Ming has such mind controlling powers as to force Kevin to battle against his will? Might rethink going this fall...
Yes my type to battle ratio has been tanking recently...only going to get worse this weekend, we might have like 9 battles. And yes the magnetic tape is awesome. Came with the fiberglass deck kit from BC. It is a very simple and effective mounting system, great deck seal since the aft deck is at or below the water frequently, no knobs or nuts or twisty things required. Combined thickness is 1/8" so you have to account for that. My next build will probably have two 3/16" pieces for deck and subdeck rim, with 1/16" fiberglass deck hatches. Progress today even with evening classes. Put a rudder servo in, looks like the alignment is OK, might have to play with the gears to reduce resistance in the system. Probably will forgo the rudder servo box at this point. Here is side view And above I also put magnets into the deck pieces, verifying correct polarity. They dried already. The pieces really snap into place which is cool. Might add one more set to the bow piece since the deck curves up and the magnets don't quite pull the middle down enough. Here is an overview shot. I brushed out excess epoxy on a couple of deck pieces as well. Should get some work done tomorrow between packing the car back up and painting damage on Seydlitz. Maybe guns or pump mounts
Looking great! This tip doesn't help you now, but maybe on the next build. The magnets tend to break loose once the deck and rim get wet. Two ways I have found to correct that. One is to make the top of the hole in the deck rim just a little smaller so the edges keep the magnet from getting pulled straight out. Underneath attach another piece of wood to stop it from dropping down. The other way is to make the section of deck to be screwed down and cut access panels for between sorties. This way you only need to get to some pieces quickly, and the entire deck can be removed between battles to take care of any major issues. The hatch pieces can have tabs to catch the lip and a single hold down that can be either a magnet or made to look like deck bits.
Thanks for the tip Lou, the best advice always seems to come after I finish a step haha. Made some progress since Charley's battle. Started work on guns. Made 7 for this boat, one for cruiser and one for Seydlitz. Lots of parts Slightly more progress I tested a few hose configurations to get 1/8" ID hose to the guns. I don't have the tooling to replicate the method others use, so I tried one end cap with a 1/8" hose and a 1/16" hose (for return), and one cap with a tapped 10-32 socket in the middle, and one 1/16" tube coming off the side at the bottom. I found the configuration with the barb screwed into the middle of the bottom of the cap the best, so now I mass produce. They are drilled out in this picture, pre solder Magazine assembly Up tubes with elbows soldered on. Foster breach, 1/16" ID backfeed. Most of the parts ready for final cut/bends/assembly I also glassed the outside of the skegs I put wax paper down and used clamps to get the cloth to hold the outside contour It turned out pretty good, here they are post clean-up dremeling Moved to internal layout. It's hard to imagine but I feel like I ran out of space in a 74" boat... From bow to stern, I have 12oz bottle, bow sidemount accumulator tanks/solenoids, radio box, 8x 15Ah cylindrical cells (4 pictured) for a 30Ah 4s LiFePO4 pack for drive and controls, 4x 20Ah LiFePO4 bricks configured 2S2P for a 40Ah 2S pack for the pumps, then the actual pumps, drive motors, stern gun solenoids/tanks, and rudder servo. Stern Mid Bow. The original plan was to have the expansion tanks and solenoids flat on the water channel, but I ran out of room so decided to stack them on top of one another to fit. Here is bottle mount, 12oz bottle, simple cradle. Also made pump mounts, they are outlined on the piece of fiberglass shown I made support plates for the solenoids and tanks, the components will be attached to the plate, and plate attached to boat with through-hull fittings and magnets Drilled out another hole for another magnet to get the deck to bend Marks for pump mounts Epoxied all of the above, you can see the pump mounts in place. They are 6-32 bolts with nylon spacer sleeves that are atttached to a fiberglass U that holds the pump in place, aided by the outlet hose. Here are the solenoid mounts, the bow ones are angled to hold the two assemblies on top of one another. Seems like it should work out. I hope to mount it all tomorrow Next step is gun mounts on the deck pieces, installing the CO2 system, then motors/pumps/boat wiring
Quick Tip 34 for Building Large Boats: Large ships can double as work benches when flipped over. This can be especially useful in small workspaces. (Also see Quick Tip 15 for related info) Looking good, Kevin! Is it just a trick of the camera, or does the hull kind of curve in about where the pistons are hanging out?
