Update: Just ordered the Combat board and test switches from BC, and I'll be placing an order with Strike for the guns and ESC as soon as I get the go-ahead email back from them. After meeting with John today and checking out his and Phil's Vac-u-boats (thanks @Lou for linking us up!) it appears that they've managed to sway me toward building a few of those little demons to use as introductory loaner boats to get people interested in the hobby on the water and perhaps start a group in Anchorage. It'd be nice to have some cannon fodder for my Texas too. though I imagine things would get interesting once a full wolfpack of destroyers started coming after it. back from the tangent, John's radio was a pretty schnazzy Turingy 9X with one of the switches replaced by a trigger button. I really liked the overall design and ergonomics, so I think I'll be getting a 9x and replacing three of the switches with trigger buttons for the guns, and having the fourth switch remain for the pump.
Back in Alaska, and things are lookin good. I built the rudder mount and fabricated the rudder using the provided plywood stamp, and 3/16 balsa and laminated them with some epoxy. gave it an airfoil profile, which I had to tune down in order to allow maximum rudder travel. After throwing it on, I managed to line up the props to allow maximum travel without propstrike. I get about a half degree better performance turning to port because I installed the rudder post about 1/64 to 1/32 off-center. It may not be fantastic, but I have some wiggle room since these are 1.75 props. so if she turns like a pig, I can just switch to a smaller prop and get better clearance. Here's the motor mounts and everything, getting ready for glassing. I put down a small piece of fiberglass and epoxied them over on the inside, let them cure overnight, then went back and glass+epoxy the outside. The props have a slight outward cant to them to allow for rudder clearance. approximately half a degree off centerline After all that tomfoolery was done, I framed in the GB-500s to allow me to cast and pour in the ballast around the mounts without cementing them in. That way, if they crap the bed or I come up with something better, I can drop a small, well defined section of the hull to either side of the keel and pull them out without having to completely redo the ballast etc. I then put in about a tablespoon of Kenai lake gravel in each of the smaller gaps, and 2 to 3 tablespoons in the larger cells. Basically, enough to take the majority of the cell space while leaving about 1/8 inch of cement sealant on top to smooth/contain the ballast. the area around the rudder was too small for gravel ballast, so it's just concrete sealant. I checked my center-of-gravity this morning after everything finished curing, and it is almost perfectly at midships (my calculations place me within 0.1 inches). that's with all ballast, rudder, GB-500s. Not including the 550 cans, the pump, or props. I also managed to get started on deck magnets I don't know why this is upside down. but you get the point. those quarter inch disc magnets are pretty powerful, I'm impressed. On the Agenda in the next week or so: building: 1: Finish deck magnets 2: waterproof all wood with coat of thin epoxy 3: sand epoxy coat on rudder down to proper tolerance 4: stare at the BC battleboard until it does a trick or something. Supplies: 1: Try to get the above recommended batteries (Hazmat to AK may give me trouble) 2: Guns and ESC from Strike 3:Transmitter--had my mind changed to the frsky Taranis x7. it took me about five seconds to reprogram the radio to exactly how I would run the boat, and a similar amount of time to figure out how to use the transmitter to adjust the throttle. my buddy with one also explained how to build a shot counter and have sound effects built in. On another front, I'm probably going to be getting at least one vac-u-gearing once money appears. I'm holding off on some bigger purchases at the moment because I have an interview with a USFS ranger district in Wisconsin on monday, and may be moving super fast.
Yet another picture storm! The magnetry is almost done. the aft deck piece is pretty warped and doesn't want to unwarp. any tricks for dealing with it? steam it maybe? I keep pressing it with heavy weights, but the sucker doesn't want to go straight. Worked on the superstructure for the rest of the weekend and discovered how..... shotgunnish the Goff plans are. I mean, good reference and all, but some parts of it are pretty inaccurate. the rear part of the super was what torqued me the most. But the error isn't huge, and I am not making a super-accurate boat anyways, so it's all good. the Casemate deck took a whole day to do. it was pretty complex, but I went slow and figured it out. (this is the rescue attachment on the top deck) I'll thread it with some steel line using gutted 550 cord as the shank to keep the line from wearing into the wood. then, I'll attach a small climbing grad D-ring, and rig a similar setup through the bottom of the hull. The Rescue line will be D-ringed on both sides The Citadel's not tapered enough on the sides, but at this point, I think we're good. If I want to build a true-scale super, I'll fly out to San Jacinto and get a thousand photos to do it right. two sets of plans with two different answers, and both do NOT look like the photos I have of the 1:1 BB-35 The Job interview went well today, so I may be packing out to head to Wisconsin in two weeks. as a result, I have initiated a major purchase halt. my Strike gun kit should be coming in soon, but I am holding off on batteries and radio gear until I know whether I am moving 3,000 miles next month. The Alaska Ferry frowns on HazMat. I'll continue working on the Super til the guns get here, but if anybody has suggestions for that warped removable aft deck panel PLEASE throw them my way. I'm not going to magnet-drill it until I can get it straight.
