Topic: HMS Illustrious.

[paul swainson]

Thanks Dennis, yes the hull is now nearly ready to be shaped in the area of the center propshaft, then the two outer shafts to be drilled and sealed and then rubbed down ready for resin coating  and fiberglass cloth coating to seal her.  But yes she will be looking nice when finished.

[paul swainson]

Update on the build, started to rub down the hull and have now installed the two outer propshafts and all the sponson gun decks have been installed.  So just taking my time to rub down the hull with 120 grit paper at the moment and then will move to a fine grade to finish off.   Then once winter is over the resin and glass fibre matting will done. 

Question:  Should I cut out all the deck side openings before I resin or after?

Made small inserts for the balance weights to sit in and these will be bonded into the hull under the deck floor in between the bulkheads,  which holds the motors.  Photos attached of the idea and see how it works out.

The last part of the hull is causing me a problem as the last photo shows.  The hull has to meet the overhang of the front sponson gundeck walk way to the bow and also match and meet the trailing edge of the 40 inch search light platform.   Just not sure how this is going to work out.

[colin]

is the Hull going to be for a plug... or will you be using this Hull..?
if you are going to use this Hull for the Model then yes by all means cut the openings out before the resin.
if being used for a plug then they need to be made visible by showing the cut lines, this can be done with mico rods

most of the Bigger boats over here that need ballast, they use, used fish tins and fill them with molten lead.

not to sure on the last photo... but I guess it needs to match the plans in some way.. 

doing fine Paul, keep it up 

[paul swainson]

Thanks Colin,  I think I will use the hull as I feel that the hull may not be good enough for a plug due to the centre prop shaft ending. Will see how it goes when I sand down and fill with plastic wood.  I thought that the opening should be cut and then when the resin is applied with the matting it will give strength to these areas.  Also the other school of though is that it will be much easier to cut them out once the resin and matting has been applied as the area being cut will be stronger and less likely to split.

As for the bow, the front section bow to the platform is straight forward.  The area after the platform is going to need a block of wood cut to support the circular form of the platform and matches the deck line to the sponson gun decks.  The section under side of this need to be angled so that is meets the end of the platform and is tapered to give support for the planks to bond to and then twist to match the curve of the hull.  So working with some balsa wood to see what I can design to suit.

I am going to take her to a open day at our local Maritime Museum on the 16 Oct to display and hope to brink some younger blood into the hobby and club.

So will have all the props and rudders in along with the lower deck and motors positioned and the deck held down with the island and pompom plus  the 6 x 4.5 guns in place along with some aircraft.   

Paul

[paul swainson]

Sorry if I have gone quiet with the build but have been too involved with my Local Royal British Legion Scotland branch with poppy appeal and parades along with funerals and being a bugler for my sins have attended for Last post to be played.  The weather has not helped either so as Christmas draws near may be able to get back into the shed.   

[paul swainson]

Work has restarted on the build, as the garage is now clear of the camping trailer.  Working on the second set of guns and working out where the open decks need to be cut.  Hull is fully planked and rubbed down.  The center prop has been shaped and the rudder has been fitted. Photos to follow.

The last photo shows the three stages of the turret construction once the main section of the turret has been bonded and filed down. The middle turret has the the top bonded and the right hand photos shows the side and base skins in position.

[paul swainson]

Did a bit more work on the forward search light platforms made some paper templates to work out the shape.  Then transferred the template to a bit of bolster wood and rub them down to suit the curve of the ships bow.  Once a nice fit transferred to 1.5mm ply and reshaped to fit.  Then cut out as per the plans to show the strengthening cutouts and the taped in place as per the photo of the damage caused back in 1940.  Then made the trunking for the searchlight and the support cross sections.  one done one more to go. 

[Troy Tempest]

Hi paul
Thats looking great, I wonder why they fitted searchlights there?

[paul swainson]

Started on making the life boat crane mounting which will sit under the life boat deck overhang.  So taking the measurements from the plans I worked out and made a paper cut model.  Then made a working model with plastic car.  With this template and then marked out the cut lines on to a section of balsa wood block.   Once all the angles where cut using grades of sand paper rubbed down to obtain the shape required.

[paul swainson]

Not sure Troy, but on her first refit they were replaced with single barrel boffor.

[Dennis]

Hey Paul, well done!! That is going to be a beast on the water. 

[Troy Tempest]

Not sure Troy, but on her first refit they were replaced with single barrel boffor.

Certainly make sense, replacing a Searchlight with a 40mm!

[paul swainson]

After some thought and thinking about the quarter deck and lower upper deck I have now made a start on working out how to line up the decks with the out side hull.  Earlier in this post I asked the question should I cut out the deck apertures before I lay the woven fiber matting along with coats of epoxy or should I leave and cut out later.  The answer came from Colin and I asked around and the information was the same.  So I made paper templates of the lower up deck and the quarter deck so that I could cut 1.5 mm decks to same shape and with finer adjustments sand papered them into position so that they lay flat.  Using the 10 cm (100 mm) rule I learnt I place the ship drawings onto the hull and lined them up with the  frames of my build.  This then gave me the position of each aperture and also the other decks along the hanger deck.   

[paul swainson]

So with some ruler work and a home made block scribe I worked out the hight for the lower upper deck apertures and marked them out ready for cutting.

[paul swainson]

The rear quarter deck had some work to be done so that I could measure and fit the quarter deck so cut out the rear deck area which I had filler with balsa wood during the build.  Then using the template cut out the deck and fitted.   Again using the block scribe I marked out the deck level and then transposed the deck apertures ready for testing and cutting out.