Is Battle Ready! I don't have elevation yet, as I will have to upgrade to heaftier servos, my secondaries are missing, and I dont have the detailing done, but I hit the pond Sunday morning! I just finished the paint, and did the Measure 32 scheme she wore after the brooklyn refit: Is it unusual that even though I'm not quite done with my first ship, I've started thinking about my second?
Cool! Got any photos? Don't worry about arming the secondaries, those are optional. And no, there's nothing wrong with planning out your second before finishing your first. That's perfectly normal. Just so long as you don't *start* your second before finishing your first, you'll be OK.
Video is here! Still many bugs to work out, though.... www.rcnavalcombat.com/tabid/58/afv/...fault.aspx
Dustin It was great seeing that brand new battleship on the water, running around, and shooting. Hopefully it will stir up some more interest in the big-gun format in our area in the near future. The ship looked great, and run well, considering how new it is. You have done a great job on her, and I look forward to seeing more of her in the future. She is, after all, one of my favorite ships. Well done. Mikey
Things I learned from yesterday: I need (and have since purchased) better barrel clamps. I nearly lost the assembly for B turret. That's $40 worth of machined barrel block and four 1/4" barrels (is it even possible to order these right now?) My cannon/servo mount needs to be thinner. Using 3/32" plywood and once it started to expand in the sun, I was binding on my deck when trying to rotate. K&S has .064 aluminium sheet, but it is only 4x10". I need that sturdiness and thickness but in ~ 6x18". A smaller Co2 bottle is a must. 16oz. is great, but I need to move my bottle to the bow to even out the weight distribution and free up some room in the middle of the hull to move my 12v forward so I can address the next point Motors at a 40 degree angle are noisy. They also cause a lot of vibration in the U joints. I think this is why I lost a prop. Since my shafts are held in with Aves it would be easier to cut out the fiberglass. As I don't want to do that, time to order gearboxes from BC. Time to make the switch from poppet to solenoid Need a new bilge pump. Flooded the stern and turned her on, the water kinda trickled out. The impeller was damaged swapping out motors, this might be the cause. New ESC too. The $10 one only has 50% reverse and *might* have been the cause for my two losses of drive power New motors. These freebies *might* havebeen the cause too Pneumatics: I need some more work in this area. Overall, it was a good day, and I have a nice list of things to do on my refit
Well Kun, it sounds like you need to do some work on your propulsion systems. Go on down to your local HSC Electronics, or go online, and order yourself some of these babies: http://www.halted.com/ccp21544-precision-swiss-dc-motor-maxon-a-max-6-vdc-80ma-8-a-max-series-21283.htm "these babies" are swiss maxon A-Max motors, the finest propulsion systems that money can buy. Four of these babies, direct drive at 7.2v, will move your ship at speed easily. And they'll do it for under 2 amps, too. they're fast, but they also are torque-y as ****. Let me put it this way: I once saw four of these babies at 7.2v move a SoDak with added depth to nearly 40 knots. FYI, I am currently building the Gascoigne, the balanced-armament sister to Richelieu. Same hull, same basic superstructure, but one turret forward and one turret aft. Current plans call for a pair of 5.5" guns with 400+ rounds each, and a 24-oz CO2 bottle. Due to the ever-present threat of torpedo-cruisers in the WWCC, it might be equipped with a pair of point-defense guns covering the most common approaches. The guns are nearly complete, and the hull will be planked over the next few weeks. I guess my point is to be ambitious. There is a lot your ship can do, if you refuse to compromise.
Dustin - I have some aluminum that may work for you, and if it doesn't work I know where you can get some in Dayton for ~$1.50/pound.Send me a note. Mark Jenks
Mark, I did some fitting last night and realized that I had my cannons swapped. One is taller than the the other and I had that one on B position, rather than A. My mount is no longer such an issue, I just need to upgrade my o-rings to the next larger thickness. Carl, thanks for the suggestion on the motors. A pretty good price too! I am only powering two shafts at the moment, but I might switch to four in the future. Was that 40 knots scale speed or real world speed?
That was 40+ knots on the Big-Gun speed chart. He was really moving! Actually, I'll have to check whether it was two shafts or four he was running at the time. It was a couple years ago so I might have remembered wrong. I know he's running only two shafts now, but I don't recall if he ever installed the outboard two shafts.
I tried to load some photos of the big Frenchie this morning, but my old P.C. is no longer able to get it done. I anticipate having a newer P.C. in a couple/few weeks. I know I always ran my Richelieu on the two center shafts, as it made her turn better. Mikey
I added an in-drydock photo to my fleet section of my profile. Carl, one more question, are those motors 550 size?
Quite a bit smaller. They even fit in destroyers. I'll measure one later tonight and post the actual dimensions.
Wow, that certainly gives a sense of proportion there. You could almost mount the tug on the deck of the Richelieu and say it was the captain's launch...
OO! OO! Put it on a pair of brackets on deck, with a 100-weight fishling line reel attached... Richie sinks, the tug drags it home!!!
The motors are Maxon A-Max 305888, 26mm diameter by 44.7mm long. Shaft is 3mm diameter by 12.8mm long, with a flat for gear. It has six mounting holes 16mm apart, I do not know what thread they use. I'll let you know when I find out.
