Hey all, new member here. About a decade ago my uncle and I started a model project, a Gato class submarine, that we were building out of solid balsa wood. That project led to us finding the Swampworks website and the hobby side of RC warship combat. We always talked about building a Swampworks ship but never actually did it. Today, he's in the ICU with COVID. We haven't talked in years just due to life, distance, etc. Upon hearing about his hospitalization I started to reminisce as one does and remembered us wanting to build a ship. So I am thinking about getting the stuff to put together an Iowa class to build with him when he gets out if he is still interested. Currently have some feelers out, but any information or advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated. One question I had is why the lack of detail work? I've not seen any 5" guns, AA guns, deck railing, etc. Is this just because it is purely aesthetic and not worth the time? To cut weight? Or because it would get too easily damaged in a battle? I ask as I'd love to build up a fairly detailed model, and I have a 3D printer so printing things like AA guns and the like would be easy and if they get shot up it isn't hard to print more.
Generally the smaller details are skipped because it gets shot off and for those of us that have an easy time replacing little bits it can turn into a fun contest of who shot my tertiary.
Secondarys are usually included. Everything else is too small to be worth modeling only to get shot off. An FDM printer is going to do a crappy job with smaller objects like AA or float planes. There is also a reason you don’t see many Iowas in combat, too. They are huge, heavy, and due to their length vs beam, turn terribly (the real ships did too). You are talking about a ship that will be over 6’ long and weigh almost 50lbs to get it to scale waterline.
Luckily I have a SLA printer that does great with small, detailed work. Currently use it for 30mm scale gaming miniatures. I knew the size of the Iowa (just under 74 inches and 50 pounds as you said) and that they weren't recommended for new players as due to the very large target area they were easy to sink if not properly piloted. Are they generally not piloted by more experienced players either? The Axis big guys (Bismarck, Yamato) seem to be fairly common.
I too have an SLA printer and would only put on those fine details for 'putter around the lake' days and not for combat use. Resin is fragile stuff. While it would make the boat look more realistic, these things are designed to get shot up. Very few are willing to put in that extra effort for a true scale look only to have those pieces blasted away a minute or two after it hits the water. It isnt so much driving the boat, it is the logistics of building the thing for combat. Building an RC boat is one thing, building one for combat is a whole different can of worms. You think, sure it is a big boat, it will have plenty of room for all of the things I need. You are going to need A LOT of batteries because the motors you need to push a 50lb boat through the water are power hungry, as is the pump. Then you need to properly ballast the thing because even if you scratch build it from wood you are only talking maybe 10lbs dry weight (my Bismarck was 8lbs dry) with fiberglass, even less, which leaves 35-40ish lbs of ballast needed, which you could take some up with batteries, but you are looking at perminate weight added to the hull. Also remember these things sink. So add that weight to trying to get it off the bottom of a pond and you are edging in on 80lbs. It is hard to imagine building a boat and then needing the equivalent of a Bismarck in extra weight to get it to the waterline. Take it from someone who has an Iowa hull and 2 Bismarcks in some semblance of built and the one closest to actually being a complete battle-ready boat is my 3D printed Derfflinger. I am a novice and haven't battled. BUT I have read a LOT of threads and posts by others who are far more knowledgeable than me, and I have been interested in this since this forum was part of RCUniverse way back in the day. Ive had my Iowa hull since the mid 2000's. Ive also built one Bismarck far enough for it to be out on the water (she met her end thanks to Mother Nature) and I can tell you from that experience, Im not sure I would want to combat one. I am not trying to discourage you. We need more captains, especially Allied captains. North Carolinas are a better choice in boat. Not really for novice driving or building, but overall. They turn better because they are almost a foot shorter and are 10lbs lighter than an Iowa. You get the same iconic "American Big Ass Guns" look without building a literal 6' canoe.
Have you checked out the Beauty Shot albums. Curt Beauty Shots are of his very detailed ships US, German and Japanese. I believe he battled the Yamato and Bismarck with all the details. All the best wishes for a speedy recovery for your father.
I was hoping it was just that. For this first build at least I'll plan on 3d printing the finer details, but who knows, maybe after having them immediately shot off I'll give that up haha. But I'm thinking I won't mind reprinting them. I've read your entire Derfflinger thread and am inspired! If someone had STL files for the Iowa I'd have ordered a FDM printer already haha, but I've never touched a 3d modeling program so wouldn't know where to begin modeling my own. What you've done is quite impressive though, I'm excited to see you finish it up. As for the weight/size of the Iowa, that's part of why I want to do it haha. I want that 6+ foot canoe! I've always been one to jump head first into the deep end of new hobbies, and I'll likely do that here. I may regret it later
Im glad you were not discouraged. We have a lot of in-and-out members who come in with pie-in-the-sky dreams of building and battling a big Class 6 or 7 boat, realize that it is a rather monumental task, and we never hear from them again. My Derfflinger is just that. I built a Bismarck and poured countless hours, literally months, into it just for it to be half done. I was never happy with how it turned out and getting it in and out of the creek where I was testing it was quite the chore. Lessons learned and I went with a Class 4 battlecruiser which, in under a month, went from 3 rolls of plastic to a boat that should be on the water this saturday for testing. I would recommend something like an Ender3, but for an Iowa you will need a larger bed by JUST a hair. The Ender3 is 220mm wide and the Iowa at the mid point will be about 230mm wide. That is if you wanted to print it in a full width, which you could use the alignment pin method to join the two halves together, in which case an Ender3 would be fine. You would want steel support rods to serve as a keel just due to the weight of the thing. I happen to know a guy who spent a lot of time modeling an Iowa in 144......
