USS MISSOURI 4TH SEA TRIALS: RESULTS.. ISSUES: Accidentaly hit the toggle switch controlling servo rate of throw. This reduced the throw arm of the servo that activates the pump switch and also will fire the triple cannons. Thought I had turned the pump on when the model was looking low. As I was chatting to Sean about the model I looked again and realized all I could see in the choppy water was the tip of the bow and the supestructure. The Model's entire length save for the little rise in the bow was level with the water. In other words it was running but submerging like a submarine. Realizing what was happening I managed to activate the pump. The model was 60 ft out from shore with the waves on the stern. It drove in and pumped itself out in 3 minutes. The model proceeded normal cruising immediatly afterward. The toggle on the right side face of the TX has a dual rate that allows full range of a servo or limted range. I inadvertently bumped it and activated the limited throw rate. It was quickly corrected. Other Issues.: None. No kidding Speed: Excellent. The model cruised for the first 40 minutes with no issues. Ran Roma for 30 minutes. Then Missouri ran with Roma for an hour. Roma came in and Missouri ran for another hour and 30. Water stayed choppy with a light to moderate wind throughout. Turning/Maneuvering : Excellent. Even with a light throw of the rudder the model reacted instantly to the turn. Turning circles were very tight. I was surprised it could make tight turns against the wind and chop. The quarterdeck looked like a hot butter knife cutting the waves in half as it slammed against the surf during it's turns. Zigzagging was excellent as well. The model regained control when the rudder from the tx stick was let go to snap back to neutral position. It didn't over steer itself. With no handle on the stick the model was little affected by the wind. It stayed on course mostly on it's own with little imput from me at the TX stick. Accelleration: Very Good. It doesn't take off like a rocket like the NJ I saw at Nats. It certaintly doesn't throwa foot high rooster tail but it did take off very quckly and got up to speed in seconds. Stopping: With the model at full speed I slammed it into reverse and it stopped almost instantly. It stopped within it's length no problem. Heel in Turn: Surprisingly excellent. Very little lean at all. Barely noticable. I was really impressed because with choppy water and moderate wind blowin on shore, plus the fact the batteries are standing up on each side of the hull i was expecting quite the heel in a tight turn at speed and some sluggishness to right it self up. Well it has excellent stability in a wind or rough water sea state. The model just prefers to stay upright. Trim: Missouri is a strange hull to look at. That large sheer of the bow makes the model look really low along her length and stern when at speed. However dozens of close drive bys and with me squatting as low as I could get to the water which I was in the bow WL maintained it's trim. This model is low freeboard past the bow. Rises up a little at the stern but at speed the stern dips a little. I would have no problem getting low shots from the stern triples. Stability: Excellent. The model is very very stable in rough water which we get a lot around here. I didn't see the bow plunge under not once. It rode up and down very slightly. I was very surprised. I am used to wet bows from Yamato and Bismarck in moderate sea states. Yamato deflects it better but because of the weight can plunge under. Range: Well I was running with the Spectrum DX5E and I ran it down half power. I had the model out to 100 and 150 ft with no issues. Radio Control : Again no signal issues , no jitters or hiccups on that end. Especially after the model was just about submerged. Again I was surprised. Endurance:Excellent. The model ran at speed for a very long time with the pump left on most of the time. Pump: Excellent pickup of water. The waterchannelling works like a charm. No problem handling incoming water. I figure I will use a STINGER motor for the pump at Nats when I attend again. Rudder. I had excellent control of the rudders. Plenty of throw eiter side. Drive Train: Excellent. The entire system performed flawlessly today. The Gears meshed nicely and smoothly but best of all the model was quiet. I could hardly hear the gears turning. Hull integrity. No leaks through the hull. Only water got into the deck hatches but not surpised the quarterdeck was mostly awash in the hard turns against the chop. Helm: Excellent control in the rough conditions. I can't wait to see how it handles when the water is calm. Throttle: No issues with the MAG switches. I had perfect control and response times between forward and reverse control. Even when the switches were completly submerged. Radio RX and Servos. : Excellent. The servos were not affected by submersion inside the hull and receivor worked with no issues in signal while submerged in water inside the hull. Ballast: Excellent. All internal components stayed put. No movement of the batteries , bottle and servos. Overall Performance: Excellent. For a very long and narrow battleship with a lot of superstructure the Missouri is a beautiful ship to watch sail and maneuver. The model performed above expectations once the bug with the port drive train was resolved. It handles like a North Carolina or Sodak . If battled correctly it is a formidable model. Sheeting it was very easy compared to most large battleship models. I am very pleased to have Missouri and I can't wait to finish the cosmetics and finally get the remainder of the Co2 system and valves and get the cannons installed. So from here on in I will finish the superstructure and deck details and finally attach the planes, crane, flags , rigging and crew.
