So I'm going to Nats after all. I tell Steve that I can bring Lil Scharnie. He says 'ugh. Allies are already outnumbered like two to one.' Hmmm. Didn't I just recently get Evstafi driving like she should by moving the props closer together, etc? Russian is allied! So, I got busy in the shop hunting down all the parts I've got for Evie to throw her on the water. But then I remembered... CRAP! The area covered by the red ruler, aft of the step, is a stringer, and when I originally built her, I had thought that area was main deck! This must be modified. At first, I was unhappy about de-sheeting the middle of the hull, but as I pushed on the balsa, I realized that it was far to brittle to take to Nats anyhow, so it'd all need unsheeted. Closer view of the area... you can see where the layout line for the step, where the casement deck stringer becomes the main deck (that 45-degree line). You can also see where a silver sharpie was used to indicate where I had to trim to. This trimming was accomplished by a sanding drum and cutting wheel on my Dremel. You can see the angle that I initially beveled it to, about 45 degrees. I then removed more material from the bottom, but the key things are 1) it's 1/8" on the outside, and 2) a BB hitting just below the stringer will go right in. The first meets the letter of the rules, the second meets the intent. So I'm covered. This was all yesterday. I got a lot more done tonight, and there will be several more 3-hour evening work sessions, but we're good. Worst case, I throw Scharnie in the car and go that route But I would much rather show up as The Red Menace
The modem and router are in the front of the house, and the shop is out back Wife won't allow me to run the cable through the house, punch a hole in the wall, and then out to the shop.
Hole in ceiling...run it through the attic space. Another hole in the roof to let it out...a little West epoxy around the hole...Voila!!
Work progresses... Oh, yes, it does... That sidemount barrel will be replaced with a shorter one. Below is the basic layout of the center compartment, which has been cleaned up since the pic was taken a few days ago. The ESCs for the drive and pump go in the empty space stbd of the gas bottle. The solenoid on port is for the stern sidemount, the other two solenoids are moutned forward of the step deck near the twin bow guns. The little green pump is one of my small pumps, although there is room for a regular one. Still time to change if I'm not happy with the small pump, although I think that they do better for their size than the regularones (I learned a lot designing them and this has tighter tolerances). More pics to come tonight! As in, the casement deck and SS in place in place over this!
Well I would have suggested running it through the wall up into the attic or into a crawl space under the house (if so equipped) to the other side of the house then run the wire through the wall to just above ground level. Lay a conduit underground to the workshop and run the write through it. Install pretty outlet covers on both ends (to make the wife happy). But I figured that's be to much work and money.
I have a router in my work shop (previous owner install) but I intentionally leave it off and disconnected. I am easily distracted and will lose track of time on the interweb. I am nowhere near as focused as Tug.
Necroing my old rebuild thread... I did not make it to Nats 2014, and Evie never got her rebuild finished. SO, with more medical crap going on and pushing me to lighter ships (not the heart, just non-critical systems (knees) getting really bad in the past week), I pulled Evie from the shelf and got to work! Below, the casement deck starting to take shape. The casement deck lifts off the subdeck for reloading, but the flat areas between the 4 casement guns will be penetrable. I thought I took a pic of the deck after the dowel sections for the guns were glued in, but I guess I didn't. It looks totally SWEET. In this early pic, I haven't rounded off the casement gun positions so they look kind of squarish. More and better pics tomorrow! And we're sheeting!
Why Evstafi now (besides painful knees?)? I realized that Evie's got as many guns as an I-boat, and while slower, is more maneuverable and has less penetrable area
With my health issues, I started getting my old I-boat ready, but the last two weeks my knees have been bad, going out and such, so I'm walking funny trying to keep them in positions where they won't go out. So I was in the shop and saw that Evstafi was sitting there, and much lighter, and nearly ready to go. The previous refit saw the original horrible turning get corrected (props were way out, not near the rudder), and solenoids installed, stern gun was mounted and guns were already there for the bow (not mounted, though). The Malaya will get done at some point but I need to figure out my knees first. May wind up doing a launch dolly. But I didn't cannibalize the Malaya for Evstafi or the I-boat. And Scharnie is still ready to go if I need her. But as of the end of the build session, most of the remaining work is finishing the superstructure and sheeting. GAH! Another boat!! says the man with QE, Brittanic, and soon a Yamato? Yeah, I'm guilty. I did try very hard to give one of the Bitondo brothers a cruiser or destroyer hull this weekend.
But I didn't cannibalize the Malaya for Evstafi or the I-boat. And Scharnie is still ready to go if I need her. GAH! Another boat!! says the man with QE, Brittanic, and soon a Yamato? Yeah, I'm guilty. I did try very hard to give one of the Bitondo brothers a cruiser or destroyer hull this weekend. There you go, I was worried you didn't have a functional boat and were starting another.
The yammer is from 2002, been sitting in the shop ever since and no real plans. We had been talking locally of making it a recruitment boat, making each one of the bow guns independent with their own controller. A recruit could then elevate and rotate the turret while the captain drives around and uses the stern guns, all three would stand next to each other and talk tactics. We will see, just been looking at the viability of bringing that old hull back to life...
