Tonights update includes putting in a water channel and a neat way to water test your weight balance without having to skin the ship before you need to... The new water channel I am putting in will make room for the brand new LiFePO4's that will be the power source. Once finished, I will fill in the cracks along the hull sides and smooth her out with 30 min silicone and then give her a good coat of white paint. The green foam I use for the filler is from Lowes and is so nice to work with because it is sandable and is resistant to most CA or resins. The pink foam from Home Depot will work but is harder to sand and resins and CA will desolve it, so care is needed if using it! The foam here is 1" think and the "compartments" that hold the batteries. bilge pump, and control box are inset a 1/2". First thing after sanding the pieces to fit the hull sides is cut out the actual channel and place the bilge pump and get it's area cleared out. Click here for larger view I left a small slant in the cut out area for the tub to allow the tube to rise at a angle.. Click here for larger view Next thing to do is get her ready to float in the bath tub. I use a role of clear kitchen wrap and cut it in half. Then I tape a end to the bow and start wraping, being sure to over lap the windows real well. Once done wrapping it, I then use tape and secure it to the hull bottom and the top just in case. Then it's off to the tub where I place all the items in the ship and move to balance the ship out. Once balanced I mark out all the places and return to the bench. Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Once I have all the pieces marked real well I start cutting... I do this by first cutting out the compartment areas, being careful to keep the pieces with the right sections as the whole thing is in 4 sections. I then took the cut out pieces from the compartments and stood them on their side, marked them with a square down the middle. I then cut them on the scroll saw while on their edge, basically taking the cut outs and cutting them in half so the items in the compartments will set 1/2" into the floor. I then took all the pieces and glued them into place. Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Now I glue the foam into place..... I mark it on the hull before glueing bacuase sometimes it moves a little... prevents mistakes! Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Here you see a wood riser for the back of the CO2 bottle. I like my bottle to lean down to the regulator just a little.. Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Everything has it's place. I like putting all my ships together in modules! That way is something breaks at the pond it can be switched out quickly. Each module is secured in their compartment in the water channel to prevent shifting during battles. Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Hope you like it so far... Gun mounting next....
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click here for larger view Yes the quads are finished! Still need to bend in the mags but the hard part is done! Click here for larger view Each set of barrels are held tight by a piece at the breach and an adjustable piecec mid way down the barrels. They can be adjusted on the fly! Click here for larger view Ceasar guns are secured to Doras turrent. I did this by cutting the turrent in half and securing the back half to the barbette. (Jeff Lipps Idea) Click here for larger view The barrels have a rubber o ring that flattens when the fixture is tightend to help secure barrels in place. Click here for larger view The Ceasar Guns have their bracket secured to the back deck and is also adjustable. Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Here you see how the front end of the turret fits back into place. It will be held in place by velcro. Click here for larger view I luv QUADS!!!!
I think we are ready for silicone for the water channel, and a good coat of paint. She is close to being done. Just have the paint, and the wiring to do... and a few details here and there for the super.... Hope you have enjoyed her so far! It has been a fun time fixing Jeff's Ship for him.. Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Click here for larger view Click here for larger view
I love the work youve done, esp in the waterchanneling. I have one concern though - you note that you want your bottle to 'lean down to the regulator' - unless you have an antisiphon tube installed, this will result in you passing liquid co2 through your regulator, which will then expand to unregulated pressure. This is a safety concern that you should take very seriously and probably reconsider. At minimum unregulated co2 will blow lines and violate the safety rules regarding the low pressure side of our ships. If you use an antisiphon tube in your bottle correctly, feel free to disregard and continue...
THAT will be a very interesting boat to battle against. Two other Badens in Region 3 and none like that. Fun!
Pond-side function concern: I just want to make sure you have checked to see there is plenty of clearance to tweak the guns in the last turret with the barrels in the next turret right above their nuts. Otherwise, Nice build!
