I'll ask her. She is really trying to stay in the spokane area right now. No need to ask John yet, we have time, and I can drop in on them next time I am in town. They would kill me anyways if I was in town and didn't drop in. the cannons are basically a pair in a canister. separated magazines, 50 round capacity. fires BB's or 3/16" ball bearings. Comes as a kit, e.g. I do the hard stuff but people have to do the parts that set them up for the particular ships and have to press in the barrels (tapping in with hammer works perfectly) 2" diameter canister, .6" barrel spacing
I am working on it. I have somewhat limited capacity as far as manufacturing. they will be in the 80-90$ price range, unless my material cost jumps again. I will probably do them on a made to order basis, just to take into account the large fluctuations I have seen in material costs lately.
I really like them so far. They are small, compact, plug-n-play, and show very nicely... they just look like a cannon should look. They Greg has done a great job. I don't foresee using any other brand of cannon on any of my future ships.
I should say that is the best endorsement that I could have imagined. I am planning on getting back to making them this weekend. I will be using up all of my inventory of material making components and then I wil sell them and then price based on my next lot of material. -Greg
Tell us the final price when you are ready, I would like to get one for the region 3(MWC) review. [] (meant to say I will buy one, no freebies implied)[] Will you only offer 2 cannons or possibly 3 (triple sterns?)
Tirpitz in Combat-X gets 8 units. I can have a total of 4 firing cannons in a side quadrant but must leave 1 firing quadrant in the other side quadrant. Lots of options here. I was thinking dual stern, dual stern sidemount, dual B turret sidemount and a single sidemount, 1 large pump. Lots of options here.
Jeff, et al. I will not end this thread until the Tirpitz sets sail... Perhaps not even then. Just remember that I have a lot on my plate; and do not get to work on the boat as much as I'd like to. That being said I did work on her this weekend, and a bit last week. She is starting to shape up nicely... Here is what I've been doing (continued next post...)
OK, So on to the next section... Internal Armor What is internal armor? When BBs enter your ship, the internal armor protects the sensitive innards from damage. For example, you wouldn't want a luck shot to flip your power switch into the 'off position', would you? I've seen many ships use green plastic fencing, plexiglass... My favorite is shower liner. This stuff is like $5/ 4'x1' section from lowes, looks great, and does the job. Here is the shower liner, just cut into the strips you need & CA-glue it in place. I usually glue it along the top, then down every 3rd rib. Make sure you leave enough room for BBs to fall down into the ship... Otherwise you will have a ton of BBs weighing down your ship, and I guarantee they won't be balanced. The material: Outside view: Inside view:
Next, I tackled the monster.... The single part that has been scaring me since I took command. If you notice from the original post, the aft superstructure did not have teak on it. I knew someday I'd have to address that, and bring it up to par. That day was today. Originally Greg used a very (in my opinion) tedious method to attach the teak to the deck and forward superstructure. I modified his method slightly and am mostly finished in one day. I should take a photo of raw teak and post it... but it comes in a sheet, and is basically thick brittle paper with a ton of grains which split with just the slightest misuse. You need to cut the raw teak repeatedly into precisely measured strips. (Your eye can tell if they are off, even just slightly.) I lucked out, Greg left a few pre-cut strips behind which wound up being the exact amount I needed... Not kidding, I had 2x 3" strips left when I finished.... I had nothing left! He tells me he created a jig to make sure the width was perfect; without a jig I just plain doubt it could be done. Once you have the strips, Greg laid all the strips out an pre-cut them to fit; then transferred the whole pattern to a safe place that wouldn't get disturbed. He then used extra-long-dry epoxy and coated a thin layer over the deck, then painstakingly placed each one in place until he got a specific size... and then placed a (mold release-coated) aluminum brick on them to make sure they dried flat. After they were all done, he coated them with a thin epoxy layer to waterproof them and to give them that nice shin. I thought that sounded like too much work. I decided that if they are going to be coated with epoxy anyway, it didn't matter much how they were tacked in place to the deck (superstructure). So I CA'd each one in place, one at a time, cutting them as I went. Next, (it is too hot out right now) I will take the same epoxy greg used and coat them. Theoretically, I will have the same effect in a quarter of the time. I actually had a picture of the teak 1/2 way finished, but I accidentally deleted it. ;( I really wish I had kept that, it is the only proof I have that I actually did it. Here is the aft superstructure after I was finished (No epoxy coat has been poured yet): And the overall ship as she exists today:
On to the electronics... So there was some concern a while back on this thread with the mTronicks viper marine 40, not giving full reverse and having a delayed reverse. The ESC is programmable, you can have zero-second delay reverse... ie, you can go from forward to reverse in nothing flat. You also need to train it to understand your radio, otherwise it might not allow you to use full forward or full reverse. All this is covered under the instructions on their website or included with the ESC. So as you can see I have added both the motor and the pump. I was a little disappointed that I could not replace the pump's motor without damaging the pumps impeller. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to rely on testing and a fuse to be sure not to burn anything. My wires are rated past 300 Amps, my ESC is rated @ 40Amps, and my drive motor's stall current is rated @ 40 Amps. I chose a 30 Amp fuse directly attached to the battery terminal, with option to go to 40Amps in the back of my head. I would not want to go over 40Amp fuse without more complicated wiring. If I really wanted to, I could put a 40 amp fuse directly inline with my ESC, another 10-15 fuse inline with my pump, and a 60-75Amp fuse directly on my battery. But this seems too complicated unless I need to go there. I have also chosen a unique fuse... It is a miniature circuit breaker, not a fuse. If the ship ever goes above 30 Amps, the breaker will 'pop' until power is cut. The unfortunate thing is, if I pop the breaker... I still have a dead ship in the water, same as always, but once she is back on shore I don't need to hunt for an extra fuse. It also opens me up to the possibility of (next season) adding a auto reset feature. If the breaker is popped, the only thing needed to restart the system can be done electronically... ie, remotely. See where I'm going? Nice, simple, uncluttered... The way I like it. I found a great waterproof box at sportsman's warehouse the other day too. It is not finished, I still have to apply the sealant, and add the gun triggers... And finally test the crap out of it. But it should do the duty, it has plenty of room, fits nicely, and looks good.
Also, my CO2 bottles finally came back. I had them outfitted with both the on/off valve and with an anti-syphon tube. Theoretically, I shouldn't have to worry about the CO2 freezing the reg open. But even if it does happen, I have a pressure relief valve as well. Since I can't show the inside of the CO2 tanks, I will show the CO2 mounting 'bracket'. Again it is molded into the waterchannel, I think it looks quite nice... And I use magnets to hold the bottles in place. I have tried holding the ship completely upside down, those bottles aren't going anywhere!
The final thing (that I can think of) that I did this week was ammunition check. What happens when ammo is floating around inside your ship? Will they get stuck on a spinning screw seizing the props? ---> In my case, I can answer yes. I'm soo glad I ran this test, because I found loose ammo could get stuck in the rear propulsion section and cause it to seize. The fix was simple, just dremel a screw down... But the effect could have meant a sink.
I'm quite proud of her, she represents everything I've learned so far... Most notably, she represents all the knowledge I gained simply by being a member of this forum.
