12 Posts
11 Followers
102 Likes
NEW GLASS ON FOAM CATAMARAN PROJECT
Started on a 1m catamaran on the weekend as another design as you go project. It will be modelled roughly on the 18' Ron Given (NZ) designed 'Hustler MK2' 'A class' catamaran I restored in 1979, (pics) and so far it's progressing ok. Hull is from three 25mm strips of polystyrene laminated using foam safe contact spray. Laid the 2 blanks on a flat board with 2 4" nails through each to stop them moving, and weighted them down for a day to set.
While waiting, I cut the decks from 5mm ply and shaped the bow sections. When the blanks were dry, I glued the decks on with lots of PVA glue, (which sticks foam well to wood,) and weighted them down with clamps sideways to stop them from moving. Left them for 2 days to set in my warm shed then gave the bows a rough shaping. Next was the fun part, shaping the hulls using a Surform file which creates a major mess with lots of vacuuming needed. The beauty of it is, is that the basic hulls were shaped and tapered (bow to stern) in about an hour. The laminating seams are used as a guide when shaping, plus eyeballing and straightedges.
Today, while the deck sides were still parallel, I set the hulls up in the work table and routed out preliminary spaces through the deck for winch, rudder servo and radio. Tomorrow, I'll hopefully be routering a side taper to the decks, (hulls will taper bow to stern on bottom and sides) The hulls will then have to be refiled to the new shape.
Shaping is done 90% with the Surform, then longboard sanded and hand sanded to the final shape, later to be completely sealed and glassed.
Crossbeams are 12mm ally tube with orange conduit bored to a tight fit and epoxied to the ends, then steel saddles epoxied over them. The whole tube/saddle assemblies will also be drilled and screwed together to prevent any tendency to turn. Center beam will probably be a double like the 100% cat, (yet to be worked out). Would be nice if they could be made like the originals, but welding thin ally tube might not be feasible.
JB
๐ณ๐ฟ jbkiwi
21 hours ago
41 Posts
21 Followers
294 Likes
A new build
I will, most likely, have to rename this Blog, at some point.
In the mean time...please do not expect much for a while as she is in her very early stages.
First a disclosure: This hull was built for me by another gentleman. It was delivered in a not quite completed state. Therefore I have spent the last two month working on it to get to it's present state.
So.. what is it? She is one of four ships in a class that was later enlarged to around eight maybe ten members of the class. Her main armament was eight 5"/38 caliber twin turrets. She and her class namesake sister were both lost during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. This ship is most noted due to the loss of an entire generation of one family, five brothers.
This should be enough for identification.
She is being built in my preferred scale, 1/48th or 1/4"=1'.
This ship was used for numerous camouflage scheme experiments and, sadly, there is little definitive documentation to pinpoint her second to last and last schemes carried. That said, my plan, subject to change without notice or reason, is to present her as she appeared following her New York Navy Yard overhaul, or perhaps as she may have appeared after repainting in Placentia Bay NewFoundland, 1942.
She measures out to 11' 3" and her power plant is to be two 24 volt Buehler motors.
Pictures of her and the build to follow.
Wish me luck please, she will not fit in my van....
๐บ๐ธ ToraDog
2 days ago
12 Posts
7 Followers
91 Likes
HMS Macedonian: a working RC model in 1:36 scale
I've been into the Hornblower series of books since elementary school, but it was C.S.Forester's The Captain From Connecticut that lead me to Horry. The first story published has Hornblower in command of the 32 gun frigate Lydia. I've always wanted to build a model of Lydia, but, of course, there were no kits or plans to be had.
My friend and I have a 16 foot Windsprite daysailer, hull #1 of 16 built, which we named Lydia. In the picture, the 20-something girl in the 40 year old boat is also named Lydia.
After starting on Constellation, i was thinking of donating or selling that model, so I wanted to build and RC square-rigger I would keep. Lydia came to mind again, but I what plan to use for a fictional ship? I decided on a British frigate and since the lines for one were in Chapelle's History of the American Sailing Navy, and getting a copy would cost under $10 US, so that's the boat I went for; HMS Macedonian of 38 guns. At 1:36 scale (like my Constellation) she would measure...
