I learned a lot on this build. There are some things that I really like about this ship and some things I wish I had done better. I took pictures of different parts and will go through the ship and hopefully the pictures that I got will show what I am describing...... Lets begin! If you want to see something specific that you don't see in the pictures, let me know. I don't mind taking more of specific parts.
Exterior: 1) (Bad Job) I did such a terrible job putting the balsa wood on the hull. I only put a single layer of silk span on the outside and no layers of silk span on the inside. Every time I got hit, the wood would split around the hole. I sank a couple times when I probably shouldn't have because of these splits. Also, the bulge of the Lutzow is very hard to bend the wood. I found it easier to attach the balsa wood when I cut it in to 6" sections. The wood wasn't splitting when I tried to bend it to match the shape of the hull. Most of the patching in the photos is to try and recover from those balsa wood splits. When I re sheet later this summer, I am going with the 2 layers of silk span and contact cement method. I think my fear for only putting a single layer of silk span on was not having BBs puncture. But now they puncture too much... Learning lesson on my part. 2) (Good Job) I am very happy with how the deck and super structure turned out. Everything is 3D printed and super light weight. I got all of the files from the forum here. Except the guns. Those were printed for me by @Kotori87. Which are amazing guns by the way. But I'll go into them more for the interior discussion. Or he can just chime in... Everything was super easy to print out and put together and it looks great. The deck is very easy to use. The part of the deck that has the flip locks has the two LiPo batteries and CO2 under it. 3) (Bad Job) I did a poor job placing the rudder. I placed it too far back. When I turn, the rudder covers 100% of one prop and only about 40% - 50% of the second prop. I think this is the cause of such a slow turning speed. There is too much wash going forward from the outside rudder. Over the winter. I think I am going to move the rudder back and change the position so the rudder covers 100% of both props on the turn. Other than the balsa wood hull I messed up, which is pretty easy to fix, I am very pleased with how the exterior of the ship turned out. There isn't anything major that I don't think I could improve in a short time span. More images to come and summaries of the inside.
I’d love to see closer photos of the rudder, specifically in the failure modes that you spoke of. Actually… I’d love to get you opinion on how I laid out my Deutschland rudder, maybe you could save me some trouble + R&D? I’m surprised to see only two armed cannons? Does that mean you have 1.5 units of pump? Or 75 round cannon(s)?
Yea. I can check out what you have going so far. I'm not an expert as some folks on here but I can share what I have experienced with this build. Stern gun is the haymaker, 75 rounds. Bow is the normal 50. I got the stern gun pointed at an awesome angle and can unload very quickly on the convoys and get out quickly too.
Thanks! page 13 has the latest: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/pocket-battleship-deutschland.447156/page-13
It is on my list of things to do. I have been dragging my feet on it because there is ballast back there that I only recently got dialed in. It should be sealed, although on our small pond, I usually don't find myself going in reverse for long distances. In fact, when I tested going in reverse for a long distance I didn't sink myself. Oddly enough, the stern only submerged when I went from 100% reverse to 100% forward. This boat is going to be a loaner boat for the club after I get the Bismarck done. I am not super picky on making the fine tuning tasks that I would if I was going to NATs or regionals.
@JustinScott My improvement I would try and see what happens is make the rudder longer and cover more of the outside prop. I’m going to go with 1.25” tall and 2.8” long. On the turn that should cover 100% of both props. With the help of the horizontal fins, i crossing my fingers I can whip the ship around a lot faster. If the battleships can turn on their axis I feel like something half their size should be able to. Perhaps that is false expectations though.
Length to beam ratio helps a battleship turn. A cruiser is always very long and narrow, with a smaller rudder, which is going to hurt turning.
@tgalx3 there's a couple things you can do to improve turning. Some will require semi major modifications if you decide to make improvements. If I wanted to get the most out of that ship I would angle the prop shafts in more so the blades on your props just miss each other. This concentrates the wash and makes it easier to direct with the rudder. Then, move your rudder as close to the props as you can. You can even cut the pointy tips off the props to get the rudder even closer. This prevents you losing any wash from the props as it travels to the rudder. And lastly, you rudder shaft should be positioned so you have roughly 30/70 or 40/60 ratio of rudder front to back. It looks like you already have that and the rudder shape you have there looks good. Deeper rudders work better than longer ones. Doing all this probably won't make her spin but she'll definitely turn better. Hope this helps.
I appreciate the pointers. A lot of those seem like more work than I want to take on for this ship. Hopefully, in a couple months she will be another loaner boat for the club.
Update: Speaking of rudder. The rudder system is pretty simple. I will say that I wish I had done the design with the idler wheel in the middle of the servo and the rudder gears. Doing that would have made it easier to fit the servo back there. I had to take a 1/16" out of the deck to make room for the rudder gear. I couldn't lower the servo anymore either.
