R/C Naval Combat

hi all,

still waiting for my hull in the mail, but before it comes i want to know what sort of glues to use for attaching the caprail to the hull and the balsa armor to the ribs of the hull, i have emailed the guy im getting my hull form (dreadnaught hulls) and he says to use Silastic for the caprail (i dont even know what Silastic is) and to use selleys Kwik Grip for the balsa, he says to put the balsa on the hull, mark the windows on the balsa, then put some kwik grip on the ribs of the hull, let it dry then put some on the areas were the ribs are on the balsa and stick it to the hull making sure that the marked out areas line up with the ribs,

which is completly different to a how to vid on utube where a guy is building a biskmark for big gun and he uses expoxy for renforced ribs and then uses CA for the balsa or what looks like a CA glue bottle

i dont know which one is the correct way of going about this, help!

Go with epoxy on the caprail, Grind a bit on the fiberglass first, You want to remove the waxy film and promote good adhesion.

Attach the sides with contact cement (rubber cement/ quick grip?) . Ca was used in the past so he's not wrong, it's just old and harder to remove and resheet. We mostly use contact cement now.

ahh, see i knew you could use epoxy on the caprail, and i think rubber cement and quick rip are the same thing with any luck, cheers for the help Iceman, off to the shop i go for some epoxy and contact cement

and by grind the fiberglass where the caprail will go, do you mean with a dremal and grind bit or ruff up the edges with sand paper?

well, i dont really know, i was just going to go down to my LHS and see if they had any 10mm square timber, if there are no rules for caprailing materal is there a certain type of wood that i should be using?

cheers for the tip Darren, where do you get cedar if you dont know a cabinet maker? my guess is the hardware store

im, sorta stuck again in my build, im up to putting the caprailing on, i just wanted to know how people bend the caprail around the top of the hull, at parts like the front where it goes to a piont and the rear where its a semicircle shape

ive only glued in the cross sections that are striaght across the hull that separte the top and lower decks, so far the only solution ive come up with is cutting small blocks about 1cm long of my 12mm square dowl that ive routed out to hold the 3mm deck, sticking them on individually then sanding them to the same profile of the hull

is there a way to bend it to the shape of the hull?

Yes, there is a way, steaming. Soaking the timber in boiling water softens it, allowing you to bend it to shape. Use a thick ply base with the shape of the hull on it, and add screws as a jig. Soak the timber, and bend it around the screws. When it cools, it retains the shape. For the bow and stern, I use a key block shaped sort of like an arrowhead to hold the caprails.

Posted By Darren Scott on 29 Mar 2010 03:22 AM
I use cedar, it's light, strong and steams well. Look for long, straight grain in your timber. I also get it for free, i know a cabinetmaker, lol.

It also makes your ships smell good.

cool, thanks again Darren, but could you explane the key block thingo, i dont think i understand what you mean, perhaps some pics of the arrowhead arrangement may help

I've outlined the "arowhead" fitted to my liberty.

aaah, i see, the cap rail fills in the space around the neck of the arrow head, ill give that a try on my hull see if it works, oh and thanks for the pic, very helpfull