NavyShooter
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And, one last problem...here's the flight deck overhang... You can see that it's sagging quite a bit. I visited the old Carrier Builder's website, and referenced the photo of Don Linton's beautiful model to see what his looked like underneath the overhang. I think my solution is going to be to add a wedge underneath that lifts it up whilst pressing on the hull side...that looks 'right'. Ish. We'll see. This one's going to take some thought to figure out.
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OK, I'm pursuing the plastic solution. I bought another 1/4 sheet of plywood, just to see what it'd look like, and while it was straight-ish in the store, it was not by the time it got home...so...one of those companies listed offer a sheet of 1/8" styrene for $100 - I think I'll be buying that when I get home from vacation (going away with the family for a few days next week.) In the meantime, I identified ANOTHER problem...the upper surface of the hull where the flight deck sits on is...well...not flat. So...here's a few images of me doing a bit of sanding to sort that out. Once I finished up with the sanding, I gave it a quick shot coat of clear coat to seal things up. Way too much warpage going on....
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So, I had a couple of buddies over last evening and we had a chat about the flight deck. The wooden boards of the existing deck were always a bit wavy. Well, when I sectioned it last week, things really went wonky, and at this point, I think it's beyond recovery. 30+ year old plywood is not reacting the way it should...I don't know if it's moisture or what, but it's gone completely whacky. The stern section has a 2 inch warp in it now - previously it was about 1/2 inch or so, which I thought would tame down and be workable. So. A new flight deck is in order - the question being - what's the right material? My buddy suggested plexiglass for the whole deck. And that's actually tempting, except for the weight. Do I go with plywood again? Thoughts from the hive mind of modelers? NS
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A bit more progress this evening, and a comparison between the inspiration from last year, and what I've got going on as of this evening: I've got the main center piece of the flight deck sliced up and fitted between the elevator risers.
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OK, a bit more work this evening and I've got the hangar deck resting on blocks at the correct height within the hull so that it sits flush with the deck. Quite pleased with how things look at the end of the day. This is, literally, a year in the making. One year ago last week, I posted this (back on page 4) and as of today, I am pretty much where I want to be. with this.
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Here's the chopped up deck. I have to center the hangar properly in the hull, then I'll start cutting things a bit more for the insets. NS
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OK, so, next step is the Deck Access Plan....to start this, I started with cutting the existing flight deck piece which I have into 3 segments to work with.
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OK, I flipped her over this afternoon, and figured I should show off the motor mount too. Then I decided to spin the shafts - so, a couple of AA batteries made me momentarily happy...which led to digging out the ESC's and receiver - a few minutes later, I ended up spinning the props under proper power! I added a short video of that to the RC Aircraft Carriers face book page.
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A little bit more work...one final touch up with spot putty, applied, sanded, and primed again. I think I'm going to call this complete. Shafts are fixed, hull is smooth(er) and I'm quite pleased with how she looks now. Almost time to flip her over and scribe some lines for the water line again.
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And....my OCD kicked in, and there were a couple of spots up at the bow that needed a bit more work. And I had to tidy up the rear parts of the skegs with a dremel...and...so....more fiberglass. What doesn't show well in these 'during' images is the way the hull was sunk in between the frames, so a couple of layers of fiberglass cloth were added to each of them. Hopefully it smoothes things out a bit. Probably need another layer or two of resin. Such is life....
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7 layers of resin later...I think I'm pleased with the outcome. Considering where it started, and where it's at now, this is a night and day improvement. In this image, you can see all the red splotches - those are the low points that I was trying to fill out. In this image, you can see the end result after the 7 layers of resin, and 2 layers of primer. I'm quite pleased.
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P-38J Wicked Woman by DocRob - FINISHED - Tamiya - 1/48
NavyShooter replied to DocRob's topic in Non-ship/categorised builds
That is indeed a beautiful finish! Very well done! I am amazed at how the rivet lines turned out in the end. Absolutely amazing. -
I also took the time this evening to put a layer of bright orange on the test target drone at last. Came out pretty good I think!
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OK, had a great visit with 3 veterans who came out, alas, the gent who sailed on the Bonnie wasn't feeling so great and didn't come with the others. The 4 of us had a great time telling old sea stories, and poking about my workshop. A relaxing night. With a hurricane visiting Halifax this weekend, I had some time at home to do some puttering about, and this afternoon I finally started the fiberglass work on the skegs. And the bottom of the hull. I ended up having a look at the keel, and oh my, there was a bit of a mess that I really hadn't appreciated before. So. Solution is a couple layers of fiberglass with a bit of sanding between. The skegs got a layer of cloth added, and several layers of resin. (Got 4 layers down this evening.) Here's some photos: In the beginning.... The Cloth. The end - after 4 layers.
