Ok, so I figured I would start a build thread on what we've been working on. Lucky for me, I built templets for the ribs 13 years ago when I build the original Fletcher class. After going to a battle last week, and looking at everything my friend desided he really liked the destroyers and wanted a Fletcher. I had already planned on building a new one to replace the damaged and old Kidd. So today we got the patterns out and got our ribs done. We also cut out the keels and have everything marked for putting it together. Tomorrow we should have the ribs on the keels and a good start on our hulls. The start of the USS O'Bannon (DD-450) and the USS Johnston (DD-557) along with the hull of the USS Kidd (DD-661) On top of that, my girlfriend also loved the destroyers and after looking around and reading last week desided on a British Tribal class, HMS Tartar. So that will be included in this thread as well. She was not lucky enough to have the ribs all drawn out already so she's still hard at work on her computer makeing tracing all the lines for the ribs out. Lucky she's a graphic design student and quite good at it so it's pretty easy for her to do it on the computer, and a lot more clean then cutting paper up all over the workspace.
Kotori87 had them and emailed them to me. Oddly enough, they were out of proportion. The when we had the right beam to scale, the plans were an inch and a half too long. Dani spent all night last night getting them to scale and all traced out. She's got the keel and ribs all cut out now and my friend has the hull sheeted mostly. I'm in the middle, I would have been caught up with my friend, but I kept helping Danielle cut figure out the plans. Hopefully next weekend the two Fletchers hulls will be mostly done. The Tribal has a little bit of catching up to do, but I think she's going to take it home and work on it at home. I'd like to have all three ships at the same stages at about the same time. It will make it easier along the way. We'd have got more done today but it was 100 plus out in the garage and the swimming pool just kept calling.. ha ha.
Yeah, we added about half an inch to the draft on both the Fletchers and the Tribal class. The original Kidd I built back in 1997 was really hard, my dad and I struggled to get it light enough and fit everything in. With all the improvements in RC and batter technology these should be a lot easier. The weight savings in the batteries alone will make a huge difference.
"Sheep" working on his hull. Still have a lot of trimming and patching and whatnot, but it's looking pretty good so far.
Those are some nice-looking hulls. What is in the spray can? Ryan, what hardware are you planning to use? motors, batteries, armament, etc? I've been planning an American destroyer for a while now (not a Gearing or Fletcher, it's even smaller), and I'd be glad to share some of the solutions I've come up with.
I have NO idea what motors, ect yet. Batteries will be a 7.2 from an airsoft gun. I have a bunch from airsoft, I might as well use them. We had trouble getting the Kidd up to speed, and the 7.2 back then did the trick. The spray can is the stuff that makes the CA glue dry uber fast. I had never seen it in a spray can before, but the hobby shop in Auburn had it. I kinda like it, it makes it easier to conrtol how much comes out. Yeah, I am very happy with the way his hull came out. We had a little bit of trouble here and there, but it came out good. Tomorrow I will do mine, he was nervous about doing his himself so I did most of the sheeting and didn't get much done on mine today, but being unemployed right now... I have lots of free time by myself. Sadly, Dani and I have yet to get much done on the Tartar. The little bit of time that we get to see each other during the week rarely gets spent working, she has Monday off so hopefully we can get the Tartar caught up or at least closer to caught up.
I got the sheeting on the O'Bannon today. Looks really good. Still need to sand all the putty and silkspan them both, but I'm glad the major work on the hulls is done. The rest is a lot more fun to work on for me.
Finally got some time to work on the HMS Tartar. Got the keel laid and the ribs all fitted tonight. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon/evening we'll get the subdecks on. It's looking really good so far, I'm very happy with how it came out.
Well, it's been a while since we had the chance to do much work. Right now, we are waiting on UPS to bring us some motors and servos, and then we will work on the USS Johnston at full speed. The O'bannon has been put on hold until the Johnston is finished, we are trying to get "Sheep" a working ship and seeing that I have one to play with now that the Dreadnought is repaired I wanted to help get him in the water faster. Sadly, this also included stealing the torpedo tubes out of the USS Kidd now that she is retired. We will clone these guns for the O'bannon and Johnston and give the Kidd back her guns at some point... but right now we are taking them to use for this ship. Hopefully by next weekend we will have the internals laid out and we can start finishing up the hull and superstructure and do some sea trials in about two weeks. Having a half acre pond on our property will come in very handy for the trials.
Also, been working on a lot of fittings and parts for the super structure. They are coming out great so far, I'm very happy with them.
Hi Ryan, looking great so far. Did you know that George makes a lot of very high-detail resin cast parts for American warships? He's got some amazing smokestacks and 5" guns, lifeboats, rafts, rangefinders, etc. One other question, specifically about your torpedoes. When you load a ball in your cannon, does it fall down past the copper elbow? The reason I'm asking is we've had a number of those (the smaller size, for bb caliber) wear out pretty quickly when .177" bbs are whipping through that corner at high speed. If you've used them a lot before, and they're still in that good condition, cool! Let me know, as other people may want to use them too. If not, you may consider either reinforcing them with tightly-bound steel wire and solder, or using a stronger barrel material.
Yeah, I've seen a lot of his stuff, very nice work. I had been wanting to try this for a long time, and I'm very happy with all the molds I've made so far. I made the funnels, life boats, larger boats, torpedo tubes, and I was going to do the single 5" guns but ran out of resin. I am going to pick some up soon and do a few more molds. It's a lot of fun, and the detail is amazing. As far as the guns. These barrels are both new. I lost the original ones so I just built these ones real quick to replace them. I actually need to use smaller elbows I realized becuase the stick up too far and the superstructure is going to be in the way otherwise. I used to just jam some cotton ball in before the ball bearings to avoid them falling down the elbow. Simple, and it worked well.
