Submarine with Starship-Hull

C

Chilihead-Do

New Member
Dec 16, 2011
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Dortmund, Germany
I want to build a RC-Submarine with a hull from a Starship.
The Plan is to build tube-shaped pressure hulls with electronics and drives in them
and to build a flooded hull with the shape of a starship.

There are 3 models to be in the run:

1. The U.S.S. Sulaco from the movie Aliens
2. The Battlestar Galactica from the new series Battlestar Galactica
3. The Rodger Young from the movie Starship Troopers

Wich one do you think is the best for this ?
Atm I'm building all three as Card models so I can see how and where I can realize drives, rudder and so on.

My thoughts till now:
Sulaco:
PRO:
- Nearly perfect shape for a Submarine
- Damn asskicking appearance ;-)
CON:
- don't know how to make rudder
Galactica:
PRO:
- my favourite Series :-)
- can be built to dive as a R.O.V without disfigure the hull
CON:
- very flat, difficult to place the pressure hulls
Rodger Young:
PRO:
- nice, exceptional appearance
- drives can be built moveable
CON:
- hard to build due to many details and interlaced hull

So what's your opinion?
I hope I can find experienced submarine-captains here to help me.
 
Thats a shame. Would have liked to see any of those models as a sub.

The Sulaco would be ideal, it already has a rudder, the pylon that hangs down below the ship.

The Roger Young, making the engine pods pivot, to sink and surface, that would be cool.

The galactica would be a challange, no rudder for direction and you would have to use air tanks to rise and sink.

Would have liked to see you carry on with this, but I know RC'ing a sub is expensive.
 
I gave my wife two choices:
A submarine or a Tri-/Hexacopter based on the TNS-Cylon-Basestar.

Her answer: "Then build the submarine, it can't be destroyed due to a crash by wind or similar. But the resin-shit, you'll make at the balcony, no matter what weather!"

I thought:"Ok, I will NOT tell you that there are lots of reasons a submarine can sink" :twisted:

For me a sub is more interesting, because I even built a tri- and a quadrocopter for a friend.
And when my sub sinks, it's MY fault, and not the fault of a sudden gust of wind or other weather related problems.

It will take a long time, but I will jump in the cold water.

Ok, first, wich model to use?
For me the galactica is out, because -as paulhbell said- the steering is too difficult to realize and the form of the hull is not very functional.

The Sulaco is nearly perfect, good idea to use the pylon as rudder, paulhbell.
My only fear is to get entangled with the antenna-array in algae, water-lilies or other.
And with its nearly 1,8m length there's room for tons of goodies in it. :twisted:

A new idea is the Colonial One.
The question here is if I can use the four fins at the back as rudders.

Today I met a friend who knows a lot about ships.
Perhaps he can help me to make a decision.
 
I don't think you should give up on the Galactica that easily. By using bow thrusters, you could make that ship do anything. For that matter, the judicious place of box thrusters, after figuring out a neutral floating point, would make any ship feasible. An Enterprise could have a bow thruster put in each nacelle and in the sides of the saucers and you would have a very controllable ship. Make that thrusters moveable on various axis, you could make a brick work. Just look at the submersibles used by the science community.

Actually, if you made a submersible that you could mount a camera in,you could make something far more useful. You could do dock inspection, look for corpses, etc. all good reasons which the wife might buy! :)
 
Yep I was think of bow thrusters for the roger young, put them in the engine pods.

As Zathros says, you can make anything sink and float with the right equipment.
 
I built group 1 of the Sulaco and although it's a big ship, with about 13cm width it would be very narrow for the electronics.

I will build some parts of the 3ft Galactica, to see the size of the hull and engines.
Perhaps I will copy the sheets on A3 paper for the prototype, although it will be much expensive. (But a 1,80m long Galactica will be very impressive :mrgreen:)
I think there will be much more room for the electronics in there.

With your suggested bow thrusters the drive system can be realised without to disfigure the Ship with rudders.
 
First, this project isn't dead.
The problem is, that I'm searching a suitable model.

Grale's 3ft Normandy was great, but was canceled.

I wrote the Sulaco is too small for the electronics...
I build the first 5 groups and must say sign1
This babe is huge. But to build this giant as a prototype off paper and
convert it to a hull for a submarine it would take years :mrgreen:
Also the antenna array will be a problem with plants in the water.
Imagine this boat tangled up in plants under water...:cry:

The best model would be a model build with formers, because it can be converted 1:1 if it has the correct size to carry the required electronics.
A win for Stephen Irl's 3ft Galactica. (And I love this ship)
But is there enough room in it for all the electronics?
(Yes, the bridge is very big, but there are dive-tanks, batteries, camera, steering-mechanism, and all of this must be positioned correctly to get the right balance)
And how can we make the drive system?

The Rodger Young is nice too, but too difficult to convert.

Grale's Normandy SR2 would be perfect.
A slim, but long hull, perfect for positioning different pressure hulls.
With minimal changes the engines can be equiped with rudders without disfiguring the model.
And the appearance is GREAT!!!


Now we are at a loss and need your help.

We have following choices:

- build Grale's Normandy SR2 and fumble up all upcoming errors somehow (imagine the papercraft is only the prototype, so it doesn't need to look perfect)

- build the 3ft-Galactica and hope there's enough room for all the equipment

- print the Galactica on DIN-A3 and build it to be sure to have enough room for all the equipment

Our favourite solution is the first, but what's your opinion?
We are somewhat frustrated at the moment, because we thought we have found the perfect model and then Grale throws the towel.

Perhaps you can help us to make a decision at last.
 
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