Starting out

Im starting out after doing years of reading for this hobby. I know that the closes club for me is the north texas battle group, I know the common "theory" of going with a transport or some unarmed ship as your first build to not get in over your head and all that.

Im going to actually ignore the unarmed ship part. Im wanting to go with building a New York class battleship, personally the BB35 instead of the BB34. The only problem im having is I cant find 1/144th scale plans anywheres. I can get fairly good profile plans of the real ship but not for building a model scratch built. Also if my math is correct in 1/144th scale this battleship should be a fairly small one, that is if the math was correct I came up with 3.92 ft. length @ waterline in 1/144th scale taken from a 1/1 scale length of 565 ft. If im wrong on that and someone would like to correct me the measurements I have are as follows on 1/1 scale, 565ft length @ waterline, 92.25 ft (pre WWII) 106.25 ft (WWII) width, and 28.5 ft (pre WWII) 31.5 ft (WWII) Draught.

Even though I have been reading up on the hobby other than what class of battleship I want to try and tackle as my first build Im not sure what would be the best systems to install. I have drawn some electrical circuits layouts but I think their too complicated for the r/c hobby (they are almost close to being wiring diagrams for a car).

This ship in reality is a two screw ship so two electric motors is all I need, Ive read that battleships usually use the 550 motor. Should I run the 550 motor since this is a smallish battleship?

The New York class also has 5 turrets on her two forward, two aft and one amidship fore of the aft cage mast (pre WWII) / tripod mast (WW II layout). Would the ideal setup be to link the aft three turrets to one servo and the forward two turrets to one servo or go for ease of simplicty and link all turrets for a full 10 barrel salvo to one side?

I cant think of any more questions I have about this first build of mine I want to atleast get started with but if anyone has any recomendations I would be happy to hear.

 

I was thinking the gearbox route myself. I saw one somewheres online linked from one of the many combat websites that has interchangeable gears and also had a surface I could machine to encase the gears to hold lubrication.

As I was looking at the Texas battle group rules, they were reasionable for building the Newyork class only rule that didnt make too much since was saying that reverse couldnt be used out of the port area. But Im going to see but if possible I can get away with using the five main turrets along with sixteen max medium sized guns. Not sure how it would work running some 0.177" bb cannons for the smaller 5" guns along with the main 7/32" bb for the 14" main guns. The group also was listing 22 Knots as being the bare min speed and I think I lucked out cause BB35 which is the one im building the main website has orignal documents listing that she got 22.30 knots on her sea trails so Im able to just barly get by on that.

I also checked out The Floating Drydock, I have to say I didnt see the "hull lines" series, I was looking at the other series and thats why I didnt come across it. The $8.00 for the plans isnt bad, a hospital ship I was thinking about building instead this company I know that makes scale model builder plans wanted almost $60 for them.

 

I am working on a Utah with a similar turret layout. I had just decided to make the midships turret decorative and use it as the rescue float for the ship.

We use the same speed chart in Battlestations and the minimum speed rating works like this. If your ship could not make 22 knots in reality, it can for purposes of the hobby. Which is why we are some day going to have an Arkansas class monitor cruising around at 22 knots. Assuming of course it does not try to submerge.

 

Oh, ok. I thought the ship had to atleast do the min speed listed. I was thinking that kinda limits what you can pick to use.

The idea of using the amidship turret as a decorative piece and a float for locating the ship sounds good. Might consider that since I didnt really know how I would do the float on this class.

 

All my experience say that the Texas is too small to put all the guns in without some serious skill. I do not consider it to be a good beginner boat. There are too many turrets in too small a hull to be a beginner boat. I consider South Dakota to be the best first battleship. SoDak is 100 feet longer, 13 feet wider, is faster, and carries triple turrets with larger guns.

