I was starting to feel like I didn’t have enough build threads in progress, so I decided to include this one to show off some new stuff I’m doing. I first built the Fiji in 2005ish (way before building Fiji’s was the cool thing to do) for my dad to see if he would get into the hobby, and because I didn’t have my license yet. We took it to a Nats but keeping two ships running was too much for me back then, so it didn’t get used much. It did make an appearance in a few cruiser battles over the years. The Fiji is a cool ship for the hobby because it is pretty big for class 2, and if you want you can run it as a Swiftsure class in class 3...with one less turret mounted. This hull came from Canada, BC now makes a very nice hull of the Fiji I started this refit back in June when I was trying to get it ready for Nats, but with the Missouri build in progress I ran out of time. The goals of this refit were to remount shafts and rudder since their placement wasn’t great, and redo all the inside stuff. The boat was still intact when I picked it up from my parents house last year. The armament will be triple sterns, just 25 rounds though. I wanted to move the guns aft to be able to get some down angle on them. Here are some photos from back in June showing the ‘before’ as well as some of the changes I made back then Here she is before, on top of the very incomplete Missouri The guns where dual 50 round, mounted in the superstructure to move weight forward. They were a tight fit, but I got them in there Motors, pump, poppets from the old box Guns, old BC The box, back before I knew to get clear polycarbonate at Home Depot haha, lead acid battery, bottle in bow Old shaft angle, pre fishtail days rudder, this thing turned very poorly Stuff removed from inside Shafts cut out intact, they are now in my new class 1 project New shafts going in New motor mounts I’ve done a fair bit more, just need to locate pictures.
Found more pictures. All current/work in progress/final configuration. Here is the stern, rudder servo, servocity sprocket and chain View showing solenoid location Bow, 10Ah headway cells, bottle Guns, two 50rd and one 25 for triples View of the barrels, hopefully for close range destruction. Barrels hold the guns in this case Bottle holder Pump outlet tube to prevent rolling cut flush I added this post to help route the pump hose to prevent contact with shafts Shifting to electronics. Talked about this in other build, but the goal is to make a control console that can be shifted between boats easily, with minimal wiring required. Heart is the new BC cruiser board (gun, pump, power distribution), along with hobbywing ESC and $12 receiver. Here are BC test switches, very clean distribution with leads, XT30's Here is the BC cruiser board This is about it for the wiring, whole boat Showing the test board connections This really was plug and play. I removed the jumper from the BC board, set up the jumper on the Hobbywing ESC (F/R, Nimh battery), and bound the reciever and I had an operational control system. Very impressive, highly recommend for new and experience captains alike I potted the BC board in epoxy to waterproof, here is my 'mold' Here is the board potted, with a brushless pump ESC (different project TBD) Next I made a box to hold the main components. 1/16" ply With components It's 2.75" long and like 2 3/8" wide Components can be pulled out of the box quickly Box Test switch holder Epoxied and in place This is it for now, I will prioritize this build just to get it off the plate, should be down to component test and install at this point
Well then, I guess if Charley likes it that I'll use these pics as a guide to set up my own, lol. Looks good, Kevin! Got a thread for the MO?
Yes the setup is pretty straight forward, you'll use the test switches for the stern guns, everything else should be direct connections to the board, very quick, easy, and clean I do have a build thread for the Missouri, one of my quicker builds. I'm in the process of making a few changes, but most of the layout won't change. It sure is a beast https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/uss-missouri-build-ircwcc.445059/
"Quicker" and "Missouri" don't seem to belong in the same sentence. You're a gifted builder indeed. I'm going to run my test switch board for my three gun batteries(Stbd side, port side, dual sterns), but I may have to get a second board to use it like you have.
Man.... that MO is huge. The CandyCornia in the background on some of those shots is more my speed though....
You want test switches to shoot the stern guns independently for the most effective way to tweak. You can test the sides with your radio, or get another pair of test switches for the stern. Your wiring to the test switches would be slightly different for the configuration you mentioned, you won't solder the 'jumpers' between the switches, and run each separate negative signal to the switch board The times constraint of NATs gave me enough motivation to finish the Missouri in time, and yes it is huge haha. I figured why not build it while i'm young (relatively), I also got to see at the real thing daily for three years
okay cool, sounds like I'm going to be pestering @Charley at some point to get a second board. I'll run the sterns and the haymaker off of the board I have, and the rest of the stuff off of the second board then.