I think it's a trick of the camera, the boat was sitting at an angle. The sides are relatively flat I think haha. Got some work done today. Cleaned up epoxy from last night. I assembled the CO2 fittings/tanks/solenoids, they went together pretty well with only minor hiccups Here are the bow ones. The box fit! Zip ties (and gravity) hold the tanks, two 3mm fasteners hold the solenoids. And the aft set. I will probably try to make and fit a copper tank to go on the aft ends of the tanks, otherwise I would route 3 hoses alll the way up to the bow. Solenoid just fit under the deck. I didn't really plan it out so I got lucky that they fit The aft magazines will have to route around the solenoids, but there should be ample room to get two one one side. Here are the pump mounts with stand in pumps. Plan is to do some testing, either use Johnson 600's or stingers. You can also see the 'loading hatch' cutout that I will use to load the aft guns with the deck in place. I will put a hinged hatch that flips up to give access to the magazines. I chose to do this to minimize the aft deck removal with the larger 1/8" feed hoses. I put the shafts in for real this time, lubed with lithium grease and locktighted. Might adjust the port shaft because of where the collar ended up. I will also very slightly shave down a blade or two since there is very faint contact on a couple blades Next step will be continuing with gun mounts, aft first. Maybe a small amount of work tomorrow, more on Thursday
Nice! For shaving down the blades, use a sanding stick and power the props and gently remove the material. That way you can hear when they stop touching.
I ran my second VDT with props that touched until the latest rebuild, made a nice like clanking sound for a while, and then stopped after they beat each other up enough. It wasn't a big deal but I'd do what Lou suggested, that's probably smarter. Great looking build by the way, thank you for sharing.
Thanks Chris, I trimmed a tiny bit off some tips to prevent any clinks. Progress from last weekend. Worked on gun mounts, here is the bow deck piece with cross pieces to hold guns Aft deck piece with hatch Aft deck piece underside with blocks to hold magazines Different view, I use a 3/8" wire holder on the up tube that I screw to the back piece there Bow piece with first level superstructure rim. I have the Strike foam SS that I will use as a float, the first SS deck sides will be 1/8 ply to stop BBs and hold the foam in place (gravity assisted) Bow piece underside. Plan was to route mags to the opposing turret for ease of reload, doesn't look like it will work out for now Mid deck piece with outline of SS My efficient planning for cutting out the plywood I made rudders as well, here is the template I used for sizing Here is the finished product. I used my standard construction of 1/8" ply with balsa filler, sanded down, fiberglass on outside. They are asymmetric and 7/16" wide to match the potential width restriction for next years rule proposal. They would be illegal if concavity is outlawed, but I'm hoping that part won't pass. We will see how they work, tried to be reasonable with the width and concavity Profiles, curved face goes outboard Made a intermediate accumulator tank for triples. Leaked a little at first but I was able to get a good seal after a small rework. Installed here. Will have two 1/8" hoses coming from reg in the bow Got guns sort of installed. Aft first Underside. My plan to get the mags end caps to the hatch didn't work out, so I will just prop up the aft end to reload. Hatch will still aid access for now. They had to get around the upright solenoids which reach deck level I printed an aimer and made a tip holder to hopefully get a good pattern. I used math to determine vertical and horizontal axis angles based on desired convergence. The printed part has the holes 'at an angle,' but the resolution isn't good enough alone to get the desired result, so it serves as a reference divider at the breech. The aluminum was cut to account for the desired barrel position at 4.5" from the breech. I still have to attach the aluminum to the deck, but I think it will work OK. Bow was rougher. The guns are in there but A turret will need some lovin before it is ready to go. Things I build never quite come out as well as I visualize them working haha. While I hate them, I will probably put an angle bracket on the deck to hold the barrels in the desired position to improve the dual-ness of the guns. Will probably use a piece of fiberglass as a separator at the breech. It will be hard to get any down angle on A turret without doing something shady, so I'm continuing to look for ways to improve that. Underside. Mag bending didn't turn out too pretty. I failed to get enough clearance over the bottle on A turret, so I might trim the up tubes to get the T higher. It fits but isn't rigid enough and doesn't have enough clearance right now. B turret is OK, not pretty, will probably add a mount at the forward end Here is the CO2 distribution. Still need to pressure test, but I'm hopeful. Plan is to have 8 hoses coming from the manifold, 7 guns and 1 depressurizing value. I had the manifold on hand from another old project Plan going forward is fix the forward gun mount, then battery mount and internal armor. I think I will be downsizing to just 4 15Ah cells for drive vice 8 to give more room, and reduce weight forward of the center of floatations. Not sure if it will be enough for both sorties, I have 42mm 650kV outrunners that showed up last week that I need to install as well