finished the woodwork on the forward super. I'm going to give them a light coat of epoxy and throw some glass on the large/vulnerable components. tell you what, I'm starting to be peeved with the plans at this point. it turns out there are some big discrepancies in the plans regarding the superstructure layout. Namely the turrets. if you build this kit with the resin turrets from strike, make sure to account for the resin turrets being much longer and taller than in the plans. As it stands, everything's A-OK, but I'm off by about a 1/4 inch on the placement of the superstructure in relation to B turret (I followed the goff plans perfectly, but the turret size discrepancy, as well as errors in the plans combine to make the gap between bridge and turret super tight). Too easy though, I'll shave the back of the turrets down and get them into tolerance. So, questions I need to ask regarding using my forward super as the recovery float: 1:Should I attach it to the removable plywood deck underneath? I have rare earth magnets holding that deck piece in place and am worried that the float will not have enough buoyancy to break the connection. 2: I am planning on drilling into the hollow parts of the super and filling with foam for flotation purposes. Any tips? 3: IF I keep the forward super separate from the deck plate beneath, are there any suggestions as to how I would keep it positioned properly? I could use a small number of rare earth magnets, I suppose Also, got the rudder servo, throw-arms, and the pushrods. going to continue the busywork with them until the guns show up.
Use dowel alignment pins. Put two 1/2 -3-4" long 1/4" dowels coming out of the deck that the SS sits on and keeps it aligned. If you sink, the SS should pop off if you want to use it like a float.
cool. I'll probably go with that then. In other news, I've been steaming the aft deck plate for the past day or so, trying to get it flattened out. managed to steam it this morning over the biggest pot I have for about thirty minutes, and squished it to the counter (my flattest surface in the house) with a 40MM ammo can filled with soup cans, first aid kit, and MREs (earthquake survival kit). I'm hoping that it will pop out straight when I get home from the lab tonight. If anyone has suggestions rregarding fixing this warped deck, I would really appreciate them.
UPDATE: since the aft deck plate is still giving me trouble, I've been busy sanding the turrets into tolerance for the TX, and doing minor cosmetic work. Does anybody have good post-1926, pre-museum photos of that little secondary tower just aft of the funnel? I have photos from TX as she sits in San Jacinto, but the little tower is covered in panels and I'd like to have it at least be somewhat accurate. the sets of plans that I have (goff and the ones @rcengr posted on the forum) are 50/50 (goff does only shows it in side profile, and I'm not completely satisfied with the digital plans). I think I am going to straighten that deck plate tonight using the following technique: http://www.finehomebuilding.com/2004/07/01/flattening-warped-plywood
Spent part of saturday finishing the cleanup and final positioning of the GB-500s and motors. I left them floating enough for minor corrections, and once I had the gears and motors where I wanted them, I wedged them in with some plywood, and glued them in. those suckers aren't going to move out of tolerance unless I remove the hull below them, which is the desired effect. I'll fill in the low area around the GB-500s with some silicon whatever something stuff. you know what I mean. and....................................Aft deck plate fixed!!!! used the above method to get it straightened out, then once straight, I coated it with epoxy and let it cure overnight. worked fantastic. sanded it down a bit, then started on the attaching magnets. since there were only 4/12 of the pilot holes, I used a paint marker to mark the magnet locations on the plate by marking the tops of the subdeck magnets and pressing down to imprint. Worked pretty well. Next, I mounted two magnets to the bottom of the superstructure in-line with the deckplate magnets, so now the forward super is held in position, and can easily deploy as a recovery float. if the sucker doesn't stay in place, I have mount spots for two or three more magnets. From there, I went back to work on the stern. Since the kit does not have a hole for E turret, I had to get down and dirty with positioning. My hole saw is slightly bigger than the standard holes of the other barbettes, but I have a plan to deal with this based on how I dealt with the other barbettes. I spent last night watching VICTORIA on PBS, and getting my barbettes in place on A-D turrets. Once I got them in, I planked them with 3/16 balsa, and sanded down to tolerance. they're the proper thickness for the turret now, so the lines match up. I haven't planked up C turret's barbette yet. still looking at some options since that turret is a dummy, and I need it to move so I can take off the midships deckplate. I'm filling in those vertical gaps on the planking with putty, and will coat them with epoxy as the final step. After I got bored with that, I decided to get started on the rudder servo. things went well, and it looks like steering is just waiting for a plug-in. clearance worked out really well on all parts and props. the max throw of the rudder is conveniently the perfect distance, as the rudder stops just short of the props in either direction. Next steps: I'm going to do finish work on the barbettes, figure out C turret's barbette, work on E turret's setup, and..... I think I will literally run out of things to do until I get the guns and radio. the guns are on order, and will hopefully be arriving soon. I find out about my job in wisconsin this friday, or next monday. If I don't go.... then I'll be finishing the boat here. If I get the word I am hoping for, I'll be disappearing for about 30-50 days, depending on how long the ferry ride takes and when I can schedule it. getting out of Alaska in winter is like fighting your way out of Mordor. The risk of bad juju on the Alcan is high, especially since my truck is approaching 300,000 miles, so I'll leave by ship. Or I'll just stay here and start a local battle group with the Tex and a few of Phil's Gearings. Win-Win.
