R/C Naval Combat

Hey Gents,

Yeah, I know I've been away for a while, but it's not my fault! I promise. Been dealing with various drama and associated garbage, plus a switch of jobs, ect. ect. I missed my july trials daedline and hopefully will make the new one for mid- november. Hopefully there'll be ice-free ponts down hwere then, too. Anyway, onto the pics!

Above you can see the radio I got for Kormoran. It's got a screen, lots of buttons, and was made for airplanes. That means I work on 72Mhz. Whatever. The hobby store guy tells me that crystals are cheap and easy to get. We'll see. The radio is a HiTec Optic 6. The guy told me it was a badass radio. I paid $100 for open box and w/o the servos. Did I get taken?

Above you can see the girl. She's red!!!There's 2 coats on the wood, and 1 on the balsa, with a little overspray. I bought a little can of testors Gloss bright Red for below the waterline.

Above you can see the 2 prop shafts w/ props attached. I used this great clear 2-part epoxy that came in a double-syringe with a self-mixing tip to secure the 2 shafts as evenly as possible. It worked out awesome! I wish I saved the pack to show you all, but I threw it out unfortunately, Over the clear epoxy went 2 coats of the obligatory Redi-Patch. There was a lot more sanding on this boat, more than I ever thought.

Here's the 2 props and the rudder. I hope it looks that crooked because the table is off or I'm holding the camera crooked or something; It's not that bad in real life. Anyway, I got my order in from BC some months ago, and everything worked out great. As you can see, the props are beautiful, the shafts and shaft housings are spot-on, and the gearbox is smooth and tight. I have nothing but good to say about those guys. They thought that they took too long to fill my order, so they threw in a set of drag props for free. I prolly won't use the drag props, but I appreciate the thought. BC will be my next stop for stuff like pump and lifeboats and stuff.

Above you can see the motor, gearbox, rudder servo, and reciever. I will fabricate a waterproof box for the reciever and anything else that doesn't like water, and will prolly mount it as far forward as the reach of wires will allow. The guy at the hobby store told me that the speed controller gets it's power from the reciever, and then the motor gets it's power from the speed controller, but I think he might misunderstand what I'm doing, or is full of it. I think those little wires are too thin for what I'm doing.

Above you can see the flexible connection I made between the outputs from the gearbox to the prop shafts. I used a piece of 3/16" vinyl hose and a pair of "Duracollars" which are pretty much rings w/ an allen key screw to tighten whatever you've got. Last month, I machined a few pieces of brass tubing and aluminum rod and some bits of coat hangar that I was really proud of, but it turned out that once I epoxied the shafts in place, they were too stiff and made the motor work waaaay too hard. Sucks. So I scrapped my homemade dogbones and went with the vinyl hose. If the hose even lasts a single sortie, then it's ok. $1.19 a foot at ACE; A foot will last me a while.

This is the 75mm deck gun. The crew asked me for a gun shield, and it seemed lunacy to man the weapon without it. (The plans say that this gun didn't have a shield.) So there's a gun shield. We'll see how well it does in real deal combat.. I like to think that this is a pre-production model of the excellent Panzer V 75mm gun. If so, it won't just merely pierce a destroyer's armor, but rather, will go through the entire ship. There's supposed to be a pair of 20mm guns alongside the 75mm, but I haven't figured out a realistic way to build them yet.

I got this thing the other day for $20. Didn't really need it, but then again it's always better to have and not need than to need and not have. I used it just tonight to grind away some real crap welds I made on another project in the garage.

Above is a pic of me and my dog at Lido beach, NY. That part of the day ended up w/ me getting into water up to my armpits and the dog taking a swim 3 times. Yes, I got down to my boxers before I went in. It was a little chilly at first, but once the body gets used to it, then it's ok.

Battery recommendations, anyone? The hobby store guy was asking me. I also don't know if my props are too small or what. Let me know. They look ok to me.

Welcome back...

The ship is coming out nice. I questioned the small props too but then I remembered you were running big gun so the speed might be ok. The speed controller wiring goes to the reciever but it has a heavy wire set that does go to the motor. In a sense the ESC acts like a big on switch for motor power. You hook the ESC to battery power, reciever and to the motor.

I think you're referring to the wax that he poured along the sides for water channeling?

Its looking real good, can't wait to see sea trial prictures for it.

Hello Gents,

I've got a little progress since my last post. Hull is smooth and waterproof, and painted up nicely. Superstructure is not going that great, but I have yet to devote much effort to it. I'm sure it'll be fine once I get to it.

Anyway, onto the pics,

Above is the reciever and battery. I taped them together since I don't forsee them being far apart for too long, and that they will both be in the waterproof compartment. It made the space arrangement better.

Above we can see the steering servo tied down w/ a pair of random, but matching, screws. The linkage is made from a dead coat hangar, as promised. It works well so far.

Above is a pic of the watertight compartment. I snuck it out from above the oven when the wife wasn't looking. All penetrations into it will be fore and aft, sealed w/ clear silicone. If silicone proves unsatisfactory in testing, I guess I'll go with resin or epoxy or something.

Above is a pic of the on/off switch. It also has a charging port for the reciever battery. I guess I'll cut a slot for it in the caprail somewhere, or maybe will leave it somewhere inside the boat. Depends on rules and reach of wires. TBA

Above is my general idea for battery placement. That's 2x3-cell D batteries for a total of 9 volts. Motor seems to like it. I hope they make rechargable battries in packs and capacity that I want. I haven't really investigated or fabricated yet.

This is the full stbd travel of the rudder and servo as hooked up in a few photos above. This was exciting as this was the first time the boat did anything for itself.

Above is the full port throw of the rudder. The radio has a nifty adjustment device that will let me fine-tune the throw of the rudder. There's also a trim device that will let me trim the rudder to p or s by I guess up to like 20 degrees. It's pretty cool. Now all I need to work on is Superstructure and ESC and batteries. This vessel will not be armed to begin with.

Could use wax to seal the inside of the wt box. Leave a hollow in the center for the receiver. My receiver is a block of wax but that's a different story....

 Any updates? I Have always been fond of this ship. I need to read the MWC rules over again since I think that this ship being a "auxiliary CRUISER" should have the same unit numbers as a light cruiser at the least. Ask HMAS Sydney.