Starting to get some work done on my first 5.5 unit ship since a California I had in 2007. Very excited about this one as I’ve always wanted a QE class. The hull goes together pretty quickly. Hull is screwed and glued together. Motors mounts are installed and have servo heat press inserts in and screws ready to accept a rudder servo. Superstructure is mostly done. Next up is installing the shafts/rudders/stringers.blob:https://rcwarshipcombat.com/98541390-2fab-40b3-96cb-52fcef532b58
The 3D printed props, rudders/gears and drag disk look great need a little cleaning up and will be ready to have installed.
Wanted to share a few photos of my then 7unit Bismarck from back in the day when the ircwcc allowed the bis to be 7 units when I built my first ship from the ground up from a fiberglass hull. I was a single man then with a lot more free time to construct a ship from a fiberglass hull. Gone are those days with a wife and two young kids. These new 3D printed ships are great when you don’t have as much free time it took me weeks to get to the point in the build that I am now with a 3D printed kit. I cannot recommend these kits enough for new captains it shaves hours off assembling a warship and take out a lot of guess work as far as cutting ribs and where to mount things. A+ here excited to finish a competitive very handsome ship. Much thanks to SJS for the commitment and investing in the hobby.
I pre-bent the 1/8” SS stringer after cutting a 6’ section up to go down one side. Using some harbor freight clamps I have it held in the precut grooves tight while the 600 cures. I’ll repeat till all of them are in place.
Stringers are all in and secured. Started measuring and cutting shafts. Will have just a little space between the rudders and 3dp props when I can get around to getting them installed on shafts after they are cut. Current hold up is I need to drill the stuffing tubes out for the bushings.. Stuffing tubes are not glued in yet as I definitely want the bushings in them first.
Me as well. Having battled a pdn in Georgia the beginning of the year and battling dd’s with my family all summer at the lake I’m quite excited to have a larger capital ship to make traveling to events worthwhile. Once my little captain is old enough I will have a travel companion and squadron mate as well. He is very interested in daddy’s boats.
Have some more updates to share, motors are mounted, shafts and gear reduction going in as well. I also built my first reliable working cannon using Will’s foster breach cannon guide he has posted up here. The fittings and hoses and mag will all be changed around before this one is ready to mount but I was just checking the function of the interrupter at this point. I will say that having a sliding vise makes life so much easier I ruined a lot of parts before I decided to drop the money on a decent vice to hold the parts firmly.
Very cool to hear that my little how-to helped you build your first cannon. A true "caveman discovers fire" moment in this hobby. Congrats!
Nice work dude! I remember when I built my first working gun. It's an accomplishment to be proud of. It only gets better from here on out.
Gotten a few more things done. Finally got the decks coated in epoxy which is still curing. While that was drying I added the gears and rudder servo for steering which was super easy with the printed parts everything fit like a glove. I then moved onto soldering up my gun boards so they are all done and coated in silicon conformal coating. Now I’m just starting to lay batteries and esc’s in the boat to get an idea where I want to mount everything.
The built in gun mounts are pretty trick as well very easy to hold the gun in place. Magnets within the turret and barbet from the preformed 1/4” holes with some e600 to hold them in place makes getting that tweak fast and accessible and holds it securely in place.
Threw some cannons I have made for this one. Everything is ready except mags and gas lines I will save that for after I get more stuff secured inside getting ideas for where to try and run mags.
they are not 15 degrees just thrown in loose I’ll dial everything in by the time I build mags and run airlines to make sure everything is legal.