more boatwork.... Got the aft mast built out today. It looks like a mess, but I intend to clean it up tomorrow. I used serrated copper tubing to drill the holes for the secondary struts, and it reduced the amount of chipping in the balsa. Once I'm done with that, I'll make a secondary fire control tower, and the major superstructure components will be done. I'll drill the hollow parts, fill them with insulating foam, and seal it all up with epoxy, glassing the components to prevent catastrophic damage in the event of a hit. I wouldn't be too sad if the superstructure looked like the Seydlitz did after Jutland, but I'd like to at least keep from having to completely rebuild the super after every battle.
Finished the Superstructure and put dummy barrels on A turret today. Sorry, no pics. left my camera at home today. Once I get home this evening, I'll expando-foam the superstructure and A turret to finish them as recovery floats. After that, I will be out of things to do until the guns come in from Strike. Monday is the do-or-die day for the job down in Wisconsin unless the government gets shut down tonight, in which case, all bets are off until after it restarts.
Here's the pics. Did the expando-foam and things turned out well. just had to do a bit of sanding to clean up. I foamed the underside of the forward deck plate as a secondary recovery float. gonna drill through the barbette and run steel wire through it, and D-ring it to the hull.
Also. Gov shutdown has kinda thrown a wrench in the works for my wisconsin job. So I have to wait until after the shutdown to find out if I'm heading down. the guns should be in the mail soon, Steve is really awesome at sending updates.
yesterday and today have been spent installing armor on the hull. most of the hull will be concrete screen, and the stern is being armored up with plates from a plastic jelly belly container. Figured that if the screen turned out to be a bad idea that at least I'd have effective armor appliques on the really vulnerable spots. I used the hexagonal shape to form "diagonal wings inside the hull to concentrate on protecting the dual sterns, which should be arriving later this week. I also did a functions check on the rudder servo, and found it to be serviceable. note also, the protection of the rudder shaft from dings using a form-cut balsa block this reduced the chance of creating anything resembling a watertight chamber in the stern.
Started Painting the Superstructure last night. Worked out pretty good, I'm dolling her up in the Camouflage Measure 31a, Design 8B she wore in late 1944. Didn't get ahold of the deck color until this morning, so it's a bit "off" with regard to horizontal surface coloration. I continued the deck the same color as the verts, so it looks a bit like a blue candycane from above. can't sand down a lot of it, and the navy blue will show through a tad when I do repaint the deck, but I'll chalk that inaccuracy down in my "don't care *that* much" book until I do a major refit. The whole deck's supposed to be the shade of blue-grey that is on the bow deck from what I read this morning. no biggie. Still waiting on the guns, so we'll see what other kind of trouble I get into. (BTW, if anybody's wondering about the poster, my best friend's wife made that as a collage of my most-used words--conveniently, the hull blocks all of the curse words)
Nice looking ship so far. Funny that Mylab is on that poster. A lot of my friends from college had less than flattering things to say about it.
I probably dealt with something similar in Chemistry though, but I forgot that entire year when I realized that math-chem was largely irrelevant, and that Organic Chemistry was the one true chemistry. Push Electrons or don't bother!
That screen armor probably wont hold up. Better options are 'pet resistant screen' or shower pan liner from home depot/lowes. Otherwise things are looking good
Yeah, I've been thinking the same since I mounted it. I'll scrape it out at some point in the next few weeks, probably before I skin the hull.