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I've got some Veterans dropping over on Wednesday evening to have a look at the Bonnie...including a couple who sailed on her back in the 60s. So, I set aside the work on the shaft lines, did some tidying, and dressed her up to show her off. Here's how she looks tonight:
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Great thing about 3D printing is that if things ain't quite right, you can modify and pop out a new part in just a few hours. Here's where we are at tonight...version 4 seems to be about right.
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Alrighty....and I discovered that I'm sometimes a bit of a dummy... I took the printed part out to the shop and tried to test fit it...and couldn't get it into the hull. Too wide. Of course. The overhead frame did not allow it to sit in...so now it's chopped into smaller sections and we'll see how that looks tomorrow. And I fixed a few minor points of alignment in the model...
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So....in looking at the photos above, I realized that there was a gap that bothered me. That being the gap astern of the aft hangar bay. When the flight deck panel for the aft hangar bay is open, it will let this space be seen, and I'm not a fan of this big ugly gap...so what to do about that? I stepped back to the plans, and pondered things. See the plan view with the red highlights....That's what I'm going to build to fill the gap. Some 3D design wizardry and 4 hours of printing, and presto...I have the 'sample' to test fit and adjust ready to pop into the hull tonight. There WILL be changes necessary to this, however, the most important part of fitting in with the already printed cable deck section was key. It fits as can be seen in image 3. Which is a good thing. I've already started doing some detail-work on the interior spaces - there is a selection of workshops and the wardroom galley space in here, so I'm going to have fun designing and printing some of these bits. We'll see how it all looks in the end!
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OK....so I've answered my own question about the shells.
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Nice job on the casings - a question though - some Russian systems used lacquered steel (green-ish) casings. Was this the case for the 85mm? Or were they brass? (mid-war brass shortages were a thing.) As for hurricanes, I grew up in a house with a leaky basement, so I only every bought houses on hills...water would have to come up over 20 feet from the lake to get to my basement level in my current home. I've got 2 generators, lots of gas, sufficient food, and other 'stores' that would be useful. After living through a few hurricanes now here in Halifax, I'm reasonably well setup. I go out with my chainsaw to help others now, and usually lend out the smaller generator to a neighbour that ain't got much, and certainly cannot afford to lose a freezer worth of food.
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So, as I waited for the epoxy to dry so that I can sand down the protruding bits, I decided to have a look at how things are going together...and so I set the hangar deck into the hull. With the new motor mount in place, I wanted to make sure I had clearance below the hangar (which I do!) Then I looked at things a bit harder, and realized that I still had to cut a couple of inner frames down by a bit to fit the hangar fully into the hull. So. Out came the razor saw, and off I went, having marked the frames. 5 minutes later, the hangar deck is now resting flush with the flight deck, where it belongs! I put the island on to check clearances, as the plan is to have the island fixed in place, and be able to remove the hangar deck when necessary without removing the island. All of the 'major' electronics will be along the keel, below the hangar deck. So...this was the first time I'd had a chance to fit it all up, and by thunderin', she fits! Here's a few more photos for your viewing pleasure. I decided to stick some Banshees into the Hangar for the last couple of photos.
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OK, after a second application of epoxy, I have 'adjusted fires' to putting on some putty. Once the putty dries, I'll be sanding it, then putting a layer of fiberglass overtop to lock everything together. As I wait for things to dry though, I had some time out in the garage to kill...so....I started working on the anchor system. Plan is to have one anchor functional. First challenge was getting the holes drilled - the original builder made a cable deck area, but did not punch holes out the bow, nor put in the hawse pipes. So. Off to the drawings, got some dimensions, did some measuring, and started drilling some holes. Started small, and worked up to final size of 1/4". Cut a couple sections of brass tubing to go in as the inserts, which are now in place and epoxied. Then I fiddled with the anchor a bit - it's solid brass, but it's light...so I added a bit of 'weight' on the bottom of it - a bit of solder tacked on with a torch. I'm not sure how much difference that'll make, but it shouldn't hurt! Here's some photos.
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OK, after dropping an alignment jig and breaking it, re-printing it, and getting a new motor mount printed, I think I'm almost ready to epoxy things into place. Here's how she looks tonight:
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Something to consider is the availability of suitable wood for single piece trucks. At some point, the trees used that were big enough to provide such massive single pieces of wood stopped being commonplace, and started being rare. Mostly because they'd been used to make ships, and parts for ships. NS
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