I was trying to remember when I started the Missouri. I believe it was in Oct 2010. Not bad. This is June . It been since late Mar early Apr I been able to spend more than one day a week at it . Took time off over the Christmas Holidays then back at it again.
Next run I will mount the Go Pro on board Missouri. I am feeling more confident now in the model's reliability.
Nice work Curt. It sounds like you have worked most of the build issues out and will have a nice battling Iowa
Thanks Iceman. My next challenge is mounting the cannons. The Mags for the triples will have to face towards the stern and the mags for A and B turrets will face toward the bow. Fortuntaly I have experience setting up the Mags that way. Yamato and Bismarck's cannons work well and have no issues with feeding the bbs.
Not much to Missouri but I did make a set of main dummy barrels and installed them in Turret 1. These are there till I can get a BB cannon set. Meanwhile I am going to enjoy looking at the Turrets with it's barrels in place
Ok been a busy afternoon but I managed to get a little extra work on the MiSSOURI. But first just to show what came in today. Termite Armor Termite secondaries. My SK-2 RADAR dish came in also. Forgot to take a pic of that. Repainting the main weather deck I finally was able to add the termite and the new secondary turrets and painted the superstructure. Main turrets were repainted as well. Tomorrow I hope to take the Mo out for cruise and get pics of her at this stage . Hopefully I can get some GO PRO video of it .
I posted photos of MO in the photo thread of yesterdays run with the Go Pro Camera aboard. I should have a short video clip posted to Youtube very soon.
Well I had another great sea trial. No issues to report so that's good. The motor system is purrs nicely. Maneuvering is excellent. Pump evac systems work great. Range and control excellent. Stability in high speed tight turns excellent. Ok seeing how the ship 's systems are relialble next step is to begin finishing the details. Think I will put in an order for the AAAs and other goodies.
I made some mods to the interior layout. I was reweighing the model and checking against the MWCi and the IRCWCC shiplists stats to see where it falls in. On the MWCi list it shows an Iowa class model to weigh between 44.50 and 48.95 lbs. On Ircwcc it shows it to weigh between 43.136 and 47.450 lbs. I weighed my Missouri and it's comoponents and came up with 47.085 lbs. If I remove the additional ballast I laid forward and in the bow to trim the model I can bring it down to 44.04. I would need to move my batteries forward more to correct the trim to keep the weight the same. I always liked to have some reserve buoyancy and keep the model to min weight. I been running Mo at Max weight so far and though I have had no issues like this and I like the fact the stern guns can aim low it's not an issue. I was just curious how much alteration I would need to get it back to min weight and maintain the trim and see how it looks and performs on the water with the reduced weight. Till the weather clear up I won't be able to try the mods yet at the pond but when I do I will post how it looks with the mods. Meantime though the model has been performing well. I am going to mod the rudder servo links and set them up like I had in Bismarck with a push pull system of rods on either side of the horns . It will just give me more rudder throw both sides. I lubed the gears with lithium marine grease and they are working nicely.
Ok some photos from this past weekend. Ok youcan see I kept the forward batteries and removed one of the pair that was standing up behind the forward batteries. The bottle was moved ahead. The 3rd battery was laid flat and across the bottom. I used a couple of spare RX packs to keep the battery lying down from sliding side to side. I since installed permanent side supports. I was testing how the Vu floated with the windows cut out and no ballast. Another VU hull with deck on top test floating hull only. Almost completing it's turn you can see the stbd side quarterdeck is not kissing the water in the turn. The Mo sitting pretty with the reduced weight. Clean entry through the water at the bow. Wake is very smooth along the hull. The aft quarters are showing more freeboard than before. The stern wake. I think the Mo is sitting just about perfect here. Fuzzy shot as the wife was lying across a floating dock to get the aft shot of the Mo at speed to note the difference in the freeboard after the weight reduction and ballast shift. This 4ft PT109 was making circles around the Mo and kicking up good waves. Mo looks good starboard side. Mo has very little heel in a tight fast turn. More photos but I will post them in the photo thread. Thanks
Update. Mo weighs in at 41 lbs. So the rest of the equipment should bring it up to her 43lb weight. Great that gives it some reserve buoyancy. Excellent. I got the liferafts attached to the Main turrets and some of the levels of the superstructure. Planes assembled. Just need painting. Going to work on the rest of the details as I go.
