Building a pair of Deutschlands

I have begun sheeting. Most of the time so far has been spent making patterns, to speed up future repairs, then cutting out the actual parts. This laser-cut kit is precise enough that one pattern works for both sides, for both boats. Very nice. Once the build is complete, I plan to scan the patterns and post them here, along with all my final 3d-printed parts. Unfortunately I appear to have mis-placed one of the stern casemates. Since I have the other, I took a bunch of measurements and am now 3d printing some replacements.

 

Well SMS Schleisen and SMS Schleiswig-Holstein were launched today with great fanfare. Videos and detailed photos to follow. For now, enjoy!

 

By now the word is out that the two new Deutschlands have been launched. We had a nice little ceremony, complete with sliding down a ramp for the initial launch. Once I get the videos from that, I'll put together a construction video. I also took a bunch of side-profile shots just prior to sheeting, that will eventually end up in the stem-to-stern Warships in Detail section of the forum. Both ships drive beautifully, but I still have some ballasting, painting, and detailing to do. Although the cannons and plumbing were in good working order, the Schleiswig-Holstein suffered an electrical fire in her fire-control computer (BC Multi-C board) during testing of the solenoid systems. Although the fire was quickly extinguished, the cause of the failure was not identified and further tests with SMS Schleisen's Multi-C board were halted. We ended up sitting out the battle, and took some photos and videos instead. I'm not sure exactly what happened with the board. I am using a Multi-C main board for fire control, with a BC 3-switch test board for individual cannon testing. Since the Multi-C board has built-in flyback diodes, I did not install the flyback diodes on the test board. The solenoids are BC valves with 6v coils, driven by 7.4V LiPo batteries. When I was testing the entire system for the first time, I tried several test shots with the forward solenoid using the 3-switch test board. The first couple shots made a satisfying *click* from the solenoid valve. On the third shot, I heard a *pop* and saw a column of blue smoke rising from the the Multi-C board. I immediately unplugged the batteries, and noticed that one of the microchips on the board was glowing. It stopped immediately when the battery was disconnected, and I took a picture of the damage. The failed microchip is very obvious, but without knowing what it does, I did not want to risk further failures.

So what actually failed? Was it the solenoid driver, damaged by inductive kick? Was it something else, possibly damaged by over-current or over-heating due to the epoxy coat? I want to know what I did wrong so I don't burn up my remaining few control boards.

 

I have communicated with Charlie and hope to have the control board issue resolved soon. Whatever the issue is, I plan to post the solution here so others don't repeat my mistake.

As for the superstructure, Gascan claims it was operator error. He says the shipyard bubbas didn't read the directions and just threw parts together however they fit and hoped that nobody would notice. I immediately called baloney sandwich and told him that would be his superstructure.

 

After a discussion with Charlie, and extensive testing and investigations, I have determined the cause of the fire on the multi-C control board. There was not, in fact, anything wrong with the control board. It was entirely due to shipyard bubbas messing up again. Someone *cough*me*cough* hooked up ONE of the wires to the 3-switch test board backwards, resulting in a direct short whenever power was sent to the forward solenoid. The fact that the multi-C board withstood three test shots before failing is amazing, and speaks wonders to the robustness of Charlie's design. Even after I burned out one of the MOSFETs, the rest of the multi-C board continued to operate, allowing use of the pump and the other solenoid. Let my mistake be a lesson to everyone about the importance of not rushing, not working too late, and not doing electrical work while exhausted. Despite having a clearly labeled circuitboard and very specific directions, I screwed up a basic wiring job and damaged an expensive control board.


The three-switch test board. Note the wires going to the switch on the right, connected backwards from the switch in the middle.

 

Very nice.
Did you do the computer modeling for the superstructure?

 

Nope! The entire kit, hull and superstructure, was modeled by Greg McFadden. You can find further details in the "Deutschland kit related" portion of the warship builds section of the forum.

 

Kotori and I ran the Schleswig-Holstein and the Schesien at Wannamaker County Park to learn more about how they handle and find more things to tweak. Boy did we find things that need tweaking! The red paint peeled right off, some of the ballast didn't stay in place, swapping the reduction gears made them too fast (even though we added the drag discs), and a loose screw caused my motor to shift loose from the motor mount, causing the gears to not mesh. On the plus side, the pump works and Kotori makes a decent tugboat captain. I tried to take some shots of Schleswig-Holstein, but holding the camera and the radio doesn't make for the best shot with either. I noticed the single prop may cause the boat to "walk" sideways if I hit the throttle hard at low speed. Despite the ram-bows, the pre-dreads don't take water over the bow at full speed: the bow wave goes up to and slicks back the moustache, but not onto the deck unless I plow through a wave. On the other hand, the stern gets a bit damp at AIII, and very wet at BEM (no surprise there). I didn't get to practice any combat maneuvering or run any combat exercises, but just running them is helping us improve them. They should be fully ready for a combat debut in December, with plenty more time to get them dialed in for Nats.
I'm drawing up a combined battery/ballast mount to help lock down the shifting ballast issue, and I may swap out the forward accumulator and reroute some of the gas lines to make the internals easier to access and fiddle with. I'm also starting to think about fixes for the reduction gear issues (different bull gear? belt drive?).

 

isn't that cute!...The Deutschland sees his reflection in the pond!

 

For those wondering, I am working on a grand summary of lessons learned and improvements over the past few months. I'm also waiting on the videos several people took of the launching ceremony before I put together the grand build video.