I've mostly finished this Mogador and it's already seen battle but I wanted to post some pictures from the build and also ask some questions of the experienced builders on here. Here you can see the stern with the ribs cut out. As mentioned in my Introduction post our little group hasn't really gotten the hang of all the build regulations. I think there might be a tad more meat on the boat than allowed. The aft sub deck piece is installed to support the deck all provided by Battlers Connection. The rudder and rudder post are mounted and a rudder servo mount is taking shape. Also the prop shafts are installed and epoxied.
A look from the stern, I tried to get the props snugged up against the hull and symmetrical. Below the Traxxas waterproof micro servo hooked up to the rudder shaft. Motor and motor mounts installed.
Motor wiring setup for ESC connection. Bottom: Rudder servo mount gets its forward support. Lexan armor is mounted. Preliminary positioning of the RX watertight box by Traxxas. I've used a similar one for my Brooklyn wich has stayed dry through multiple sinks. I set it off the bottom to allow for water channeling, however ballast may need to go here as stability issuses will come up later.
An overall view of the ship showing the forward deck placement. I made a micro servo mount that allows for depression of the poppet valve and a push button to run the bilge pump. It took me a while to decide where I was going to place everything initially, I may still change it in search of the most stable combination.
I wanted to mount the gun in the stern, but I didnt have the skills to modify the BC gun to fit in the stern. The plan was to have the wife drive this one and I figured a "point and shoot" would make it fun for her. You can just see the New BC lightweight regulator hiding under the magazine. I found a paintball gun style 12g CO2 adapter that punctures the cartridge and screws into the regulator. It's made of anodized aluminum and is pretty light weight. The superstructure parts were created with a 3D printer and came out looking great, but although they don't add too much weight to the overall model it adds to her top heaviness. The finished model came in right around the 4.5 lb mark that's listed on the BC website for max weight but I noticed in another Mogador build thread (wish I knew about it before I started mine!) that perhaps another rule set allows up to 4.87?
Here are some final pictures of the internal layout. Another picture of gun and pump control. Forward of that I had the bilge pump and then you can see the tip of the regulator in its makeshift cradle to keep it somewhat centered. Above the main battery is a mini 7.2 volt 1200mah and the pump battery is actually a standard 4 cell Rx battery I had laying around. Below I ended up putting the ESC between the rudder post and the rudder servo. It was originally mounted to the bottom of the forward deck but once I discovered how top heavy the model is I moved it to a lower part of the boat. She was also sitting a little lower by the bow so this helped with that. This is where I am right now. I want to switch the deck securing system over to magnets. Currently I'm using machine screws with nuts epoxied to the bottom of the sub deck. Unfortunately the epoxy I used and/or the sub deck surface is not keeping the nuts in place and they are a huge pain to re-epoxy with the hull already sheeted. She still rolls a bit in turns but after looking at some of SteveT44s videos I don't think I'm going to get it any better. That brings me to my next problem, the deck is by no means watertight. I'm not the biggest fan of the setup I have, especially after retrofitting my Swampworks Brooklyn with a new Strike deck. Any thoughts on sealing up this type of decking system?
Nice work on your Moggy. It's a fun ship to run. FYI, the IRC shiplist shows the Mog max weight at 4.88. One suggestion I'd make is to make the motors more easily removable for after battle service. It's a good idea to pull the motors after a sinking to fog with WD40 and then lube the bushings with oil.
Well the Mogador had been sitting on the shelf for almost 3 years and I finally got around to doing a refit. When I originally built her I wasn't part of an official club so I didn't pay close attention to construction rules. Now that I've been attending SCRAP battles its time to make sure everything is up to code. Also, in the spirit of being a little different, I've re-designated her FS Volta X-62. Some things that off the bat needed re-done: -Subdeck plywood was delaminating. When I initially waterproofed it I used Thompson's water seal. It either didn't work or I applied it wrong. So new deck/subdeck needed. -The gun needed to be moved to aft facing now that I fully understand the reasoning behind this type of setup. -Drive shafts could have been placed a little better and closer to the rudder. -Rib calculation was wrong, added another rib in the bow area. Many ribs were also too thick -Update fire and bilge control to solid state electronics The deck overall wasn't too difficult as I had the old one as a template. I did however want to switch from the BC style subdeck to the inset type. I got the subdeck portion stenciled and cutout with 1/4" ply. You can see the old subdeck in the background. Once I got the two main subdecks fitted nicely for the correct beam (the $40ish belt sander from harbor freight made this quick work) I drilled the corners and then used a scroll saw to cut out the inside. From there I used my dremel with the router attachment and router bit to shave off about an 1/8" of material from the inner outline to make room for the deck insert. Slightly tedious but luckily this isn't an exceptionally large boat. Once I got everything epoxied in, it got two coats of West System. From there I got the 1/8" deck inserts cut out and sanded for a nice fit. That's all for now. I have made significant progress though so I'll post more when I can.
