Black Bart: IRCWCC

Discussion in 'Warship Builds' started by Beaver, Mar 30, 2022.

  1. Beaver

    Beaver 2020 Rookie of the Year Admiral (Supporter)

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    Details to follow.
    Christening this weekend...
     
  2. Kotori87

    Kotori87 Well-Known Member

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    video of the launch ceremony please!
     
  3. Beaver

    Beaver 2020 Rookie of the Year Admiral (Supporter)

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    The only picture from this weekend.
    Guess which one is mine and win a free set of BBs!
    PXL_20220402_163219963.jpg
     
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  4. Nomercy

    Nomercy Well-Known Member

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    The black one.... wheres my bbs?
     
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  5. bsgkid117

    bsgkid117 Vendor

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    Its the historically accurate carrier refit of the never finished Gascogne.
     
  6. Beaver

    Beaver 2020 Rookie of the Year Admiral (Supporter)

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    You will get them once I get my ice cream ;)
     
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  7. Evan Fowler

    Evan Fowler Well-Known Member

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    Tell D.Q. to let us in
     
  8. Kotori87

    Kotori87 Well-Known Member

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    What do you mean, "never finished"? Gascoigne was finished about 10 years ago, saw one battle, and then sat in a garage for a while. She's undergoing refit/modernization and will see action this weekend in California!
     

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  9. Beaver

    Beaver 2020 Rookie of the Year Admiral (Supporter)

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    So if you haven't guessed by now this is my Jean Bart build. Since I've taken to painting my boats black I've dubbed her "Black Bart". lol

    This is mostly a picture dump. I received the hull from @bsgkid117 late 2020 and battled her for the first time last weekend in Hagerstown.
    Brand new Bart hull with the Courbet nested comfortably inside.
    IMG_20200829_091044.jpg

    Prop shafts and drag disks.
    PXL_20210429_225310811.jpg PXL_20210801_143105884.jpg

    Plastic rudder chain breaks. .25 stainless chain is ram impervious.
    PXL_20201114_215327886.jpg

    Belt drive 775 drive.
    IMG_20200908_182508.jpg

    Subdecks installed along with bilge keels.
    PXL_20210731_175113746.jpg

    Power distribution board.
    PXL_20210815_142410885.jpg

    Power in.
    PXL_20220109_034506338.jpg

    Pump ESC with wires deleted.
    PXL_20211031_190204598.jpg

    Pump ESC mount.
    PXL_20220220_161653111.jpg

    PXL_20220220_230917121.jpg

    Older picture but here's the motors installed.
    PXL_20210105_002850635.jpg

    6.5 Sq. In rudder made from ABS.
    PXL_20220319_232444435.jpg

    I went a little crazy with the solenoids for this. These are 1\4in NPT 5/32 oriface Kips that I rewound the coils to open at 24v. Excessive? Much. lol
    PXL_20211018_212624224.jpg

    Gun mocked up. Direct solenoid connection for max airflow.
    PXL_20211021_225831581.jpg

    One Tee assembly kit ready to assemble.
    PXL_20211219_203924855.jpg

    Guns going on the deck. Made new decks from 1/8in ABS sheet. Really nice stuff.
    PXL_20220312_182356478.jpg

    All air, power, and signal connections come out to the front of the deck. Makes it easier to disconnect the deck.
    PXL_20220316_224907714.jpg

    Bus bar for the solenoid power from the gun boards.
    PXL_20220309_232327144.jpg

    Hinged turret covers.
    PXL_20220117_002753674.jpg

    Tests in the pool. Runs really well.
    PXL_20220320_164853537.jpg

    And cut out in preparation for regionals.
    PXL_20220326_221545210.jpg

    That's all I have for tonight.
     
  10. Beaver

    Beaver 2020 Rookie of the Year Admiral (Supporter)

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    Black Bart at Nats
    PXL_20220711_201740673.jpg

    I like big boats, I cannot lie.


    First off, this year’s Nats was the most enjoyable Nats I’ve been to. The battling was super competitive and the scores remained close all week. Bart was a hoot to drive. Being my first 24sec battleship, dual sidemounts, and her large size made for quite the learning experience, albeit an easy one. Her size and speed made getting out of bad situations easy. I could just push my way out of the pack of Nagatos and Yammer trying to entrap me. Overall she’s a fun ship to drive. IMO.


    So, to start out, here she is sheeted and ready for Nats. Painted in my signature black with white bootstripe. One noticeable difference from her first battle in Hagerstown is she has superstructure courtesy of @bsgkid117. Looks pretty good.
    PXL_20220629_220714867.jpg

    PXL_20220626_141605945.jpg
    So the good things.
    24v drive worked great all week except one motor dying for unknown reasons. I was able to get a replacement 775 motor from @Kevin P. which was much lower rpm. It effectively made it into a single shaft ship which was great for turning but she was also deemed the birthplace of Rock 'n Roll afterwards. Lol The Holmes Hobby ESC performed great, much better than the Spark I used at Hagerstown. Forward/reverse was instantaneous and acceleration was very good. Battery usage was good too. I fit 20ah of 6s LiPo that was easily enough for two sorties. All week of nats I usually didn't use more than 50% of power.