Not much tangible progress over the past couple weekends, but I did get the internal armor installed yesterday. Now that the armor is in I can move forward putting it all together. I use the pet resistant dog screen popular in the northeast, here is the packaging I use goop to attach it to the underside of the deck rim Bow Now both sides done
I've finally been able to get myself to focus on finishing this refit. Here are pictures from the past couple weeks Put the solenoids and fittings on the board With check valves installed the guns testing out the convergence There was less math used with these aimers than on my other builds, more of a general 'hit together pretty close' Hooked up hoses to the guns sheeted this boat along with the little boat. see other build for more pictures of sheeting process contact cement drying Side attached painted (i think) float test. Sitting pretty good, she is trimmed by the stern which is good. Sitting at about 9.5 pounds which should be a good weight for this boat. I decided to shift my battery plans from 6V up to 12v to get better performance out of the solenoids. I will use my 4S zippy puffy packs which should have plenty of juice for this little boat. Here is a battery mount sized out for my largest pack Minor conflict with the regulator hoses, so I have to move them out the sides, not terrible though the battery mount being epoxied in place Here is the 4th turret that I made up. At one point in time I had four turrets, but one must have been lost at some point over the past 10 years since I built this. An interesting thing about the Fiji is that it is pretty much the same as the later Swiftsure class, but the switsure class only had 3 main turrets vs the fiji which had 4. But, the way the displacement works out, switfsure is class 3 while Fiji is class 2, 2.5 units. I used to run this boat as a 3 unit swiftsure class, but now with the triple sterns I need to run it as a class 2 in order to be able to split units. Anyways, I made the turret out of balsa because I was too lazy to make a mold, I put one layer of cloth on the sides for slight bb resistance. This will be the superfiring aft turret
The 12v motors arrived this week, I put them in today. Here is the final internal arrangement, overall the small ships are pretty simple on the inside, this one is more of a mess because of the triples Got the box all stuffed together with the 12v ESC Battery in place. Rudder servo installed finally (this has been on the to do list for a very long time I tested out the guns. All three worked really well, nice and hard, consistent shots. This little 2.5 unit ship could be a campaign beast. Here are groups of about 5 shots to a small pizza box to check grouping Just have to put the finishing touches on and then sea trials. Maybe next weekend
well, that's one way to gain local fire superiority. I presume this armament concept is not beneficial in a regular battle?
It could be, depending on how you want the trade-off between punch and trigger pulls to settle out. Good triples can do a lot more damage proportionally than you might expect. The allied 3.5 unit cruisers are slightly too big (and lack a step deck) to be as effective as their axis counterparts with triples, which is why I put the third gun in on this boat. I have the BC board that would allow splitting the guns, so I could use one 50 round gun as a 'ranging' shot and then shoot all 3 when the time is right, but I ended up going with the new integrated board for simplicity. Two of the guns have 50rd mags, so if a fleet battle I would probably go with dual sterns, which I see as the optimal arrangement for this boat, and all I have to do is pull the plug to one solenoid. I have been on the receiving end of some very effective dual stern cruisers (Dave R, Tim B, Chris P). Outside of Nats, I would personally only use this boat in cruiser battles, but I will probably take it along with me as a loaner boat for anyone having issues or for a new guy to push over the edge. Having a reliable cruiser is a good thing to have in a boat inventory, so this one will serve that roll until I build another allied cruiser to take its place. I will battle it at least once with the triples, just because I spent the time to build it that way
Wow that boat is going to be a total beast then. I like your ranging shot concept, I used to do that with 155s in afghanistan. it's always nice to have, *Especially when the stupid gun bunnies shoot the ranging round and it lands nearly on top of your position and you get the chance to scream "Check Fire" into the radio before they unleash a twelve round fire-for-effect with a mix of HE and WP set on Prox* or the other time when they were 900 meters off and hit a village. I may have to do something like this with a 2.5 some day. First thing's first though, gotta finish my Texas
Yeah, twice. they were pretty restricted where I was on the second deployment, but they unleashed us during the DUSTWUN incident in july 2010 when two navy pukes came into our sector in an up-armored jeep cherokee and drove straight into the worst part of our sector to duke it out with Mullah Kharoti's insurgent group. that was a monthlong knife fight with every acronym you can think of present. Even Delta showed up for that mess. the first deployment was more of a straight-up fight, since everybody was focused on Iraq, OEF was a complete field day for Arty, A-10s, the works. One time, my second platoon had to call "Alamo" and got some kid in a candy store stuff with assets stacked to forty thousand feet and direct lay with our M198s to shoot between the sorties. fireworks galore. anywho, tangent complete, back to our regularly scheduled program, lol.
That M982 looks interesting. Back in the 80's my ship was a test bed for a 5" laser guided shell that was probably an early ancestor of the M982. I was told we hit a moving tank from 10 miles off shore. Apparently the tank didn't fair all that well...
yeah those laserheaded ones were copperheads, we used them in germany for training. they're awesome. the 982s have to be reset if you let them sit in the gun for too long
