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...

OH! just to ask another question, what scale should i go with? somthing that there is decent compatibility with other ships.

at the moment, a 1:200 scale will be about 1.5 metres in length.

christoph87,
The easy part first. If you plan to use tugs to move the thing around, what scale tugs do you have, or are fairly common in your area? And unless your fellow R/C'ers walk around with tape measures in their hands to check scale, it really isn't that huge of a problem, sort of. (Anyone gets close with a tape measure, threaten bodily harm!)

For electric boats the absolute most bestest ballast is made from batteries! With that size of boat, removable ones are nice. An internal 'trim' pump/tank might be an alternative idea? An external 'ballasting' pump and power source, on the shore, also tends to cut down on the size of the winch needed to move the thingy in/out of the water too.

Nothing wrong with a 'modular' design for a boat, but it does put limits on making changes (one hull, several diffrent superstructures).
- 'Doc

(If your thinking, "he's sure lazy.". You are correct! Also weak backed, weak kneed, and in general, cheap.)

christoph87: have you thought about cardboard as a material? Well if not, have a look at this fellows massive scale cardboard ships:

http://greenseaships.blogspot.com/

LT tug: it doesnt NEED to be pushed around by tugs, but itd be fun to use them to play... it would be by majority able to manouver itself by 540 power.

and KMOT: i cant find how he makes those cardboard ships. id be interested though. How durable are they?

Your idea of using a fish tank pump is not a bad idea but due to the size of your ship/ ballast requirements, it would take forever to fill and empty. Have you thought of using a bilge pump from a real boat. They will pump water a lot faster and run on 12 volts.

For the straight hull sides, have you thought of using 1/8" door skins. Cuts down on construction time, use the foam for the curved areas of the hull.

I don't know. Perhaps you should e-mail him. I know from another website that he is more than willing to talk about them.