I acquired a Moltke hull with some 'work' done on it this summer. The first order of business will be to gut it entirely. I've acquired a subdeck/deck kit from Stephen (StrikeModels) to replace the kindling that came with the hulk. Once the hull is gutted, I will be re-glassing the inside of the entire thing to reform the missing panels where the oversized windows were cut out and thicken the paperthin hull.
Began the fun-filled task of dismantling the hulk. Discovered that the scraper blade on my Harbor Freight Oscillating MultiFunction Power Tool Device Thing is quite capable of cutting into and through the thin fiberglass hull while removing the subdeck. After discovering that I just did the rest with a putty knife and a hammer for fear of further dismantling the thin shell of a hull. I'm now very amazed that these old swampy hulls survive combat. The stuffing tubes were held in place by what appeared to be some balsa superglued to the hull and then the holes were sealed up with silicone caulk. First time those props hit rocks the whole mess would have torn free had the builder finished it that way. I tore them out easily with my hands, it was therapeutic. About half the subdeck seemed to be held in via a silicone caulk, very strange, but it made my task simpler. Carved out the bulk of the expanding foam and dispensed with much of the rest via acetone, then tossed the hull into the bathtub to soak for a while so I could get the masking tape off. Upon removal the tape left a considerable amount of residue on the hull that simply will not do to have remain, so I'll be scrubbing that off later. I'm going to keep the gearboxes for sure, I believe they're Great Planes GB-600s which if I recall correctly is a 3.8:1 ratio. I have previously used a GB600 paired with a Johnson 550 in a refit of Phill's Suffren and it performed well so I will utilize these in the Moltke rather than pick up a set of the Traxxas boxes. The motors I'm unsure of, they have no stickering on them to indicate what they are so I will be throwing a prop on them and seeing what the tachometer and ammeter say they do.
That is one seriously ugly piece of construction. I am quite fond of using sikaflex polyurethane to glue motor mounts,etc into a hull, but that silicone job is a real mess. And the foam? That's just yuck. Will you be recovering the subdecks for re-use, or making new ones? At least it's in good hands now, and with care, attention and a whole pile of extra fibreglass, will become a real feather in your cap.
Stephen got a good laugh and a few winces as he looked at the pictures and read the description this evening.
You would be surprised how well the old thin hulls survive combat. My swampy invincible hull has made it through 5 Nats and probably 14 regionals with one broken rib. And I broke it at a spot i had previously drilled through by using power equipment to remove a glued on hull skin. Removed a bit much. I think the stuff is thin enough to flex without breaking when hit by a bb. I imagine ball bearings would probably quickly destroy a thin hull though. Ron Hunt
My Swampy Houtson (AKA The Bike) is one of the old thin hulls. Had it since 1998, it's seen a lot of battles. NATS every year since 02, 1-2 regionals a year, 5-6 local battles a year. No broken ribs yet.
My Bismarck hull is a old swampy hull 18+ yrs now and it's very thin. It seen hundreds of cruises and sorties, been refitted 6 times I think and sunk 3 times in combat. It survived 2010 Nats and currently in refit. Checking the hull no ribs broken or stringers. I was surprised though considering the pounding it took as a sponge protecting a shore installation and the NJ pumped triples into her at point blank range. As long as the thin stringers and ribs are backed with ply or other support they will remain intact. Oh year forgot too the uncountable times the model has been rammed.
Interesting. It seems like the bulk of folk responding here indicate that they are using unreinforced swampy hulls and that they have survived without problem. That's good to know, though I will still be thickening this hull as I intend to fill all the windows back in. The old subdeck pieces are headed straight for the trash. I thought about tossing it in the kindling pile, but I don't want to burn any glue / caulking remnants indoors. Here is the hull stripped down Kind of nasty looking inside now. That's ok - there's no more foam or silicone caulking. The spot where the HFMFOPT happily chewed through the fiberglass (oops) I picked up a subdeck/deck kit from StrikeModels to replace the cute little sticks that I ripped out. Some sanding to fit will be required, but the dry fit isn't bad. The stepdown, according to the subdeck kit, seems to be about an inch forward of where it is cut on the hull. Which is right? The subdeck kit - I checked with Stephen on this and he confirmed that the hull molds had an incorrect step location. This just confirms that I could really use a decent set of plans.
Its been backburnered for the past month. I need to order some fiberglassing materials and find some weekend time to work on the hull.
Honeydos do get in the way sometimes, lol. I saw these photos and instanly remembered about a hull I have in the shop. Talk about old and in need of a refit... I got this from a IRCWCC captain over ten years ago. I meant to get her done but never did for some reason. To get a idea how old this boat is, take a look in the bow at the hole in the bottom. That hole was for the round "Freon Ball" they used for gas back before CO2. I was told they ran a 60/40 chance of just blowing up! LOL I will say this, it is build solid to take the years of moves, abuse, being hung in the ceiling for years, and still no warps.... OH, BTW it's the QE no bulge. Good luck with that rebuild, it will be worth the time spent.....
I'm not quite sure I follow the need for the hole in the bottom of the ship? Was the freon ball too large to fit so they opted to have it bulge out below the hull and then it was sealed in somehow? It is a nice looking hull otherwise. On the Moltke-front, I finally picked up a new stern subdeck assembly that Stephen shipped me and I'm quite excited about how well it is going to work. I'll get a picture of it up later, but I'm hoping this next weekend I will be able to start rebuilding the hull, or at least sheeting it for the fiberglass layup.
The idea with running the freon tank under the hull was to keep the freon tank warm via water flow. LIke CO2, if enough freon was pulled fast enough from the tank, the freon froze and pressure dropped. From what I hear, freon cooled down much faster than CO2. Of course, the reverse was true also. Freon heated by the sun or a hot day could raise pressures enough to blow lines, tanks, etc. Frankly, I'm amazed the pioneers of the hobby were able to keep things together long enogh to battle!
"Stans Balls" didn't blowup regularly. Water bath tanks kept the pressure and temp. constant. I love it when people "invent" spectacular failures that never happened.
It was nice outside, so I wandered out with the Moltke to do a little prep work to get it ready for when I have time to do some fiberglass work. First I stretched painters tape over the areas that the original 'builder' had cut out. Making sure to keep the tape taut to prevent sagging here is important. 2 -3 layers after overlap is applied. Next I cut down some old silkspanned (not neccesary) balsa that was brittle and not suitable for being on the hull of even a target. Using contact cement I 'sheeted' the windows with the balsa. The presence of the balsa sheeting should help the hull shape maintain definition once I begin the fiberglass work. I don't really care that the balsa doesnt follow the curvature very well near the bottom of the hull. The purpose of it is primarily to hold the shape along the side of the hull. Lastly, a brief look at the new sterndeck section I got from Stephen vs the first one. The new one is the foremost. It is designed with a shorter after deck hatch more akin to the design used for the I-boat deck kits. There is a small potential loss of access this way but I felt that the benefits of being able to permenantly attach the forward subdeck to the aft subdeck at the step far outweighed any small loss of access in that area. A big thanks to Stephen for listening to my grouching and coming back with a redesign on it.
Got the first layer of fiberglass in this weekend. Got a little heavy on the resin, no one will mistake it for a professional job, but it'll work. I was going to finish the job and get the other layers in this weekend as well, but life has a fun way of getting in the way. Pics after the job is done.
