Thanks for the advice, good points. Lovely model too, well done

Good luck if you do give it a go. The beauty of using balsa is that it is so easy to work and is very light so you aren't adding any real weight at the top of the superstructure, something that is vital on these frigates that can be very tender and roll a lot. Most of my frigate is balsa for just this reason and it can carry enough ballast to keep it stable in all conditions.

Thanks Graham.That looks super and well within my technoogy

I made the funnel for my Type 21 frigate by the old bread and butter method using 1/4in balsa. I drew the different sections needed, glued them together and then sanded them down. The cap was made in one piece and fitted onto the top face that was sanded to the correct angle. it was then finished in a couple of coats of resin to seal the job and then filler where necessary. The various exhausts are from odd bits of tubing in the scrap box, but the rectangular vents for the Olympus engines were a fiddle getting the angles right so that they stood vertically on the angled plane.

If you want to try 3D printing talk to Fireboat, aka Stephen, who runs this site, as he had a 3D printer and produced a load of life raft canisters for me and was very helpful.

Graham

Intriguing idea, will explore and see what I can find
Thanks

Thanks, sounds like probably the simplest way. May have to try if current efforts prove unsuccessful.

To do it "properly" would involve tooling up. However you could make a male and female mould profiles, then using a paint stripper gun to heat the plastic, bring the two mounds together with the soft plastic between them. in making the two moulds, make sure to make an allowance for the plastic thickness. Good luck

Its an off the wall idea BUT see if you can find someone with a 3d printer you would need to make the file to print what you need but after that printing one is a trivial problem.

Thanks, that is a though but will require tooling. if nothing else works will have to try it.

How about vac forming it?