Ok, so in addition to Northampton and Enterprise I'm building USS Nautilus: Got her mocked up in balsa and have a few of her internal components set up. The glass hull next to her is my old Northampton kit.
Im building her deck and conning tower twice. One will be strictly IRCWCC rules with fore and aft cannon mounted where her 5" dexk guns were and the other will be just for fun with twin bow spurt guns where her forward deck torpedo tubes were.
I think you be lucky to get it to float with the drive motor and radio installed...install those guns it would definitely submerge!
Subs are very difficult to build, and a bad return on the fun factor (whole lot of time and money for 10 seconds of battle) I400 is difficult to build, and she was the largest...
I know, I know. I've shelved this idea at least 3 times in 10 years. After searching around and gathering a bunch of new stock I think I can pull her off. I'll post a pic of her co2 system tomorrow. I400 was only 5" longer than Nautilus in our scale and 1.6" wider.
Displacement of 1.6 is huge. Getting it all in a sub and the sub still being able to surface is going to be the challenge (among a few others). Unless you are planning on this to be a surface runner only? Don't let this project burn you out, there is a reason it keeps going back on the shelf
I agree with all of you guys, Im building Nautilus as a dynamic diver. No ballast tanks, so weight is actually a good thing. Ill show you guys what parts i have tonight or tomorrow.
This is awesome, what a cool project. I can see where it would be difficult but keep plugging, it will be worth it!
i love my i 400 half the fun is running it about 1 foot under u only get one shot so u have to learn to be paysint i do have a ballast tank in it are u going to make a mold for ur nautilus
weight isn't the problem with submarines - you can always add lead to get it lower in the water. It's space and internal access. Submarines have a lot less internal volume for a given displacement, because they have much less reserve buoyancy (spare volume) than surface ships of a similar displacement. To complicate things, their sides tend to curve inwards at the top, rather than outwards like surface ships, further limiting space and access to the internals. You'll have a hard time reaching your fingers into the ship to plug and unplug batteries, adjust anything that needs tweaking, etc. I am glad to hear you're building a dynamic diver, that is honestly a more reasonable approach to 1:144 submarines than a ballast tank system. Every Big Gun submarine I've seen was a dynamic diver, and they operate at much slower speeds than Fast Gun subs. The greater speed means much more downward thrust is available from the planes for submerging. Good luck with your project.
Do not limit your self to thinking you can only go through the deck, you can split a sub any where below the penetrable zone. I did it to my Surcouf and it worked great and I am doing the same to my Type XXI.
Sweet, I saw this photo. I didn't realize this was the submarine mentioned earlier. Can she fire her torpedoes completely submerged?
Full disclosure: I am aware of the limitations and, lets be frank; the ineffectiveness of running a sub in a standard battle. I am building her strictly for scenario fighting. I believe the rules allow the rearming of class 3 and lower boats during scenarios. This will greatly increase the viability of a submarine and lets be honest... in the real world, subs had a limited supply of armament and were constantly being resupplied. (Yay realism!) Her design will have the fills for the cannons accessible from the outside of the hull. (Stern deck torpedo tubes) One aspect of scenario warfare seems to be distracting the enemy from their plans and what could be more distracting than a hard to hit sub that has a moderate sting if you do choose to ignore her. I also like the idea of a multipurpose vessel. Nautilus began the war as a combat / escort submarine and by the end of the war was a troop transport and covert supply ship. This is a feature that would allow her to play the role of unarmed convoy vessel and she would be pretty hard to hit and could potentially rack up sucsessfull convoy run points. And as she can have no bilge pump and has the same speed as a convoy vessel then all I have to do is take the bbs out and she is ready to go. As promised pics coming soon....
Makes sense, so I guess the answer is No she can't fire completely submerged. Just curious, say you wanted to just for the heck of it, could you build a sub to fire torpedoes completly submerged?