That said, if you still want the Texas, here is how I would do it. First off, I would forget all thoughts of secondary cannons. They are mostly used on the really big ships that have blind spots the mains don't cover. I'd also forget about the amidships turret as well, because it takes up space right where I like to put CO2 bottle and batteries and must be made to not shoot when directly aft, which is a challenge. I'd use tandem cannons (two magazines with one valve and accumulator) from BDE for the bow pair. I'd probably be able to do the same for the stern cannons as well, especially since it has two props, so the motors would go on either side of the stern cannon, but it's a tight fit. I might have to use a single cannon in the rear

This is the same layout as a Viribus Unitis I have. It is 500 feet long and 91.5 feet wide, so its shorter than Texas but almost as wide. The model gets four triple 7/32" cannons (I have two tandems from BDE). It gets twin rudders and up to four props, which is good for turning.

I'm pretty sure that 22kts is the minimum speed for transports, and warships have a minimum speed of 25kts.

 

NTXBG is listing 24 knots as minimum warship speed.

 

I saw the 24 knot min warship speed but some things sounded contradictory making it sound like it has to be just like the real one its modeled after, armor thickness, gun size, gun placement, ect. Sounds like speed would be in there also. But then again I guess 22 knots for a battleship would be too slow when the avg one in WWII was doing 25 knots on up to 30 knots for battleships.

I also understand Texas is a small battleship. One reasion why I choosed it was cause of its small size. Would be easy to transport in my trunk. As far as the turrets goes after thinking about it the amidship turret I would make into the recovery float. Only point in having all 5 turrets working was that I was thinking in a full broadside salvo I will be training 10 shells into the hull compared to the three turret triple barrel battleships of WWII I have one extra barrel unlike them. I thought about doing the bismark I guess what I can always do is build a bismarck class and then build the texas class just for myself and not for competition

 

Bismarks are a good looking ship to be sure, but I like the quirkiness of the WW1 ships better. Of course if your really want a lot of barrels for your broadsides you could go for 12 in the Arkansas, Fuso, or Ise. 4 triples in an Arizona, New Mexico, or Tennessee. Or 14 in an Agincourt. I would not really recommend these for a first ship though. Also good plans are easier to find for the later ships. They tend to be bigger its easier to place the innards in just so.

By all means do a Texas at some time though. We need more American Dreadnoughts on the water.

 

Anachronus thats what I was thinking. A Texas battle group and I have yet to see in any pictures that I have seen todate of a BB35 Texas in combat. But I can see the reasion cause of the Texas as being too small. But for some reasion Ive always wanted to build the Texas.

I know I already ordered the Texas hull plans for building the model I can always start building the hull and prep everything then put it to the side for fitting out. Arizona would be a good choice to build. Wouldnt really be hard for the 4 props though by use of dual engines and a simple gear drive transmission to run two props off one motor.

To be honest the ship I was orignally thinking about building as a first wasnt a warship but a WWI Hospital ship. Would have measured 6.13' and a width of 6 1/2 inches. But I didnt see the place a hospital ship would have in a combat envoroment considering during war time hospital ships are supposed to be immune. But a sister ship which that hospital ship class was, was orignally a troop transport in WWI so who knows I guess I could go ahead and build that.

 

The oft quoted advice I have heard and will pass on is that building a convoy ship is a good place to start. They have fewer systems since they are not armed. Which ship did you fancy? I have been kicking around doing the Brittanic.

 

Ah, but which Texas? Old Hoodooo or BB-35? If BB-35, her svelte younger form or her current Ruebenesque form.

[8D]

 

Anachronus, My orignal plan was the HMHS Britannic that was the hospital ship but I wasnt sure how that could be used since red cross ships are protected by the geneva convetion that they werent to be sunk. But I could always build the Britannic`s sister ship RMS Olympic she was used as a troop transport in WWI both of these would be over 6ft in length at 1/144th scale.

lol at 1/96 scale the Texas woulod be just under 6ft in length. Maybe I should go the 1/96 route for the Texas and use a larger ship for 1/144th scale.