Fit looks nice. unfortunately, you put it all in before posting. After 20 years of working with the chemistry of the adhesives, I can tell you that one nice technique is to use the West system with no additives first and dilute with up to 25% volume dilution of 90% isopropyl alcohol for the 2 coats on the wood. This makes it the consistency of a polyurethane and it soaks in and bonds the wood layers together. The top trick is to do the 2 coats one after the other while coat one hits green phase and the alcohol has evaporated- typically 3 hours. Then , add the bonding layer with adhesive fiber additive and no alcohol when coat 2 hits green phase and bond the wood to the hull. option 2 is coat the wood ahead of time and allow 3+ days to cure. Then sand and degloss with acetone before bonding to hull with E6000. Good luck. Hope to see you at Nats.
Got a little more time to get some photos uploaded. Items of note in the above picture: -You can see the forward most rib is the one that I added in. -Most of the required holes are drilled into the deck inserts and it got a coat of paint. The up-tube in the middle is the location of the bilge outlet. -Deck hold down are small machine screws with acorn nuts (seen in foreground). -Pet screen armor has been mounted to a hand full of rib backers. -Recovery spool build in progress on bench in the foreground. Cannon air supply: BC lightweight regulator and 6v BC solenoid, 12 gram cartridge adapter from somewhere on Amazon. The connection between the solenoid and the regulator is two 1/8" barbs soldered into a piece of brass tubing. Power distribution block of XT-60s and XT 30s soldered together. I coated the block in liquid electrical tape to avoid corrosion. Power source will be a 2.2ah lipo and the outputs are for the bilge control and fire control (BC single firing board and BC pump control board)
More progress to upload. All systems installed, hull sheeted and almost ready for some sea trials. Its kind of a rats nest but it works. Pump and drive motors. Initially I was going to use some of the original 3DP superstructure (left background) that I had made for it but determined I could save some weight by switching to yoga foam. Cut something like 2-3ozs of topside weight by switching to mostly foam. The only remaining 3DP superstructure is the gun housing as seen in the stern. Got an initial base coat of paint and added bilge keels to help with stability and rolling.
Looks really good! I am on track to come down in August with some small ships we should try and do a class 2 and under battle if there's time
Is your 3DP super hollow? I plan to de extensive Dremel work to the one I am soon to printing for my two DKM Scharnhorst's I'm doing.
I honestly don’t remember what the infill setting was when I had printed the original SS. My guess is 20-40% so it probably could be lighter but I think the foam would still beat it out.
More progress and a sea trial! Here is a better view of the prop/rudder setup. Got the props much closer to the rudder over the original placement: I think the props are 3/4". I remember reading some folks having trouble getting to speed with this size so we'll see how it goes. Also of note is the stuffing tube support which is a brass sleeve just larger than the stuffing tube and then a smaller brass tube soldered on to said sleeve that was then epoxied into the hull. Came out pretty clean. Got the float spool installed. It runs up through the superstructure and the top most piece floats off. I have it held in place with some plastic card as you can see. Hopefully it will be enough to keep it in place with rolling and/or bb hits. Here she is on the bench. Still need to find some dummy barrels and put on a waterline. First sea trial! I had to add about 4oz to the aft most part stern to get her to sit even, still under max weight though. I think she's a little under 4.5lbs at the moment Sea trials went well initially. Seemed slow at first but I had plenty of room to bump up the throttle curve. I didn't have anything to setup a makeshift speed course so for now I tried to eyeball the 21 seconds. Turning seems decent enough. Rolling wasn't horrendous. Can't remember if I mentioned it before but both fore and aft deck have a silicone seal so there was very little water in the boat afterwards. Probably there from my poor sheeting job than the deck seal. After about 5 minutes of maneuvering both drive motors burned up. After getting the boat back on the bench I couldn't figure out why. The motors were older but to have them both die would indicate a systemic problem such as my wiring. That or they couldn't really sustain continuous 2S lipo. They are 280 brushed motors. Will double check wiring and find some new motors.
