USS Illinois Build

dman, I highly recommend introducing yourself and telling everyone what you are thinking about building in the introductions section

Miike Butts

 

Here are some updates on where the USS Illinois is at these days: didn't work on the ship for quite a while, and then I got back to it by remounting my rudder servo more securely. The previous mount using the gear system began with a nice adhesive from Loctite, and it was pretty decent stuff... except that it was more like rubber cement than I thought it would be. As a result, the servo would torque itself right out of alignment with the rudders, which resulted in a couple of comical runs where the ship turned in circles if I left the stick alone, and required frequent returns to the beach for rudder realignment. Fortunately, I recently fabricated rudder 'box' of sorts using pieces of a wooden paint stirrer cut to length on three of the four faces of the servo itself. After gluing them together and then epoxying the box into place, the result is what you see below:

The servo is held in place by the box and the posts, but in the event I need to replace the rudder servo for whatever reason, just lift out from the back, gently tug the cable through the slit left in place for just such a purpose, remove the gear and attach it to another standard servo and slide back into place, hook it back up, and away we go. It's a simple system, and it occurs to me that I could have easily put another piece of wood or other rigid material on the back end of the box to make it a complete four-sided form, but I was so enamored with my design that I found it flawless and incapable of improvement. Fortunately, because of the box butting the servo and its attached gear directly against the rudder post gears (gently but firmly), and the box being designed to be a very snug fit, yesterday's test runs on the pond were successful in the extreme.

Here is another view of my rudder system, this time highlighting how I adjust my rudder gears. I glued the BC gears onto shaft locks with set screws in them, and then slipped the shaft locks over the rudder shafts. After making sure that the set screws faced straight aft, I dogged them down and away she sailed. This system gives me excellent flexibility for adjusting the throw of both rudders without needing to remove or loosen the servo and physically adjusting the positioning of the gears. You can just barely see the shaft lock collars under the gear in this photograph, sadly.
Having begun life with the push/pull armature system for the rudder, I can honestly say that I prefer the gear system hands down. It requires far less space, and the turning efficiency feels as though it is increased by half. Yes, with the enormous throw of the rudders with the gear drive, you will suffer in speed when you go hard over, because your rudders will essentially form a wall behind your propellers. The pleasant news is, that your ship will almost literally throw her stern in the direction you wish your ship to travel, accomplishing a radical about face almost within her own length. For a class seven monstrosity, in battle that could prove to be enormously advantageous for getting out of a hug-and-slug, or bringing weapons to bear on slower vessels. The huge rudders themselves give fantastic turning for this behemoth, requiring very little stick application in order to turn smoothly and swiftly.
Another thing to bear in mind is that I am using... what seems to be an unusual choice of propellers, both in size and in angle of attack, for the Iowa-class battleship.

As you can see above, I am using the standard rudder size for the class seven battleship, but directly in front of them (without their pointed tips ground down, because I couldn't bring myself to harm the beautiful craftsmanship of the Strike Models propeller) are 1.5 inch four-blade propellers with 35-degree pitch. These brass masterpieces don't so much churn the water up behind the Illinois so much as they rip it to shreds and hurl the six-foot-two-inch leviathan forward at enormous speed, which will almost certainly require a drag system larger than the two wonderful Battler's Connection drag propellers you see installed above, also using a pair of BC V struts, ground down to fit under the hull. The direct drive from the two 550 motors is wonderfully quiet and smooth under load, giving this huge battleship an almost sports-car feel on maneuvers.

Don't let the peaceful nature of this photograph fool you; the wake this ship is generating sent breakers washing ashore as though it was a larger body of water with heavy currents.

In this photo, thanks to the sun and some wonderfully positioned clouds in the sky, the contrasts of the lights illuminate just how potent the wake of this ship really is. The churned water directly astern of the hull speaks to the raw power coming off of the directly-driven shafts, illustrating with striking clarity why ships are geared down and, if what I've read thus far is accurate, don't often use 35-degree pitch propellers for their primary driveshafts. With luck, the other MWCI-IL guys will be able to have our own little cruising day soon, and the effects of the Iowa's wake and power can be tested, as well as a proper measurement of her speed finally taken. I said in an earlier post that I expect my Iowa-class USS Illinois to be at least two seconds overspeed for her class rating, even with drag discs installed in their current configuration, and that expectation has not changed in the slightest, unless perhaps it increases to three seconds or even more. Being quite honest, the speed of this vessel is glorious. She's quick to start, quick to turn, and cruises through the water like she owns them. If this monster is directly on target for her speed at full throttle, not only will I be hugely surprised, but will probably race to get a gunnery system installed so that I can turn her loose against my BB warship-driving brethren at last.

And now, with that said, and this glamor shot of the Illinois passing in review along the shore, I turn to some technical considerations for the inside of the beast.

