Recently got this Mississippi Predread from Steve A. Needed a major rebuild though. I stripped it down to the bare hull and now I'm working on building it back into an operational ship. Shooting to have it done in time for the Georgia battle in 30 some days. This is how it came. No photos of the stripped down hull but here's the new stern subdeck cut out. This got epoxied in and a fiberglass job on top. Stern deck cut from 1/16" fiberglass. New stuffing tubes made out of heavy wall stainless. Used a tubing cutter to crease the ends and lock the oilite bearing in place. Making a simple prop jig makes lining up the shafts soooo much easier. And locked in permanent. Bow subdeck cut out. After it was epoxied to the hull I laid a light fiberglass cloth on to lock everything together and provide a durable surface. Looking at internal layout. It's gonna be tight. New forward deck cut. Using the cutout from the subdeck as a deck stiffener. Removed some extra material to save weight. That's everything so far. Next things to go in will probably be servo mount and motors, then the rest of the guts. For guns I'm planning on duel bows and a stern sidemount with half unit pump. As small as this thing is and with the new rudder rule I expect it to spin. Gonna be a fun boat. More progress to come!
More progress. Deck stiffener for the stern piece added. Mounted the drive motors. Through bolted and gooped to the hull. Some say it's nots enough. We'll see. Stern sidemount built. Using my low profile gun design with a direct solenoid hookup. Mounted in the boat. Everything should fit nicely under the turret. Bow guns are still getting built. Seeing how 15° looks. Making a mold from the BC turrets so I can have a stronger and roomier turret. Getting there.
Much progress in the last two weeks. Compact bow guns were built. Found out they were too wide to fit in the boat like that. Did some stupid things trying to make them fit before I realized if I just spin the solenoid forward everything fits fine. (had to replace that uptube) Made a bracket to hold the solenoids together. Then mounted it to the deck. Nice and clean! Gun pin with lanyard. Lanyard is a 6" stainless leader from the fishing section at walmart. I crimped the end around the pin and put marine heat shrink on the joint to keep it from sliding off. Hobbywing 1060s for the drive. XT60s added. One for the boat, one for a spare. The rudder servo mount. Really like how this came out. The servo drops right into the grooves and is held quite securely. This aluminum plate will keep it from popping out. Just need two 6-32 thumb screws from the hardware store to finish it. Added this pin to keep the rudder arm from going over center and jamming. Seems to work really well. Used some high temp rtv (what I had on hand) to made a deck seal. Hopefully it helps keep water out. The stern deck should set pretty low in the water. The wiring harness. Yep, that's it. Connections for pump, drive, and guns. Pump Mount. Stole this from @thegeek, as well as the pump. Lol Co2 and solenoid power cables installed. Needs some more zip ties I think. This is all the electrons thrown in for a test fit. It's a mess and needs organized but it fits! Glued in these aluminum angle pieces to hold the batteries. I plan to redo them but they work well for now. Also built the rudder which is freaking massive. She better turn!! Just a few more things to do before she's ready for battle. Less than 2 weeks to finish! I think I can do it.
THAT RUDDER MOUNT IS SLICK!!!!!!! fantastic. I'm really impressed at how you managed to get it to work with that little space around the rudder post.
After being thrown together and given a butt ugly sheeting job at the hotel, Mississippi was able to participate in a 1v1v1 against Tom Tanner's Deutschland and @Kevin P. Monitor. First sortie only one bow gun and the sidemount worked and second sortie only the sidemount was cooperating. Managed to deal some damage and take a lot more. She was the last one afloat though. I'm not sure how that happened since it seemed like I took everyone's BBs. Lol Here's video. View: https://youtu.be/bcz8sNw0hkw
I need to make a few changes to the files but for the most part the superstructure came out beautiful for this. Need to finish one more cage mast and it'll be ready to fully assemble. The files for this will be posted once I'm happy with the design.
Battle report: Finally got Mississippi into the fray at our latest regional at Hagerstown. She had some teething issues that needed fixed but overall she functioned and functioned well! The guns work great. Had to troubleshoot them a little to get them all working but a jammed BB and missing magnet were easy fixes. The bow guns are great fun for plinking and really crack and the sidemount is great for some close in action. Being so maneuverable, I had no problem driving right into the middle of the fray and tangling with anything. If I couldn't get a shot, I could outmaneuver the other guy. Had fun going after @Kevin P. in his Scharnhorst. Biggest problem was water influx through the barbettes. Being wide open and low to the water she'd take in water driving backwards or leaning into a turn. Sank from that a few times. Fixed that with foam. Overall a very fun boat. Loaned it to @Panzer after his nagato ate its drive gear and he had a blast. She'll make a good loaner in the future. Brand new in white and buff. Sealed the barbettes with foam. I did replace the bow magazines with nylon tube because the PTC caps wouldn't bite into the copper well enough, blowing all the BBs out the mag. I have more changes to document in the future but this all that I had pictures of at the moment. Enjoy!
How did it work having your stern sidemount hang so far off the deck? I’ve found that it drags in the water when I drive. It also has to fire under water a lot. It’s really easy to push the gun barrel into a ships hull. I leave my bow sidemounts hang over the side but the stern sidemounts I will only let them hang over 1/4-1/2”. You should be able to move the gun back in the turret to keep the same barrel length.
I liked the barrel, at one point I snagged it with the bow of my boat and pivoted the little guy around until it came into sidemount range
I liked to do the same hook a stern sidemount and spin with Tyler’s Derflinger and my NC. It was very usefull. Another reason to not have it hang off the side.
