The HMS Erin kit from SJS has been getting lonely on the bench, so I decided to put the hull together with some spare epoxy. Ever since Mike Mangus brought one to IRC Nats 2011 and won most feared it has been a boat I wanted to build. I planning to make a how-to video for the build as well. Anyways I glued the forward pieces together with epoxy, took about 45 min mainly because one set of fasteners were not facing the best way (which has been corrected) I glued the aft piece on with e6000 and installed the shafts in the same job, about another 45 min I put a yoga block up against the wall and used the block and hammer method for one shaft and drill for the other. Primary focus will be Vanguard but I’ll look to chip away at this when time permits
I had some extra epoxy mixed so got the magnets in and barbs. I used tape to get the magnets flush since they where a bit loose cleaned up after In all about another hour, so up to 2.5 hours total on the build
Picking this back up I put the stringer rods in with plastic bonder, held with zip ties while drying also added bilge keels using my normal method Roughly 1 hour for stringer and 2 for bilge keels so up to 5.5 total
Finished up the bilge keels added drag shafts Final of bilge keels And internal armor probably another hour on bilge keels and drag shafts, then 1.5 on internal armor, so now 8hrs in. Next up will be installing shafts and motors, then rudders to start other component spacing
Started on shaft install. going to try small 28mm motors going to use a Carl pump since the boat has the vertical outlet started on guns as well. It’s nice to only have to make 3 for this boat probably took 3.5 hours, so 11.5 to date
More gun work over the past 2 weekends. I printed elbow holders and plugs for the stock barbettes added plugs on the unused ones T fitting time spend to fun barrels and barrel holders also made solenoid mounts. The aft deck will stay in place most of the time so flex mags and deck mounted solenoids. I’m going to try the strike solenoids I picked up awhile ago. The worked fine shooting a vanguard gun so I’ll try them here probably spent 12 hours in total so around 24 total invested so far. Next steps are gluing in the mag mounts and bottle mount, then I’ll drop in my modular control rats nest and should be close to functional
No, I’m adding normal printed mag mounts/holders, but with the black pieces and the barrel tip holders the things are pretty much in place
interesting. no wobble whatsoever? I've never actually taken a close look at any of your cannon mounts in person. lol usually it's more of a "hahahaha he's not paying attention---OH GOD THE DUALS ITS THE DUALS RUN AWAY!!!!!"
Yeah generally no wobble once they are locked in. I tested the guns this weekend, also test fit electronics (modular from other boats). I also duct taped the hull, ready to sheet trying to chip away daily and get it ready in time for NJ battle
Progress update, I got the boat sheeted painting And fully painted also did a float test and added 2lbs of lead. The boat is generally ready to go, just need to connect air lines and turn on. The last update covered about 8 hours, this one probably 6 or so. Overall it comes to around 40hrs, though the electronics were just swapped. looking forward to first battle this weekend in NJ!
I can probably shave some time off your 40 hours, most of the kits are coming with integrated bilge keels now. Did your Erin have small recesses for the drag prop shafts to sit in on the hull? Because they come with that now too, vs needing to drill and glue and fill and such to mount proper drag shafts. -WT
First battle is in the books! Overall success with a few things to tweak before next time. first some pre battle shots Pre battle weight was 19.5lbs. This was a bit heavy, I removed a pound and boat was sitting better internals with batteries, 4x 5000mah 3s LiPos. here is the battery tray, with 0.5” for puffing Now some battle shots. A ram I missed caused a sink in 2nd battle now some of the water Saturday morning Overall a solid boat. I had to bump up from 800kv to 2200kv, but ended at 43%endpoint forward so probably 1400kv would be ideal. Guns and solenoids generally worked, I needed to bump up from 12 to 18v as one locked up in 2nd battle. Maneuverability was ok but room for improvement that I’ll work on. The one combat damage sink the boat went down bow first, so I’ll add some waterchannel there. Other adjustments will be trim weights, then experimenting with different rudder shapes and possibly different props.
Chipped away at the first batch of modifications Added waterchannel to bow and stern. Shaped the bow around the bottle stern area. Left space for pump ESC to fit aft of gearboxes now with tape and putty removed Also swapped out props for some directional ones I had lying around, and put on my traditional semi circle rudders, though the overall profile is not much different. A was able to extend props back 0.14” as well to get them further away from the stern cut-out. I made brass spacers on the lathe I think she’s about ready to retest, so I’ll try to make it to the pond next weekend to test out