This pile of spaghetti are the veins and arteries leading from the heart and soul of this beast to its brain and legs. Instead of using the switch so kindly provided by Strike Models in their Hardware bag of goodies, the Traxxas XL-5 Electronic Speed Controller is designed to be the On/Off switch for your model, whether it be a land or water vehicle. It has full forward and full reverse action, and it also has a monstrous heat sink built in to help keep the ESC cool. The drawback to this is, that while the ESC is stated to be waterproof, the drawback to applying an XL-5 to this hobby is that the ESC will need to function reliably under load for long periods of time, perhaps up to an hour or more. Another element of its design is that all the raw power from the batteries (in my case, individually wired 6-volt 12-amp/hour Sealed Lead Acid bricks) goes to the ESC first, and then from the ESC transfers to the radio receiver, supplying power to the receiver as well as the rudder servo and the two 550 motors wired in parallel. in this setup, the ESC is the most critical element of the entire power network, as it quite literally is the heart of the entire operation. Thus far, it has performed its job superbly, hardly ever giving me cause to worry over its reliability... at least with forward propulsion. Several times I have wished to shift into reverse from forward to crash-stop for fun, only to have the motors remain in neutral as the ship drifts. This can be overcome by moving the stick to neutral, waiting a moment, and then engaging reverse, which works more often than not. However, in combat that could become a serious problem, especially if I wish to use the already-illustrated power of my drive system to send tidal waves crashing over the decks of sinking enemies and hasten their demise. Bear in mind, however, that this ship has yet to even dream of being rigged out with a fire control system or a pump, which could make the setup even more interesting for its reliability. The bottom line is, while the Traxxas XL-5 is a robust piece of equipment, the tried and true ESCs from Mtroniks are likely better and safer bets for reliability and performance.
With that said, however, the XL-5 is a great ESC and I am very satisfied with its performance thus far, and will make it a point to use it in combat at least once before switching to an Mtroniks controller.
You will also notice that in the above photo of my woefully organized electronics that the ESC's stock battery connector is still present. I was so enamored with the concept of disconnects that my entire electrical system is literally subdivided into three elements: battery to ESC, ESC to rudder/ESC to motor connector, motor connector to motors themselves. My motors are not wired directly to the ESC throttle wires, they are first soldered in parallel to their own connector using Dean's wonderful products. The Dean's connector goes from that junction to the ESC throttle leads, giving me what I feel is a spectacular level of flexibility when it comes to changing out components or re-running wiring. Mostly, I'm just proud of myself for making three different connection points for my electrical system. It's also a wonderful way for me to completely isolate and disconnect my batteries when not in use. I'm sure most of you guys have similar systems in place for your power setups and wiring harnesses.

This is a close-up view of my forward superstructure, showing you how well foam takes to spray paint when you didn't sand it first, and compounded the error by spraying clearcoat over it with some vague notion of waterproofing it. From a distance it looks quite lovely and predictably drab, but up close you can see that the foam levels are in dire need (for aesthetic purposes) of termite armor, an upgrade that will come to this vessel sometime in the next six to twelve months. Ignoring that, however, you will undoubtedly notice the thin strips of balsa wood attached to my bridge level; yes, I have begun to detail this battleship, in the hopes of competing against Stokamoto for prettiest Iowa-class battleship afloat. At this point, he is well ahead of me, and as his spectacularly beautiful Bismark, Yamato, and Roma illustrate... I've got my work cut out for me.

 

That ship looks gorgeous moving through the water. The bow wave is beautiful. Very nicely done!

I can personally attest that having a delayed reverse is not a good thing in combat. The Erin conducted it's first two sorties ever with a brushless ESC that required a 1 second pause in neutral before going into reverse. One second may not sound long, but it was enough to let the ship coast and occasionally ram other ships ... and even moreso when I didn't hesitate in neutral long enough to activate the reverse.
That ESC was removed after the second sortie for a more conventional brushed motor setup that worked fine for the rest of the Nats. Heh.

 

Beatuiful work and I am very happy with the work you have done so far. The ship looks fantastic. I used the props you have on Roma but I found on that ship the water would come up the edge of the quarterdeck when at speed. I found the model didn't stop as good as a 25 pitch prop but not by much though. I was thinking of putting them back on Roma. Currently I have 4 blade 1.75 dia props on Mo 25 pitch same I use on Yamato. It generates a pleasing wake without a rooster tail but churns the water to a bubbly boil nicely behind the stern. How many SLAs are you using and how heavy is your model? It looks like it's at 43 lbs. I think mine is a maximum at 47 which when running it looks really low. However if your going heavier and wondering how it will perform don't worry it performs very very well even at max weight. I found the same results with handling and turning. The ship can turn very tight and responds quickly to turns with little stick movement. You have a great set up there. Is the motor mount a commercial made mount or is that handmade? The only detail I have added so far other than some termite sections is the bridge windows with frames and that foot section below and on the base of the bridge superstructure. I think you have more detail than mine. I haven't had a chance to sit down and dress the model up. However I managed to build 2 planes for it . They need to be painted and mounted.