    Damage control was excellent. Was never in danger of sinking the entire week. The most serious damage I took was in a 1v1 with Kevin's Missouri. I had maybe one pump going 3/4 stream and the second pumping just a little. For reference this is full pumping capacity.
    PXL_20220718_153344466.jpg
    This was how shot up she was after the 1v1. I forget what the score was, something like 60 belows but the holes were big as you can see in these pics.
    PXL_20220715_173830844.jpg PXL_20220715_173827440.jpg

    And in one sortie I took this nasty ram and never noticed per the pump stream.
    PXL_20220714_145116189.jpg

    Guns worked pretty well. I want to make some modifications to the gas supply. The guns need a bit more air available for the duels to fire how I'd like them. Besides that they worked well and put holes in people. Was able to catch @kgaigalas and empty A turret creating this mortal damage.
    PXL_20220712_162458089.jpg
    Also put Kevin down in a 1v1. Pretty nasty damage.
    PXL_20220715_172202323.jpg

    Couple bad things. The ABS decks created a few interesting issues. Biggest problem was heat expansion. On the way to nats the decks bowed into an arch over the hull from the heat. Fixed this by trimming the decks down but it is an issue for those thinking about using ABS. They're also pretty flexible. I bought some carbon fiber rods to glue to the decks to stiffen them up. Something else to keep in mind with plastic.
    Other thing I don't like is how cramped the guns are. Makes work on the guns difficult but doubt I'll change them. Direct solenoid guns aren't really worth the headache I'm beginning to think.

    Overall, great ship. Had a blast diving it all week. She will probably be my main nats boat for a long time. Couple things to change right now are stiffeners for the decks and added expansion tanks for the guns. Otherwise pretty happy with the build. I look forward to seeing what kind of damage it takes to put her down with the dual pumps.

    That's all for now.
    Vive La France
     

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  11. Commodore

    Commodore Well-Known Member

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    Ribbit!
     
  12. Kotori87

    Kotori87 Well-Known Member

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    Any further details on this? Should I be worried about using 1/16" laser-cut decks for my predreads?
     
  13. Beaver

    Beaver 2020 Rookie of the Year Admiral (Supporter)

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    I wouldn't be worried, just figure on making them slightly smaller so there's room to expand in the heat.
     
  14. bsgkid117

    bsgkid117 Vendor

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    Direct Solenoid guns are a PITA but they are neat with how much direct gas flow you get to your cannons. Now that you have the regulators switched around as we talked about, and you have basically infinite gas on tap, you can fire the cannons as quickly as the solenoids reset basically.

    I wouldn't direct solenoid every boat. I wouldn't direct solenoid most boats. But this boat needs serious "oh, shit" guns or you'll be Jap food.

    Really glad you like the ship. I knew when I first started building 1.0 that she had potential that exceeded my building abilities. You've shown that potential, really set the bar high for my rebuild....thanks a lot :rolleyes:
     
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  15. Beaver

    Beaver 2020 Rookie of the Year Admiral (Supporter)

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    Well, the 2022 inaugural battling season is over for Jean Bart. She battled in 4 events, one of those being Nats, and performed very well. Had some issues with drive motors dying which is mostly my fault for lack of maintenance in corrosive environments. Otherwise Bart was a very competitive ship. The guns are very fast, powerful weapons and are performing even better than at Nats after I changed the gas supply arrangement. On that note, the A turret gun angle has proved to be frustrating. The guns were angled way too far forward. Trying to get them on target often got me more damage than I dished out. I'm working on moving them closer to perpendicular, as seen here.
    PXL_20221001_162418127.jpg

    For our recent battle in Hagerstown I installed new drive motors to replace both original motors that had died at previous events. The reason for failure was corrosion on the brushes causing them to fall off. One motor had died at Nats and replacing it with a slower motor created a surprisingly well performing ship. Turning was better than before with no sacrifice of acceleration or stopping power. With two new motors, and the shafts once again spinning at the same speed, I feel like the ship doesn't perform as well as it had with one hot shaft and a slow shaft. Sounds crazy but I may install another slow motor and run with it.

    She's well due for a resheeting now. The bow is nothing but paper. At Hagerstown I was getting huge holes from paper blowouts. My poor driving didn't help prevent this. I ate much of Kevin's Agincourt's sterns. PSA, don't chase that ship.
    PXL_20220924_150009535.jpg PXL_20220924_162647299.jpg PXL_20221001_162351794.jpg

    Anyway, pulled Bart into her winter birthing.
    PXL_20221001_155053347.jpg
    The new shop is not any more spacious but I hope to outfit it in an efficient manner. Wood has been acquired from work for the workbench as I plan out where I want everything to go. Should be fun and I hope to create a sort of studio that I can create more content for this hobby.
     
  16. Commodore

    Commodore Well-Known Member

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    Man, you guys go printing the rangefinders into the 6" turrets, and now I'm going to have to update my model to keep up .... or something.
     
  17. Nomercy

    Nomercy Well-Known Member

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    The Bart was fun to fight against. She is a beast.
     
  18. Beaver

    Beaver 2020 Rookie of the Year Admiral (Supporter)

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    It's gonna be a light year for the Bart. I'll be going over her, making slight improvements and testing some new configurations. I've begun changing the gas feed on the guns away from direct solenoid to slightly remote solenoid. I've come to dislike the shear struggle it is to work on these guns, troubleshoot issues, or modify their angle off the boat.
    Also, trying out some new props as well. (Thanks @SteveT44 !) They're printed nylon, 5 blade, undirectional korts. I'm interested to see what difference they make.
    PXL_20230407_010310042.jpg
     
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  19. Commodore

    Commodore Well-Known Member

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    How do they attach to the shaft? Is that some sort of threaded insert???

    (Depending on how they work out, I might be interested in some)
     
  20. JustinScott

    JustinScott Well-Known Member

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    Looks like they are glued?