And another quick update. Waiting on solenoids from BC and electrical connectors from amazon. Internals are otherwise laid out. Electronics are all waterproofed and ready to drop in the boat. Guns are built, just need to make mounts and measure for neck length. I spend this waiting for parts (and sometimes waiting for payday...) time building the little details, it helps keep me focused on the boat. Yes, I understand that the fact that my boat has tiny radars has nothing to do with how well it will perform. In fact, it will do nothing to prevent me from going 5 out of control 2 minutes into the first sortie. But I like it. I also know that my wonderful IRCWCC comrades will do everything in their power to fill the water with grey confetti the first time this boat goes out, and I'm okay with that too. Blow bits off, I can print replacements. So, here are some pictures of some stupid detail pieces: Tomorrow going to work on the gun mounts now that the turret hold downs are done and work on the gas plumbing. Planning on putting a permanent external connection in the boat to allow me to hook up my shop compressor to the boat and pressure test everything downstream of the regulator in a "full up" style test. This will let me test for leaks, test guns in the boat, etc. Just without CO2, since I don't own a 20lb tank and don't plan on buying one. Once thats done, maybe I'll build little anchors and anchor chains to further annoy those who think it's pointless.
I do that too! Well sort of, my compressor only goes up to 125PSI and it's plumbed with standard 1/4" OD air hose that fits into my push-to-connect fittings. Nothing fancy there, but very useful. I can do all the cannon testing I want, without worrying about running out of CO2.
I have a 175psi 80 gallon shop compressor, so I'll have to regulate down to 150psi for the boat. But it will be nice to test the gas system/guns as much as I want and not worry about CO2.
Update: Made gun mounts and installed the secondary turrets and their barbettes. The center secondary turret is going to serve as my recovery float since the superstructure weighs 32lb and will never in 10,000 years be able to serve as a float. I'll post pics about the float design later, but it's not complicated. Pic time, since everyone loves pics: Secondary turrets and their barbettes installed. All the barbettes on this boat are 3d printed because I'm lazy and didn't feel like going to the store to buy PVC or ABS pipe. I also lack any sort of chop saw to cut it and "just winging it" with a sawzall has never worked well in the past. All the barbs are designed with a 1/8" small diameter lip that is 1/8" tall, so they slide perfectly into the holes cut into the deck and are then E6000'd in place to seal them vs water intrusion. Trying to show A turrets down angle. I haven't finalized the angle yet, but any more and it'll start lifting the turret off the barb, so I figured this was a good place to start. B turret down angle, same deal as A. Pic of the gun mounts and the turrets to show what it looks like as battling. Turrets removed, showing the inner and outer mounts. Close up of B turret mounts so you can see what's going on in there. Just some bent brass, some stainless 6-32 hardware, and a nylon bushing to serve as a standoff. I plan to add a spring for the outer mount on B turret, the inner mount on A turret already has one (salvaged from a clothespin ). The spring just gives the thumbscrew something to tighten against.
1. The 3D printed SS is great. This is a nice showcase of what we can now do with this technology to make more accurate looking boats if we wish. once done, it is easy to reproduce. 2. now go back and figure out how to print with thinner walls and less infill and get the weight down, especially on levels above SS1 which don't take hits as much. 3. you have built a nice mount system and it is fairly consistent . Now 3D CAD the bar in the barbette with some hole for say 6-32 bolts or M4. keep going. well done.
The SS upper levels are much lighter than the lower levels in terms of infill, the whole SS weighs roughly 4lb that's including the weight of the decks. (I took the 3 decks off, stacked them tetris style on top of each other on a food scale). Is it heavier than a minimal-detail foam superstructure? Oh heck yeah. It's also a 40lb boat, it shouldn't really notice. I printed in PETG with my standard settings, 4mm walls 2mm roof/bottom lower levels infill is 35% and it tapers as you go higher down to 2mm walls 1.2mm top/bottom and 10% infill. I wanted to test how detailed I could go. I am not very good at making things pretty. When it came to the small gun directors, radars, etc, it was a bit of a challenge to come up with something that would actually print. The radars are all actually printed at 150% size, but from 5 feet away they really add something neat to the boat. There were some printer issues on the lower levels of the superstructure with under extrusion, but that was part of the learning process with this new plastic. Now that everything is dialed in from the trial and error on Jean Bart, I can print Courbet superstructure for the courbet builders pretty much on autopilot. As for the gun mount in the barbette, I totally could draw something up in 15 minutes that would work great. Could even incorporate a lip in the barb for it to sit on to make it a bit easier to position/glue in place. But I had the 3/8" plywood lying around and this worked pretty well. Next time!
