Hello my fellow warship enthusiasts! Me and my brother are currently building our first rc combat warships and want to fight each other by the end of the year. We have no clubs here in the EU so we ended up using our own ruleset. The biggest change we made to the rules is that we use watertight compartments instead of pumps to make the battles more strategic. My brother is building the Deutschland class pocket battleship while I am building an Admiral Hipper class heavy cruiser. These ships are roughly the same size to make it a fair fight. Our ruleset is very crude and will be refined after our first battles. We might even scrap the idea of using compartments and will implement pumps aswell. This is the model of my Admiral Hipper class cruiser made in Fusion360. I have used a commercially available 3d model as a foundation for my construction model. I used my FDM printer for the bow and stern of my ship and my laser cutter for the plywood hull. My brother has used his 3d printer to completely construct his deutschland class. Greetings from the EU, - Fritz
I have burned through a lot of plywood while figuring out the best way to construct the model. At first I wanted to build a Königsberg light cruiser but scrapped the idea after seeing how little space there is in inside of the hull.
Adding the two shafts to my model was the most challenging parts. But I am happy that it worked out perfectly in the end. I have already ordered the necessary gears to couple my brushless motors to the shafts.
I have added a diffuser to my funnel to create some smoke. This might be bit too fancy for a rc combat warship but thought it was a neat detail. The bow section has already been plated but the rest of the hull will only be plated after all of the electronics are installed. The stern section is fully 3d printed because of the complex shape of it. My brother has done the same thing so it is only fair for me to do it as well.
Very nice! Tell you brother to get on her and make a build thread too! Might I suggest you guys build the ships to one of the existing rule sets, then just add allowances for your rail gun?
Thank you! I will run it by my brother and show him this forum. We agreed on these rules before we knew that there were official ones and choose to go with compartments rather than pumps to make each hit more signnificant. However if we were to build another set of boats we will definetly consider to construct them to IRWCC standards.
We do have a few international members, including one gentleman who flew in from Ireland for IRCWCC NATs just a few weeks ago. Boats are looking great.
Hello again. Got some time at hand to continue the work on my Admiral Hipper class. I finished the CAD model of the superstructure. Most of it is going to be cut from wood using my trusty cnc laser. The white parts will be printed on my FDM printer. The superstructure decks are made from 100+ wooden parts. (A lot of work but I am looking forward to the results) I have also cast ten lead ingots in case I have to weight the ship down. Total wieght 1kg of lead ingots. I will be back soon to show the results after cutting the necessary parts. - Fritz
Looking sharp, like all your work! I am excited to see the hybrid wood/plastic approach in reality. What equipment do you use to cast? I'm planning on pouring some bilge keels soon but don't yet have a smelting pot.
Thank you. I fear that the low-poly model I used as a template will shine through in the final result. I saw your thread and am looking forward to your Admiral Hipper class model! I bought a ladel, a graphite cast and 5kg of scrap lead. After adding about 150/200g of lead to the ladel I heated the underside and poured the lead into the cast after removing most of the slag. The ladel became quite heavy over time and my "blowtorch" was not quite cutout to heat the lead in a reasonable amount of time. (that's why I am shaking so much in the gif) If you want to melt a lot of lead you should use a bigger ladel than mine and use a camping stove to heat the lead. Good luck! I will keep an eye on your thread and progress on your ship. - Fritz
I have finished the CAD model of the superstructure. All white parts will be printed and the rest will be cut from 3mm plywood. I made sure to cut a lot of big holes into the decks to make the superstructure lighter. I don't want my boat to be top heavy. The model of the superstructure took roughly 24 hours, split into three days. I will definetly add lifeboats next to the funnel to fill the empty space.
I have cut out all the wooden parts of the superstructure and already printed a couple of parts aswell. Now I have to do postprocessing like sanding and eventually painting.
