workmanship, as always, top notch.
I'm looking forward to seeing her in New London, unless we can get a club meeting together before that.
 
Ad astra per aspera, my friend.
 
Dan

Hi Marc - 
 
Back in the city where I can get on MSW.  Went back over all your progress in the last months and am really blown away to see how well she is coming out.  
I think your color choices are excellent, and your workmanship, as always, top notch.
I'm looking forward to seeing her in New London, unless we can get a club meeting together before that.
 
Ad astra per aspera, my friend.
 
Dan

Hi Marc - 
 
Back in the city where I can get on MSW.  Went back over all your progress in the last months and am really blown away to see how well she is coming out.  
I think your color choices are excellent, and your workmanship, as always, top notch.
I'm looking forward to seeing her in New London, unless we can get a club meeting together before that.
 
Ad astra per aspera, my friend.
 
Dan