Sanding complete! So I put on an extra thick coat of epoxy like on the Bearn yesterday, and the sucker took the whole day to cure fully. Came back to my buddy's house this morning (he let me use his garage to do it since my tiny one room cabin is not conducive to fiberglassing, and it's ten degrees out) and started sanding. the results look pretty good, and I cleaned up the dust periodically with isopropyl alcohol to keep a good view of the hull. I really gooped the bow yesterday, so that took quite a while to get sanded properly. Unfortunately it looks like a bubble formed on the bow, so I had to blow through the glass on a small spot. I'll fill it in with balsa filler and epoxy it over later. the lighting's not great for detail, but here's the bow spot I think it's good to go for now. I'll have to clean up the edges at home tonight, and may be able to get another day of work done before I fly out on monday. Since it looks like all of my jobs in Lower America are falling through for now, I applied for a Fish tech slot working for a friend over in Cordova Ranger District last night. so the maiden voyage might be out in Cordova this april. I'll just have to be careful, because the Steller's sea lions there are jerks. I was duck hunting in the cove last september and FINALLY dropped a huge canvasback only to have one of those jokers take it from me. It came up from the other side of the cove when the bird splashed in with a bow wave like something out of JAWS and hit the bird like a ton of bricks. We'll see though, still holding out hope for a Forester slot in Wisconsin.
More pictures! dry fit of the pump. clearance is a bit tight, but it's good enough for government work. Also, I poured in the ballast. the first few cells are just concrete sealant, and after I realized that was absurd, I grabbed some Kenai Lake beach sand (glacial gravel) and filled in the rest of the cells, then topped them off with sealant. 24 hours later, the gravel-filled ones were solid. the sealant-only ones are.... well it's like poking a waterbed. I hope they harden up while I'm in GA for two weeks here's some shots of the hull. So what do you guys do with the ragged edge of the fiberglass on the sides of the hull? I'm thinking of throwing on some epoxy to the edges, letting it harden, then smoothing it out with 120 grit and a file. I'm also thinking of fiberglass-reinforcing that edge lip between the ribs, since why not. so.... there she waits until I get home in January. next steps will be: 1 clean up the edges of the fiberglass 2 Mount the rudder 3 mount the drive train 4 drill a hole for E turret
is looking really damn good In the past I've just ground off/down any ragged edges that were in the way
Looking great! I trim the fiberglass down to the balsa and any fraying fibers there are get a coat of epoxy and then sanded flush. You're doing a great job, can't wait to see more.
Cool, thanks for the tips, guys. I'll do that as soon as I get home. I managed to walk into a surprise when I got down here to visit my family--my aunt has been holding onto my great-grandfather's 1897 trench gun from the battle of the Somme, and passed it off to me today along with his bayonet. it's pretty rad
I'm fixing to get electronics and weapons from BC pretty soon Anybody have any suggestions for the following? Combat board: Multi B or Multi C? Leaning toward multi B due to the larger number of ports, etc. I am assuming that the B and C stand for Battleship and Cruiser Follow-ups: 1: how do I rig up dual firing with one of these and solenoids? do I run a Y junction coming out of the board that branches to two different solenoids? 2: I am under the impression that the shot-limiting board will pace it out to two shots per second for treaty--does this mean I can just hold down the button or stick on that channel and it will just fire twice per second, or is it exclusively a timer and I would have to pull the trigger independently for every shot and that guy would just keep my rate of fire down? 3: Test Boards? how do you guys place/handle them? Guns: planning on a straight fifty dual, a coil fifty, and a coil seventy-five. My Barbettes are 2" Schedule 40 PVC (exterior will be plated with balsa and glassed to bring it to scale exterior dimension as well as armor the pvc). Will the standard coils fit, or will I have to get the rotate coil guns, which are significantly reduced in diameter? there are no dimensions on BC regarding this. Solenoids: 6 volt, since my whole system will be 6.6 LiFe Batteries: planning on going to my local hobby shop for these. any particular cells I should look at (voltage, amp hours etc)? I am under the impression that I will have to assemble my own battery pack, and am pleased to do so, but this will be my first so I have only a concept understanding of what I am doing. should I just get a bunch of these guys and slap them together to get 6.4 V, and run a ton of parallels to get the proper amount of amphours? How many Amphours should I aim for? If my boat is seriously underweight, should I just build a huge battery with oodles of amphours and use it as working ballast? https://www.megabatteries.com/item_...MI482Hwtyc2AIVB4GzCh2Z6QlhEAQYBCABEgJTBPD_BwE As always, thanks for the help!
