FS Suffren (IRCWCC)

If this build thread was any lower energy there wouldn't even be one. Only reason I'm really posting is to share pics of Suffren as it finishes construction so people can see what my Suffren Superstructure 3d printed files look like on a boat.

Suffren is a great cruiser. 3 units, so 2 guns 1 pump. 1 drive prop, 2 drag discs, dual rudders. Very easy to build boat for a newbie, and one that is competitive enough that said rookie might want to keep it around after they graduate into a bigger boat. Excellent backup boat with the new class 3 backup ship rule.

My original goal for this build was stupid simple brushed setup with BC multi board. Then I opened up the hull (which has sat on a shelf for a year+) and saw that it already has a brushless motor mounted in it and a BC pump with a brushless motor. Okay, so brushless I guess.

Prop is a 1.75" 4 blade nothing fancy BC prop I had lying around, rudders are 3d printed fishtails.

I'll post more pics later, here's what you've got for now.



Hull when it was first assembled and filled with foam.



Hull now, with front SS tower assembled and rear SS sitting on deck. Guns and solenoids are mounted. Made a cradle for battery to sit in. Motor and pump are also mounted. Direct drive brushless setup, not a huge fan but whatever it's a backup boat so long as it works.



Front quarter shot.

This boat is definitely the kind of thing you could build in a weekend if you had the drive to. With how she sits right now it will slam together very quickly. Mainly working on her while waiting for parts for Jean Bart or while something dries, etc.

 

Did a little Suffren work but back is still acting up so wasn't out in the garage long today working on either boat.



This boat is using the 6-32 machine screw/brass knurled nut for deck hold down. The rear deck is one large piece from the deck step all the way back. Mainly went with this strategy because the decks had warped pretty nice, not sure why or how considering they had been epoxied before storage. Yes, the excess stud will get cut flush with the deck.



If it wasn't for the subdeck crossmembers on the Bart, Suffren would easily fit inside. It's the rare franco nesting boats.

 

Mmm, Suffren!

 

IMO one of the best cruisers in the hobby. French superiority! Honhonhonhonhonhon

 

I'd agree. I need to build another one. They're great ships.

 

Wanted to do something productive but didn't want to be in the garage with the dog locked up in the house alone. So painted decks on JB and Suffren.

 

Suffren Update:

Got the internal layout finished, made up some rudders and got the servo+rudder linkage sorted out. Used some R/C airplane tech here, traditional push/pull rods, because of cost, ease to obtain, etc. Here are some pics:



I'm a little concerned with how much weight I've got located "up high" under the deck. The solenoids hang pretty low for being deck mounted, but with the blue foam in the bottom of the hull I'm worried that she's going to be extra tippy. We will see as the build progresses.

 

As a DD driver and past "turtle owner", put water in the hull and drive it around. Everything was fine until some water got in the hull, one turn later and it was all red hull...

 

I'm hoping that she'll be light enough for lead bilge keels when the build is mostly finished. But yes, I am prepared for a complete re-engineer if she proves to be exceptionally tippy.

 

Big enough motor?

 

Not nearly enough. I was thinking of running a 270kv 50mm can motor for 3.6 horsepower in the boat but it weighs 2lb...might have to shave some superstructure weight down to make it fit.

 

torque roll for days

 

First time I have gotten troths thread.
Love the 3D Super!
nice physical layout. more battery than needed.
what don't you like about Brushless direct drive? If values are correct, I think it is an excellent way to go.
Issues: It looks like you wired the solenoids in parallel which means you have only half the voltage to each. also pneumatic runs for solenoids to gun base are long and small.
Looking forward to seeing it on the water. my builds have stagnated.

 

With this build I'm not trying to break any molds in terms of fancy technology hence the direct-drive hence pretty standard run-of-the-mill guns. Like I said in the first post this boat was originally supposed to be an old-school all brushed motor Town Bicycle style build but when I opened up the hull it already had the brushless motor mounted and a brushless pump so I just ran with it.