Excellent build so far. Hope we can battle as teammates one day.

 

As far as battling at teammates goes, Stok... NATS 2012 maybe, if all goes well? Thanks for the compliments as well; highly appreciated!

I think you're pretty close to accurate on the weight; I wouldn't be surprised if I was just ounces over 40 pounds. I'm using two Daisy 6000-count BB cannisters as ballast to help keep the ship on an even waterline, and I have three SLAs in the hull, but only run from one at a time. I haven't gotten around to doing my battery harness yet to run all three batteries at once. The motor mount was inherited from Bob Amend when he sold me the kit last year; he'd already put it in place and notched space for two motors, so I just built from there. That mounting bracket made my life so much easier... But also created the only real issue with this ship. Any throttle setting at greater than eighty percent and the drive shafts oscilate so bad that they warp almost an inch out of true. I need to insulate the somehow, probably by simply adding extensions of some sort to them or moving the motor bracket further aft.

When I ordered my hardware from Strike, Steve Morgret and I talked about a lot of the peculiarities of the Iowa class; he told me speed wouldn't be an issue, and he was right. These screws give me speed and then some, but she doesn't stop fast. I've been toying with the notion of going to 25-pitch, but I love the wake from the 35-pitch. Next time I go cruising I'll photograph the breakers, heh.

 

Looking forward to seeing those breakers. I remember installing a 35 pitch same as you have but at 2.5 in dia on Bismarck. Well with no Speed Control all the model took off. Quite a wake particularly when I slammed it into reverse. I thought a small volcanoe was erupting beneath it the way the water turned to white foam. Now I did have a much smaller single 35 prop on Bis to slow it down but apparently it still above 24 sec. I did notice though that Bis was able to stop quickly with the prop. I am thinking that a ship's hull shape at the stern may effect how the prop performs. Just my observation. Were those skegs molded into the hull? I know Tom's Iowa here may need to upgrade his props and this hull with those skegs looks exactly like his so I was wondering about the 35 pitch for his. Glad to know it works. Before you switch out yours try another test at full weight to see if they stop the model any better. With props like those they probalby bite better deeper in the water than near the surface if the model is running light.

 

The skegs were built up after the fact rather than coming already molded; aside from some bow details, that's the only really major difference between the two hulls: Ralph Coles' Iowas come with their primary drive skegs already molded in place. My skegs were built by Bob Amend (which was another huge selling point for me, as previously mentioned) and looking at your skegs versus mine, mine are a lot narrower all around in their build-up, and they also are not covered with fiberglass; the wood was covered in epoxy instead. I'm going to keep the current props in place until I determine just how fast the ship is. With luck, all I'll need to do is increase the drag disc size to bring it down to 24 seconds, depending on how overspeed she is.

 

Yeah I made those skegs a lot thicker than what they are supposed to be. I like yours much better. The good thing is my skegs are not goint to break anytime soon . I thought about making them like yours but I was concerned how they would hold up if hey struck a rock or something. Oh well . Sounds good what your doing.

 

Guys.
What are the skegs and how do they work? The Iowa's are this, with us! I would love to get on myself, But My sister Jessie would kill me for bring another boat into this house!!! so for now she's a bream boat!!! But IF i had the money, I would get all four, Not as combat boats, but four that i can show off??
Nikki

 

I'm more worried about my rudders and my propellers than I am about my skegs: the initial structure of the skegs will hold up to abuse because of how they were built, but the material I added to the bottom... Time will tell, heh. Part of the reason I added more depth to them was to make sure that whenever (or if ever!) it sinks, there is at least some clearance between the props and the bottom, and also less strain on the rudders. It also means that from bow to end of the skegs, the ship is an almost perfect sheer plane, just like the full size monster. I've noticed that a lot of guys doing big American battleships don't build their skegs all the way to the bottom of the hull and I'm honestly confused by that, heh.

 

Nikki, skegs were added to the Iowa-class because of the position of the main and outer drive shafts under the stern. There was way too much unsupported weight above the main drive shafts with the shape of the Iowa's hull, so they added these armored skegs to give the ship more support when drydocked, and probably also to protect the shafts from torpedoes and reduce drag. Otherwise, something like 200 feet of ship would be left hanging free in dock.

 

Nikki, if I could afford it, I would get one as well.
Wisconsin. The real one.
Explaining it to my wife and the local harbour authority might take some fast talking, though.

 

Hey Darren,
Like i told my one sister, if i can get my own place, i would have a big fleet!