Well shit, if you'd be willing to share that file I'll have to start researching FDM more. I've been eyeing the Anycubic Mega X and it has a large enough build plate to do the Iowa at it's widest. Edit: Mistakenly typed "Mono" instead of "Mega".
You could also look at one of the bigger Enders. I've been running the heck out of my 5+ for the past year and have been fairly happy with it after getting it dialed in for ABS. Its overkill for most of my needs (heating the bed takes a while compared to say a Prusa i3). I'd also recommend swapping to a spring steel PEI bed. It a nice quality of life improvement.
You really do NOT want to use a resin printer for this. If for no other reason but just in sheer cost of material alone. I know the 1L bottles I buy for my Mars cost about $50, I could not fathom how many liters of resin this would take. Plus, resin just is not strong enough to stand up to the abuse. My Derf raw plastic cost is edging in on $80 at around $20 a roll (the roll I bought for the deck was only $15. I have to order another roll of gray to finish the superstructure and turret gun houses). ABS and PETG will just shrug off a BB hit with a little indent (if it is substantially thick enough, 1 or 2mm thick decorations such as railings or thin decks will get blown to bits) or at worst case have a hole shot into it which can be easily patched with a 3d pen. Resin will break catastrophically. Because it never fully cures INSIDE, it will never have the same strength to weight as FDM. The ribs on my Derf are 6mm thick by 12mm wide. I would put any of my Derf hull sections done in PETG against the same section done in resin, drop them, and 100% the PETG part would be virtually unscathed while the resin part would shatter like a Ming Vase. FDM is, by and far, the way to go for printing a hull. I have printed some rather large items for my Bismarck using my Mars and after a while they end up curling or cracking at stress risers and I ended up printing them in PETG instead. My Ender3-Pro is in an enclosure with a BLTouch, all metal heat break, hardened steel nozzle, and PEI sheet bed. I had nothing but headache doing PETG before adding the BLTouch and PEI bed. Now, it is my go-to. ABS is very hit or miss for me. Small parts such as gears, propellers, or servo horns, perfect. But anything taller than a few millimeters and it just delaminates. An Ender5+ is going to be my next printer (after I buy a hobby mill and lathe) just for doing ABS and ABS only. As for sharing the file, you would have to do some work in Fusion360 (or the like) in order to make it a viable combat hull. Anyone here can tell you I have zero reservations with sharing my source files with this community for this exact reason. After the Derf is done I have a superstructure to finish for another member and then I can help you walk your way through designing that hull for combat (or heck if any of the other printed-hull-designers wants to, be my guest). There are several of us who have designed and printed ships and we all have different styles of getting to the end result. I know @bsgkid117 is working with printed hulls and there is another member who built and launched and battled with a fully 3d printed boat. https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/3d-printed-algerie-full-ship-including-hull.446719/
I mistyped and meant to say Mega, not Mono. The Mega is one of their FDM printers. I know FDM provides better rigidity and holds up better and if I go the print route will definitely use FDM. And yeah, I know resin can be pricy. I started with 3D Resin Solutions HERO Tough at $65 for a 1kg bottle. It's quite sturdy though, almost like a hardened rubber, I imagine it would survive being shot, though would likely divot, and if it ever did fail it would probably completely break apart as you said. I also just got in a 1kg bottle of Ameralabs TGM7 resin, $95. Haven't printed with it yet, curious to see what level of detail and durability I get from it.
Also, super thankful for the generosity of being willing to openly share all the work you've put into this. The cooperative spirit of this hobby is fantastic.
There is a group in your area as well so you have people somewhat local who would be willing to help. The MEGA-X would do the trick! If you go a different route, I happen to have a fiberglass Iowa hull I bought years ago from a guy in Australia. It isnt perfect, at least not to my standards, but it would get you going on building one.
I'm leaning more and more towards printing one. I'm not the handiest guy when it comes to tools and the like, so printing cuts out some hands on building which I'd likely struggle with haha.
A good place to start is to download Fusion360 and start watching some youtube tutorials for the basics. I will upload the Iowa files I made for you.
Welcome, you should reach out to Lee @McSpuds who is an active battler in the Louisville area. It’s best to meet other captains in person to see the ships and ask whatever questions you have, and to see their reaction when you say you want to start with an Iowa. Most people should start with a boat in class 3-5 depending on experience building, budget, and ship preferences. If you’re just starting out with building things then I would tend towards a cruiser, something like Des Moines or Baltimore class. Budget is also important, a large ship like an Iowa can cost about double the cost for a cruiser. There are also costs for going to an event, typically assume 6ish hour drive, hotel, etc. Lee was trying to identify a pond in Louisville area but I think he hit roadblocks for the leads he had. I have an Iowa, probably the only active one over the past 6-7 years, it turns fine but lugging it around at an event and keeping the guns dialed in makes some events seem more like work than leisure time. It was also my 5th capital ship build, each build you learn new things to make a ship better, so starting with a huge ship means it would have a lot more growing pains than if you have more experience. Even with that experience I’ve gone through two major refits on the ship to get it where it is. For example, it’s much easier to keep 2 guns working consistently than it is to keep 6-7 guns. The list could go on and on. If you want a printed ship reach out to Will @bsgkid117 he has a suffren ‘kit,’ but best to see some ships in person and talk more with active guys with a lot of experience before deciding what would be best for you. Hope to see you on the water.