Building has trumped typing, so here is a picture dump. I haven't given up on completing it for nats...yet. One question before the pictures...I'm having some issues getting the 12oz bottle to fit right, a 9oz bottle fits fine, do you guys think that 9oz will be enough? I have accumulator tanks on everything, and 1/8" ID hoses to guns, drilled pistons, 1/16" back feed. Since last update, fixed the forward gun mounts, put in internal armor, made a test switch holder, did wiring, put most things inside, installed rudders, tested wiring without issue (can't get one pump relay to click, still need to troubleshoot), made battery holders, put in gas hoses, tested CO2 system SAT (ish), worked on pump nozzles, weighed it out and tested center of gravity. Here are the pieces I added to water channel to hold batteries, 1/2" balsa with some matt Here is round 2 of forward gun mounts, worked out much better Made a tip holder for stern guns, i think they will clear the stern. The printed holder is on a piece of fiberglass that sits on the barb to hold everything steady ESC prep, potted in west systems, will still have to hit the leads with scotchkote Rudders installed, pretty close to props. Had to trim the port one to prevent touching Internal armor. pet resistant dog screen I have used on other builds, no blowthroughs yet. Also doesn't restrict any water flow which is good Bow with pet screen. I use hot glue and goop/E6000, only got a small burn this time forward magazines rebent, A turret up tubes were shortened which made alignment easier and sturdier I printed a battery holder for the cylindrical cells. Took 3 tries to get the hole size just right, but then I had the printer going steady all weekend cranking out 8 of these Here is the test switch holder. I ran out of room up forward to fit them in the middle hatch area, so I decided to go aft. It is removable for motor servicing Another view with the vertical partitions to separate the switches With switches from BC. They definitely resulted in a smaller rats nest of wiring, quick assembly Wiring diagram I drew out, didn't actually look at once I started soldering though This is a big boat with a lot of connections, that was some assembly line connector work After about 6 hours of straight work I had the main harness done. Lots of wire because the switches are separate from the box. I managed to not tangle them significantly, happy with end product main harness laid out on the boat component placement here are some battery assembly shots. I decided to go with 4S 1P for drive, it will be 15Ah which should be plenty, I will have enough for one pack per sortie, probably will only need 1 per battle Here is the pump harness. This took more thought, getting 2S 2P for individually wired cells. I ended up just crossing the wires at each stage which worked out, but I had to look it over a few times to make sure i did it correctly prior to plugging in the packs. No explosions Here is making jumpers for the drive battery The other end. I put balance leads in at the same time. I only made this pack up, but i will put the other ones together later this week/weekend First test fit of everything Aft with switches, still need to be screwed into place Batteries, take up a fair amount of room Switches and motors got installed as well, NTM 650kV 42-38. Needed to buy 4mm bullets so i havent spun the motors under power yet With guns on. I weighed it at this point, 36 lbs. The center of gravity was about 2 inches fwd of the desired center of flotation, which was better than i expected. My plan was to get to 45 pounds, so I will probably end up adding 7-8lbs of weight, BB's and epoxy in plastic bags at various locations as needed. Now work today, CO2 lines going in Going into aft expansion tanks, i should have made the starboard barb at a slightly lower elevation, had a minor leak from a loose fitting but i pretty much stopped it, might need to take out and inspect to get it to completely stop different perspective Bow CO2 manifold. It looks great, but with the 1/4 turn extension and the narrow bow the 12oz bottle doesnt fit in this configuration. I might reduce the number of hoses going to the bottle by adding some Y connectors, or shift to 9oz bottle that fits with this set up Lots of hose, I had a good amount before starting, now I might have 1 ship's worth left I shifted the check valves to along the lines since there wasnt enough room between the tanks with the battery insstalled for the hose to make the shape bend, this set up should be fine. I turned on the gas and cycled through the solenoids, very happy with the results. Still need to hook up hoses to the guns, might get to that tomorrow This is how I worked on the underside of the boat, too big to flip with everything inside, not much room left in the work area Hope you enjoyed the post, it's nice to see the project start to come together. Goal is sea trials this weekend, if that doesnt happen then this project probably wont make it to Nats as my primary ship (will shift to California, which needs to be resheeted and the aft CO2 distribution rearranged, plan is to get the California ready either way)