You will need Multi B for the Texas, it has the ability to control 4 cannons (2 channels on the radio, two guns per channel), Multi C would work for a cruiser or pre-dread since it only allows use of two cannons (1 channel) Yes, dual firing is essentially a Y connecting coming from one of the boards. You can get BC's dual gun test switch board which will take care of the Y connection, and add test switches so you can tweak the stern guns independently (which is necessary). You end up connecting the output from the solenoid to one side of the board, the board has an internal Y connection that includes test switches, and has two separate locations for the output for each solenoid. I will draw up a line diagram at some point in the near future and post it, it isn't too complicated though You shouldn't need the shot limiting board You can add test switches for each gun, or just use the dual board mentioned above and use your radio to test the sidemounts Your plan for guns works, you could also just use straight magazines for every gun. I use straight mags for my guns, you just bend the magazines up against the underside of the deck. I have a 75rd BC rotate coil and it fits within 2" ID PVC pipe, a regular coil probably would not fit completely inside (though that is not always necessary). Straight mags give you more flexibility for mounting. Here is a picture of the forward dual sidemount magazines on my Missouri as an example. I use larger supply hose than normal, but other than that the straight mags can provide a pretty compact arrangement without taking up too much internal room 6v solenoids sound good For batteries, a lot of captains use these, way simpler than building out a large pack with the smaller cells you linked to. http://www.batteryspace.com/lifepo4...h-10c-rate-64-wh-6-0---un38-3-passed-dgr.aspx You will want 4, use two per battle (in series, for 6.6V, 20Ah). Texas should have plenty of internal room to lay them down flat, side by side, in the middle of the ship Great work so far, build is looking good!
Here is a picture of a 75rd BC coil cannon (I bought it about 10 years ago). The inner pvc is 2” ID, the outer piece is a coupler (this is a rotate setup) The coil fits inside, not a whole lot of room to move around but it works and gives good down angle
Thanks Kevin, I really appreciate the input. the reason I'd choose a shot limiter would be a practical matter to increase my rate of fire, if the limiter's function is such that I could push and hold a button while the limiter metes out a steady rate of fire. My thumb doesn't exactly twitch at the rate I would like, and I fear my rate of fire would be far less than two rounds per second. I'll inquire from BC to see if my presumption of the mechanism is correct, unless @rcengr (who I know has such devices on his Treaty Battlecruisers) might indulge. I've thought of using straight mags on all of my guns, and have had a conversation in another thread regarding the matter, including the proper tools with which to bend the magazines properly. With regard to the design of the Texas, I believe the forward deck layout limits me to a coil gun if I am to mount the gun within B turret, as the barbette is fixed to the hull while A turret's portion of the deck is removable. I figured it would give me a better down angle than A turret, and I intend for the underside of the forward deck to be consumed by foam and act as a recovery float. The center deck will be similarly foamed within the superstructure for the same purpose. I'll Use A Turret's barbette to firmly anchor the recovery line and come up with a similar scheme for the central deck. I am not opposed though if you have suggestions regarding the forward gun mount, or a way that I might mount the forward gun with a straight mag, I just can't see a way to do so and inexperience hampers me in that regard. I'll definitely take your suggestion For D turret's 75 round cannon though. the whole rear deck comes off as one, and as such, I can mount D's 75 and E's twin fifty setup to the deck with no mechanical trouble. I plan on bending the magazines so that the ends come up through the deck for easy reloading, though I am open to the contrary if anyone has input on that
I'm not a big fan of coil guns. They are harder to get armor on and take more dings. Once dinged you cant fix them. They are deeper in the ship than straights and harder to work around. The tight corners get more bb hang ups from bad bbs. Straights are pretty easy to solve this problem. Coils are not. PVC either for plumbing or electrical will crack from our guns. The ABS pipe (Black) will not. If you can use ABS.
