So, im not that into small sports boats, but more into the larger scale RC boating, unfortunatly that costs alot of money that i dont have, so im thinking of fabbing up a decently simple containership hull at least to practice my scratchbuilding

The plans so far is to replicate a few different container ships put together *grabbing the most ideal and easiest to create ideas from each ship*. It will ideally be between 5 and 7 feet long, single engine (most realistic in my opinion, also allows me to use RC tugboats to their real purpose to help me manouver)

As for the method, im following the general idea from the great lakers website with the 11 foot build. ill be making a simple plywood inside body for the majority of the length, then at the front and rear where the shape tapers off i will use carved foam, all of this being fiberglassed apart from the top which will remain mainly open *above the plywood centre area*.

radio equipment i will plan to keep in the ships bridge / quarters in a sealed container, and may look at the 12v water ballast system also described on the great lakers site however more ghetto in design... my question as well is, would somthing like a 12v fishtank pump work? and whats the best batteries to use for powering the pump, due to the size of the ship itself, a lead acid battery may offer decent ballst too... although lighter is probaby better, to allow the ballast to offer a decent spread of weight through the hull.

this would run off 3 channels probably, one for power, one for rudder, and one for the ballast pump and bilge pump... if i wanted to i could run the bilge pump off a 4th channel *4 channel futaba radio = cheap*

if anyone can help me in my ideas, id be gratefull.



edit: oh how would it be best to get the ballast water into the hull, would it be best to seal some marine ply as the centre body, and just let the water flood in there? or should i use somthing like two PVC tubes along the legth of the hull as ballast tanks, which will have a breater tube out the top to let the air out, water in at one end, bilge pump at the other...