Hi all, I decided it was time to resheet my Scharnhorst since she was getting pounded for quite a while. I realised it would be a great time to make some of the changes I wanted to do so the resheet became a refit. I ordered a set of plans from Strike and they are great! Three pages of everything I would need to do a refit. The first thing I noticed is that my deck was 3/4 inch too narrow, also the deck was old, the hatches weren't sealing as good as they used to and I wanted to change the both the size and location of some of the hatches so I decided to redeck. Second, I wanted to replace the gearbox I was using because the one I had sat too high and interfered with my stern mounts. Third, I wanted to go to 2 powered shafts to improve my starting/stopping and to speed up my turning from a stop. Sounds simple enough eh? Famous last words. Here in the Navy, when a ship goes into a work period or a refit there are things we like to call 'arisings'. These are defects that are unknown and hiding until they are discovered when the top or side layers are pulled away. Cracked ribs, broken or missing stringers and damage to the fibreglass hull are common in combat ships but when you forget about these things during the planning phase due to inexperience (this is only my second refit and my first total refit, the ISE has been put on hold for the time being) it sucks!. I spent a little bit more time than I thought, more than my wife thought too but bless her she was patient, supportive and helpful. She has become pretty good at sheeting I must say! This is part one of the refit, the engineering side. The superstructure will done when I get a. my kitchen done (having issues) and b. get back from the west coast. I am probably being sent out to do some work. I will start some pics now and add more as I get them all sorted out. Scharnhorst is pretty beat up. I was going to let it go for another season But I decided to put fresh silk span and paint on it for Steve Crane's last battles before he left the country. It doesn't look it but there is more silkspan than balsa in the sides. As you can see, jagged holes and cracks, way overdue for resheet. The white smudges at the bottom are the corners of my armour, pics of that later. More damage, BBs in the SS. STBD bow. Port bow. Port side, wrinkles in new silk span covers more cracks. She didn't sink last year though. Thank GOD for good pumps. Here you can see damage to the barrels of both main and secondary guns. You can also see how the deck hatches are warped and don't fit very good. This is the pile of BBs that were still inside the boat when I pulled armour out and sheeting off. Stripped hull. Another view. Here you can see the battery tray and water channel, the only things that were not removed. J
Interesting decision to go with two powered shafts versus the single center shaft. Wonder if the increased starting and stopping is going to make up for the turning you are going to loose. Isn't it amazing the places BBs can hide?
It may be my old eyes, but it looks like the center shaft is powered, but not the outside ones. The Big Scharnie that I bought from Bill B in Florida had the outside shafts powered, and he was not thrilled with that arrangement. I have refitted it with a driven center shaft, for better turning. Also got the same rudders we made for Baden.
Here are more pics of the old, The front section, the A turret bracket is there still, that is one hatch I intend to create in the refit. The bottle sits directly under it and the little wedge holds it in place. The magnet to catch BBs and stop them from rolling around was also left in place, the aft one was replaced. The full battery tray, Plumbers GOOP and 3/4 inch angle aluminium. I used two batteries, plastic food wrap and wooden drink stir sticks as wedges and braces. I put the goop in place then the aluminium and the plastic wrapped batteries and friction and gravity did the rest. The GOOP sets fairly fast and now the batteries are held in very snuggly and have never moved even a bit when in the boat. Midships aft.The yellow foam is there to prevent crap from getting anywhere near the pump inlet. It works AWESOMELY. My pump has never been plugged or interfered with since I put this in and as you know with regards to pump streams, size does matter! It is just the particulate filter you put in an aquarium GOOPed to the bottom of the boat and then a couple pieces are stuck in the top around the pump to seal it up. The white bit of plastic are there to hold in the armour, you can see pieces GOOPed to the bottom of the deck as well and I just slide the armour in or out as required. The existing gearbox sits pretty high in the boat. In order to use the existing stuffing tubes I had to set it up this way. I have removed this gearbox and all the resin etc beneath it and made better use of the space I have. My rudder setup was very good so I kept it the same, just relocated it a bit further aft After taking the deck off, I could really see how much filling in I needed to do so I decided to run a layer of fibreglass all the way around the inside of the hull at deck level. There were also many stringers that needed repair or replacement. As you can see, there are two broken ribs right here. The 1/4 inch drink stir sticks are perfect for these repairs, they just need a backer. I used a 1/4 inch square backer to reinforce the stringers and then cut them to allow for a bit of flexibility in the hull. Here is an larger view of the reinforcement and the stringer backer. I have the stringers sanded sown to the correct 1/8 inch size so they are legal, but strong. More to follow later, J
Good ole Sharnie. I wonder if those broken ribs came from Winsor when Nagato Nelson and Musashi were ramming it . I always liked that battery tray. Stick with the center prop Jay. IF your ship can't stop or start fast enough look at the prop your using. Maybe get rid of the Gear box and just go Direct keep the wings with drag props. You won't have any maneuverability with the outer props and a ship that size with fewer guns than it's rivals of equal length you need your ability to outturn a more powerful adversary or a small but dangerous and highly maneuverable enemy.
