The SMS Baden pulled into SpudWerks Shipyards for her refit. Jeff Lipp's SMS Baden has been battling in the MWC/IRWCC since 2002. For a x-mas present I offered to rebuild her and get her up to 2012 equipment standards. In the pics you can see she still has the old reliable servos for gun control and bilge pump. During her refit she will be getting the deck relaid, lighter superstructure, new boards for firing circuts and a rc220 esc. Also will be fitting a autoswitch for the pump. Here are a few pics of her as she just slipped into drydock. The first issue was with the antenna, it had so many coats of paint I had to strip off the original coating to get it out. I love a wire rats nest..... The only straight area was inside the water box. Kips too close to the motor... bad for misfires and they always happen at the qwrong time. The rudder system is great, it stays. I wish I could work with stainless steel like that... One of BC's original drive boxes.... it stays, still good. LOL, stowing away the stuff... All cleaned out and ready... for the dirty work Scraping barnacles erally sucks... Tracing out the new subdeck Had to grind out the old wood deck in fear of breaking the glass ribs, she is really thin. Planning out the sterns. Always make sure battery fits... Looks good I sanded and painted the inside of the hull today... Wife is really mad It was cold and I had to keep the shop door closed.... Casement work begins.... My hand so hurts after cutting all those.... Well, the deck will be cut and placed on the ship along with the weather deck. Then comes the wiring and placement of internals... Stay tuned
I wouldn't call rc220s "2012 standard", not when ESCs and brushless technology is already in ships and doing well in addition to LiFE batteries. Perhaps 2010 standard. Just teasing a bit. That subdeck and casement work is gorgeous. Well done!
Tell me more about these new things.... I have been off the water for a few years. Especially these new batteries I keep seeing!
Takes more than that to get under this old soldiers belt..lol I definalty look forward to sharing some war stories at Nats this year....
Not to sidetrack the thread too much, but since you asked ... Probably the biggest upgrade this past year has been moving from SLA to Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFE) batteries. I'd hazard to guess half of the ships in MWC are now LiFE and a good portion of ships in IRCWCC are moving to LiFE. We are using the prismatic style LiFE cells. LiFE cells have many advantages over SLA such as more stored energy per pound, flat voltage discharge curves, and up to 3 - 5 times more life cycle. For instance, the 20ah LiFE cells only weigh 16 ounces each for a 2 pound, 6.6 volt battery. A 6 volt, 12ah SLA weights 4 pounds. The LiFE battery is half the weight with 40% more capacity. LiFE cells discharge like NiCad and Nickle Metal Hydride cells, i.e. a steady voltage under load for most of the battery's capacity. An SLA battery voltage will gradually drop under load as the capacity is used. The advantage is the LiFE cells will deliver as much power at the end of a two sortie battle as at the beginning, while SLA batteries may be struggling. And finally, a LiFE cell can have 4 - 5 time more charge/discharge cycles as a SLA. Sure, SLAs can work as long as 5 years, but really after two years the SLA performance drops off. LiFE cells can deliver 70 - 80% of its capacity after 3000 charge/discharge cycles. The downside to LiFE is the cost. The 20ah cells normally go for around $30 a cell (need two to make a 6.6 volt battery). But once we realize that a LiFE cell will perform years longer than an SLA, then the cost of replacing SLAs two or three times will equal the cost of one LiFE battery. Some good places to get LiFE cells are www.currentevtech.com, batteryspace.com, or elitepowersolutions.com. LiFE cells do require specialized chargers. The easiest we found was a single cell charger at batteryspace.com. They are plug and forget type chargers for around $25 each. Two chargers seems to be best to charge both LiFE cells of a battery pack at the same time overnight. Some battlers will top off their ship's LiFE cells over lunch break between battles. For the Baden, I would go with the 20ah prismatic type LiFE cell. Best buy is the 20ah 12v car battery on batteryspace.com. The plastic outer casing is easily removed to give four 20ah LiFE cells. Split them into pairs and the Baden will have enough power to easily last an entire day.
I do know of one other supplier for LiFE cells, packs, and chargers that would be much obliged if you considered them in your comparison shopping as well, especially since they help support this forum. =] http://www.strikemodels.com/product...-chargers/
Any boat talk is not drifting from the thread..lol Very nice, thanks for the info. Jeff Lipp and I have been out of the hobby for a couple of years. We have to catch up! Looks like I will need to add a couple more diodes to my RC boards. Does anybody know if there is a limit to how many you can have inline to drop voltage?
Looks like I will be making a Strike purchase next week. Whats the deal on speed controls these days. I still plan on using RC220's
My apologies for forgetting to list Strike Models, Keri. RC220s are still usable ... indeed, many people still use them. Yet ESCs allow a captain to easily adjust the speed of their ship without resorting to gear changes or prop tweaking. The most popular ESC in the hobby is the MTroniks Viper series of waterproof ESC. Strike Models and many other RC suppliers carries them. I prefer an ESC for the proportional control. Sure, I rarely actually need proportional during the battle, but there are times like matching a slower ships speed or slowing down while moving to prevent driving ones self under that it comes in handy. Mostly though, I love being able to set ship speed in under a minute versus taking upto an hour to change gears and such. Oh ... almost forgot. Completely solid state and waterproof too. Low maintenance.
Yep, I will be there with my Mutsu, and my son with is Viribus Unitis. Jeff will be there with this Baden.
I need some clarification on this darn casement rule change. From what I read my Mutsu will have to convert her solid casements to have penetrable areas, but this Baden should be able to keep all her casements solid correct?
Here is a picture of my baden with the casements cut out. I may have cut a little too much in some places. If left all the corner edges of the casements to allow for sheeting and the shape of the casements. Below is a picture of the ship before I cut the casements. Here is a picture of the 'during'. I cant find my finished picture.I left it large so you could see the detail, otherwise its just black.
As you dont have a stringer you can have a thicker 'casement deck'. According to the drawings the Baden has a 1/8 stringer just below the 1/8 casement deck. I am not sure if you can have a 1/4 casement deck in the absence of a stringer. Perhaps Bob is reading this and can jump in.
A few things! 1) When you finish your rebuild, I am stickying this thread, as I know that there are more than a few Badens built to the old standard, and your guide on the refit to the new rules alone is worth stickying, to say nothing of the casement work... 2) Grey Wolf Squadron just came out with cast casements for Baden. I have them on Badenlicious, and Christopher Koehler has them on his Bayern. If you aren't sure you can do the kind of work you see here, it might be something you want to think about. Just in time for Christmas (No, I get no kickbacks from them, I should be so lucky)
Tugboat, we're about to make an order with Grey Wolf Squadron -- do you think there's a market out there if we were to carry them?
Hey Tug, will the guys update the website with the new casements pictures etc? Nothing like marketing to drive demand.
I dont know how the heck I will get these casements cut out if they have to. Who put this on the ballot.... it isnt worth the darn effort and grief it causes the captains that have solid areas in the casements and the dam decks are designed around that..... Did they not take into consideration the mess they have created just to get a pitifull few more points at NATS! Dam will somebody clearify this casement thing. The rules still are not clear and I am looking at having to completely rebuild this darn baden once more because somebody is buthurt that their boat doesnt have a solid area!
Well, you are preaching to the choir but I had no choice and got it done. I was told by many that it wasnt that much work etc.... It probably wont take that much work to fix at this stage in the build.
