Help with a hull

Ok -60, here's a some what simple way I used to do fuselage a while back;

First, I take it you have plans with the hull cross sections. They are what you will need. Make bulkheads of the cross sections at regular intervals to get the desired overall shape and assemble it like the old wooden sailing ships. Lay a keel, add the bulkheads in the respective locations. I recommend .020 sheet plastic to make the bulkheads from. Strong enough but easy enough to form. Evergreen makes packs of sheets for about $4 for 3 sheets that are 6" x 12". Another option to that is going to a plastics supplier, they typically discard anything under 12"x12" and have a 'free bin' somewhere. Acrylic sheet 1/16" to 1/4" will do fine for the bulkheads.

After assembling the hull's bulkheads, you will need to fill in the voids. Due to your budget, I suggest low expanding insulating foam. The kind you get in hardware stores for $10 (I'm sure you'll find a use for the leftovers in your new place too) Make sure you have LOW expanding foam. Less than 10% is best. Lightly cut and sand the foam until it is flush with the bulkheads. Now you should have something resembling a hull.

 Problem- Insulating foam never stops expanding! Once set, the expansion keeps on over time. You will need to cut wedges and slots in the foam to allow for the continued expansion over time.

 Now to "skin" the hull. Evergreen .005 sheet is the easiest and likely best. you'll have to glue it with super glue. You may have a few bubbles and deformities to deal with, but .005 sheet is easy to correct these problems with. After that, sand the joins smooth, prime and repeat until you have it right.

Hope this gets you going. Hope also others will have more ideas to add and fix anything I overlooked.

 

 

Look at the thread down the page on first scratchbuilding of a ship

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and I'm the one trying it, so if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.

Instead of the expanding foam I've chosen to go with an only slightly more expensive solution and I'm using styrofoam (sometimes called "Depron" although that's a brand name) to fill the spaces between the bulkheads. No pictures of that process yet though. Don't worry, just like you I'm working on a tight budget myself (an extra challenge that I've made for myself) : total estimated costs spent so far on the hull is maybe 2 dollar.

 m60a3 -- You don,t really need to scratch build your hull . If you are doing an allied carrier (ESCORT TYPE ?) there are many hulls out there you can use from the semi waterline REVELL HAWAIIAN PILOT and many others . I would suggest trying to find a hull you can use from a builtup (gluebomb) at a yard sale or fleamarket. Doing the job like you describe is , believe me not the way to start this build . You,ve already got a start , now find a hull it all fits in . The method you describe is one I don,t even use in R.C. models anymore . If you wish to continue in this manner just go to your library and find a book about ships , there,s bound to be something you can use .     tankerbuilder    p.s. or e-mail me and I,ll try to help gjgeracci@satx.rr.com.