The guns are pretty standard I thought in terms of Hose runs and diameters. It's a simple enough job to replace gun feeds with 1/8 inch hose if I notice any negative effects.

Yes she is very over batteried but right now the build is pretty much finished and the boat doesn't even weigh 6 pounds. So might as well take some ballast in terms of battery, and having planned this way from the start it let me universalize all of my batteries between boats.

 

Yes she is very over batteried but right now the build is pretty much finished and the boat doesn't even weigh 6 pounds. So might as well take some ballast in terms of battery, and having planned this way from the start it let me universalize all of my batteries between boats.[/QUOTE]
And that is a VERY good idea.

 

Working on Suffren now that JB is ready for North Carolina. Will probably bring it too, if only to put it in the water and putz around some.

Sheeting is drying, putting internal armor in. Fiberglass reinforced dog resistant screen door material. I really like this stuff vs the old shower pan liner I had used in previous builds. Don't need to worry so much about moisture getting trapped behind the internal armor.

Also spy shot of the rudders/prop. This boat has pretty good coverage I think, rudders are standard airfoils no fishtail here. Considering how short they are I couldn't make a halfway decent schilling shape.

Anyhoo, pic time while E6k dries:

 

Sheeted and in the car for NC. It's not combat ready yet, and I still need to do the outer layer of paper for the sheeting once we get there. But it should be ready for a run around the pond or two.

 

good luck gettin her done. hope she sees water this weekend. safe journeys!

 

It's been a while, but small Suffren update:

Ship floats and everything is operational. One gun is being finicky and will need to be taken out and inspected. Otherwise all systems are present in the ship and working as advertised. Need to go through it now and firmly mount all electronics/wiring/tubing where they want to go to prevent components breaking free and rocking the ship around.

In this pic she has a grinder arbor (the little metal disc you tighten down onto the cutting disc on an angle grinder) to ballast her out as she was listing slightly. Worked out well because one of my small 1300 Mah receiver packs is about the same weight and now has a little compartment in the hull to ride in.

She has tons of acceleration, she turns pretty darn well compared to other cruisers, and is a ton of fun to drive. Need to take her to the lake again to really give her a work out. In the time I played around with her today she took on very minimal water, barely any moisture in the hull at all.

Need to lock down internal components, play with the gun mounts a bit, and troubleshoot why 1 gun doesnt fire reliably. Otherwise, she's ready to rock and roll. Emphasis on the roll.

 

So just a quick update to this.

This original cruiser was decommissioned, snapped in half over my knee and sent to the trash bin. It has since been reborn in one of my 3D printed hulls. This will be the first operational variant of the version 2 beta/pre-production hull.

All of the lessons learned with the original V1 prototype built by @Nomercy we're incorporated in this design along with the capabilities of my larger format 3D printers. This hull is made out of four independent sections with everything that I can model into the hull already accounted for. Every individual component was weighed on a food scale it's a real weight calculated into the 3D model and buoyancy calculations run against the entire hull to make sure that the whole thing is as balanced as it can be without any ballast.

The pictures that I'm going to show are scattered throughout the entire process of putting this thing together, as it has been a bit of a back burner project. Some of the pictures may not even be of my exact boat but instead may be of one of the two others that are also being built this season.

Drive is provided by a single direct drive 550 motor to an inch and a half four blade BC propeller. Electronics are a BC cruiser board. Damage control is provided by a full unit old school blue resin BC pump, which should be more than enough for a cruiser, with a 550 motor. Pneumatics include the lightweight BC regulator and a 3.5 oz bottle. Cannons are my own foster breach setup, no bypass, but big tube feeding the gun with a very short run from solenoid -> gun.

Anyhow, enough talking about it. Here are the pictures. My girlfriend Amanda is actually going to be the first one to drive this boat at the upcoming Bradford battle, so she is going to do the honors of applying its first ever coat of paint. I think that she's going to do a blue/gray dazzle camo like HMCS Regina.