Inside the IJN Nagato

Class 6 Battleship

Rated 24 sec over 100’

Swampworks hull built by Bryan Finster.

Bryan uses Dumas 2” 3 blade props that are sanded down to 1 ¾”. The drag props are Dumas 1 ½” The rudders are set with the center of the props. Not easy to do with the pointy stern of this ship.

Here is the side view of the props and rudders. Bryan has the rudders just in front of the props. The rudders are rectangular; he could have put a little more area at the top of the rudder and taken it from the bottom. But there might not be room for the rudder to turn under the ship.

The stern deck is screwed down. Since Bryan rarely needs to get into this area this is not a bad thing. This ship has a very low stern it needs to have a good deck seal in the stern. The turrets are held in place with two rare earth magnets. The gun pin is also run through the turret so the is no way for it to fall off the ship. Bryan’s guns are held in place with an aluminum mount. He has the stern guns angled 15 deg off center. This is something the pointy sterned Jap ships have done for a while. Jeff Lide & Bryan have had some success with it and made it popular.

Under the deck is the rudder servo and gears. The servo is waterproofed with Corrosion X. Bryan opens the case to let the water in and out freely. Copying this was the only way I was able to get my water proofed servos to work. The point stern has just enough room to get the gears for the rudders installed. Bryan uses the Traxxas Villian Motor Mounts for his gear boxes. The water channeling has a sharp step in it. This helps keep the water from rushing into the stern and driving the ship under.

The guns fit in-between the water channeling and gear boxes. The mags are bent up and over the stern cross brace.

The bow of Bryan’s ship holds his custom painted bottle. He uses a Palmer Rock the Boat regulator. The solenoids are connected to an accumulator tank and mounted standing up. He has Cippard barbs and couplings to the guns to easily disconnect the decks. This makes moving the ship between battles for patching and repair much easier. At the left is an Otter Box Bryan uses for a radio box. The Otter Box allows quick access to the inside without removing a lid that is siliconed in place. You can see the ribs are each backed with plywood. Bryan says that even with the ribs backed he has had ribs shot out.

On the bow cross brace Bryan has mounted test switches for each of his guns. You can see the Deans Ultra and Micro connectors for motors, pumps and guns. The wiring looks to be color coded but is not twisted. It is strapped to the air lines to make it neater. The stern solenoids are set upright just like the bow tanks and solenoids. The little black box near the pump is an ESC (Electronic Speed Controler) This allows Bryan to set speed in forward faster by just programming his radio. It also allows him to gear up his motors and leave the reverse set to 100%. The higher RPMs in reverse helps the ship stop on a dime and go backwards very fast. A big advantage or ships with out this set up. Some people don’t like the ESC because they are easy to melt down.

Here is a shot looking into the stern. Bryan uses a Pearce pump with a Stinger motor. You can see the battery tray. He uses two 12 amp hour batteries. His water channeling is ¼” thick at the sides of the ship and gets thinner towards the tray. You can see how he bends the guns up and over the cross brace. The mags stick through holes cut into the deck and hidden by superstructure.

The open Otter Box. Bryan has the servos, receiver and Team Delta switches on the top of the box. This way if any water gets in the box it is kept away from the electronics. This box is very small and pretty neat inside.