Progress continued. Started with motor covers for the outrunners. Just the same method that I used on Seydlitz, made a 'male' mold out of thin stainless, covered in wax paper, fiberglassed the outside. I put in two magnets on the bottom flange, and glassed pieces of metal to the bottom of the hull so they hold. Here is the mold Now glassed over And cut down and installed, they fit nicely, keep the wires off of the motors Also made dummy barrels for the forward turrets, stainless tube Here is the first level deck rim, stops bbs and holds foam superstructure float in place Aft turret mount, brass tubes Attached hoses to guns. 1/8" in, return to back of mag and elbow I changed to forward hose routing to fit the 12ov bottle, shifted to BC reg and three hoses from bottle, two split three ways each, and those are split between the three gun banks so each gun has two hoses from the bottle since generally we only fire one gun at a time. Forgot to get pictures, ill take some shots on the final overview Finished ESC prep and cleaned up wiring a bit Forward turret mount, used Bob's hinge method I also tested the guns. Two magazines of 7 didn't want to feed so they require trouble shooting, probably roundness adjustment at a final bend. Other 5 guns work well. With 1/8" feed you almost don't need an Oring. My triple aimer will need to be replaced since one of the guns hits the aft edge of the deck. I will probably make the convergence point closer based on how the stern rides in the water. Happy with guns, will need to make Aimers for all 3 but that is easy work. Moved on to sheeting. Nothing crazy, thinned contact cement to put silkspan on, regular contact cement for attaching sides With contact cement Sidne one on Two face look This morning pre paint Painted one rough coat and took the boat to the lake Started at 45ish pounds (maxed out my boat scale, will have to use human scale moving forward). Overall the boat we stern heavy, which means that the center of floatation I tried to figure out back in when I started was too far aft, since I thought the boat would be bow heavy. I added about 3 pounds to the bow to get it down, ended up around 49 pounds total which will be max weight. Here it is in the water. Bow is highish but stern is nice and low, the stern is at water level while turning which is much better than I anticipated. Driving around Everything worked without issue (knock on wood). Throttle setting will be around 65% to get on speed, which is lower than I anticipated. I started with 2" drag discs but went smaller for reverse thrust, probably will end up around 1.75." The boat spins which is cool for a 6 footer, very happy with the turning. I also determined the impact point for the sidemounts with the water, so I will make the aimer so the bbs are side by side when they hit the water surface. Fitting a 74" boat in a car is tight, but it does fit Remaining work: superstructure, secondaries, float line spool, paint, troubleshoot two guns, make up epoxy/bb weights, make launch cart, assemble 3 drive batteries. Should be doable by the end of next weekend.
Thanks Curt! And Kas, I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing haha. Might get the boat painted tomorrow, superstructure and such Thursday
Photo dump time. Almost done. Made superstructure, fixed two magazines, added disconnects to guns, changed pump outlets and one motor, made up 3 other drive batteries, made cart, painted boat, made gun aimers, probably a few other things. Need to do a final systems check and a few other minor things, then off to Nats on Saturday. Backup ships aren't going to get done in time, so this boat will be the only show in town, hope it works!
Post Nats update. Overall I think the boat did OK, and better than many people thought an Iowa would do. Things that went well: 1) Generally no system failures. I lost one test switch for a stern gun, but I wasn't running the gun either way since I was running both pumps, and I had a minor air leak at the end of night battle on one of the many fittings. Other than that everything worked, which is a success for a new boat 2) The boat stayed afloat...as long as I had the pumps on. The boat sank in one of the Monday battles when I left the pumps off since I had very little damage. Since the boat rides very low in the water, there isn't a huge margin for water to build up, so when I looked away for a few seconds she sank before I could save it. Complete operator error, I left the pumps on for the rest of the week 3) The guns worked OK, I know they put some holes in Axis boats. I want to do more testing to verify how hard they shoot. The higher air flow guns tweak differently than my standard guns with 1/16" feed so that took some getting used to, the tweak range seems a lot smaller with higher flow Things to improve: 1) Acceleration - The Bis (expertly built) had much better acceleration. I think I should have used bigger props, so I just ordered some 2.2" 5 bladed props to improve acceleration. The brushless power is there, I just need to use it better 2) Down angle on A turret is terrible, so I will try to move the elbow closer to the front of the turret to improve down angle to get belows 3) Stern gun angle can be tweaked, I started shooting low (skipping on the deck), ended shooting high, so I will have to do more testing and shim the barrel holders to zero the gun in 4) General access inside - with the 1/8" feed hoses the deck pieces are pretty stationary and the hoses interfere with some of the internals, so that can be improved 5) Battle style - my first time battling in a large ship, I needed to team up better with another large Allied ship to help corral Axis boats. I also was not aggressive enough in the early battles to help my team pummel the smaller Axis fleet Overall the week was a success, lots of fun points were had by all or the IRC members that were able to attend Nats. I have some video that I still need to edit, including the ring of death, so hopefully I will get those posted in the next couple of days
Wow!! you did a lot of work in short order. that would have taken me 5 years oh yeah, my WeeVee as. oh well. thanks for all the photos and all your work for and at NATS. congrats! your name is now on the most famous trophy of our hobby. well done.
Great job Kevin, and now with the Von (From now on you can only loose). Excellent work. (run a 2.5" prop and you will get up and go)
Where did you get the hull? I want to build a MO for next season as I like battleships best so far. However I can't seem to find a hull/kit anywhere. I do have plans that I can rescale and build from scratch if need be.
