Little build for my SMS Mackensen which is a prototype SJS kit. Production hulls have already benefitted a bit from me building this one, even before it's hit the water. Really glad IRCWCC has voted to start allowing some of these "mostly finished" kind of hulls. Should be a fun boat, if not amazingly competitive. She is long. But this does give you a bunch of room for components. This is mainly a picture dump/placeholder for now. I'll come back in a day or two and add context and details. Hull, fresh off the printer This was one of the "post-mine" improvements. I added bosses for small grease fittings. The idea being once the shaft stuffing tubes are in place, you drill down using a bit that is slightly smaller than the hole in the plastic and drill through the stuffing tube. Then tap the plastic + stuffing tube material for your grease fitting. Just something for the people who would be interested in it. About 30% of the way through the build I bought a Bambu P1S on their black friday sale, with AMS. I decided to reprint the SS with the bambu, because I'm lazy and don't do a good job painting. SS Beauty shots to follow showing off the P1S. Note that some of the shots are "transitional" shots with some elements of old printer SS mixed in, and some have these mysterious black decks....more on that next. So one of the biggest issues logistically with SJS and the ship kits is the laser cutting service and their delays getting me my orders. So, when your only tool is a hammer, I decided to try and make the problem a nail. I designed printable decks that would fit on the P1S, with integrated support structure on the under side, that would add stiffness and also aid in deck sealing. My Mack is the first of now many SJS kits with plastic decks: Started to lay out internals and decided to experiment with a designed-to-fit "rose box" for the pump. Since the bambu is so precise, I designed this piece to really put it through its paces. It did a fine job. This magnets down into the water channel. Drive is 1250kv TenShock inrunners through 1.8:1 gearing into the same 5 blade kort props any other SJS mackensen kit would have. Trying for @Kevin P. kongo style rudders since this thing will need all the help it can get to turn. Beautys shot of her right before I started making guns: Gun building: Al the guns feed from their turret, and thanks to the kink-resistant nature of the cupronickel tubing I can put some pretty crazy bends in the magazines with no issues with feeding or rolling. All the cannons are mounted and have passed multiple (10+) full magazine firing trials. She's not done by any means but I got her about 70% of the way and then life got slamming busy with my dog entering heart failure and passing, my wedding, honeymoon, etc. Hoping to get back into the swing of things to make sure Mack is ready for NJ in May.
I think people had this specific fear of Mackensen because "The axis have too many good boats already". Mackensen is like WW1 kongo but significantly worse in most every way. It's longer with minimal additional rudder and you are a full 5 units, preventing a 75rd sidemount. You realistically have two gun layouts: "Fast Iron Duke" with a dual stern, Haymaker, B Sidemount "German Nagato" with B/C/D sidemounts, A 15 deg "funny gun" It's also not quite as "Surfboard" as some of the german BC/DNs, starting with Derflinger I think the germans really started to try and address the blue water seakeeping of their ships. Mackensen basically takes Derf and adds a deck of hull up to Derf's casemate level to improve seakeeping.