Yeah I tried getting ABS, but it's a pain due to cost and minimum amount since the hardware stores don't stock the 2 inch, and I'd have to order a brace of ten foot pipes to get it. Living in Alaska sucks sometimes. Since the pipe is still "narrow" compared to scale, I intend to layer the exterior with 3/16 balsa planking and sand it to contour with a coat of glass on it to act as shatterproofing. same belowdeck. As well, the forward section of the boat has plenty of room from what I can tell, so I was thinking of armoring it by just having the PVC completely engulf the coil gun. Since it's a superfiring turret, it should not protrude too far under the deck anyways. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to running a straight mag cannon up front, I just don't see how with the structural layout since B turret is not in a removable part of the deck(see pics on page 2)
We don't do 'push and hold' for firing, they need to be independent movements of a radio pushbutton or joystick. You can probably move your finger fast enough You could mount the forward gun under the subdeck if you want. Something like either one of these options would work fine. Magazines usually don't need crazy bends, I typically bend mine by hand most of the way. I have three guns mounted like that in my Seydlitz
Thanks for the graphic! I think your option A will work pretty darn well since the center of the hull will have a fair amount of room on the underside of the deck. Looks like I can go with an entirely straight mag armament then. Shame about the push and hold, but I'll adapt. Who knows, maybe if I get enough practice it'll help get things with my motor control back closer to normal (I got blown up more than a few times in the Sandbox, and have been pretty twitchy/low on fine motor precision for the past ten years or so). If I can't get the joystick response rate I'd like, I can always rig up a button plate based off of the schematics posted on the forum. Speaking of the transmitter, I was thinking about whether or not to rig up a control for the pump. I'm inclined to have it just wired to the battery and switched permanently on. Either that, or use the landing gear switch on the Transmitter to turn it on or off. But I'd like it to be idiot-proof. How do you rig yours?
The multi B has a built in pump control circuit, you would use one of the aux channels on the radio to turn it on and off. You definitely want to be able to turn the pump on and off, sometimes if you leave it on without much water in the boat it will get air trapped in the body and stop pumping water, which you can fix by cycling it on and off
Looking at the viper marine ESCs at the moment, and was wondering which peak amperage I should choose. I will be running 6.4v with two of the following batteries: http://www.batteryspace.com/lifepo4...h-10c-rate-64-wh-6-0---un38-3-passed-dgr.aspx two 550 brushed motors running in GB500 gearboxes turning 4 blade 40 degree pitch props. would anyone care to suggest a peak amperage? I'll be getting one from Strike
Run 25 degree props if you can. 40 is a really steep pitch for acceleration and hole shots. 1"-3/4 4 blades should be your best option. 40AH Viper will be fine. Stick in the bottom somewhere to keep it cool. Others may suggest more amperage, but I ran a Nagato (bigger, heavier, faster) for many years on a single 40 without any problems, but, of course your mileage may vary.
I'm currently living in a one-room cabin in South Anchorage, just above Potter Marsh. My USFS research station (Summer Home, lol) is between Sunrise and Cooper Landing, up on the top of the big hill just below the peak of Sheep Mountain and perched on the edge of a cliff over Kenai Lake. Most of my summer breakfasts and dinners look like this: (minus the Stetson Creek Fire, of course) I used beach gravel from Kenai lake as ballast under the concrete sealant
