High Peak Boatyard's latest project

On a long and boring night shift with nothing better to do I decided a bit of gratuitous Googling was in order. After many hours perusing many ships and boats of various shapes and sizes, I decided that I like this one. It's just about wierd and obscure enough to catch my interest.


This is the French battleship Charlemagne, one of three of the class built between 1894 and 1899 seeing service from 1897 to 1931. They were 386' 2" long with a beam of 66' 7" and kitted out with:
 
4x twin 305mm main turret guns
10x single 5.5" guns
8x single 100mm guns
20x single 47mm guns
and finally
4x 450mm torpedoes mounted in pairs above and below the waterline.

In my preferred scale the model works out at roughly 775mm long.

Armed with what is actually quite a comprehensive set of drawings that I also found on the internet, I came up with these working drawings for the laser cutter.


...and this is what I've achieved so far.




Eventually it will be driven by 3x 385 motors and a 9 or 12v battery - tests will prove which is more appropriate later in the build. 

So much for the hull then. 
The superstructure will be a whole different set of challenges - there's quite a lot of it. Maybe I'll go all out and have rotating turrets, operating casements and an ultra level of detail, maybe I won't. I don't know yet. It all depends on how complicated I want it to be and my finite knowlege of all things R/C.

In common with my habit of stretching reality a little, I've decided that this model will be of an imaginary fourth ship of the class, named Napoleon - for obvious reasons - and in that way, if I get anything not quite right then prove it Mr Rivet Counter.

WOW! you don't hang about vigo,
Fantastic start to an interesting project.
Keep up the good work.

Martin.

Now you know why I was asking about 1 ESC/3 motors 

So after waiting what seems to be an eternity for our oh so reliable postal service, I now have a full complement of motors, shafts, connectors, propellers and a nice shiny new servo to play with.

Let's see what they look like fitted -  that is if I've done my calculations right and they actually do fit.





No worries on that front then

So in keeping with my usual habit of forgetting about the important stuff... like the hull, yet again I've decided to play with the superstructure instead.





One day I'll do things properly, I promise

Continuing my usual arse about face building methodology, a bit more progress:





I will do the hull one day, just not today. The planks are all cut and ready to fit, I just need to find that bag of enthusiasm I have stashed away in the garage somewhere and get on with it.

So to continue what now unfortunately seems to have turned into a monologue, a progress report on the Napoleon.

Hull cladding. 
A nasty job that I don't like doing. In fact I dislike it that much that I try to avoid it for as long as possible and then I usually ask myself why I do it this way - there has to be an easier method. Maybe I'm just a secret masochist.
Whatever. Here it is in all it's gory beauty. These were taken a few weeks ago before I was rudely and abruptly whisked off for a week of sun and relaxation in the West Indies. It's a hard life but someone has to do it 








And this is what it looks like now. The hull is complete and currently on it's third paint job. For some reason as yet unknown, all my previous paint jobs were absolute disasters and each needed a complete stripdown to bare wood so this is the FINAL one. It's not perfect but I'm not doing it again. It's supposed to be a warship - it doesn't need to look perfect.


Railings and finish details to do then it's on to something a bit more serene.

So a bit more fettling done, a few more rails built and it's almost finished. I think there's about 8" of rail left to build and a couple of lifeboat covers then it's onto something completely different.



 
Oh. I forgot. There are a couple of access platforms that I need to assemble on the side of the hull, fit the anchors and a bit of faux rigging but then that's it, this one can go and look pretty on the shelf with all the others.

I hereby claim the prize for longest single build soliloquy

A few natural daylight pics then I'll draw a line under this one and move on to something that may generate a bit more interest.

Metal wire screening fastened to the hull then covered with fiberglass cloth and resin may be faster and less frustrating than planking. Imperfections can be eliminated with auto body filler and sanded smooth. Just a thought.