She does very well. As with most new ships there are some things that need worked out but she is stable, very manoverable and tough as nails.
Very cool, thanks! Is it possible at this point to determine how she stacks up against the other large BBs?
Mikey ran her against Matt's H-39 and came out on top IIRC. That result may have had to do with experience of the captain, so YMMV.
I had someone asking questions about how I made the skegs on this project. So I thought I would post more info here. The skegs are made out of three pieces of aircraft plywood. The two outer pieces are 1/16" ply, and their main purpose is to align the center piece when it is cut in two. The two outer pieces can be any thickness. I used 1/16" ply in order to keep the thickness of the skegs to a minimum. The inner piece of aircraft plywood is 1/4" thick. It's main purpose is to house the stuffing tube and keep it aligned during installation, and then to give it strength in order to help protect the shaft from damage that might occur during transporting the ship from table to the water, or loading into the van and such. I used 1/4" thick plywood, as that was the outer diameter of the stuffing tubes I used. The inner piece starts out as one piece, but I traced out the area where the stuffing tubes would be located, and then cut that part out. At this point there are two inner pieces. The upper piece, and the lower piece. I had drilled holes in the assembly so that I could install screws to hold the inner pieces in place after the stuffing tube section was removed. I took my stuffing tubes which were about 1/2" longer than the skegs, so that I could leave about 1/4" protruding at each end of the skegs in order to avoid getting epoxy in the tubes themselves. I scuffed up the stuffing tubes with heavy grit sandpaper so that the epoxy would be able to get a good grip. After making sure that everything lined up correctly, I took them apart, and applied the epoxy to all of the surfaces, and re-assembled them. After installing the screws, I clamped everything as well. After everything was cured, I removed the screws, and filled in the holes with bondo. In order to make sure that the skegs remained in place while installing them in the hull, I cut slits in the hull that were shorter than the skegs, so that when the hull was upside-down, the skegs would drop into the slits, but not fall through. I then prepaired some spruce strips to help anchor the skegs to the inside of the hull. I cut relief slits in the spruce similar to what some folks do when installing a sub-deck. That way the strips could be easily bent to follow the contour of the hull. The skegs were then installed with bondo with some clean areas left for super-glue in order to tack things in place while the bondo cured. I then installed the strips with epoxy and super-glue. When everything was finshed setting up, I hit everything again with epoxy to seal it. I feel like the skegs are plenty strong. But they can also be re-enforced on the inside if need be. I do wish I had taken the time to clean things up a bit on the inside of the hull before applying the epoxy, but I was running behind schedule on the project, and skipped that. Hope this helps. Mikey
I am trying to decide on what Drive system to use for Montana. Your using 550's direct drive. Is it just a pair on a esc? What type of ESC?
Originally the Ohio was using mubachi's on 12 volts, but right now it uses two BC Johnson 550's on 6volts, with a mtronik 40amp, No issues at all 1.75" 3 blade props.
Thanks for the info. I thought I would need the 550's but wasn't sure on the prop size however I submitted a order for 1.75 size props with 27 degree pitch. Is the Ohio using Direct drive with the ESC or is it using a gear box and the ESC? Also if you can tell me how many and what type of drive batteries are being used. I submitted my order to Strike last night via email and he is checking on the shipping costs to ship to Canada. I hope it's not going to be too expensive. If it goes out of my budget I may have to order the Arizona instead not that is a bad thing either but the Montana is the jewel for my Birthday and remission for my Cancer so this one is special to me. Everything I have seen and read about the Ohio on this forum and the performance of the model is what I look for. Curt
I am pretty sure it is on direct drive and dialed down on the ESC. Not the most efficient way to run, but it works fine for treaty speeds and the absence of combat reverse. I think 12Ah on the battery, but I cannot be positive as it is not my boat
Ok that's good to know. I found out the shipping costs to my location here in Canada is approx 100.00 - 120.00 . Don't know what the tariffs will be and not looking forward to those charges. However Strike is cutting out new foam superstructures for various ships and one of them is the Montana so I hope to get that with my order. I had to make a deal with the wife that no more ships to be ordered till the rest of the Fleet is completed and that is fair. Montana will be the first model for me to operate with a ESC and on Direct Drive setup. Not sure if that is a good decision as I been using gears in Missouri and Yamato and Roma. Looking forward to building this beast.
Quiter than gears, easier to install and less maintenance with Direct Drive. It's also cheaper overall to set up the drive train with direct. I still like using gears but I want to see how the ESC on direct drive will work. Montana has plenty of space for batteries. I can always switch to Gears if I am not satisfied with the direct setup.
Everytime I look at the pic with the motor and mount line up with the shaft it appears to be a 380 size motor. That is a large hull inside!I know it is a larger motor but it just appears smaller.
The Ohio has been battled several times. This thread http://www.rcnavalcombat.com/Forum/...fault.aspx shows the Ohio on its first outing. It has been repainted and battled since. There are probably pictures in other photo threads too.
