DavidP wrote:
thought so. I would have doubled up the frame edges so that the plank strip ends had more material to rest on. on the large flat areas, I would use large plates as would make the hull more rigid & less likely to warp & smaller plates for areas that have curves in it. all my 1/144 ships are plate on frame not plank on frame. even did that on 2 scratchbuilt 1/500 scale ww2 fleet tankers.
Yours sounds like a very good technique. On
Sara, although it doesn't show up well in the photos, the joints between planks and frames are reinforced from within with additional 40 thou. x 40 thou. strips on each side of the frame, effectively making each joint 120 thou. thick. The reinforcement is added after the plank is fixed to the frame so in case I have to adjust the plank, it can be more easily tweaked before the reinforcement gets added. This method seems to work well for the sides, but access to the hull interior as I get close to the keel will be restricted. So, I use a technique similar to yours there. I will install the reinforcement for the hull's bottom first, thickening the frames before the planking is laid.
The real ship's hull bottom has a subtle deadrise, a feature I like a lot, and the hull sides have some sharp-edged knuckles (see plan at Frame 106 below), challenging but fun features to try to capture. Exterior plating strakes will be replicated using different thicknesses of primer on the otherwise smooth hull.
MartinJQuinn wrote:
Yay! Glad to see you back at this. When's the 3D printed hull going to be ready?
Thanks, Martin! I am actually designing a Sara hull in 3D, working on it from time to time, which is why this model's hull is taking so long. It will be ready when printing technology for reasonably priced large objects catches up, probably in the foreseeable future.