Wooody

Hello guys,

I bought the bismarck kit from swampworks about 2 years ago and its been sitting in my basment ever since, so.. its about that time that i put it together. Ive been browsing this forum for a few days and have realized that most you your ships are built from scratch, well thats way outta my leage but i figure i've got a good chance with a allready constructed hull etc.

I honestly do not know where to start. Let me start off by saying that im not going to be battling so i guess i really have no restrictions on how i build it. Where do i start? ive chekced and i have all the pieces.. and then some i think. I was figuring on getting the deck in place first. The kit came with 2 rails that are curved like the hull so im assuming that i glue those into the hull 1/4 deep(thickness of deck) and then rest the deck on them? heres is a picture of the rails im refering to:


Kit also came with 4 long thin pieces of balsa ive no idea where these go



Most of the kit. sure has alot of small pices, tubes mostly.


anywho, whats the deal with getting the deck on nice and flush and tight? do you use use small finishing screws to hold it down?

If someone could give me the quik laydown on what to do id appreciate it.


thanks,
Woody

Wreno

Woody,

Not near as many builders hang out here as at eht Yahoo IRCWCC Group (Small Gun) and the BigGunsModelWarship Group (Big Gun), both under Yahoo.com Groups. Lots more advice available. Also, a nearby club can show you how its done far easier than describing it. The Chesapeake Battle Group in Maryland is not all that far from RI (several of their members will be out of town next week for NABGO, the North American Big Gun Open, in Texas). There are so manny issues that it is difficult to tell you where to start. For instance, mounting internals like prop and engines is marginally easier before subdecks (caprails). One particular preference I have is to take the deck and use it as a template to cut a solid subdeck from 1/4" (marine grade if you have it available) pluwood, then cut away portions out of the middle where you want access, adjust as necessary with a sander for curves in the hull, and epoxy it in place.

Some of the web sites, like www.ntxbg.org, have tutorials and links to other web sites that also have tutorials.

Good luck! And enjoy (though most of the fun is in the battling).

Wreno

Umi_Ryuzuki

I would much rather you helped him here and everyone could see the build up.

[&:]

Wreno

Be happy to help, but, even though my son battled the same kit for a while, it was an "already built" club ship. I have no experience building up a Swampy kit, per se, though I have seen some (hence my hint at a caprail made from scratch out of plywood rather than the birch strips commonly used). That, and not reinventing the wheel, is why I pointed out the (some really great) articles already written by others, far more erudite than me on many of the club web sites. Also, there is an ongoing discussion, started in the last week or so, on the BigGunsModelWarship Group on Yahoo based on a guy scratchbuilding a Rodney/Nelson, that has a ton of good information and is ongoing. Reading it and getting cought up as to theory and progress so far may answer a lot of questions, and the questions on this project may help Thomas with his Rodney. Also, there are people on both that group, and the IRCWCC group that have actual experience with this particular kit, unlike me.

Wreno

Wreno

Oops. Actually, in re-looking and re-reading, my son battled a Deutschland class, not a Bismarck. Again, several people on the BigGunsModelWarship site have built Bismarck/Tirpitz, as have the IRCWCC guys. In fact, the archives probably still contain references to some of the problems Rob Wood had with a warped hull....

Wreno

Umi_Ryuzuki

Well I am still hoping that "near as many builders" that Hang out on Yahoo will help publicise and promote the hobby to the public rather than lurk in the corners and wait for members.

Their expertise can be useful to more than just the combat community.

[&:]

Wooody

hello again guys. I've been fiddling around with it a little latly and figured i jsut better start. I figured out how im gonna get the deck on. i put 5 cross braces on and tried to put them where i think they would not be in the way. the boat is really big so i dont think they will be a problem anyways. so i put the cross braces down and then i put this long piece on top of them going the length of the boat and i measured it so when i put the actual deck on it will be flush with the sides of the hull. heres a picture



after it all dries up im gonna get some smaller pieces of wood to put oveer the cross braces so all the subdecking matches.

the piece on the right is just laying on there but the left side is glued clamped and drying. Im really not happy with the deck that came with the kit. it was cut out horrible some sides are wayy to big and some are to small so sanding it isnt gonna make much of a difference. where do you guys get the wood for your decks? seeing how i made the subdeck assuming i was going to use the deck that came with the kit the wood would have to be a certain thickness.

Umi_Ryuzuki

Looks like you have a good start on the build.

