R/C Naval Combat

Wow!! I don't believe it. BC, has the AOBA hull!!!  I'm freaking out on this because my 2nd and first reliable RC combat model was the AOBA. It was built entirely out of balsa wood , had freon tanks aboard and cannons. It never fired a shot and it survived the crossing of Victoria Harbour(salt water), numerous groundings and rams by rc speedboats. It was refitted many times and I sold it back in 1992. It was built in 1988. I remember the paper thin bow which got beat up a lot, the plastic octura 2 blades and the speedometer cable u-joints. I always wanted to build the model right.  Looks like I will get my chance. Hmmm I got way too many hulls now soooo I will have to sell a couple to get this one.

Hey, tokes,

I just saw the Aoba's hull at BC website, it is a real perty' rendition. You will have a great looking battler when you get her built up! Thanks for pointing the new arrival out!

Steve

Posted By crzyhawk on 22 Dec 2009 06:09 AM
Even with a single rudder I think the Aoba could be a very very good cruiser. Even though you have built one, experience has probably taught you a lot since that first one in the 80s, and there is probably a lot you might do different with motors, gears, shaft placement, rudder placement prop size/pitch and number of blades...all of which might improve the turning. I think another key would be to keep it as light as possible instead of building to max displacement. The less mass you have, the quicker the maneuvering will be.

 AOBA hull does not have a lot of room inside. Your options are very limited with regard to placement of shafts. You can angle the props in but the effect on a long, narrow, low hull at speed creates a very bad rolling effect. The Aoba has a lot of Superstructure topside which needs to be very light . I found that a ship underweight does not maintain the same kind of stability that a ship at max displacement has. On a hull that is long, fast and narrow and shallow you need the props deep to maintain thrust in your turn,unless you use 2 blade shallow props which at high speed work well even with the blade tips out of the water. Ships like this will lean hard even with less topweight. Some of the topweight you can't avoid such as the cannons. The bulges may help with the stability much better than a flat sided hull which is what I had. I would expect the hull to turn better though than the scratchbuilt one I had. The Takao is very similar to the Aoba and that model though gorgeous did not perform to expectations. However I learned a lot from watching and battling with it and aganist it so those points I am going to put to use on this one. This one I am definitly going to enjoy building.

It will definitely be an engineering challenge trying to find the right balance of characteristics. That undulating down sloping stern though ought to make for some sweet stern gun action as you can keep them low to the water and still hit close to your own stern. Didn't Bob P develop a lightweight cannon for his I-400? It might be worth looking at using the same kind of gun to keep the Aoba's top weight down.

EDIT:  Since I have a soft spot in my heart for IJN cruisers (except the Takao class) the Aoba hull brings us pretty darned close to having all the IJN cruisers available.  All we need is a Takao/Myoko in fiberglass.  BC has the Aoba/Furutaka covered, Mogami is produced up in the OAF, and pamnjay is working on the Tone plug.  It's time to start a Myoko campaign!