Miller7D,
She's Looking great!!! Have fun with her, One of my other friends has New jersey and Mighty Moe!!
Nikki

 

Heh, New Jersey and Missouri, eh? All we need now is that one fellow to bring his Wisconsin to a meet and someone else build Kentucky, and for the first time in history the entire flight of planned (four were built, two were canceled) Iowa-class battleships can be assembled in one location as actual floating vessels... though quite naturally not to scale. Sort of. Lol.

 

Miller7D,
She's a heck of a ship, they all are! and your doing a great job with her!!! I know you said, your not putting the cannons in her, and when you do how are you going to set them up???
Nikki

 

Most likely the usual way for class 5 and up Battleships... A and B turrets forward will be turned outward with two cannon apiece, and then a triple in C turret over the stern. With luck, I'll start getting guns in around Christmas/January 2012. Thanks for the compliments! More pictures coming up soon from today's cruising.

 

Howdy folks, some more Iowa-Class goodness for you all to enjoy.
First up, a general construction update: detail work is in progress. You saw in my last major post how I had gotten the foremast installed, to that I have added the ship's foremast truck and the topmast/flagstaff. A simple piece of balsa wood cut to length and dremel'd into shape, and then a smaller, shorter piece of metal rod cut to length and inserted into a small hole drilled for the purpose, but good heavens how these little details give the ship a more official appearance!

The mast addition is best seen in the ship's reflection in the water, but she looks so tall and proud! All I need now for that mast is a small American flag and some signals.
I promised Stokamoto that I'd take pictures of the Illinois' wake coming ashore, and I did; in the below picture you can see the intensity of the ship's wake, but not necessarily true rollers, as if a larger, more powerful vessel was passing by a shoreline. They certainly sound like them, though!




The evening/early night timeframe of these photos really displays the threshed water of the ship's wake, further underscoring the potency of 35-degree pitch propellers in forward motion. And next, here's a close-up of the prop wash itself:



I have also at long last installed my scratch-built anchors in their positions at the bow as well. They might be a little bigger than true scale, but being perfectly frank, while the plans that come with the Iowa-class battleship from Strike Models are gloriously detailed for the majority of the ship, the one glaring deficiency is the anchors at the bow. The plans are largely impossible to translate into a working set of specifications or a generalized size that works with the rest of the ship, at least in my opinion, so I used the reference photos of the battleships so beautifully organized at www.navsource.org, and scaled the anchors according to what I felt was my best judgment. Personally, I love the effect and the appearance of the anchors I built, and for all you other builders out there, please understand that I do not mean to speak against Strike Models products and features, because most everyone here will agree that Strike Models is an elite company when it comes to this hobby at this scale, and I fully agree with that. This board, as we all well know, is specifically suited to building and battling, and as we all know, from firsthand experience or secondhand stories and photos, super-detailed ships tend to suffer greatly in the article of their detailing being shot to pieces in combat. To clarify, the Iowa-class plans provided with the Strike Models kit are superb for everything except the anchors. And I do mean superb. Fortunately, the plans for the Iowa were not produced by Strike Models, so we can't blame Steve or Keri for that one little issue


The anchors themselves are simple in their construction: an e-clip of about 3/4 inch width was selected to be the flukes of the anchor, and then an eighth inch piece of square dowel was notched all the way through with the dremel tool, the e-clip pushed into place, and then glued down. The sides of the dowel were ground down, and then the flat faces sanded and notched to resemble the modern US Navy anchor design. The resulting piece was then clear-coated, primed, clearcoated, and painted, the layers adding a wonderful depth to the piece as a whole. Once dried, it was then glued into place at the forward anchor points, both port and starboard.


Here is a beautiful shot of the ship at rest where her reflection is almost flawless; you can see the added topmast and the anchors more clearly. You will also notice that she's still underweight; I'd be surprised if she was more than 41 pounds at this point, considering that almost her entire waterline is showing all the way around the ship. I'm hoping to experiment with stowing one or two of the SLAs more forward and adding more ballast between the drivetrain and the batteries to bring her down a little lower. I shifted some ballast forward because I feel that right now she's a trifle by the stern enough that at full power she puts her stern down too low. By shifting some weight forward, I think she rides on a more even keel at all speeds.
To wrap up this post, here's a few beauty shots:

 

MillerD7,
She's cute!!!!!!!!!!! But she's a great great great ship, How do you do the fake Gun guns???
Nikki

 

Thanks! All of the gun barrels are metal tubes cut to specific lengths; you can see on page 3 how the guns looked before I painted them, where there was one short length for the outer jacket, a longer, but narrower length for the inner jacket, and then the last layer was the longest and narrowest to form the 'main barrel'. I soldered and glued them together, painted them up, and then attached them to removable mounts inside each turret cover. The secondary batteries were single lengths of tube glued straight into their positions.

 

Miller7D the aft tower is that carved? Is that foam or wood? Looks good. The anchors look great! The model is beautiful. The pics are awesome.