Check the local hobby shops for aircraft birch plywood.

Also
http://www.lonestar-models.com/

http://www.balsausa.com/

Wooody

alright thanks, i got the wood on order for a new deck. im thinking of staining it or polyurethaning it, instead of just painting it gray.

now that the deck is pretty much taken care of i wanna get this thing running. the model is just short of 6 feet long and its about 11 inches at the widest point. Ive got no idea what kind of engine or engines im gonan need to move this thing. i do know that i want to do it with the stuffing tube/ dogbone setup. it just seems the easiest. Ive seen a few videos of the models battling and some of them seem really fast. id actually like to be slower than that. if someone could recommend a setup for me (engines, batteries) and whatever else im going to need excluding controller that would be great. and somewhere to buy it from thanks

Umi_Ryuzuki

If you can find them, I prefer 12-14 volt pittman motors.
In a pinch, Dumas 12 volt motors work, they are essentially pittman motors, but you pay a premium for them new. I usually am able to find used/surplus pittmans.

In an ultra pinch, the dumas 4.8 volt motors ran my Destroyer for 12 years. The only reason I changed them out was because most of the bilge pump sensors work better on 12 volts. so instead of running a 6 and 12 volt battery in the destroyer, I switched the motors to some 14 volt pitmanns out of some old centrifuges

Wooody

alright subdeck is in all epoxyd' up. Deck was a pain to make took 2 trys to get it right and it still not perfect but oh well. I cut the deck into 3 pieces. the bow piece is glued in and isnt going anywhere. the main middle piece is screwed into the subdeck and so is the aft piece, so i can take the deck off when something breaks. I already know what ur thinking.. why did he put like 5 million screws holding the deck on right?? well i dunno had had alot of screws and i didnt want any chance of it popping up . Man i was suprised how ridgid the boat actaully is with the deck all screwed in.. man that thing is buillttttt haha.

I need to get a engine and some stearing into this thing and soo how it goes. Im really pretty confused when it comes to the engine. the boat came with 2 rudders in the kit so i was thinking two engines but then i got looking at the plans and its got 3 props so i was planning on just having one engine right in the middle and then the two dummis on the sides. Also i cant figure a way to have the servo turn two rudders... does anyone have any picture of how this is setup?

For motors you (Umi_Ryuzuki) were talking about pittman motors. i did a search for them and found some results but they seem very espensive. then i found a link in here to motors like [link=http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/DCM-231/400/FAN-COOLED_6-12_VDC_MOTOR_.html]these[/link] and they are like 4 bucks a pop. i must be mission something major here if you could clear it up for me.

one last thing does anybody have any links to pictures of a model bismarck? i jsut recently started looking at the superstructure pieces that came with the kit and im missing pieces off the parts list, stinks swampworks is gone now. but the kit is def lacking anyways and i wanna add a few touches here and there.


thanks here are some more progress pictures








playing around with some superstructure.

Umi_Ryuzuki

You would do all right with a 1/700 scale model of a bismarck to work from.
I only have a few pictures of a bismarck model that I can post.

That motor doesn't look too high revving, but I would be concerned about how many amps that thing draws. Might be a bit of a "burner".
Your ship should run well on a single motor. However I do like a nice "surplus" 6-14volt pittman when you can find them. Maybe All electronics, or ebay.
A ship your size might also do ok on two 4.8volt dumas motors run on 6volts.

I have a shoddy old diagram of dual rudder control, I can redraw it if you have trouble reading it.

shakeyboba

Take a look at my Swampy Tirpitz at http://empirestatebattlegroup.rcnavalcombat.com . Im located in Ontario Ny. The only big problem was a hull that had expanded in the middle due to sitting on a shelf for a long time. I epoxied the cap rail in and clamped it for two days and have had no trouble. I have a Big Gun ship with all three motors. The deck comes with the ship. Contact me at [email protected]

Strato50

Ahhh good ole Swampy kits.. its sad to see them getting rarer and rarer..

I still have my old Lutzow floating about.. it now takes the look of a cruiser Nelson but, it will always be a swampy lutzow.. They made fun kits.

Horrible Harry

I wish swampworks would just sell the molds so that the rest of the R/C combat community can build these again. In my opinion, it is pure greed... especially when there are so few out there to choose from and this is such a tight community. they sure avoid my contact... keep making bullets guys...

my 2ΒΆ

CH