And here she is back at port. I had a disasterous outing but it only made me more resolved to get back out on the water. The tale of woe... Fought the whole first sortie with the pins still in my stern guns. Got my tubes on backward, resulting in my port gun firing to starboard, and my starboard gun fring to port. Made my servo racks out of crappy wood, which promptly cracked and rendered themselves useless. Ran too close to shore and mossed up my prop, which imediately locked up and stripped all the set screws on the drive train leaving me dead in the water. Field repaired the transmission not once, but twice, only to have it fail immediately after I hit the water. In all actuality, the only thing that worked the whole day was my pump (yeah pump!). I hard wired it to be always on when I was in the water and it was the only thing that didn't break. a friendly port with a good vantage of the battle dammage... Welcome to the club!
Very cool report! Yes, welcome to the club indeed! Can't wait to see any updates you have. Scharnhorst is a great looking boat and you did a very nice job with her! I'm not sure you mentioned, but are you going to be battling with the mwc group down there? (and maybe come to nats? hmmm?)
Well what really matters, is that it still sounds like you had allot of fun, what the hobby is all about. And for a first time, you did very well, not many boats get into the water and work 100% the first time out for a rookie. It sounds like you figured out most of your problems before you left the battle, so now you just need to do some drydock time, and should be ready for the next battle. Good luck
I will be battling with the MWCI guys primarily in Texas, but hope to make some of the Georgia battles as well. I live in the NE part of the state so getting to Atlanta is not too bad.
So Far I think We have battles here in Georgia in Savannah and Statesboro. Us guys in Atlanta are on a search for a new Pond I believe. I know Personally I am looking for one to possibly play host for a battle at. BTW nice pictures and well atleast at your ships first battle you got out on the water. My Des Moines made the trip to Florida and get hit with magic smoke on a test in dry dock and never saw water the whole weekend except through the windows of the house I was staying at. Hopefully in February that will Change.
You didn't mention how long you have to wait for a 40 degree day in Ne.La. (This past week not withstanding) [] Doing some serious work on boat this weekend. Feeling inspired again. Pax, J.
Hi there. I just bought the same kit as your from Battlersconnection.com and I'm very happy with what I've just received. I believe my first step (before installing the sub-deck) would be to install the rudder control system and motor / propellor system. The instructions in the document Rick provided are unfortunately not clear for enough for me to understand as is, especially since they're for a twin propellor/single rudder system, not the other way around.
Read the Maryland build from end to end, it only has a single rudder, but you can see what needs to be done in setting up the rudders, and shafts.
Vince Welcome to the darkside! You should start your own build thread so everyone can join in on the fun. Do you have anyone local to help you out or are you flying solo? There are a ton of "right" ways to build one of these and probably the best way to go is to find someone local who has already constructed a ship and simply do what they did. I would definitely recomend dropping Bob Pottle an email and saying hello as well (he is very active on this forum). He is a very experienced Canadian battler and could probably help you find some contacts or give you some construction advice. As far as the ship goes I put in the subdeck first. You will probably find that your hull is flexed inwards quite a bit in the middle, and fitting the subdeck will cause it to flex and conform, potentialy popping out anything you had already installed. Be forwarned - you will likely have to sand the heck out of your subdeck to fit it. My subdeck was a bit long and on the wide side. Your total hull width needs to be just over 8 1/8 inch wide (98 feet divided by 12) at its widest point. So if you measure your subdeck, and then measure the thickness of the wall of your hull on the port and starboard side, you should get a pretty good idea on how much you are going to need to sand off. Also, do not be shy about emailing Rick at BC if you run into problems, he is a great source of help and encouragement, especialy if you got some incorrect instructions. Good luck!
I'm from Montreal, so we don't have anyone near. I've chatted with the guys from OAF (Ontario Attack Force), and I've read up on NABS's website and threads in this forum. Me and my girlfriend will each build a ship, and we're looking into getting people active in Quebec. I've read up on the Maryland thread, very instructive and tons of great info that alleviated quite a few of my fears (Especially about drilling to fit the rudder/propeller section). I'll definitaly start my own thread, and take as many pictures as possible to get tips and to be able to help my fellow clubmates (once we get some). What I'm really looking for right now, is close-up pics of twin-rudder, single propeller configurations using the gear system for the rudder. I thought this thread would be the best place to ask, since you've got the same kit as I do.
No problems! I will post some pictures tommorow. The stern of the Scharny is quite narrow and I had a heck of a time getting the rudders in. What I did in the end was superglue the edges of the two posts together, and then sanded them into a bullet shape so they would fit the rear contour of the stern (with heavy sanding on the bottom to sit snugly). I then tacked them down with superglue once I had sanded them to the point where they would sit where I wanted them (and were centered). I cut my rudder holes very large so I could adjust the alignment of the posts before I epoxied them down. Be forwarned that you will likely need to shave some off the tops of your posts beacause they will cause you gears to rub against your subdeck, but be careful not to shave off too much, as your servo will sit very high. I would also recomend installing you prop first, so you can make sure your rudders sit as close as you can get them to the propellor, and that they are centered when you are done. There quite likely is a better way to do this, but it worked well enough for me. More to come!
