FN France - The Black Death

I just have a little question/suggestion here. Are the wing turrets too far forward to be practical as sidemounts? I just thought that if you used those you might be able to free up the aftmost turret for stern mounts. Or is there a different reason why you wouldn't want to use that position?

 

The wing turrets wouldn't have enough down angle for a sidemount. The arrangement I have now gives me be most ammo in sidemounts. I don't want to take away from the sidemounts to get stern guns. I'd rather sink ships.

 

Hey now, seems like you're implying the dual stern doesn't sink ships

Wing turret only really useful for something like a 15* off bow gun, like @Kevin P. has in his. Seemed to work well when he got it on target, basically aim it so it hits waterline even with the bow of the ship and then push people around. I'd be tempted to try a Death Y with dual stern in a wing turret if I wasn't already super tight on space in mine.

 

Not as easily as sidemounts. Lol Not saying duel sterns are bad, I'd just rather have the sidemounts.

 

Sooooooooo.............................. The reducer piece was a cheap chinese knock-off. the 1/8" side is slightly too big and the 1/4" side was slightly too small.

I destroyed the first one in a matter of seconds. mag tube practically got welded in there.
Going to just use end caps like you did. and yes, the piece was really long compared to your tapped cap. If I were able to find a good version of that reducer union, I would still prefer your solution.

So, I'll DM you for details on making the end cap

 

Looking more closely, it looks like those fittings are mislabeled. They're 6mm to 4mm, not 1/4 to 1/8 as advertised. That would explain the bad fit. I would return them if you have no use for them.

 

yep. Found a use about an hour later. nice setup for my aquaponics garden. fish need bubbles. tiny bubbles are better

either way, they're long. like, ungainly long, so even if they had been proper fits, I would still have traded them out for the caps you made

 

Not a very productive last two weeks. Spent both weekends up at camp replacing a rotten floor which killed productivity. Now with work being shut down by this virus building should continue rapidly.

But, here's a little bit of progress.
Built the pump. Same pump I have in my King Edward VII which Will was nice enough to print for me. Haven't flow tested yet but I think it'll be over 3gpm.


With the pump ready, I needed to mount the ESC. On my King Edward I ziptied the pump ESC to the midships cross member. I like how that worked out so I wanted to do something similar here. So here's my setup.
Made a couple hangers.

Then drilled and bolted in place. The ESC slides in and is held secure. Replacement would be quick and easy if need be.


Looks good.


Hopefully I'll have more progress to show in the coming days. I need to build and mount two more guns, wire up the guns, and build pump and battery hold downs and that'll take care of the major stuff I think. Getting close!!

Vive La France!

 

Finished building the two guns I needed to outfit France.

Thought I might show a little on how I build my guns now that I'm happy with how they work.
One of my favorite innovations is using these plastic plugs as pistons. They require a little shaping but they're tough and easy to drill. Here's a stock plug and one that's been shaped.


Drilling these pistons is super easy. Just drill a 3/16" hole in a clamped piece of wood.


Then switch out the bit for 1/16" and push the Piston into the hole in the wood and drill. It's that easy. No lathe required.


I then trim the piston. (5/8" typical) I put the piston in the gun and screw the cap on till I can just see the piston appear in the magazine hole. I stop there and mark the two outlet holes.


And ready to be soldered. Bottom tube is the supply, one side port is for the mag and the other goes to the breach bypass. One thing to note, I put my mag and bypass feed ports kinda high on the cap compared to others. My reason for this is to ensure the piston has started to travel upwards before any other parts of the gun gets pressure. This seems to produce reliable results and I have almost no issues with double feeds. Guns fire hard and fast.


Both new guns mounted up on the underside.


Redid the hoses for the bow solenoid. Added an accumulator.


Settled on the gun arrangement. Going with a bow gun like Kevin did on his but I'm also arming a wing turret as a compliment to the haymaker.


The idea for the wing turret is to aim it at the exact spot where the haymaker hits, acting almost like those converging sidemounts that got banned a while back.

We'll see how it works out.

Got recalled back to work so progress is gonna slow down unfortunately. I think I'll have her ready for regionals in Maryland come May if this virus doesn't shut everything down.

That's all for now.

 

are these the plugs you use for the air lines instead of a PTC end cap? Do you have a quick link handy? also, what are you using to trim that head to tolerance?

 

Soon, I shall add your pistons to my boat of shameless idea theft.....

 

Getting down to the final stages on the internals.
Built the pump mount.
Design marked out.

Installed.

Pump has small spacers that slide into the slots.


Whala.


Hole through the deck for the discharge.


Tie down for the bow solenoid.


Gutted the hull and painted it.


Reinstalled everything. Don't forget to flat your shafts!


Stern is done! Looking freaking cleeaaan!

Just a little more work to do in the bow. Mostly figure out how to keep the mess of receiver wires from looking like a rats nest. Then possibly... sheeting?
Hope y'all are staying safe out there.

 

I like the arrangement of the solenoids in the stern. one of these days, I might have to build a fiberglass boat and see what it's about.

 

Made some progress.

Added some details to get shot away. Aim your guns accordingly.


Glued in the internal armor.


Receiver waterproofed with E6000.


The started on sheeting.


Overall, this was one of my better sheeting jobs. Maybe I'm getting the hang of it?

Looks pretty good.


Float tested at 19lbs. Might run her at 20.


And sea trials this morning!

So yep, Black Death has been officially launched. Sea trials went ok. Boat ran pretty well. The 24v direct drive is super quiet and seems to have plenty of torque. Turning wasn't much to speak of but I think that is because I had the props on the wrong shafts. I will swap them and try again. Also pump took a sh*t right before leaving. Thermo plastics touching isn't very good...


Overall, I'm very pleased with the trials. Now just need to fix the little issues and get back to the pond for round II.

Vive La France!

 

Switched the props and went for a second run. Definitely turned better and less cavitation.

View: https://youtu.be/p-XgxOa721E

 

Autocorrect strikes again! Hahaha. Look good though brother. Quite "captivating" lol.

 

Pretty bote, mon! Good luck with her

 

Very cool!

 

Are you sure you want an all-black paint scheme? I'm told it makes finding all the holes you need to patch much more difficult.

 

I wouldn't say it's all black. Still putting red below the waterline. If the black is too much of a pain I'll go back to grey next time I sheet.