Homemade RC boat Titanic

There is literally a ton of R/C stuff out there , shouldn't be a problem to find just what you want . Here's one link , from a google search "Titanic RC model" .

Tower Hobbies is a big R/C supplier.

Take a look at one of the R/C submarines they carry, might give you some ideas for making the Titanic model sink like the real one, and unlike the real one, resurface.

Sinking, always is a problem when it comes to motors and electronics.

Actually, you could perhaps get that R/C sub kit and the video camera for it and scrap the Titanic idea. Since it's a kit you still get plenty of assembly time, it's pretty cool, and once you've played with it a while you can try some upgrades and modifications.

Tell him you'll help him, as long as you can build an RC iceberg...

Jon

He's 7. His idea of "titanicness" is probably a lot less exclusive than yours.

Chances are good that you can get by with the cheapest remote control boat in the hobby shop with a cardboard cutout of an ocean liner taped to it.

By the time the cardboard melts in the water, he'll want a different boat...

Well ... I have seen steam powered RC boats in the boat pool at Cabin Fever in past years -- and also typically someone has a RC submarine. I'm not sure how he gets enough signal through the water to that little beastie. :-)

So the components exist -- and are compatible with steam, based on my observations.

Enjoy, DoN.

The normal procedure is flotation plus a sealed radio box for the electronics. Boots are used for the servo push rods. The shaft seal is often a grease or oil filled tube with a tee open ended tube to fill. It seems to work well enough if you're only a fraction of an inch below water.

In R/C big gun combat, working bilge pumps are count toward your total weapon count. You can go as nuts as you want with this stuff.

Don't know if Iggy will see this, but...

I started building working ship models when I was 6, and by 8 my father had checked me out on the table saw so I would stop bothering him.

The easy way to build it is a stack of planks cut to the hull outline and hollowed out inside for ballast and to lower the center of gravity. You could cheat on the prop seal by mounting the motor high and angling the long shaft down into the water, then you wouldn't have any extra seal friction. You could also swivel the motor mount to steer it, although a rudder is simple.

If you build it wider than scale you won't need much or any ballast and a leak won't lose the ship.

The Titanic is a good choice, there aren't a lot of fussy little lifeboats to carve.

Jim Wilkins

that thing is over 70 inches long! better have a nice lake, ain't going in a swimming pool. no price found.

BTW, RC boats normally go dead in the exact center of the lake, bring a rowboat to go get it back.

Thank You, Randy

Remove 333 from email address to reply.

A model that large and heavy is very difficult to recover without wading into the muck. I'd size it for what he can lift while kneeling and leaning forward.

I have seen guys use a surfcasting rod with a rubber-covered weight, and a dulled, barbless treble hook. Just make sure the model has railings or something to catch on when you cast over it and pull the line back.

Titanic? How about the Great Eastern, or the Lusitania?

Don observes: "So the components exist -- and are compatible with steam, based on my observations."

Steam compatible components ought to be great on a Titanic model. RMS Titanic was a true steamship. She had 2 recip engines and one turbine.

Bob Swinney

Well ... I have seen steam powered RC boats in the boat pool at Cabin Fever in past years -- and also typically someone has a RC submarine. I'm not sure how he gets enough signal through the water to that little beastie. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

There are electronic motor controls. No need for shaft seals, just pack them with Vaseline. I used to make a line of model ship fittings. The shafts and tubes were close fitting, but free running hobby shop brass. Packed with Vaseline, they remained free running, and leak resistant. Models of large ships tend to have a narrow beam. If made smaller than 5 feet in length this can be a problem. The rudder(s) and propellers will have to be larger than scale.

Steve R.

was a true steamship.

Wow -- I'd never heard about the turbine before.

My neighbor has a yellow RC sub from Radio shack for his pool. I think it operates at 49 MHz and it seems to start losing control at 3' - 4' depth.

I've read that U-boats could receive long-wave signals from home when they were ~10 meters underwater off the US east coast. IIRC the frequency was in the low hundreds of kiloHertz, below the AM broadcast band. They had to surface to transmit.

Jim Wilkins

The rudder needed to be larger on the original, as well.

Pete

This is the best post of the day.