I'm rather interested in your cannons. Interesting how you soldered the two elbows together. I'm very curious why. Can't wait to see how they shoot.
I dont know why, I just figured since they're dual mounts and they're always going to live as dual mounts why not. Theres no real point of failure in the elbows so very little risk of one failing and needing to de-solder to fix. These are also my first ever completely me designed and built cannons, so we'll see how well they work.
As long as you have clearance to tune the guns, it looks neat-o. I might have to utilize something similar with the triples I am building soon. On the weight in the SS.... 4 pounds might be a tad heavy still. that much weight in the upper reaches of the hull *may* make her handle like a puking dog in a turn, or once enough water has infiled the hull, to make her unstable in turns to such a degree that she could founder well before she's truly ready to give up the ghost. I am by no means suggesting scrapping the SS. But what I am suggesting is that you keep an eye on maneuver and stability both during shakedown, and in battle. If these possible issues present themselves, you have the resourcefulness and knowledge of your boat to figure out a solution better than I.
Thats 4 lbs including the wooden deck, the guns, the turrets, etc. Id say thats the absolute heaviest Id ever put on a boat, but within the realm of reason. My Dunkerque with 3d printed SS was roughly 2.5-3ish lb and had no odd handling characteristics. But we'll see come first shakedown cruise.
OH. Okay. that's not bad then. I was thinking you were talking about *just* the SS. disregard then, I think you'll be okay.
Work on Jean Bart more today. Added the impenetrable area I'm allowed for the raised center deck section of the hull, installed pump outlets, worked on the gas plumbing a bit. Pictures are worth more than words, right? Just 1/32 basswood which I had lying around, attached to the boat and then fiberglassed for strength. This pic shows off two new things. The external air connection, and the spool for the recovery float. Center secondary turret serves as float, it's permanently attached to this sleeve for the barbette hole and the whole thing is filled with expanding foam to make it boyuant. I'm going to paint the sleeve red to really give it that fishing bobber effect. External connection connected with connectors to show off the connection. Hah. Forward pump deck rim exit. The restrictors are in-line but easily accessed for CD testing. Need to clean it up with a light sanding but the epoxy was still drying. In fact, this whole boat needs a good sanding job still. I'll get there. Also mounted the stern gun and attached gun pins to the deck. Also worked on the boat's carrier, which is why it's sitting on top of the trash can. Also, before anyone says it: Ha ha, the boat is sitting where it belongs.
Flipped the boat over, installed drag shafts. Need to get some cotter pins to use as struts. You can also see the silly beefy stuffing tubes and 1/4" thick aluminum struts I made to hold said silly beefy stuffing tubes. Also mounted pumps using my preferred low-tech J hook and a rubber band technique. Tossed the ESC's in the boat, need to make little pockets for them to sit in. Wish I would've thought about making a little ESC-potting box instead of just letting the epoxy harden in the solo cup...but whatever. Pics: Zip ties, while common in my boats for literally everything, are only temporary to hold the drag shafts in place as the JB weld sets up. Another common feature in my boats is incredibly poor wiring. And fire. Forward pump. I placed magnets in the water channel fore/aft of each pump to try and catch BB's, I also have a motor shield/ESC holder I need to print out for both pumps. Keeps the rubber bands off the spinning motor can. Stern pump. It's pretty crowded right here. Good thing that wiring is getting routed and won't stay that way. Just want to permanently locate the ESC's first.
Just a note: You may find those sidemounts work much better if they're angled a bit forward, more like 60-70 degress, not 90.
It's been a long time since I battled a boat anywhere near this size, my NC had them pretty perpendicular but that was 6~ years ago and my memory is a little foggy. I see plenty with them slightly forward. The mounts are easy enough to relocate, I can give that a shot. A turret is a bit more forward aimed than B turret, kinda visible in the picture I posted to show off the gun pin setup. I will relocate B to match that angle. Thanks for the advice.
Small update. Waiting on parts from BC and Mcmaster to arrive so I can locate solenoids and work on wiring. Did a little plumbing work, a little waterproofing work, and a little wiring. Didn't take pics. What I did take pics of, was modifying the boat's carrier board with a little trick I saw @Nate G use on a few of his ships, and actually cutting out the impenetrable area in the nose of the boat. As Steve A and @Kevin P. humorously pointed out when they saw JB for the first time this past Saturday, I had filled in the nose with 3/8" plywood to give the boat its shape and never cut it back to make it the legal 2". Well, that's fixed now. It's a large, heavy SS, but this trick still worked well. Very useful for servicing the boat, make sure your wiring/tubing is just long enough to hinge the decks off and into their spots. Maybe a little longer for wiggle room. Front deck hatch in it's cradle to demonstrate. And JB's nose.
