If you are using it for a combat model you should trim the casement barrels down or make them out of a bendable material. Two bad things can happen with them hanging over the side like that. You cap rip open someone’s balsa, that’s not allowed. Or someone can use that barrel to hook your ship and move you where you don’t want to be.
Great advice! I will look in to replacing them. Though they barely stick out further than the hull bulge, by maybe ⅛” Well, she floats. But far from water tight. A lot of little pinhole leaks. I am TRULY impressed with how the ‘seal less’ deck ‘seal’ did, too. There are no gaskets or magnets. Just very close fitting deck pieces that ‘snap’ in place. While draining the water, it was barely a drip coming from them with about 2” of water behind them (over where the deck lip ends and the deck top starts). So, need to fix the water proofing, one of the sheets is coming loose in the middle and another at the edge. And fix the pin holes around the bottom.
11 lbs of ballast. Right to the scale water line. The ship will weigh roughly 21lbs. I still need a pump, shoot ton of battrees (when it is combat ready), bottles, ammo, splinter shield… and only 11lbs to play with.
I couldnt get a full power and turning test because -someone- forgot to loctite the grub screws on the motors. Before the grub screw came loose, she turned pretty well and accelerated well. But with only one motor functional, she did still move. I will take her out again this week to get video and power runs.
FYI, the ship list shows her maximum weight as 25 lbs. I wouldn't weigh her down that heavily, but something around 22 lbs would probably be a very happy medium. Marked waterlines are often at "light" or "standard" displacement, and don't reflect the waterline in battle trim. If you run your ship too light, you're just giving away target area, etc. to the opponent. At the same time, if you run the ship too heavy, you run the risk of making her too sluggish, or easy to sink due to lack of reserve buoyancy. My Seydlitz, for example, runs about 21-22 lbs. She's a happy boat. Just something for you to consider.
Soooo I just double checked… dry weight is 11lbs and waterline with an 11lb ballast. I… had 5lbs dry weight in my head. No wonder adding 20lbs (11lb plate and 2x 4.5lb weights) in my initial test put her under so not 16lbs, 22lbs. Its been a long week… like a REALLY long week. Thanks for making me double check my numbers. That makes a lot more sense
Are these boats supposed to get on a plane like this? The front of the hull was up out of the water, up to the fore torpedo tube, under full acceleration. She was fighting a pretty strong current too. It was hard to film since I don’t have a tripod.. I was surprised how well she turned too. At half throttle I could get her to almost spin on her nose.
You're way too fast. Your ship should look more like this: View: https://youtu.be/VxT1mAJykj8 Edit - note that you could also have light wieight or weight distribution issues. The good news is that slowing the boat down is fairly easy... If you don't have a 100 foot measuring tape, a good estimate is a 'slightly brisk walk'. If you have to speedwalk to keep up, your boat is too fast.
Right now 100% is 100%. I havent trimmed it back any. It sits level in the water, but I can try to change the weight distribution to try to keep her nose down. Spread it out from being concentrated in the center. But I will see how she react when I get the speed down. I have to add the drag disks yet, which will help too. I was thinking of setting up a 10’ marker and filming the passes and then timing those. It should clear 10’ in 2.4sec.
If you have room lay out a 50 foot extension cord and time that run, so you get it in a good ballpark. It works well if you have the space at your pond. Good luck and hope to see you on the water.
I can give that a shot! I want to get out to Hagerstown for Saturday, just to spectate and get some build advice. She doesnt have her guns installed yet so she wont be able to battle anyway.
I’m just a little bias, but shes a pretty boat! I tried to match the WW1 German navy gray as best I could without spending $7/tiny can for the Tamaya paint. Contemplating painting the superstructure deck or printing a thin wood veneer for them. And yes, the red funnel and single point masts are historically accurate for Jutland.
WHOOOT! She looks GREAT. I love it... I am a big WW I Battlecruiser fan, there is something about the greater simplicity of the super componants than the Massive supers of WW II that appeals to my eye, (I think) or it could be that im just not right in the head and love boats!!!!! Yea Boats! looking forward to seeing it on the water.
Thanks! I agree. Something about the raw industrial function over form of WW1 German ships are simplistic in beauty.
Looking good! If you're looking for inexpensive paint options, your local arts & crafts store (or wally world) will have lots of cheap bottles of acrylic paints in a variety of colors. I ended up using some "Elephant Gray" and "Storm Gray" on my Bismarck this year, and they looked good. Otherwise, get yourself to Hagerstown this weekend, and meet the gang. They'll help you out with any issues you're having, and probably have lots of good (or not) advice on how to build this and that for the future.
