USS North Carolina BB 55
by Ron Horabin, Cheshire England
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Part 14 Final Chapter |
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| Well its been a long time coming, but we are in the final
stages of the build, I am setting everything up inside of North Carolina
to enable her to sail in the watery elements for which she was built for,
first of all we have,
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| MOTORS. NC needs 4 motors to drive the 4 shafts and propellers;
I choose a 12volt high toque , slow running BULHER motors, we do not need
high revs because the prop we chose from Prop Shop are very efficient and
are work well at low speeds.
BATERIES , These are 12 volt lead acid type 7 amp hour, and takes two, SPEED CONTROLES, We have two in the hull, one on either side , controlling two motors on port side, and two motors an the starboard side , these are digital proportional speed controls from A.C. SYSTEMS.
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STERN BOLLARD, This is made from one of my white cast metal
that I had cast earlier, it was cut up into sections and fitted on to a
piece of styrene with a few angled braces glued to then, and the stern
jack staff attached.
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AIR VENTILATERS, These are made from small pieces of aluminium
tube ,I cut two discs slightly larger than the tube, I fitted one to the
bottom , and then glued some mesh near the top and then glued on the second
disc, I made 2 large and 2 small and painted then navy blue, and fitted
them to various parts of the ship.
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SMALL BOATS, The small boats on NC are part of a set from
QUAY CRAFT , I purchased from the company when they attended Ellesmere
Port Model Show, they are resin and are made up of hull and 5 loose sections
to fit bow and stern and seating in between. They were assembled and painted
deck blue inside and navy blue outside, chocks were fitted and every thing
was fitted in position on the deck.
STAND, This has been made from conty board, with a wood grain finish and add on mouldings, I have presented the ship as in dried dock on her timbers at a scale of 1/96 ¼ inch square sections this equals 4ft high timbers, they are spaced at 8ft apart under the whole of the hull, they were glued to the board with white woodworking glue, and left to dry, my wife Angela unknowns to me, had a plate made with the name of the ship on, forgetting to put USS in front, it still looks nice, my name plaque you have seen earlier, a plate with the ship on and inscribed USS NORTH CAROLINA, WILLINGTON.
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| LAUNCH DAY, Our sailing water is at Park Lake, Runcorn, Cheshire, on Sunday evening it was warm and bright, NC was transported from home to the lake about a mile away on the back of my truck. Putting the hull in the water she sat about 2 inches off the water line, first putting in the batteries, two in all, then adding my lead weights, some forward under the first turret, some amidships, a total of 30 lbs, before putting on the superstructure I turned on the radio receiver and checked every thing was working correctly, motors running forward and reverse, rudder turned left and right. All systems go, on went the superstructure and out she reversed in to the lake. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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What a site she looked, after 3 years of work, a beautiful ship that
was performing like a dream, no wallowing from side to side in a turn,
went around as if on rails, I was asked by KV PHARAOH to do
a fast turn, to do that and take photos would have been difficult, so I
found two eager helpers Daniel Bailey and Will Littler who sailed the model
while I took the photos.
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THANKS. Well that’s it from me, I hope you have all enjoy
the article as much as I have writing it, you might pick up some tips ,
with a little help you could improve on my build. It now leaves me to thank
all the people and companies involved in the project.
Brad Newland, for his photos of the ship Kirt Greiner of Sky Photo’s from where I purchased two sets. Raymond Guita who got me started on the project. Dave Wooley for his support over the years, and all the lads in our society Timothy Dike, who has correlated all my material into some sense and providing the space for the project, an extra thank you. Last but not least the CIC Mrs Horabin ( Angela) for putting up with all my projects. |
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| To all who have read the articles on the site and have
supported me though thick and thin, thank you all,
Ron Horabin Model Ship Builder.
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