Tirpitz build

If the gears don't work you still have the posts in place so switching to levers won't be a problem. And don't worry about the discs being off either. Mine are not perfect.

 

I use those gears from BC in all my boats, they've always worked well for me. re: using foam as water channel. Remember that you do want weight down low to help with stability. You might want to think about using something heavier than foam (which is much much lighter than water or batteries, which will be on top of it). Wood treated with resin is used by a lot of people as well. Water channelling doesn't really "change" a whole lot. Leave a basing around where your pump is, raise the bottom of the hull everywhere else and leave a channel 1/4" or 3/8" deep from the bow area back to your basin, and you're pretty much there. Can always add more later. Definately check out the "inside a warship" pictorals on the Port Polar Bear website. Although I dont think there is a Bismarck specifically, the section on the Nagato, Washington, and North Carolina detail the water channel of big ships nicely.

 

Glad to hear the drag prop being off will not affect anything, going to use as it.
Gears, looks like these gears performance is 50/50 from other builds. Since I’ve already got them, going to give them a go and see what side of 50/50 the Tirpitz turns out on. Have to come up with some kind of mount for the ruder servo that allows a little adjustment if possible.
Water channeling, what to do, foam, wood/epoxy or concrete self-leveling sealant. going to do some calculations on weight, if one wants the weight low, which everybody says is a must (Hovey in our club used concrete sealant, weight is low and turns great, north Carolina).
Added reinforcement to the rudder post (will be encapsulted in expoy)


adding supports for rudder servo

 

My first build used 1/4" balsa (with a thick coat of epoxy to seal it) for water channel. It worked well and was easy enough to shape to fit the contours of the hull. I have since tried to avoid wood as much as possible since it does eventually get wet and start to rot especially in the bottom of the hull. Foam tends to wear easily and so most foam would need some sort of protection and so it wouldn't be my first choice for water channeling. Concrete sealer is easy to pour and not that hard to remove if needed. I like it a lot for boats that don't have severe weight limitations. Remember, its only a 1/4" to 3/8" thick so it doesn't add all that much weight overall.

If those gears mesh well then you wont have a problem with them. My old Derf used those and they worked awesome, the last round I purchased not so awesome since they meshed poorly.

As to turning make sure to keep as much weight low and near the center of the boat as possible. low weight keeps you on an even keel which helps you turn better and makes your guns point of aim more consistent. I'm currently rebuilding the NC to fix her gun issues but I should be able to move some of her components towards center and so she should turn even better when I am done. If nothing else her sterns should finally feed properly. You wont be able to out turn the NC but you should be able to turn circles inside of Alex's Bismarck.

 

I always drop my batteries to the bottom and build up the water channel around them. I just leave them in the bilge for low weight.

Gears work ok, my experience...
Had one crack from being brittle (a few years old)
need a set screw / flattened shaft notch / dab of ca wouldn't hurt either
servo adjuster should have a slider

I've moved away from them in the past few years and went to rods.
found them to be less maintenance / more reliable then gears, use less room
Just my opinion...

 

Good point. All shafts should have a flat for the set screw to rest against and use loctite or CA on all set screws.

 

thanks for all the info and ideas
if the gears do not work can change to the lever arms.
thinking of using the concrete sealant again, if it can be removed that easy. also installation would be easy, if self leveling.
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here are a couple picks of the timbers installed for the rubber servo and how the gears look installed.

 

laying out the dry box, co2 bottle, bilge pump and batterys. when I thought 4 batterys would fit, must have been looking at a Iowa class.

 

That layout looks good to me, but make sure your guns have clearance so you don't have a problem later.

If that is your planned water channeling you need to bring it closer together. The idea is to have a narrow trough to funnel the water into the pump and leave as few other places for it to go as possible. I like a 1.5-2" wide trough opening up around the pump (so it can fit). Obviously water might have to move around batteries or the radio box (if height is an issue) but try to keep it flowing down the center as much as practical. I would also run it slightly farther forward.

 

Second on the water channel. Closer in is better. Width is up to the builder. I've seen deep narrow channels and wider shallower channels. As long as the channel is not wider than the pump, it should work as intended.