Mike, everyone says I will lose turning but I didn't see it. I was able to maneuver with Steve's Nagato and was happy with that. I could never out turn him and still can't but my stern gets around faster than it did before. That was the first thing Steve mentioned when we conducted sea trials. And yes BBs are very sneaky critters. Tugs, the pics so far are of the original fit so your eyes aren't that old! Nick, the hooks hold a tie wrap which holds the ESC in place. Curt, I had the biggest prop Battlers sells on Scharnhorst. I have no problem getting to speed, I just get there faster now. I also have more water going over the props than I did with the one prop. Paul, I had direct drive before the first gearbox and I cavitated more but didn't notice a whole lot of speed difference. The ESC is the way to go, (IMHO). J
When I stripped the balsa off the sides I found that most of the stringers and ribs looked like this, I used resin, fibreglass matt and/or stir sticks to make the repairs. It isn't perfect it worked out ok. If anyone has other methods that work please chime in and pass it on. This section shows some of the repairs in place and then the same section once the filing and sanding is done. It looks pretty good I think. This is what the stern looked like before the refit. That prop is the 2 1/4 inch from Battlers and you can see I had to grove the hull to make it fit. I decided to do that instead of cutting down the ends of the blades like Tugs suggested because I didn't want to make the blades uneven and therefore unbalanced. I hate high speed wobbles. This is how it looks now. Two 1 3/4 inch props from Battlers. The shaft struts are a neat idea I got from Rob Clarke. They are a threaded collars like we use to on drive shafts but bigger and a 1 1/2 inch screw. There is a nut on the inside of the hull and I just put the same number of turns on both sides and the shafts are equal length away from the hull. A bit of resin and they are nice and sturdy. The rudders are also Battlers class 5. J
Once everything was stripped and the old deck was off I began chipping the old caulking, glue, apoxy, silicone and resin that was in the bottom of the hull from previous builds. It took some time but once the hull was cleaned out I began with the new stuff. First to go in were the new stuffing tubes and shafts. This whole area was one big chunck of resin but it cleaned up pretty good. Three stuffing tubes and three proper shafts. Only the outside two are powered but I now have options. The centre shaft is grease filled and free spinning for now and once the rest of the trials schedule commences (that is when the ice and the waist deep snow melts) I will test speeds etc with various setups. Here is my steering setup. I believe in 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. It looks like they are touching but there is a hairs' width between them. This setup and the same standard servo has been turning Scharnhorst since spring 2008. It is simple and easy to repair (if necessary). Stern shot. It looks like the STBD rudder is way lower than the port but it is only a bit lower. Looking for opinions, should I try to shorten the rudder tubes and bring the rudders closer to the hull. It sure looks like I could. The centre prop is about the correct scale size and is as big a prop I can use there, short of cutting into the hull again. I though about angling the rudders but it was the general opinion here it might actually drive the stern down (good for stern mount shots) and therefore drive the bow up ( bad for taking bow shots) so I didn't.
One of my favorite ships. I have always wanted to build one for myself. But there was always something else getting in the way. I always thought it would be great to see the pair running together. Mikey
This is the internal config after the refit First the RX box. It is just a 'Lock n Lock' box I got from Walmart with GOOP around all the holes. Works very well. Fwd section for bottle and reg The forward guns sit directly above this spot. Fwd battery Both batteries fit snugly in place The RX box in place. I need to adjust the pneumatics. lots of room for the box, I need to redo some of the wiring too. After battery and drive. Like I said, I need to redo some wiring. It doesn't fit quite the same as it used to. The stern mount fits nicely now. In the previous setup, the stern guns straddled the motor and gear box and were a pain to get in and out. Close up of the ESCs, a rats nest that I can't fix, or can I? Suggessions anyone? Close up and reverse angle on the gear box. Check the magnet, BBs still there from sea trails. Motors and gearboxes all snug. The pump fit is temp, when it's proper I 'll post tics of it. If I decide to power the centre shaft as well, the motors will rotate out to allow room for another one or I can use a 1 in 2 out gearbox with a slight mod. Nice thing about GOOP is it is permanent if you want or temp if you want. Just takes a screwdiver to decide. Lots of room fwd of the rudder servo, shorten the centre stuffing tube and reverse mount a motor there as a possible option. Fwd and aft armour in place. Figured I added this because we were discussing armour in another thread The new deck without and with the hatches. I have a question. The next 2 pics show the wavyness of the balsa. Is that caused by not thinning my dope enough or is there another cause? Any one have an idea? I put the old SS on for trials so she looks like a warship and to check stability. I am going to try to find the 'Foamie' people were talking about in the SS thread. I hope Michaels here has it. To make thin levels or decks should I use thin wood or plastic with the foamie ? I hope the get this done before I go to the West Coast. J
Sea trials The trials team was myself, Steve Crane, Paul Mckinnon and Dave Johnston on the camera. Steve, Jay and 1/2 of Paul There' s Paul South Dakota, Nagato and Scharnhorst SoDak and Nagato Scharnhorst and Nagato Scharnhorst in a turn. Two awesome Axis boats!!!! But wait, where is the Allied boat? There it is!! Sorry Paul, (I can't not smack!! ) A successful test for Scharnhorst and fun all around. J
Kinda a word of warning ... that netting stuff will not hold up to repeated hits from BBs, especially from the harder hitting guns. Experience talking.
Looks very nice indeed. Forgive me if I overlooked something that was already mentioned. But it looks like your sub-deck is not made of wood. Is it some sort of plastic material? Mikey
Thanks. The stuff is called sintra. It is a plastic very similar to PVC. It is tough, BB resistant, easy to work with and requires no water proofing. The deck is fixed to the hull with small screws and then the gaps are filled. We cut hatches with angled edges and they sit in place nicely. We have used it for SS as well, and I use GOOP to glue the pieces together. J