Once again, beautiful ship! Looking at your trim, are you ballasting slightly towards the stern to give your C turret a better aim point? Because of the Iowa-class upslope at both ends, a stern-heavy ship, even slightly, makes a lot of sense. In response to your question about my aft tower, yes it is grooved, because when I looked at the plans and the reference photos, I interpreted more of an octagonal/pyramidal structure as opposed to more of a flat-sided structure port and starboard. I will probably end up redoing that portion so I can build in the aftermost rangefinder position as part of that element of the structure rather than trying to add it in later. Because... well, to put it plainly, I like the way yours looks compared to mine, lol, so I mean to copy it. Also, looking at your battery positioning and internals layout... that all makes so much sense when it comes to trimming that you have the heaviest elements of the ship right in the middle. I'm going to experiment with different battery positions during my next test runs to see what sort of results I get. When all is said and done, Stok, we both need to try to get to some sort of IRCWCC/MWCI event next year with both ships, finished or not, just for some beauty shots on the water. I'm loving how our respective Iowas are coming along!
Thanks moose421 and Miller7D. It was ballasted slighty towards the stern to lower the C turret when sitting for a better aiming point and makes the ship pivot better. The Model at idle position sits evenly maybe slightly stern heavy which is the usual way I set it up. I find when in motion the stern is pulled down by the props so it does lower the C turret. I figured when battling the additional amount of ballast from incoming water is going to lower it more anyway. Currently with the new adjustment if the model is still it sits evenly on the trim. Don't go by the stern wl tape I have to correct that as it is too low. However even at the reduced weight the stern still drops lower and that's with and without the drag props so I am happy with how low I will be able to shoot. Too low and you get bbs deflecting and going to high to be effective. I seen that happen at 2010 nats where a NC had me dead to rights on the bow of Bismarck many many times and he should have damaged the bow much much more severly than it had. No can openers or nasty gashes. The only thing I can think of is his cannons had to steep angle relative to the water plane and the BBS were deflecting up and not going through the water. Course I didn't stay still I kept moving the ship and kept the bow at angle . Damage was minimal with very few above and nothing below at the bow. This was a one on one and this NC scored only 840 pts and Bismarck socred 2640 mostly belows and on WL hits. I got a more accurate reading of the weight so the Mo is sitting at 40 to 41 lbs so I am on target. Just need to speed test this now. What I find with the Mo is the weight could be moved further forward with the batteries almost up to and behind B turret if you plan on leveling the trim. I did try that with all 4 batteries and though the weight was the same at 47lbs I found I didn't need to add any weight in the bow to trim it out. I would have to keep the bottle forward between teh pairs and set up the radio gear in front of the pump. Mo is a strange ship to ballast. Anyway I like what I have now as I still have room and if I need to add ballast I can add it port and stbd but keep it amidships and keep the trim the same at the bow and stern so it 's a win win there. This is a kick to have 2 ship builds so closely alike . Don't feel alone building this beast. Excellent feedback. I like your ship better than mine you like mine better than yours. Maybe we should trade after their built. LOL. Keep it coming.
Well I had Missouri back out again. This summer has proven fruitful for the MO for her sea trials. A little shaky start but with nearly a dozen trial runs the model has hit it's stride. First the rudder throw is vastly improved. 2nd the model's weight and trim is just about bang on. The model has passed all of it's sea trials. The only thing left is gunnery trials. My buddy dove in the water to get some real beauty shops of the Mo at her correct trim. She's ballast at 41lbs so the remainder of the equipment for guns and accumulators and stuff should fill the remainder nicely. Also I am extremely pleased with the seaworthiness of this beast. I encountered again very large swells and the Mo rode them beautifully. The model trimmed out back aft certainly helped as very little water entered the hull. It took quite some doing to get the forward part of the ship to disappear beneath the waves but the Mo handled it np. I been running without the drag discs and I figure I would need just static props . Speed test is the only thing left to verify. I added some liferafts to the ship. I figure I will have the crane catapults and the new Radar built and attached in a few more weeks along with the planes. Enjoy.. My buddy was only a head above the water when he took this pic from a few feet away. Kinda of dark but you get the feeling your there. You can see the dock in the background The model at trim 41lbs. No bb guns accumulators, lights and co2 poppets board yet save only 1 poppet valve. Side on it looks much better now. The wake when running matches Miller7's after the weight reduction. I have more to come showing the performance at this weight without the drag discs.
