Be patient you will see. It's not going to turn things upside down or cause drastic changes to the ships or anything like that.
hey, dont put urself down Curt. You never know, this might catch on and be the next big thing. And although im still waiting on the specifics (when are the rules/ship lists coming out Curt? by the way). Best of Luck
Visit this site According to MWCI rules, BBs (0.177" diameter steel shot) must be allowed to freely breach 85% of a ship's hull (measured by length) from 3/8" below the deck rim to 1" below the waterline when fired from a low-velocity BB cannon with a CO2 source not exceeding 150 psi. The fiberglass used on this model would not satisfy these conditions so sections of it, henceforth known as penetration windows, were cut away. Once the scale waterline was determined, I marked the penetration windows and then highlighted the remaining area with blue marker. One should note that this vessel is allowed a stringer (1/8" non-penetrable area below the deck rim) in certain sections because of the bulge at the armor belt. To cut the penetration windows, I first drilled a hole at each corner to prevent over cutting the window. Then, I used a Dremel rotary tool with a reinforced cut-off wheel to remove the fiberglass section.
Visit this site Our old friend, the metal tube/rod used to rejoin the hull, made an unexpected (although in hindsight quite expected) appearance. Although it was a pain in the butt to remove, I finally completed the task with a reinforced cut-off wheel, some elbow grease, and a few choice profanities. In retrospect, I should have swapped the steel rods used to rejoin these sections of the hull for brass because they would have been much easier to cut away.
Hi John LOL, I had the same problem when I rejoined the Roma, and I told myself if I ever made one of these again, I too would use a brass rod. But I forgot to tell you, sorry.
Visit this site All the penetration windows were cut from the hull. Then, I placed some components in the hull in order to determine an acceptable layout. From bow to stern, the components were: 7oz CO2 Bottle, Battlers Connection Standard Regulator, 2.0 Cubic Inch Expansion Tank, KIP Solenoid, 6V 36Ah Sealed Lead Acid Battery, Battlers Connection Large Pump, Four Mabuchi 550 motors with Battlers Connection GB500 Gear Boxes, Four 2.0 Cubic Inch Expansion Tanks, and a KIP Solenoid. Obviously, I was short three solenoids. Also, I wasn't quite certain about the final configuration of the main drive system (i.e. would it use dedicated reverse motors, would it use a switch throttle or ESC, etc.).
Well you got the hard part done, cutting out the windows, part I hate the most. Now your on to the fun stuff.
Aww! Cutting out the windows is the fun part of building a fiberglass hulled ship. You mentioned four motors. Are you going with two for forward thrust and four for reverse?
Hello: I'm not quite certain. Originally, I planned to power the inner shafts/motors for forward thrust and dedicate the outer shafts to reverse. Now, with all the new rule proposals governing propulsion systems I'm thinking about scaling the system down to 2 motors powering only the inner shafts (the 'classic' fast-gun setup). I have also been toying with the idea of powering the outer shafts as an emergency propulsion system. Basically, if the inner shafts get fouled or are otherwise rendered inoperable I could switch (via remote) to the emergency shafts. Granted, turning ability would be horrid running on only outer shafts but it would beat being dead in the water. However, I'm still debating how often the system would be used and if it would be worth the added complexity (not to mention the space in the ship). Jp
I don't think they're worth the added weight and space, especially if you figure that the ones on the outside are at least as likely as the innner props to become entangled.
Good point - that limits the usefulness even further to motor burnouts. Of course, I'm leaning towards using an ESC (Mtroniks Viper Marine 40) on the inner shafts so I guess it would provide some protection against an ESC failure. Jp
Patience is a virtue [] Seriously, though, I've been trying to update this thread in real-time - as I do something I post pictures. I'm also trying not to go overboard in an attempt to save space on my site and not bore everyone in this forum. Besides, I haven't really done much so far except join the hull (of which I definitely wanted to post a few pictures because I couldn't find any on the Internet at the time of purchasing the hull) and cut the penetration windows (somewhat boring on a typical WW2 ship). Jp
ok, just wondering, and yea, i know im a bit impatient. not one of my endearing qualities, but at least it means i dont procrastinate and im very on time(not saying that you procrastinate, but showing jhow impatience can be construed positively)
Visit this site The centermost piece of the water channel was cut from 1/4" birch aircraft grade plywood and epoxied to the bottom of the hull. Water from throughout the ship should be directed to this channel in much the same way as drain tiles around a house empty into a sump pit. Similarly, the pump will reside in the channel much like a sump pump in a sump pit. I also installed five #6-32 threaded inserts into this section of the water channel. Once complete, the entire center section of the water channel may be covered with screen material in order to pre-filter the debris, BBs, plant-life, etc. from the water before they reach and possibly clog the pump.
