LCS-3 USS Fort Worth by Bill Liebold
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With the LCS the US Navy wanted a high-speed vessel that could work in shallow water. The model of the 1/96 scale LCS-3 that is described here was built for my employer, Lockheed Martin. The main challenge here is getting the model built before the deadline and getting it done under budget. Those two things are more important that the level of detail, I’m sad to say. After figuring out how much the material would cost, and knowing my hourly rate, I would have to finish this model in 240 hours to keep to the budget. That comes out to 6 weeks if I work 40-hour weeks. The only problem is I had 4 weeks to get it done to make the deadline. Over time I have become comfortable building models the way that is described below, and comfort equals speed so no experimenting here with a new way to do things. I will do my best to keep this interesting but I don’t consider myself a good writer so this may turn into a real drudgery to get through. If you persevere, you might find something that can help you in your own projects.
The first photo shows how the basswood looks when I get it from the lumberyard. It is pretty rough and it does not have uniform width or height.  LCS-3_001
A piece is in the vices and one edge is planed flat and straight so it can be cut into lifts on the band saw. LCS-3_002
The lifts are generally ½” thick and they are used to build up the hull in stages at different deck levels.  LCS-3_003
This photo shows how the lifts look during glue up. To the left the cut out for the water jets can be seen on the bottom lift. The space above that will be the boat launching area and the thin piece that sticks way out to the left on top will become the flight deck.  LCS-3_004
With the future hull out of the clamps, the piece that will be the floor of the boat handling area and the sloped deck at the bow of the ship are added. LCS-3_005
The piece of wood that was added at the bow is worked into the sloped deck and the hull is turned over. The centerline of the hull is marked all the way around the block of wood and the inboard edges of the spray chines are drawn on the bottom of the hull. LCS-3_006
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The outline of the deck gets added next.  LCS-3_008
That completes what has to be marked on the top and bottom of the hull.  LCS-3_009
Now a trip to the band saw and I get a rough shape of the hull. The level of the outboard spray chine is added to the side of the hull. The line drawn on the bottom of the hull and the line on the side are used to cut a rabbet into the hull that will become the chine. By keeping the side of rabbet at 90 degrees to the bottom of the block of wood and the bottom at 90 degrees to the side, the chine is right where it needs to be and it is very easy to fair with so much wood to support the tools.  LCS-3_010
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These photos show how the bulk of the wood is hogged out with gouges and then smoothed with a rabbet block plane and a carriage plane to finish the other three chines. 
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The shape of the bow is cut into the hull next and the centerline is drawn on to the new surface. Now the real carving begins. The outboard edges of the chines are drawn on and it is a matter of removing wood so I get a straight line from the keel to the inboard edge of the bottom chine, from the outboard edge of the bottom chine to the inboard edge of the top chine, and from the outboard edge of the top chine to the edge of the deck. 
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Most of the waste is removed with gouges and then worked smooth with planes, rasps, and sanding blocks.
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There is not much need for contour gauges on this hull form except at the bow. Over 90% of the hulls contour is checked with a six-inch ruler.
The sides of the boat handling area are added. There is a rabbet at the forward edge so that there is more than an end grain to end grain glue joint.  LCS-3_026
How the rabbets are made will be covered in the future, that is not the only one. The anchor pocket is next. LCS-3_027
The bottom of the hull that makes the tunnel for the inboard water jets and the transom is added.  LCS-3_028
Now I have a finished hull form that is ready for the boat doors on the starboard side and transom or do I?  The answer is no! That is how it is when you build a model of a ship that is under construction. The anchor pocket has to be moved up so that it will be above the chines, not between them and I have to make the back of the hull longer. At least no more progress was made before these changes had to be made. The transom had to be removed and wood was glued to the inside of the boat handling area on all four sides so the wood that will be added to make the extension will have long grain to glue to and not rely on an end grain to end grain joint. 
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The finished extension is seen in photo 34. This extension and the outboard water jets having already been moved farther back make up for the bouncy tanks that were added to LCS-1.  LCS-3_034
The fashion plates are added and some other bitts as well. The time to make the changes has eaten up the time that would have gone into making the open boat doors and extra wood was added to the inside of that space, so the doors will have to stay closed. LCS-3_035
Holes for the all thread are drilled into the hull and shoulders are added so all of them are the same depth. When the model gets mounted to the permanent base, all four support posts can be made the same length. LCS-3_036
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The all thread gets epoxied into the holes. LCS-3_038
The epoxy is hard and the hull is mounted to the base that it will be mounted to during the rest of the build. You can see the start of the deckhouse to the right of the hull and the repositioned anchor pocket.  LCS-3_039
The next photos show the progression of how the deckhouse is built up. At the start when all of the lifts for the hull were made, the deckhouse lifts were also made. The lift for the lowest deckhouse level was not made full length because the helo hangar was to be open. That is why you see the open space that has to be covered over. It would have been much easier to make it solid now that the hangar is closed.
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The cut out for the port side boat is next. A drill is used to remove a good amount of wood and set the depth of the hole. LCS-3_046
A mortis chisel is used next to hog out the bulk of what is left. A bevel edge chisel is then used to get the sides of the hole square and straight and smooth. The bottom of the hole is impossible to get smooth so a thin piece of wood is cut to fit and glued to the bottom of the hole to cover up all of the boo-boos. A shoulder is cut around the opening to accept the sheet of plywood that will become the finished opening. The shoulder is cut with a router.  LCS-3_047
The kind that was popular before tool companies started to put power cords and rechargeable batteries on such things. LCS-3_048
With the shoulders done, it’s time to put the wood in place. LCS-3_049
The hangar door is next.  LCS-3_050
The back bulkhead is .060” thick plastic and the door itself is .040” Evergreen siding sheet. LCS-3_051
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