R/C Naval Combat

If you've already silkspanned the wood then soaking or steaming it won't work. The silkspan and dope is supposed to waterproof the wood so if that's already on then you can't soak or steam. I have also never tried either technique, but if other people say they work then try it.

There are two ways to skin a ship in sections, that I have seen. One involves installing balsa plates to completely fill in between one or two rib spacings. This works well if the balsa is splitting from curves along the length of the ship, or if you don't have enough hands to manage a full 4' balsa sheet at once. The other method involves cutting your balsa into thin strips, then planking the ship like you would the bottom. You then have to fill and sand, and apply silkspan, but this is good for if the balsa is splitting around the bilges.
Lastly, you could just let the wood split then fill and sand it. You won't be sacrificing much protection unless you're overzealous in your sanding. 1/8" balsa is just hard to work with.

Not sure the "fill" part of that method is legal in some rulesets.

I'll be using the steamming method, as I too don't think the "fill" method would be legal (that wood putty is hard stuff) Also hows the web site going, you need any help?

Now that I've got time on my hands, I expect to make some good progress on the website. I will be out house-shopping on Saturday (wife and I are moving back where her office is, where I'll be going to school, etc)... All the 14 houses we're looking at have powered outbuildings in the vicinity of 10'x20' which the wife has in advance ceded to me as my workshop :) Parts factory, here we come!

Tug, one Q,... where the hell did you ever finde a woman like that?????

A little household cloudy ammonia in very warm water will make balsa go nicely pliable, just don't breathe the fumes....

She graduated from law school and got a job in my town. Someone in her office invited her to the same church I got to. She joined the choir and wound up sitting next to my mom, who is always looking out for her interests (and mine, it would seem). I got introduced, and since she was hot looking, gave it a good effort to get a date. On that date we found much in common (we both love sci-fi) and I knew she was the one. Looks like I was right :)

Tug,
Hows progress on those turrets? I've been bouncing back and forth between working on the Yamato and my nitro powered speed boats so not too much progress has been made. Today I did some more with the water channeling and have been planning out the deck construction, its coming along slowly but surely:)

Perhaps this thred should be moved to the 1/96 scale section??