- Florida -
USS Florida – Tyler
4.0 units, 28 seconds, American Dreadnaught battleship
The USS Florida (BB-30) was commissioned 1911,
modernized in the 1920s but ultimately scrapped in the early 1930s as required
by the London Naval Treaty. The design was a stage within the long series of
progressive improvements of US battleships being built two at a time in that
era. Her sister ship the USS Utah (BB-31) was re-designated as a result of the
London Navy Treaty as a target ship and later used as an anti-aircraft training
ship leading up to WW2, and was famously sunk by Japanese aircraft at Pearl
Harbor being mistaken for an active-duty battleship.
The attractiveness of the Florida in terms of combat
viability within the hobby stems from the heavily casemated and bulged hull,
and the five turrets allowing for a myriad of possible armament configurations
(two of the turrets lie extremely far towards the stern). The ship like all
similar American ships has 2 viable drive shafts and only 1 rudder, and as such
may not turn as briskly on average as the German 3 screw, 2 rudder similar
sized contemporaries. The ship is very beamy especially with the very wide
bulge. This bulge when modeled correctly makes me somewhat weary of ram damage.
The hull is from Model Ships Ahoy and is very high quality in terms of accuracy
and thickness of fiberglass especially along the sides. This ship is
disadvantaged in that it is 28 seconds and 4.0 units rather than 4.5 units
which would allow for either an additional ½ pump or 75 round magazine, or the
5.0 units that the otherwise very similarly designed USS Arkansas would get.
I float tested the ship to see where the water line
would fall, it is visible in pencil in this picture just below the step of the
bulge. The painter’s tape is a flexible way to lay the ship’s ribs out without
committing to cutting until you have it how you want it. I didn’t have 1/8 inch
tape so the stringer and a few other areas are a bit wider with the tape but
ultimately will be cut to correct size. There are casemate gun turrets at
multiple places within this hull in areas that get to otherwise be solid.
This is a rough cut for the hull, I will trim I tup
later. I wanted to try fiberglass board decking. It is fairly heavy and I’m
still not sure what I think of this method. Both the deck and subdeck are 1/16
inch thick to save weight.
Figuring out how to lay the ship out can be a challenge.
Placement of the prop and rudders is usually somewhat obvious when looking at
the bottom of the hull but in general, you want to get a wide enough flat
enough space that isn’t too far towards the bow. The length of the shafts needs
to be such that the motors will not interfere with other components but also sit
in a place that allows for flatter angles if able. The ship is beamy and
similarly to the VU I was expecting there to be room for the pump between the
motors.
This picture is showing the various deck sections and
the ways I chose to subdivide it. I am trying magnetic strip for deck seal,
again this is fairly heavy so hopefully the ship doesn’t become to top-heavy
and imbalanced. The superstructure is fairly minimalistic so that should help
keep the weight low. I placed the shafts and motor mounts and epoxied them in,
these are ABS 3D printed modeled after the now unavailable Traxxas
Villian mounts I have used for years. It will run twin 1.5 inch cast props. You
can see black abs plastic rib backers in a few locations, this is where I will
screw on the internal armor. The bow and stern water channeling is accomplished
by tacking in a thin sheet of plastic and filling in foam blocks to take up
most of the space followed by a 2 part liquid plastic mixed with micro-baloons
to fill the gaps. Similarity the midships water channeling is a ¼ inch tall
strip of ABS plastic, in this situation you can kind of see where the
underlying gray foam blocks are sitting. The pump will sit between the motor
mounts.
Turret locations with barrels and barrel mounts in
place. I will start with stern sidemounts on either side, the notch in the deck
where casemated guns were mounted allows the stern most one to get to nearly 20
degrees depression, the other is a bit flatter. The elevated funny gun will
have below water line potential. Superstructure is Abs plastic for the most
part. There are some stainless steel piano wire parts and some brass parts as
well as the cage mast which I ran string through pre drilled holes and
cris-crossed them, later coating it with epoxy to hold form.
On the water for the first time to battle Memorial
Weekend 2024. She did well overall. It needs some more water channeling and to
seal the barbettes. I definitely notice the single rudder making it less agile
as compared to the Viribus Unitis.
I will try to get some interna pictures soon.