I bought mine from: http://www.reallyquiteuseful.co.uk/...tions.html Call or email them beforehand to check on US shipping. Looks like they may be out of stock (no picture coming up). At the current exchange rate your looking at $25US. There's no stocking US distributors that I'm aware of. Since an overseas distributor is selling this US manufactured reg at this price point. You can really see how much Genuine Innovations is raping their customers with their $50 price tag. Steve
Been a long time since we last updated this thread. Finally posting some pictures of how things have progressed. Definitely been a challenge to keep things small and light, but here's where we're at. After installing the props & motors (admittedly at a steeper than ideal angle), we added the rudder post and servo. We used a small, waterproof Traxxas servo and glued in some wood mounting blocks. A heavy paperclip is all that connects the modified servo horn to the rudder arm. Seems to give us the right amount of throw.
We followed Steve's lead on the key cannon components and eventually met with some nice results. We used a cannon from BC, a 6Vdc solenoid from Spartan, a delta card, and the CO2 regulator & cup from Genuine Innovations. Our first attempts resulted in a few wasted CO2 cartridges, due to a misaligned o-ring in the regulator and some other leaks. After getting everything sealed up, we managed to have a tight system that seemed to shoot very well. We could could easily punch through a can, and could get through more than two magazines (50 bbs each load) on a single cartridge.
We've managed to pack everything into the hull, and we're still underweight. At 3.5 lbs of the 4.5 limit. Still needs balsa sides, paint, and topside gear. With the battery pack & CO2 up forward, light topside, and everything as low as possible, I'm hoping for reasonable stability... We're using a Spektrum AR600 6-ch receiver with a 5-channel transmitter. 3300 MHa 7.2V NiMH battery pack. Motors driven with waterproof Traxxas XL2.5 speed controller. Bilge pump from BC with a Delta card. We wired up everything on the bench, and after getting all of the functions working, we rewired into the hull and retested it all. Applied some industrial-strength strips of Velcro to the hull ribs, and added the soda bottle plastic sheeting for the armor. Once we waterproof the receiver and delta cards, then apply the balsa sides, we'll finally get her into the water...
Technically, yes. Not so technically, it'll be okay, just when you overhaul it someday, remember to seal the wood. But it should be okay for a couple of years, just be sure to remove the decks after a day of battling and let it air out really well. Definitely seal what you can get at right now. If you pull the armor, that should help for access, even if a few areas aren't well sealed.
Hi Kerndog, I enjoy the challenge of small ships. Unfortunately, they tak 3 times as long to engineer and build than a battlecruiser and only have one gun so there aren't many actually battling. I have3 in various stages of completion and have never been happy enough with the setups to put them into combat yet. Maybe next Nats. A couple of observations: sealing - do it. before sheeting, take everything out of the boat and mix up a batch of slow setting epoxy. Add enough 90% isopropyl alcohol to it to give it the consistency of nitrate dope or just a little thinner and paint a coat on all wood and woo-epoxy junctions after first sanding everything to get off the sheen and skin oils from handling all these months. When it gets to tack phase and the alcohol has evaporated, put on a second coat. Then you don't have all your work rot. Weight. - I am a little worried about the expansion tank and solenoid mounted under the deck. that is a good amount of weight high up for a destroyer. Also, please get the pump fully operational before any sea trials. You may sink in reverse Ask me how I know Nate G
Nate, Thanks for the insights! I have to confess that I missed the boat on the importance of sealing. Too many other things to figure out, as you mention. Before seeing your post, I did hit all of the wood surfaces with some good polyurethane. But it's not going to last as long as the recipe you suggest, I imagine. Lesson learned, thanks. The pump seems to be operational (as does everything at least for the moment). Had gremlins in the radio transmitter for a few weeks. Had two of the potentiometers flake out for some reason. After swapping around with unused pots, all finally working well. We also have since used spray-on-type 'rubber' insulation to coat the receiver and the delta cards. The solenoid & expansion tank are up higher than is ideal, I agree. I *hope* that with everything else as low as possible, we'll do OK. We're also making the superstructure out of very light stuff--I expect it to be nearly sacrificial and need to be replaced sooner than later. But we definitely wanted to keep the top weight as low as possible at nearly all costs. We sheeted last weekend, using contact cement and silkspanned balsa. I've also learned how easy it is to put your finger through that balsa while you're pressing it to the ribs. Makes a sickening crunch sound, too. We primered it all today, so I expect we'll float her next weekend and see how she does... and I think that I just figured out your warning about 'sinking in reverse...' I shoulda re-laid those stuffing tubes. Man, there is a lot to learn in this hobby... John
Laying out the deck and superstructure. We are using some dense (but very light) cellfoam and hot glue. Using gray acrylic paint (which won't dissolve the foam) and then planning to spray it with a clearcoat. Going for light weight topside, not durability. We'll see if this is a good idea... or not!
Primered the whole enchilada today. Still some superstructure work left, but just about ready for a float test next weekend...
Looks good, lightweight superstructure is probably the way to go on a small boat like this. Yeah it will get destroyed but hopefully you arent on the receiving end of too much fire so it that may help it last a little longer.
Poly will work fine as long as it penetrates well and give UV protection. Most solvent based Poly's are purposely made too thick to get around the gov't requirement for loc VOC's and need to be thinned for proper penetration. That said, they work well. Even with shafts perfectly parallel to the waterline, most DD's will pull under in reverse if run backwards long enough. Throw some water in the bilge and run the pump before letting the little ship get out of hands reach. She looks great! Enjoy! Nate
Sea Trials... at last! Well... apparently we still have some balancing to do. In spite of every effort to keep the weight low (and mildly successful bathtub ops), she tipped pretty badly. I think our #1 mistake was not worrying about centering the battery pack; we figured the v-hull would make that kinda unecessary. Putting in some centering rails will be first priority. We are actually underweight by maybe a half pound so we might actually melt some lead into the keel. Crazy (?), but it might just be necessary. Any stability tips & tricks most welcome... We're also eyeing the top deck to bulkhead gap... do the rules allow some type of a sealing gasket to help keep water from rushing in when a ship is on her side? So, a few lessons and a few things to do. Functionally, everything worked well, even for a while in submarine mode. Bilge pump especially, nice to see. But most importantly, King Neptune was kind and generous and allowed us to retrieve our ship. Several times!
