My first boat in the hobby. It seems so long ago, but so much less than some people ...94.67 million seconds have elapsed since last active status. A status check takes an unacceptably long 2.8 seconds and reveals grave deficiencies in my combat readiness. Parties unknown have removed the barrels from the stern dual infinite repeater battery, and from the forward rotating repeater. My damage control pump has been disconnected and removed to parts unknown. Surface sensors alert me to a alarming amount of battle damage on all areas of my hull, with concomitant battle damage to main structural members. But power has been connected and I am in a well-lit shipyard which I assess capable of effecting the extensive and necessary repairs to return this unit to battle-ready condition. %^0010011#$-- glitchcode!0010010#% This unit was initially commanded by Captain vonTugboat, who after a short while relinquished command to Commander Christopher Koehler, under the command of Commodore Brian Koehler, who oversaw improvements to my repeater batteries and it was the first ship that Christopher piloted until defecting to embrace the dark side with his new SMS Bayern. !@#00000110011&^ Memory glitch contained. This unit was shelved in the Koehler shipyard for the bulk of the aformentioned lengthy downtime. I surmise that during this powered-down status was when my combat systems were salvaged. Once-proud combat systems sat gathering dust without a captain or call to battle. But now, a trickle of power from a portable power source has been connected to my processor. 'Lion,' my new commander speaks the passcode, 'it's time to ride again.' 'Unit LYN of the Line acknowledges,' I replied, 'I register severe damage to the hull plating and combat systems that must be repaired prior to engaging the enemy.' My commander tested the MAG throttle, and to my delight, my motive systems, at least, roared to life with a satisfying keening from the engines. My new captain, who have learned is my first commander, Captain Tugboat, ordered hard port and starboard turns, and I was deeply satisfied to find that the steering gear performed as well as it had when new, responding in a few milliseconds at most. He hooked up a bottle of the CO2 gas necessary to fire my inifinite repeater batteries,and depressed the firing stud. After an embarassing stutter ! The twin sterns fire, the bow sidemount fires, and as my forward turret rotates, my commander grins... So far today, I got the old balsa off, and got more ready to go on. Cannon barrels were dug out of storage, and a mighty Angry Bees pump has been sourced. Lion is approaching a return to combat readiness. Please forgive me waxing poetic, I've been reading the Bolo novels again, and it tends to have an effect on me.
In order to fit a 5oz bottle in the boat (front end is a little tight because of the rotate), I am ditching the 12AH 6V lead-acid, and going to a pair of 8AH 7.4V LiPOs of the type that I use in Scharnhorst. 16AH will be overkill for one battle, and LiPOs don't mind quick-charging over lunch. Using these batteries allows me to run them like a saddle pack with the CO2 bottle down the middle of the ship. Also, this allows me to separate the main deck into two pieces. Yes, when I first started the hobby, I had the entire length of main deck come up in one unit for FARPing (Fwd arming and refuelling point, Army terminology that my coworkers have given me lol). So from a 3-foot deck to be removed, it'll be two smaller ones, with just the center part lifting to replace gas and ammo. Before going inside last night, all structural damage was repaired, so that the epoxy would be well-set by morning so that I could resheet with confidence in the structure. Lion's got the original 1.5" 4-blade props at the moment, if I get everything else done to get her into battle, I'll print some slightly larger 40mm ring props for her tonight. If I don't have time to print a pump, I'll install the POW pump and really move some water! (This time, with a restrictor that won't blow off like it did on POW) Come to think of it, I've got the room, I think I'll do that anyway in the name of getting the ship done Like Ben Franklin said, 'A pump in the boat is better than two printing on the printer!'
It's been a long and productive day in the shop today getting Lion ready for battle. First, I was going to use the old standard 12AH, 6V batteries that she began her career using. They work well. BUT. With a lot of room forward occupied by the rotate system for the bow sidemount in B turret, I couldn't fit the 5oz CO2 bottle that I want to. So...what to use???? A pair of the 8AH 7.4V LiPOs that Scharnie has been using for years with great success (and a notable lack of LiPO explosions that I was assured would happen). If I ran a pair of those, one on each side, with the bottle in the middle, everything could be changed out with just the center section coming up. So, I built two battery boxes, one of which can be seen below with the battery in it: These serve a few functions: 1) Holding and protecting the batteries, 2)separating the center section for routing of wires and hoses so that the boat isn't such a snake pit inside. Below is a hasty pic of the battery racks being glued in. This is early int he day before the hose replacement and a lot of other work. The busiest section of the boat, amidships! The battery racks are there port and starboard, with the bottle sitting on its bracket in the middle. I'm using my old heavy regulator, because with the switch to LiPOs, Lion needs a little more ballast Ahead of the batteries on the port side (top right in pic) is the regulator to step the pressure down from 150psi to like 100psi for the little Clippard solenoids. The sharper-eyed among you may notice that the reg has a big ole fitting on it, feeding gas thru a 3/8" hose to a push-quick manifold that feeds a 1/4" hose to each gun. The old gas system had a single 1/4" hose feeding everything with various things tapped off of it. one long 1/4" hose ran aft to a small (34/" x 3") copper accumulator that had one port on the end with 2 outlets, one to each gun valve. The new system runs a separate 1/4" line back to each gun valve. 2 feet of line is just fine as an accumulator, should give way more flow to the guns. Forward of the batteries on starboard is the MAG throttle, and the servo and microswitches for the solenoids. The black and red buttons on the thwart amidships are the gun test buttons, and they are conveniently available beneath the Q turret. Moving aft, you can see the motors and gearboxes, and the POW pump. The vertical pipe and restrictor have not been fitted to the pump, and the vertical pipe will be secured to the thwart just forward of the pump. For those who are not familiar with the POW pump, it has a 40mm brass impeller with a very tight tolerance to the motor casing and an 875 watt brushless motor. When the restrictor was blown off on POW, the pump threw a 1/2" diameter column of water 30 feet high. Also drew a crap ton of electricity to do that. So in Lion, the speed is being dialled back a bit to save power. And if I take that many holes, I don't really want to resheet between battles. You can see all the hoses, which are the orange things along the port side. Low power wiring and hoses port, high power wiring stbd. I went with orange hoses (I have 4 colors in the hose box) because there's nothing else in the ship that's orange and it'll simplify the picture when I'm up late at night working on the boat at a battle. Less color variety is easier on my simple mind! Oh, all hoses, large and small, got the little brass retainers that Clippard sells that help make sure that your hoses stay on their barbs. I've seen too many hoses blow off at inconvenient times and never one with a retainer on it... I didn't change a whole lot in the aft end; the valves came out so that I could replace the gas lines and reinforce the mounting pedestal, which also holds up one end of the rudder servo. The empty space between the vales and the motors is where the twin sterns slot in, with the magazines going forward over the pump and positioning the reload ports in the center section. While some repairs were certainly needed here and there, it's hard to believe that my half-@$$ed 10-year old subdeck has held up so well. It will be good to take Lion into battle once more, this time with several years of battling experience to help me make her new debut battle a better one than the original. More to come! Sheeting! Solenoid wiring! Gun testing! Driving in the test basin!
Got the twin sterns mounted last night. Just a little electrical work (battery connectors and wiring to solenoids) and sheeting to do. Sheeting on Lion is easy, you can almost do it in one long piece, no stringers to mess with.
