USS Des Moines / Fast Gun / Brouhaha / Sun March 14 2010 Opps! Wired one motor backwards during a rebuild before the battle. Everything is fixed and off she glides! Ready and waiting for War HMMM They want to put holes in me...I don't want to have holes in me...I think I'll just stay over here and shoot a them... Putting holes in the bill board So...Um...always remember to make sure your transmitter batteries at up to snuff....otherwise sinkage might just saddle up next to you and occure...quickly! So had a grand time of it including both sinks (due entirely to battery problems) Though, I did learn alot on the subject of patching holes!
Wow that is a lot of major holes. What kind of battery issues were you having? Receiver, Tx , or Drive battery issues?
Two things: First off, what a great battle site! Where is it? Second: looks like your balsa treatment needs some work. Looks like midwestern balsa which is hard and splits easily (order soft balsa from Balsa USA or Battlers Connection). Also I can't tell if you used tissue on both sides of the balsa but that helps splitting too. We (the IRC) use contact cement to glue the tissue to the balsa (spray), then a coat of dope (laquer) and contact cement (gell) for attaching to the hull.
Johnny, we will just have to see at the Tangler. My wife has given the go ahead for that battle, and I'm going to be letting Jolie play around with my boat some in the interum and maybe get her out on the pond at the battle too. That way she can decide if she would rather have a little destroyer or a convoy ship.
As far as what kind of battery problems was I having well..the first sink was caused by me forgetting to change out transmitter batteries. The second occurrence was after I traded out the batteries in the boat after two sorties. (7.2V 10AH which runs the receiver, the pump, and the drive motors) Well it seems the replacement boat batteries hadn't charged up well the night before as it was a newly constructed pack and it just wasn't getting good contact between the batteries. I have since sorta jury riged this issue, but it needs further attention. So the next sortie I put the old batteries back in at which point they promptly died as well. To top it all off the last sortie of the weekend my transmitter batteries died again. I didn't have any rechargable high capacity AA at the time so I was using regular old energizer / duracell and I didn't know how long they would last. As of last night I have 12 2800mAH AA batteries on the way from Ebay, which should help me solve my transmitter battery problem. As far as the main boat batteries...well I think my best bet at this point is probably just to pay someone to rebuild the two current packs that I have. Because, to be honest with myself, I apparently have no soldiering skill of anykind nor the right equipment for the job.
Yeah it really is a great pond. Thanks Wade! It is located near New Orleans in Boutte, La. For the second, as that was the first time I had ever skinned a boat having only ever read how to do it before, I wouldn't be surprised if my treatment needs work. The balsa was from BC and it does have a layer of silk span on both sides applied with nitrate dope. Attached to the hull via weldwood contact cement. Though, neither to dope or the contact cement was cut with MEK as I couldn't find any at Lowes at the time. I now have a can which should at the very least help prolong the usage of both the dope and the contact cement. It was suggested at the battle that it might have been the paint that caused the balsa to be brittle or the fact that as of the aforementioned sinkage that was only the second time that hull had actually been in the water. Whatever the cause, I plan on trying a slightly different process the next time I sheet.
I had some bad balsa ripping at Wades after the first battle. I thought my balsa was bad. But the next battle the same spots took really good holes. I think the balsa was dry. It had been sitting in my very dry basement all winter before I put it on. I've noticed this a couple times with new sheeting. Next time I'm going to let the ship soak to get the balsa soggy.
I'll be patching everything up and putting it back on the water for awhile to test this theory...though I guess I'll have to shoot at it with a BB gun while my wife steers it as I don't have anyone around here to battle.
Why not just mock up some floating targets with rib-backed balsa sticking out the top of them like billboards? You could soak one, leave the other dry, sail by and shoot them a few dozen times and see what the difference in effect is.
Ah, Ralph, I didn't know you were Radollar on here! Then again I've been away for a while. You did outstandingly on your first battle weekend! Far better than my first! I would reinforce the rudder post so that the gears can't slip but that's my only construction advice. You already had help from the masters in other areas of your boat and I have nothing that to add to their input! I agree that Wade's pond is a magnificent venue, and despite the drive Brian K and I are planning on coming back next year! For those who were there and don't have a copy of the pic, that group photo we took is posted on the front page of the MWCI site. For those who weren't there, come next year, it was almost a mini-Nats, very fun. The day 1 Axis v. Allies was an epic win for the Axis 33k to 20k despite being outnumbered (thanks to the French and Italians for their unwavering support) Special note for those who put off paying their dues (like me, bad Tug): I had no end of trouble on day 1, did minimal work that night, paid my dues the next morning and everything worked perfectly the whole 2nd day! The goddess of dues must be appeased in order for the boat to work well! Brian K's sacrificial altar/grill provided the burnt meat smell
When we were having that private dance near the lighthouse and your rudder gears slipped (when we had to pull your DM over to fix it), I thought that the torque from the servo might have flexed the rudder mount (the grey plastic thing holding the rudder shaft). Also called a rudder post Either the rudder post or the servo mount (or the servo IN in the mount!) flexed, causing the issue. Check to see that the servo is well tight in the mount, that the servo mount can't flex, and that the rudder post doesn't flex. Whichever is causing that, fix it and sail on to the glorious destruction of your enemies
On the new battery pack: When new, NiMH cells rarely charge to their full capacity. Even then, the amp draw the pack is capable of may be lower than rated. NiMH cells need a handful of charge and discharge cycles to realize their full potential. You will find that as you use them, they will get stronger over time as the cell's chemistry settles in and conducts electricity more efficiently.
Something else of interest is that as I have been repairing the sheeting, I noticed that where the biggest chunks of my hull were missing in the hull I had also gotten a little carried away with the contact cement and so there could be some correlation between the massive damage I took and that layer of contact cement on the inside of the hull. Anyway, just a hypothesis.
How did you apply it? I dont even remember what I did as I sheeted over a year ago...... I will have to remember. I think I coated the entire sheet and let it dry, coated the ribs and put it on. I will find out soon enough
I coated the ribs and as the coat got tacky I coated the sheet in the areas I thought it would be touching the fiberglass. So around some ribs there is a coat of contact cement extending far out into the unsupported areas.
Johhny did not do all that damage. As you can see in the one picture my Iron Duke is backing up to him, and I fired my sterns at him a few times, he wanted me to to see what kind of damage he took, and it did indeed blow some nice large holes in him. The next time out Johnny added all the belows, and some of the aboves. The pond is fantastic, only about 2 ft deep or so at the max, easy to wade out and get your boat, at Wades. We had around 26 boats at one time on the water I think, alot of fun for everyone. My Duke took like 46 aboves, 17 on, and 56 belows to sink her. Only Jeff's Nagato took more before it sank, but uses 2 pumps. I did give Jeff some of my newest outlets at the Bruhaha, so we figure his boat once they are installed will be pumping between 6 to 7 gallons a min, he will be a tough sink for sure. I saw some of the same balsa splittling, and cracking the first day, Sunday it had about stopped.