Ok, Back in the saddle. I highly recomend avoiding the flu that has been going around - it is a doosey! On to the pictures... Below is a picture of the stern of the Scharny showing the skeg, prop, and rudders. Two things you have to be careful about when drilling your hole is that the exit is low enough for your prop to clear your hull (put your prop up against the skeg and mark with a pencil how low it has to be so it can clear - the bottom of my prop was about a 1/4 inch from the bottom of the skeg). The second thing you have to worry about is having a wide enough surface to drill your hole without cracking the hull. I ended up carving off the bottom 1/2" of the skeg back 2" to where it had thickened to the point where I could drill the exit hull (I used a dremmel tool with a cutting disk for this). I started by drilling a pilot hole with a 1/8" bit, and then followed up with a 1/4" bit with a 12" shank. You will probably need to use the drill or a grinding bit to cut a groove for shaft as it enters the hull (the point where it enters will be a tight fit). This is why I used a bit with a long shank. You probably also want to make sure you have a little play in the exit hole so you can adjust and aling your motor mount (the exit hull will be epoxied over anyway so if it is bigger than nescesary it is no big deal. Also I was told to try and have my prop as close to the skeg as possible, so mine extends past it by about an 1/8" only (this is hard to see as my red paint has peeled off, the skeg actualy goes all the way out to the end of the stuffing tube. Also note I mounted my rudders down about 1/4" in order to be in the full wash of the prop to aid turning. Below is a pictur of the engine mount. I was told that it is best to have your prop exit as close to horizontal as you can. I was able to get mine to exit nearly straight. in order to do this you will need to make sure you motor mount is as far inward as you can get it (i.e. use your entire stuffing tube), and then grind down the corners and bottom of the motor mount to fit the countour of the hull and sit as low as you can get it. This took god-awful forever for me, as I did it with a sanding cylinder on a dremmel. You need to be careful when you grind because if you are too agressive you will expose the screw channels for the mounting plate.
Below are three pictures of my rudder mount. The Scharny has a very narrow stern that was a pain in the butt to work with. What you will want to do is start with your prop mounted, and then drill you rudder holes so your rudders sit as close as you can get them to the prop (mine are about 1/4" in front of my prop). You will probably want to drill your holes a bit larger then nescesary so you can do fine alignment of the rudder when you stick them in. I actualy fitted my posts in first, tacked them down with a tiny drop of CA glue, and then drilled right down the post hole (minus the brass insert) with a 1/8" drill bit. In order to get the mounts in I first glued my two posts together by their edges so as to insure they would both be sticking straight up. This also had a nice side effect of making the posts exactly one inch apart (which is about the distance I wanted the rudders to be apart anyway)) I ground down the front of the bases of the two posts into a bullet shape to fit into the declining countour of the stern, and rounded the heck out of the bottom to sit as low as I could get it. I also had to lop off the first two rungs off the top in oder to get clearance for my gears. I could never figure out a way to use the rudder arms so I opted to buy gears instead. Traxis has a gear that is already threaded for the futababa servos that I highly recomend. My servo mount is a piece of garbage and badly needs to be replaced. David Ranier has a much better mount on his ships (using aluminum). I basicaly built my wooden mounts, screwed on the servo, test fitted it in the hull, and then cut down my posts to the right height where my gears would mesh with my servo gear. P.S. if you use gears make sure your set screw is on top (not on the bottom) when you mount it. It will be, shall we say, a wee bit hard to get to if you have your posts set up with your gear mounted upside down. Also, Your gears will in all likelyhood extend under your subdeck. The hub of mine actual extend up past the bottom of the the subdeck and almost touch the bottom of the deck. You may need to grinde a shallow dish out of the side of your subdeck to make sure the top of your gear does not rub against it. P.S. I understand that you can get a low profile servo (mine is standard size) that can help you mount your rudders (as they will not have to sit quite as high as the servo is only half as tall). You may want to look into one of those if you have trouble with your rudder. You will also want a rudder servo with a bit more torque than your standard servos, as you will need it for turning.
Thanks for the pictures, they'll be very helpful! We've just finished up marking the lines for our windows, and will begin cutting as soon as I have a day off (which will probably be in 2 weeks or so). In the meantime I'll post some pictures in my thread.
Be careful with your prop if you're battling close to shore or any submarged objects... With it hanging below the skeg so much, it'll be vulnerable to impacts which can damage or remove the prop! (I have mine the identical spot on my Gneisenau, so don't think I'm chiding you
warspite, Have fun with her! i have always liked her! One of my best friends has her two! but she dose look good! Nikki