Beam: 13-1/2" (34.3cm)
Length on spar deck: 55" (140cm)
Length of the hull: 59" (150cm)
Length over the rig: 85-3/4" (218cmcm)
Draft: 6.7" (17cm) w/o ballast keel, 10.2" (26cm) w/ballast keel
Making her a little smaller than "Stella."
Later, after I'd already built the hull, I found out Lydia, of the novels, was based on the Perseverance class of frigates. One of the pics attached shows the profile of the Perseverance in front of that of the Lively class showing how small she would have been by comparison. Actually, if I had built Macedonian at 1:48 scale (which is what the plans were) she would have been very near this size.
Anyway, what's done is done, and while I don't have the ship of my fictional hero, I have a ship that was one of 16 ships built to that class. Built at Woolwich Dockyards, England, in 1809, and launched on 2 June 1810. In October of 1812 she encountered, fought, and was captured by the American frigate United States. Captain Decatur of the United States was intent on preserving his battered prize, and after two weeks floating in the Atlantic, she was repaired enough to sail to the US. She was officially taken in to the American Navy in April 1813, though she spent the remainder of the War of 1812 blockaded in the Thames River in Connecticut with United States. She was decommissioned near the end of 1828, and broken up at Gosport (Norfolk Virginia)
While not a glorious history, full of battles, the Lively Class did have great histories in battle; Lively, Resistance, Apollo, Hussar, Statira, Horatio, Spartan, Undaunted, Menelaus, Nisus, Crescent, Bacchante, Nymphe, Sirius, and Laurel. Ships that fough at Lissa, Naples, intercepting the Spanish Treasure ships, and more.
My model is a representative of a great class of frigates of the Napoleonic Wars, even if it isn't HMS Lydia.
๐บ๐ธ Jerry Todd
4 days ago
2 Posts
5 Followers
11 Likes
Shrimp Outrigger
The parts have arrived, let the build commence
๐ฌ๐ง EdW
6 days ago
9 Posts
11 Followers
72 Likes
BYMS 2079
This is going to be a long project, never attempted anything smaller than 1:30, so a 1:48 project is going to be fun.
It all started with me finding a copy of Eric Minett's book 'The Coast is Clear: The Story of the BYMS' in a local charity shop. I'd never heard of the British Yard Minesweeper (BYMS) but on reading the book found it very interesting, especially the mine sweeping ahead of the D-Day landings.
I posted about the book on here and nickthesteam very kindly offered me a Sirmar hull, all the plans and some fittings. I've just finished my last large build, the RAF Crash Tender (just waiting for the last few fittings to arrive then I'll get some pics and video of her afloat), so the BYMS came to the top of the project list.
I'd contacted Barry at Sirmar and bought some more fittings and spent a while collecting props, shafts, motors, rudders etc.
I've also been doing a fair bit of research into the BYMS and decided I want to build one that has some sort of local connection. As I'm originally from the East Coast of the UK with family links to the Lowestoft area I found that Minesweeping Flotilla 163 was based at Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth in 1943 and the ships of this flotilla were BYMS 2036, 2040, 2057, 2079, 2080, 2161, 2167, 2194.
Additionally 2079 was one of the first ships in the D-Day Landings and has a very interesting history, so the decision was made to build a model of 2079. The first stage of model building is complete, knowing what will be built!
My purchases included a set of three plans
1 x 1:48 detailed drawing of BYMS 2172 (previously designated as J972 and YMS 172)/BYMS 2253 (previously designated as known YMS 253)
2 x non-scale drawings of the YMS 419. These are very detailed and heavily annotated.
In theory there should be little difference between the American YMS and the BYMS as they were all made in the same shipyards, however I have discovered an issue in both the drawings and the hull moulding.
All the drawings show the topsides end some distance before the transom and that the topsides for BYMS 2253 finish further forward than for other vessels. The hull moulding has the top sides ending before the transom, however various photographs of the majesty of BYMS show the topsides continuing to the transom (including those of BYMS 2079).
I suspect the America BYS had the topsides stopping before the transom, BYMS 2253 has them set further forward but the majority of BYMS had the topsides continue to the transom. The Simar moulding would be fine I was to build a model of BYMS 2172 or BYMS 2253, but as this will be 2079 some additional material will be required.
So, a little bit of topside lengthening is required before the first major job of cutting the scuppers. I'll fit the rudders, shafts and motors first. Can't seeing this being a quick build but I'll update as and when progress is made.
๐ฌ๐ง neilw
9 days ago