FN France - The Black Death

Moving closer to completion.

After two failures with plastic impellors I decided to go full metal. Parts were cut.

And soldered.

Works well.

Took the boat for an endurance run today. Drove around and pumped for about an hour. Charger put a little over 5amps back in. Not bad!


Next up is finish mounting the guns.

 

Another run today. Took some video. Did some extensive tests on reverse endurance/deck seal/damage control. Might need to add some sort of deck seal. Lol
Also if anyone is familiar with my previous Ship vs tree episodes, this is a continuation of the storyline. (At the end.)

View: https://youtu.be/zFtn421B4VA

 

Looks great. I think you’re taking this French thing too seriously, the goal is to not sink in reverse

 

Is this not required training for all French captains though? Maybe I'm reading this manual wrong...lol

All joking aside, she really only deep dives when I have the rudder hard over while in reverse. (That was done for most of these runs) Diving in reverse is less dramatic of I keep the rudder straight.

 

Back to work again so boat time took a hit. Got a few things done though.
Got the right length servo extension wires and organized all the cables going to the receiver. Came out pretty clean.


Added most of the ballast. This is just shy of 3lbs and I'll need a little over 4 to get her ballasted. Running about 19.5lbs I think.


Made a "coronavirus shield" for my filming rig. With just the lens on this costing more than the point-and-shoot I used to use for filming I think a little protection from BB's can be afforded. Lol

That's all I got. All that's really left is to final mount the guns. Once that's done, a few all-systems checks to make sure everything works properly and she'll be ready for battle... whenever that will be.

 

What, the Tribble doesn't get protection?

 

Is there any space tween the lense and the shield? If so I would wonder if bb's shot from behind the camera could ricochet off the shield and get to the lense. Otherwise man that looks sweet.

 

Lol this isn't the first time someone has made that reference. Nah, he's squishy enough to take the hits.

Ricochets from the back are pretty unlikely I'm thinking. With someone behind the camera at all times the bb has to get through them first. Main issue I'm dealing with is reflection so I may rig a set of billows or something to cut out the extra light. That will keep any stray bbs out for sure.

 

Dang. I was thinking it was to be mounted on the ship. Lol.

 

speaking of boat-mounted cameras...............

I got a pretty sweet rig for mine. pics later.


Nice shield. It's never overkill if it keeps the goods safe.

 

I thought of that. I'm only scared the filter wouldn't be enough and the BB would still damage the front element. I know some of those ricochets come in pretty hot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Do it for science! Lol

 

Have to be honest, I took a break from the France for a few weeks. Just wasn't inspired to work on it. In the meantime I've been working on refitting my old 1/6 scale M22 Locust for RC Tank Combat. Built new tracks and installed new motors.

I'll get the France done soon. I just needed a break.

 

May have to do something with my Stuart one of these days.

 

Getting back to finishing this. Looks like nats is on so I need a good boat.
Update on the tank, added suspension.


Working on locking down the gun positions. Made these mounts to hold the barrels securely but also be easily removed.

Simple bottle O-ring holds the barrel in a twist. Hole added to store the pins during battle. Never liked fishing line for that.



I'll get more photos once I finish the two bow guns. Tested both the sidemounts after mounting and they're working great. Got a good feeling about this ship.

 

Looking great! Do you guys have the rule where the barrel safety pins have to be permanently attached to the ship? I’m not a huge fan of the fishing line/wire either and wasn’t sure if I could use what you did and still have it count as “permanently attached”.

 

The IRCWCC does have that rule. I guess it comes down to how the rule is interpreted. I've lost pins using fishing line so is that really permanent? I know these pins won't be going anywhere on the mounts, especially if I push them all the way through. I'd say it's permanent but I guess it's up to the CD to decide.

 

Been doing my 10 minutes of NATS prep every night. France is almost there.

Had to take a weekend off for a "little" maintenance on the car.


Guns are all mounted tho. Hooked the air lines to the compressor and found/fixed all the leaks. Haymaker still needs work to fire right. Seems feeding is an issue. I'll figure it out.
Here she is tho.



Also added a pump screen because that's important I guess...


Can't wait to take her into harms way!

Vive la France