Nice work, have you figured what you will do for control set up? Where did you get the cannons and what type of motors/drive system are you using? Noticed a lack of water channeling in the pics, what do you intend to do?
Hey Mikey! She's lookin' great! Nice to see her armed and dangerous. [] What's the stainless steel post on the aft side of turret 2? I don't see one on the back of turret 1. Also, were you planning on adding depression servos? Thanks, Carl
Mark I got the Cannons from Jason (Indiana style cannons), from the MBG. I have had a couple different sets of small motors in her so far. I currently have Wah-Mings in her now. But I have found a new larger motor that I plan to install before running her again. They are not really faster, but I think they will last longer, pushing such a large ship. I have not really decided how to work in the water-channeling as of yet. But at the same time, I am not so sure that it will be as important as it is in the smaller scales, or a smaller ship in this scale. It appears in the photos that the bottom of the hull (inside) is flat, but there is actually a cannon/battery tray made out of plywood laying in the floor. It can be lifted out. Eventually, I may end up simply removing the center of the tray, but laying another layer of plywood over-top of the lower piece, and epoxying them together. Then I would still have a tray, but the center would be missing from the lower wafer, for the water-channeling. Then I could cut out areas for the pumps to sit down in. I am using a Futaba 6 channel radio. Left stick will be throttle, and rudder. Right stick will be for firing the main turrets (up), and the after secondary group (down). My rotation for the main turrets will be the rotary knob on top right of the radio. Utilizing a sail-winch servo and spring tensioned cables. Main turret depression will be the top-left 2 position switch, so I will have only two ranges to begin with. Pumps will have Battler's Connection auto-turn-ons, so they will run themselves. That way, I can concentrate on offense. Eventually I may arm the pair of twin secondary turrets (one on each side of the boat deck), and if that happens the I will still have the right stick (left-right) available to fire them. Thanks for the questions. This is the most fun boat as far as builds goes that I have taken on, and having the weight, and room to tinker around has made a huge difference. Mikey
Carl The post on turret 2 is the loading (fill) tube that comes with the Indiana style big guns. I found it easiest to place it behind the barrels so that one can mount the depression servo under the barrels but in front of the tubes coming out of the magazine lid. That way neither the depression servo, or the loader tube will keep you from a smooth rotation set-up inside the barbettes. Mikey
Rotation and depression. I will be using a Hitech sailwinch servo for rotation. Driving one turret with rubber o-ring material. Then the two main turrets will be linked together by a second o-ring, that runs off of a lower track. For depression, I will be using a servo mounted on top of the magazine, that attaches to the barrel bracket. This is standard big gun practice, for the most part. More soon. Mikey
how much ballast did you have to add to her to float at the water line? ie... batteries, lead, what-ever. lookin good
I am running 12 volts on my drive. I have been running her with (4) 12 volt 7 amphour gel cells. Each weigh around 6 lbs. So 24 lbs in batteries. Then I had to add 2 6 volts 12 amp bricks just for ballast. They each weigh around 5 lbs. So I have around 34 lbs of batteries in her now, but I anticipate being able to take the (2) 6 volt bricks out when the ship is battle ready. In addition, she is actually running about 3/8" too light as far as the marked waterline goes. The first time I float tested her, I just added enough weight to get the props deep enough for sea trials. So I think she is weighing in at around 68 lbs at this time, so I have plenty of weight left over.
Before I decided to build the battlecruiser, I was seriously considering building a Gloire class light cruiser for my first ship. Mainly because most of the others in the group were laying down destroyers. So I laid out my drawings, and started laying the internal componants on top of the plans. It didn't take long to pretty much fill up the hull of the cruiser. I had the CO2 bottle, motors, main turrets, and a w/t box. After thinking about it, I decided to take on something that I could build without having to shoe-horn all of the goodies into the hull. I have plenty of room, and weight.