It should work well. One of my fondest memories of this boat when I first brought it to a Florida battle: Tim K was trying to get alongside me (forget what boat he had), and I gave it full throttle & hard right rudder.... Baden pivoted on Bruno turret (boat sat stationary in water, rotating around Bruno). Tim shook his head and said "That's just WRONG how well that thing turns!". Since the running gear (rudder & drive) haven't changed, should still be a spinner
A new guy locally is building a Prince Eugen with three stern guns and I was having a hard time trying to come up with some way to get at the breach nuts under the upper gun. Now I have your system to try. I've never use plastic wrap for "sheeting". I have used tin foil for a tub test. I have also used Duct tape sheeting. Works very well, even driving the ship around the pond on a sea trial. Back when I did Warspite major refit #2 I did almost the same thing you are doing with my water channeling. I put it up to the bottom of the windows all around the ship. I cut just a small depresion for my batteries (2 10a SLAs). When I would take 10-15 belows my ship would list to a side, never the same side, and sink shortly after. Turns out I had too much water channeling in it. The water weight added would go up high in the ship and along with the high batterys make the CG too high. After cutting down the water channeling to 1/4" all around the ship it was much more stable and could take a lot more damage. Something to think about.
Malaya's waterchanneling is 1/4" thick. I think I decided on it after cruising PPB's ship articles. It also reminded me that my best (bigger than a cruiser) ship for damage control was my I-boat, which has like 1/4" deep water channel and the rest was flat.
Bob, if your "water channelling" was raising the flood levels (and your CG), then it wasn't "channelling" at all. The purpose of true water channelling is to move water from other parts of boat to the pump sump. Bring it up to the window bottom, but slope it so the water drops into the central groove, then aft to the pump.
Disaster! We had a minor setback last night with the Baden. I used the exact same bottle of spray paint I used before when painting the green foam and inside of the Baden's hull. This time it MELTED the foam... I think the thinner in the can seperated from the paint more than usual. Even though I shook the crap out of the can it still did it's work on my darn waterchannel... So it will take me a day to refit the channel with new foam. God I hate sanding! Oh well... Once I am calmed down and can hold the camera without throwing it I will post a pic!
I have never had this issue in the past, but it could be that I either had luck on my side or a siphon tube in my bottle. I would think it would be the "luck".. I have been in the hobby for over 14 years and never had a issue.. but I will always take advise from new sources. Especially when it involves safety! The change is made. Thanks
I see the CG issue you have brought up... I also know that ships with a lot of sidemounts or other items that are offset from the center of the ship will cause a shift in the horizontal plane (List) when the CG raises above whatever weight initially set the CG. What I am trying to explain is this. Say you have a 3 lb battery on the hull bottom and other items higher up, say two sidemounts. All these things make up your CG when your ship is floating at it's current waterline. Once that ship takes on water and it's waterline (not the CG) raises, the CG will then shift to the new weight distribution(Higher up). The 3bl battery is now lower and it's weight has less effect on that CG and the sidemounts because they are closer to the "New CG" will determine your list... Also, a more simple reason... the pump you have may not be displacing water fast enough to keep up with the intake of water volume... (your starting to sink!) Allied Captains have this issue a lot!
We had the liquid CO2 issue twice in this one battle weekend that we finished. Blew a line, made pretty 'smoke'
Saw a boat with a really, really good deck seal blow the line off their regulator once. Puff of white smoke out of the turrets, followed by the sides of the bow blowing out as the A turret rocketed into the air. Boat went down like...well, the HMS Hood. Wasn't sure if I should be rolling on the grass laughing, or applauding the spectacle. Wound up doing both
SMS Badenough has departed the Spudwerks Shipyard and moved to the VonLippe fitting out basin for...well, fitting out. Before it left KY, all electronics and guns were placed in hull & tested. I was amazed to find my Futaba radio that had been sitting on a shelf for 6 years still held a good charge! Electrical systems and guns worked well. Remaining to do: Determine method of pump control (Autoswitch or RC220) and wire up Install Deck Hold-downs Sheeting hull Painting Install new LifePO4 batteries (pending funding) Gas & BB up!!
