Topic: The ship that never was - G3 - HMS Indomitable (Read 58747 times)

Marmoi · « **Reply #150 on:** July 27, 2012, 09:20:45 am »

Undaunted I made some trial pieces but soon became concerned over the distortion and rigidity of such a large hollow structure.

I even tried scaling down the real life bracing.

Marmoi · « **Reply #151 on:** July 27, 2012, 09:23:50 am »

But this just added to the distortion and made the build a major 3D puzzle!

At this point the Tax man came to my rescue (yes that’s right the Tax man), he sent me a letter apologising for skimming of too much money from my pay and promised to send it back to me, which was nice as the cheque had actually turned up the day before!

So it was off to the bank and get the money in my account before the Belly dancer found out I had it.

While the bank wrestled the money out of the government, I did some re-designing of the funnel to make it suitable for 3D printing. I split the main funnel in half and added some joining detail, removed the funnel cap and added some finer detail, then modelled the heat shield. With everything in place I sent my order in and went on holiday.
When I came back there was a box waiting for me with some very large parts in it.

Marmoi · « **Reply #152 on:** July 27, 2012, 09:25:57 am »

It was with great relief that when I dry fitted the parts together they all fitted perfectly and the strength of the funnel was just as I had hoped for.

I rubbed the two halves down with wet & dry and then gave them a few coats of spray filler (rubbing down in between coats with fine wet & dry).

Marmoi · « **Reply #153 on:** July 27, 2012, 09:31:49 am »

I then turned my attention to the inside of the funnels.

Being such a large funnel I knew that a lot of you would want to stick your nose inside and have a look, so I took the opportunity during the redesign to add a few holes inside each half for supporting girder work.

This worked out really well as the funnel also acted as a soldering jig during frame construction.

Marmoi · « **Reply #154 on:** July 27, 2012, 09:35:41 am »

Once the frame were complete, I added more girder work around the walls, then a couple of ladders and platforms for the poor idiots who had to climb up and down inside.

Marmoi · « **Reply #155 on:** July 27, 2012, 09:38:27 am »

Next part to work on is the Funnel cap where I added cleats to tie down the canvas cover and the internal railing.

Marmoi · « **Reply #156 on:** July 27, 2012, 09:45:24 am »

Now I have to get busy with the brass wire and make the canvas support assembly.

Dave13 · « **Reply #157 on:** July 27, 2012, 10:45:22 am »

Hi Marmoi
Your funnel looks really great!

Dave:)

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #158 on:** July 27, 2012, 11:55:51 am »

... I'd be happy with just the CAD drawings!

Liverbudgie2 · « **Reply #159 on:** July 27, 2012, 12:14:03 pm »

I think highly unlikely that the funnels would have be trunked at any stage of their lives, simply because there would have been no need to do so. The only reason the QE's had theirs done was to reduce smoke interference with the bridge and foretop. This is a modification to far and disfigures what was or would have been, a very pleasing design. All in my view of course.
LB

Marmoi · « **Reply #160 on:** July 27, 2012, 12:27:10 pm »

Hi Martin,

Here are a couple of CAD pics just for you to pin on the bedroom wall.

Mark

Marmoi · « **Reply #161 on:** July 27, 2012, 12:34:48 pm »

My reasoning for the trunked funnel was as follows;

1. The flight deck and hangers would have been affected by smoke from the forward funnel.

2. The additional AA deck on the back of the superstructure would have been affected by smoke.

3. The turret between the superstructure and forward funnel would have been affected by smoke.

Bob K · « **Reply #162 on:** July 27, 2012, 12:50:52 pm »

I am really enjoying this excellent build, especially the way you are using 3D CAD and 3D printing to full advantage. I only wish I still had access to 3D CAD !
Which software and printing equipment are you using?

Liverbudgie2 · « **Reply #163 on:** July 27, 2012, 12:55:42 pm »

How so? Trucking the funnels would not have made the slightest difference to these positions. Smoke did not adversely affect catapults or AA in similar positions on other ships, large or small.

LB

Marmoi · « **Reply #164 on:** July 27, 2012, 01:32:55 pm »

I use Inventor for my modelling, but there are plenty of other 3D modelling programs around now.

I do not have my own 3D printer I use shapeways.com, they can supply the parts in a variety of materials, all you have to do is upload your model and choose a material.

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #165 on:** July 27, 2012, 03:10:30 pm »

I have to agree with LB. Trunking of funnels on capital ships and many cruisers and even destroyers during the period was to prevent backdraught affecting the bridge and control positions in certain wind conditions. There is a lot of information on this subject in Burt's 'British Battleships'. In some ships it also enabled the bridgework to be extended aft to provide extra space for new equipment and control facilities.

In the G3s the separation of the funnels from the bridge by X turret would have obviated the problem.

The usual solution to smoke interference aft of the funnels was to raise their heights, this applied to both warships and merchant vessels.

Colin

Marmoi · « **Reply #166 on:** July 31, 2012, 07:57:17 pm »

With the rain returning this week, I had some spare time in the workshop to work on the wire assembly.

I started by making the base sections and laying them into the funnel cap. Then the main spare was then shaped and soldered in place.

With that in place I started making and placing the side spars.

Marmoi · « **Reply #167 on:** July 31, 2012, 08:01:56 pm »

Once the side spars had all been soldered in place, The angled end spars were cut , ends angled and then soldered into place.

Marmoi · « **Reply #168 on:** July 31, 2012, 08:11:00 pm »

I then had to make the supporting plates for the joints.

The centre plates were cut from Brass sheet and the end circular plates were turned on the lathe.

After a quick dry check the plates were soldered in place.

pugwash · « **Reply #169 on:** July 31, 2012, 08:51:02 pm »

Mark the Brasswork on the funnel is excellent - I though at first it was done in 1/72 or bigger until I went and checked page 1.
A really interesting build

Geoff

Marmoi · « **Reply #170 on:** July 31, 2012, 08:59:46 pm »

Yes sorry it's 1/96th. I should have put something in the shots for scale.

Marmoi · « **Reply #171 on:** July 31, 2012, 09:03:14 pm »

The last part to finish the funnel cap was the outer ring, which was first formed to the correct shape and then soldered from the complete side around the ends and then along the open side until the two ends were matched and closed.

HS93 (RIP) · « **Reply #172 on:** August 01, 2012, 01:39:57 am »

very nice brass work , having seen the boat some time ago at deans and at another venue your build is coming along great, jut one question how expensive is the rapid protortyping for say the the gun turrets.

thanks

Peter

Marmoi · « **Reply #173 on:** August 01, 2012, 07:59:36 am »

Hi Peter,

The 3 rapid prototypes for the turrets came to £110 including shipping.

Mark

HS93 (RIP) · « **Reply #174 on:** August 01, 2012, 07:18:24 pm »

thank you for that information , it is not bad when you consider you get unique parts that would be difficult to make and would also take a long time as with the fennel it would be very difficult and you would have to vac mould and it still would not be a patch on your system.

Peter

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Author Topic: The ship that never was - G3 - HMS Indomitable (Read 58747 times)

Dave13