1st build, the laser cut Baltimore kit from RCENGR Ive seen a few of the Bogue builds, however no baltimores. Here we go. My home city is chicago, and i think orginal ship bell is located on navy pier. I'll name her that I started off at home, my father thinks this is really cool, so he is letting me take some space at the shop. All skinned up and balsa added at the bow and stern. Unfornately i didnt take any pictures inbetween as i was excited to start this. I used one piece of sheeting at each rib, tacked with thin CA, and held down. Used a razer knife to trim off the excess ( put a gash into my hand with that, her hull now has my blood). Sanded, filled cracks with wood filler and sanded again. Started sanding the Baltimore classes very squarish stern Bow, used a deep socket and sandpaper to get the curvature West system epoxying the deck Current weight
Just seeing what she is gonna look like Stuffing shafts. I was gonna use a dremel to cut the brass tubes, but decided on my 6" metabo Love that thing. I decided to strengthen the inner drive tubes with a extra internal tube. Make it more durable against rocks, bbs, or game fish? Also, im going to make the outter shafts useable in case i ever need them. Shaft will be 316 stainless 1/8". Not sure on what pitch prop yet, but i want 4 blades like the real deal. And those 10 degree "drag" props over at strike look great. Prolly not as effective as a actual drag disk. Thats alright. My least favorite part. Fiberglass All ready to go. Drying, hope i did alright. Im glad i got the west systems, made everything easier. Used masking tape on the inside to mask off the stuffing shaft slots.
Here is Marks motor mount, i modifed it so that i could use 6-32 allen bolts. I epoxyed nuts on the inside. Upgrade for me over using wood screws. I want every bolt on this ship to use the same wrench. Also note the aircraft drill bit i used to open the stuffing shaft holes.
It looks great. I'm glad to see you took the time to sand everything to the right shape. It's one of the tasks with wood kits that takes extra work, but I think it really makes the finished ship look good.
You have a pretty nice work shop. From the two Baltimores completed here in MN I have a couple of things to watch out for. Both of them used 1.5" four blade 25 deg pitch props, either BC or Strike will work. Both used 550 size motors on gear boxes. Traxxas Villian or BC will work. Both used a stinger motor on a full size pump housing. Both use a single 10amp 6volt NiMH battery pack. All of the above work vey well. Both, at first, were over weight. Becareful with your weight. Take steps early to keep the weight down.
Thank you everyone! Tumor is a nickname i picked up as a kid playing video games, i was very good at Goldeneye N64. Has continued through the years. For this hobby; you've been sunk by Tumor? ha Bob. Yes its a nice little getaway with all the cool toys and a loaded minifridge. This kit came with a motor mount that i have already epoxyied in. Its set-up to have two 380 Motors mounted to a plate, which aligns them to the shafts for direct drive. I have already have a bunch of Mabuchi RS380SH motors to play with at the moment. If i were to go with the 550/gearbox and the large pump, i would think i would have to rip that out that mount. I have a lil letter scale im useing to record all the weight i put in her, ill make sure and watch that, But currently at 2.5lb i have a long way to go
The RS380 is good for a 1 1/4" 3 blade prop, any more blades or larger size and you will over stress that motor. Having 1 1/4" 3 blade props on that size of ship will hurt start/stop power. It also makes your pump motor smaller and you'll pump out less water. I use the RS380 on a full size pump housing and can pump out a gal of water with the 1/2 unit restrictor your ship is allowed in 60 sec. I have this pump in my small cruiser. With a Stinger you can get this down to 40sec. You would have to rip out what you have installed. Better now than latter when you find out you can't move as well as other ships. If you do change I think your drive shafts would need to get longer to keep your shafts as level as possible. I think Andy's are 13" long, maybe a little more. If your shaft are at too high of an angle your turning will be worse and when you back up, we do that alot, it sucks your stern into the water.
Well here is the thing, how much is the performance increase gonna be? Because I already have 6 380 motors. The tubes are ready, and removeing that mount will be a PiTa. Mainly i wanna get her out on the water, im close to installing the internals to have a working model. I'll arm it later on. Hopeing my father will hop on the wagon, his Fav is the New Jersey, would be awesome to have one of those in the shop
Was able to get some time in down at the shop, fiberglass mostly trimmed and sanded. Rudder, drilled all the way through. Used a dremel to round out the inside so i can have a 90degree bend in the brass shaft. Epoxied it all in. Rudder post/shaft, 5/32 brass tube doubled up with 3/16 tube for strength. Tacked with thin CA, and then used "impact resistant" medium CA to fill in. Turned her up side down and used the medium CA to fillet around the outside of the shaft. Can also see all the little brass inserts for the deck hold downs. More on those later. Learned i used too much epoxy to attach the deck (layer on subdeck, layer on deck= squirts out the sides) Rudder post/servo mount placed and Mocked up with rudder/stuffing shafts. Ready for the props so i can tack in the stuffing shafts. Lots of spots that still need sanding, i may of used to much epoxy. I think im going to make the mount removeable via bolts so i can access underneth
Question. Do the stuffing shaft supports have to be scale? Im not sure on the real ship, but I wanna do single leg supports mounted 90deg to the hull curve on the outter shafts, and then a dual leg supports also mounted 90 degrees to the hull curve on the inner shafts. All outta soldered brass. The that sound right? Thanks
"Do the stuffing shaft supports have to be scale?" Easy answer, NOPE. As far as I know, the sky is the limit on what you do there. I know that RichelieuBB on here uses cotter pins for his prop shaft supports. I've also seen people build supports right into their hull when they build it, but that would be a little hard for a laser cut kit. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking in the other question, so I'll leave that one to someone else. Keep up that good work on the build, I enjoy seeing progress on ships. Beaver
Alright cool. This is what i came up with for setting the shafts in. A few layers of tape for Prop clearance, some string and weight to keep the shafts from shifting, CA glue to tac it in, and Epoxy with filler to seal it all up. 1st time soldering brass, was fun and i think it came out allright. I went ahead with the smaller props. By doing this, modifing the motor mount and the stuffing tube location, i was able to get the trust angle on the props much closer to level. Hopefully she will back up well, at the cost of acceleration maybe. Have alil sanding left to do on the rudder and by the prop shaft supports, but its really coming together! Driveline. The prop shafts are 1/8" stainless, however i have the little 2.3mm shafts on the motors. The couplers are 1/8-1/8. A easy fix for me was to put a 1/8" brass tube over the 2.3mm motor shaft. And dremel out a little notch so that the set screw can reach done and hit the motor shaft. Score. Inside the ribs close up on the motor mount. Some brass threaded inserts and SS 6-32 holds it securely. Lots of experimentation with my new BC pump in the near future . Removable rudder/servo mount. I wanted to have this easy to put in, stay well, and take out. Here is what i came up with. Brass threaded inserts CA'ed into a Aluminum tube. Once they are epoxied to the hull, should be a rock solid platform, and still be easy to remove if need be. Then i epoxied in a small brass tube for the actual rudder shaft to slip through.
Also, being very green to model ship building, i wanted to make sure there were no leaks in the bottem of the hull. Didn't wanna use water yet. So instead i spar varnished the entire bottem. Thick. Picked her up, tilted every which way. Nothing came dripping out near the shafts or anywhere. Plus a nice coat of spar in every nook and cranny. score