Good looking build so far. Keep up the nice work.

 

I have the two gun decks locked down, bottle right off the pump facing forward, two bricks and 7.2 nihms on the sides, I only have to pop the two center decks for access and can power up / gas on at lakeside in seconds.

 

ok, I have to ask the question on water channeling. has anybody every really tested how much this really helps keep a ship a float. from a far, it seems like a great idea, but is here a noticable differance in a ship with and one without water channeling? alex in our club has the bismark, with no water channeling. two pumps thou, if his batterys are fully charged and the pumps work. does not seem to go down very easy, not that im not going to put in water channeling, but wondering how much of a difference there realy is when a ship starts taking on water from one end or the other. I know smaller opens would let less water in, and could be channeled to the pump with water channeling. but when larger damage is done, more water enters the ship, the water channeling would not be of much use, for the water level would be above this channel, Now just up to the water pump to get more water out than comes in to stay a float.
if the water channeling is up even with the lower cut out of the windows any water entering the ship would flow to the channel area were the pump is located then. is this how everybody has installed there water channeling? haveing just a channel down the middle of the ship (with non steep sides), does not seem to really gain that much I would think.

iceman and stokamoto,
thx for the pics, great info. your co2 bottles are they 9oz? I could not find a limit on the size of a co2 bottle per ship in the rules. your bottles seem a bit larger in girth than the 9oz i'm laying in. with 6 guns, seems a larger co2 bottle would be a good idea.

 

You can use whatever size bottle you want. Rules don't say because you have a choice, so use what you have and what fits inside.

As to water channeling, if water is coming faster than your pump can get it out, then you are about to go down. The difference in rate will determine how long it takes but the writing is on the wall. Water channeling wont save you under this situation.

Now what water channeling does do is direct smaller amounts of water towards the pump so you can start pumping with less total amount of water in the hull. Most pumps need around a quarter of an inch (I haven't measured it exactly) of water depth to prime. By having water channeling you effectively place the pump a 1/4" lower than the rest of your ship. This keeps your boat higher in the water so speed and maneuverability aren't compromised by increased draft and also keep hits that would be above the water line from becoming on or below the water line and letting in more water because your boat settled. If that wasn't reason enough, imagine what happens when a boat without water channeling and has some water sloshing around in its bilge. As soon as it leans to one side from say turning or from a minor bump all the water will run to the low side. All of that weight is now to one side causing the ships to have a permanent list and since your pump is in the center it is too high up to remove that water. This will also potentially lower above waterline hits to let more water in. And when the water does get high enough to pump it out you will have taken on a lot of water, possibly a fatal amount as your list will increase. Now a Bis is big enough to have a fair bit of ballast to offset this tendency but only to a point.

Alex's Bismarck survives because of brute force in pumping. He has to have two because he doesn't have any water channeling. My NC only has a single pump with a standard 550 motor. Sure I could use a stinger but I don't feel the need. Some of that is that Nick and I like to pick on the boats that flaunt twin pumps and some of that is just that my set up works well. Also our club is going to start counting sinks next year and multiple pumps are likely to increase your value significantly. After all, if you are harder to sink you should be worth more. This is instead of the IRCWCC bb hole counting thing which we all seem to hate anyway.

 

Really depends on the hull shape and how flat it is inside the hull. I ran my Bismarck with out water channeling for most of it's career. The hull bottom is bowed inside so water can't collect in the middle but runs naturally along the sides. Maybe Bismarck is unique here with the clipper type hull but it seems to handle incoming water very very well with or without water-channeling. With that said I did finally put in water channeling and it did help Bismarck at Nats in 2010. I didn't see much of a difference but the improvement was there so I am for the water-channeling. The co2 oz bottles. well I use a 20 oz and with 7 cannons with dual sidemounts and accumulators the volume works very well and the bottle adds ballast to that side. When the bottle is low the model tilts towards the pump a little enough to keep the water on the pump side. This worked out very well at Nats where my model received extra attention daily. I was ony using a standard pump while fighting Sodaks and NC's with stingers. I ran one entire sortie with a 15-to 18 ft stream high from the model so it worked very well.