Thought I'd jazz up the rudder on my Mogador. The stock BC rudder is a fine looking piece of steering equipment but I thought it could use a little flare! Here's a conversion to a Schilling rudder, aka a fishtail rudder. The stock rudder outline is traced to a template. A socket wrapped in Gorilla tape is used as a form. JB Weld epoxy putty is kneaded up and pressed into the cavity formed by the socket. Once the putty sets up a bit, the socket is carefully removed. If you haven't guessed by now, the JB Weld doesn't stick to Gorilla tape. Before the putty sets all the way, it is sanded to shape. Repeat for the other side. The profile template is used to verify that the rudder size was not increased. Not trusting the putty's bond to the resin rudder, I laminated a layer of linen over the rudder with a fast set epoxy. Trimmed and sanded. Painted and back on the boat.
The next time you see a Bismark or Vanguard spinning on it's midpoint, it's got one of these on it's ass end. I suspect a Schilling rudder is one of those dirty little secrets the vets dont' talk much about (at least in a public forum). Of the two fastgun rulesets, MWC states rudders are measured by cross-section so no problem with a Schilling. IRC doesn't really state how to measure a rudder but the assumption has been to measure by profile. So until a ruleset defines a rudder as a thin flat plate, I'm assuming all's good.
uhh...they aren't a dirty secret at all, lots of guys have been using them openly for years. You just have to go to events and look around/talk to people, a lot of (fastgun) vets aren't on this forum. They help but they aren't super rudders, I've had them on my Bismarck far longer than I've been able to spin my Bismarck, spinning was a result of a lot of work to improve performance. The ones on the Vanguards took a LOT of trial and error too in order to get them to turn as they do. Generally speaking getting great perforamnce is a matter of a lot of effort, testing, and tweaking. Sort of like real life.
Or you could just utilize the forum and ask questions here since battles don't happen every day. Gotta love those dirty secrets. Whatever can give someone that extra edge or at least boost their confidence it does then it's all good. This makes me laugh cause it makes me think that someone will think that this is actually helping someone out to an unfair advantage (mind you it doesn't and I have not problem with that, so please read this before having bunched up panties). But that will be where the rudder can only be 3 inches by 1/2 inch with a slope of whatever degree....lol. To all the tricks you can use and interpret what is written to your advantage I say go for it. I myself think that skill and tactical prowess rule the day.
Thats a nice tutorial on how to convert a rudder. According to the rules for fastgun your rudder can be as thick of a cross section as you want. So technically you can make it as wide as the ship if you really wanted. This would be more than kinda silly so I hope no one tries it. -Cheese Success on the water requires three parts--Teamwork, the captain's skill, and the ship he/she is driving (the class, how well it was built, tricks etc.). One you have little control over, one is entirely your fault (good or bad) and the last you may have little control over if you didn't build it or total if you did build it or know how to fix it.
I know a Bismarck that can spin that doesn't have this type of rudder, but great tutorial.. something to think about.
Oh I have none of the above including the two I presented. My whole thing will be build it until it floats without sinking and then every time I battle it will be cross my fingers and hope for the best.
I have been out of the hobby for a while. These fancy rudders do intrigue me. My Baden currently has two rectangles of stainless steel for rudders (see McSpuds refit thread for a pic: rcnavalcombat.com/Forum/tabid/58/af...fault.aspx). Using them (and the Yamato-sized prop in front of them), I was able to rotate this ship around Bruno turret. In other words, if I put the rudder hard left or right & gave it throttle, the boat would spin in place around the location of Bruno. You think these fancy rudders could improve on that?
Johnny, I made a pair of half-schilling rudders (curvy stuff on outside edges only) and a pair of normal kinda-airfoils like BC rudders. We're going to test them on Malaya at the battle in 2 weeks. I'll post results. Testing on Lil Scharnie (single prop, single rudder) was not better than a stock prop, although it wasn't a great Schilling form, just a rough one which might make a difference. I think good placement of props and rudders makes a bigger difference.
Hey Tuggy...Sorry to hear about your health issues. Did you get an opportunity to do these rudder tests between getting Vanguarded?
I was driving Lil Scharnie on Saturday. I think she turned better with the Schilling rudder, but I did not swap it out for the airfoil rudder before I went home. After watching the VanGod run around, Brian and I are going to spend some quality time at the test basin with QE and Malaya testing various rudders and various props. I have BC 1.75" props on Malaya right now, and Brian has my MkI 4-blade ring props on QE. We're going to get a table set up with time to turn 180 and 360 from a standing start, and put in combinations of props and rudders and see what works best on this hull. I need to do it for Scharnie, but once Malaya's up and running, Scharnie will be my backup boat and thus not as high a priority.
The unpleasant news is that drag discs have to be circular discs, and there has to be something prop-shaped on those shafts. The prop-shaped object can be a piece of wood cut to resemble a prop (doesn't even have to have pitch), or one of the plastic 'drag props' that have been sold over the past few years. Not down on ya, Steve, just wanted you to hear it before you showed up at Nats with those drag moons For the record, it looks awesome! Not legal, but totally awesome.
This is an IRC boat. I think things are bit more loosy goosy regarding drag props. Any comments from the IRC folks?
