Deathwish

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I had a question on how you yall go about building the superstructure on a battleship. I been working on the Sterling USS Missouri and it's all these little piece's which i hate to cut out. Is there a better why? Thanks for any reply's.

Umi_Ryuzuki

Pretty much that is how all superstructures are built.
The material varies, but its still cut a wall, cut a window...

Imagine trying to build my Ferry boat.... [&:]

Deathwish

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I'll post what the instrution say to do. All those angles drawing me nut's lol. I do use to fill the cracks and how to make it waterproof.

johnmCA72

I usually cut blocks out of balsa, the appropriate dimensions & thickness for each deck level, then stack them up on top of one another. Glue 'em up, fill seams with spackle, sand, & paint. Decks are usually 1/16" aircraft plywood. I make splinter shields by cutting 3/8" strips of poster board & gluing them to the edges of the decks/platforms as needed. Dowels for masts, etc.

The big point, for me, is that superstructure does absolutely nothing for combat, so the less time, money, & trouble spent on it, the better. If it looks "OK" from about 20' out, then that's good for my purposes. I think my stuff looks better than at least half the other ships at a given battle, which is more than good enough. Combat & show are distinctly different things.

That said, last ship I built, I did the superstructure out of ABS sheet, with ABS angles as internal framing members. It was a lot more work than I usually put into superstructure, but it came out very nice, if I do say so myself! No steel balls to dig out, holes to fill with spackle, paint over, etc. although some varmint did manage to shoot off a director, which didn't float & is now lost forever (or until I get around to finding/making a replacement). I basically did it that way to make a point (to myself, more than anybody else). The entire ship was built with no wood at all, except that required by rule (i.e. the balsa skin). The "stacked blocks" method is really very easy, & pretty cheap, too.

JM

johnmCA72

That was scratch-built, wasn't it?
You do some nice work, I must say. It's hard to imagine that you let your ships be shot at (obviously not the ferry)!

JM

Umi_Ryuzuki

Yes All my ships are scratch built.

I wouldn't be able to scratch build so fearlessly if I hadn't run across Queen's Own Combat warship club.

I am their most entertaining target...

Here is one of two sinks during our Nationals,.... They actually got held!!![8D]
Yeah I got sank two sorties in a row...

Deathwish

My Feedback: (6)

That's how i wnated to do it. By building it up and all. I thought maybe if i used 1/2 plywood it look ok. This wont be in any combat. Its going to be for boat shows and such. Even thou i have it squirt water from one of the guns. I have a good 10-12 foot range on the squiter.

Umi_Ryuzuki

Stacked plywood gets heavy, and your ship will wobble and rock a lot if you pile all that weight up top.

Make floor and ceiling plates from thin plywood, 1/16" or 1/32" thick, and then sandwich a layer of pink insulation foam between. Just epoxy the three pieces together.

Then add balsa, or plywood pieces all the way around. I find that an light weight and easy option to create supersturcture.

Deathwish

My Feedback: (6)

That's what i fanally did. Thanks UMI.

IFlyBigAirPlanes

Does anyone know of a template for the USS Noh Carolina, BB-55? I saw one a year ago or so.

Thanks

Wreno

What do you mean by template? Plan? Pattern sets? Somthing else? George Goff probably has plans, as porbably does BDERC (and BDERC might also have pattern sets). There are several vendors on the NTXBG.org web site, as well as RCNAVALCOMBAT and several other club sites.

Normally I woul have asked what scale you are building - the two sources mentioned are largely 1/144, but you can, of course, scale up or down at you local copy shop.

Cheers,

Wreno

IFlyBigAirPlanes

The "template" was basically the shell of the super structure made from fiber glass. All pre-made so it could be attached to the deck. Thought the lead came from the NTXBG site but could be mistaken.

Thanks

Wreno

So, basically you are talking about a pre-made shell superstructure, not a "template?' I don't know of any for NC. Of course, that does not mean they do not exist. Swampworks used to sell some pre-cut foam blocks for superstructure. Barnstormer does a superstructure for the Prince Eugen, and I have seen them for a couple of other ships (Roma?).

What format are you building for?

Cheers,

Wreno