Also Anachronus, I mmight be able to use the BB35 Texas in 1/144th scale I just thought about those cut to length throttle cables for cars their cheap but their durable and I could run cables from the servo under the "floor plate" that the batterys and motors would set on and run it back to the rudder. Would take up 1/4 of the room that a mechanical linkage system would, also would allow me to mount the servo anywheres and in any position.

I thought about which Texas myself also. I was thinking the Texas refit would be better, tripod mast are easier to make than a cage mast and the refit Texas is a good 14ft wider with the addition of the torpedo blisters. But then again would be neat to have a double funnel Texas. The WWI Texas had the cage mast closer together so the amidship turret was actually behind the mast. I guess if i wanted all turrets to be operational the cage mast would be the smartest way to go to have the least amount of systems to prevent shooting up my own battleship lol

 

In one of the other topic threads some one was talking about their HMS Rodney (could have been the Nelson) and they had designed an cut off switch that prevented the middle turret from firing when it was pointed at the turret in front of if. Something like that would work on Texas for the midship's turret. Again space is the issue. The Nelson/Rodney is a bigger boat.

 

Oh I understand the space issue. At 144th scale the Texas only has a width of 7.93" for the pre refit Texas and 8.76" for the post refit Texas. Im limited in space for width and length. But since I have fabricated alot of stuff up before Im willing to take the challenge and if the challenge beats me to the ground then I guess it will be put to the side and Ill tackle something bigger.

I was looking at dc motors on all electronics website and I found 4 motors that looked good that ranged between 6 - 12 volt to 6 - 20 volt. Not sure what to go with but I guess the bigger question is I need to figure out how i would put everything in the hull before ordering anything so I know what spaces I have to work with. I even thought about using just one motor and using a gear coupler on the other side of the transmission to turn the port and starboard shaft off one motor.

 

I actually think it could be done fairly simply with something like Fokker used on the Eindeckers in WW1. A cam on the rotating part of the turret that would break the firing circuit when there was part of the ship in the way of the guns. The actual fabrication is beyond my skill but sounds like not yours.

 

I feel that if I use a small thin throttle cable and cut it to length I can use a servo mounted in the very tip of the bow and run the cable along the very bottom to the rudder it would be out of the way and i would have no linkages in the way of other parts. Now the turrets thats something else. I have to see if I can get double barrel assemblys that would fire 7/32" bb`s and if I go with one single motor and use a gear setup to turn both props I could probably squeeze in a small co2 bottle there or use that for the servo to rotate the aft cannons. But that would need a linkage. I dont think a cable would allow 180* of rotation. It would be fine with 90* rotation but as far as 180* im not sure I guess I could try it to see if it would work but i think it would bind cause the cable would have to bend and that would cause the pushing force of the servo to be lost.

 

Anachronus, I used a deck plan of the real texas but used the bottom most level and I can fit one motor and a gear drive to rotate two props and its all in the last 10.10" of the hull from the rudder forward. That is leaving me 36.98 lenght of the hull for the rest of the systems. If need be I could move the motor and gear assembly back 2.50" to 3.65" so basicly I could have the whole propulsion system in 6.45" to 10.10" worth of the whole stern from the rudder forward. So basicly I should have 36.98" to 40.63" worth of hull space left for the rest of the systems.

Anachronus, I havent seen the size of the batterys or the pump or stuff like that but would you think that I should be able to fit battery and pump and servos in 36.98" - 40.63" worth of hull length and most of that length the hull is 8.85" in width?

 

Personally, I think you're crazy to try and fit in all five turrets. Then I think about our hobby in general, and realize we are all crazy to a certain extent. It is going to be very difficult, especially for a first ship. I'll see if I can take some photos of the Viribus Unitis and the cannons I have for it. The VU is shorter, but it might give you some idea how big the cannons are.

An interrupter system is just the thing to use to get the amidships turret in. I have seen one on a WW1 Lion in the WWCC. There are some photos in the photo gallery. It will have to be a separate turret, while the other two stern cannons can be a single tandem cannon. You may also consider using a different shape accumulator like the turret shown in Lion.
http://www.westernwarshipcombat.com/gallery/album19