- Hyuga -
INJ Hyuga – Tyler
5.5 units, 26 seconds, Japanese battleship
The Ise/Hyuga were built as improvements on the design
of the Fuso/Yamashiro battleships and were completed in the late 1910’s. They
similarly featured 6 turrets each with two 14 inch guns which was theorized to
have advantages in the amount of total projectiles per minute the ship could
fire broadside with additional advantages of each having independent fire
control as such to get a higher number of shots on target sooner and keep a
higher number of guns firing in the event of the loss of a turret in combat. The
flaw was that in reality the center turrets had limited firing arcs and also
that there were multiple magazines spread out throughout the ship making
protection more challenging. The successor battleship in the Japanese Navy was
the Nagato, which was the first ship in the world to mount 16 inch main guns
and they were placed two each in 4 turrets in in sets right next to each other
making it more possible to concentrate the protection. The ships were heavily
upgraded during the 1930’s adding armor bulging and length as well as
substantial superstructure changes. The two ships were again heavily modified
after the battle of Midway to include posterior flight decks as the stern most
2 turrets were removed as a response to significant aircraft carrier loss.
Both the Fuso and Ise class are interesting ships in
out hobby because of several advantageous design features. The multiple turrets
allow for several options for gun placement including the option of creating a
very dangerous stern. The ships have two twin rudders and four shafts. Also,
they have a heavy amount of casemate guns for protection against stern guns amidships.
The disadvantages are that they are 26 second ships that are about as large as
a ship can be before it reaches the threshold for 24 seconds. Additionally they
are 5.5 units rather than 6 making the choice of a 2 pump setup less seamless,
and the smaller class 5 rudders in a ship otherwise Nagato size means a
favorable turning radius can be more difficult to achieve.
I received this wood hull in a state of refit in the
spring of 2022 and started working on it in April 2022. The original builder
had done a fairly OK job with certain parts of the wood work but other aspects
were less ideal. Concrete sealer was filled between the ribs for water
channeling instead of something lighter like balsa, which has been my preferred
method. This article will document the rebuilding process.
As I got to looking over the ship and imagining what
work needed to be done I started to make a mental list. When I received the
hull the bow sections of concrete sealer had already mostly been cut out leaving
the ribs and a small amount of concrete sealer behind, I prefer balsa there so
that would need to be cleaned up and new balsa cut and sanded and sealed which
is actually pretty easy. The rudder posts and dummy shafts were in but the
drive shafts had already been removed and the stern was partially worked on, I
ultimately opted to cut out the dummy shafts as the whole back end needed to be
redone any way. Also I only had 2 of the deck sections so at the minimum I will
need to replace the missing ones but it was sort of set up to have as many as 5
removable sections, I prefer 3 at most so was planning on changing how that
comes together. The very bow of the ship can probably be completely sealed from
the top and not removable at all. The wood bulge stringer had been partly
removed on the port side, I planned to remove it all and replace the wood with
aluminum, and would want to do the same for the higher up stern most stringer.
The forward most sub-casement deck level was not continued to the next rib as
allowable in our rules and the section under the casements should only be 1/8
inch thick and was built up a bit too much so that needs to be re-sanded. Also,
I think the stern subdeck is too narrow which can cause problems with deck seal
if there isn’t enough overlap, so sanding down and redoing the subdeck is also
on the list, I can probably live with the bow subdeck. Additionally though it
is hard to see in this picture, there is bulge water channeling made from the
concrete sealer which I would usually do in balsa and as such planned to
rework.
This is a fairly good look at the water channeling
amidships. The center of the ship has a water channel to allow water to flow
bow to stern under the other internal components, which is desirable. The next
level higher of darker gray you can see where the ribs naturally divide smaller
box like components where concrete sealer was filled, preferably this would be
a lighter material. The next level up/out is a lighter grey that is also
concrete sealer in the bulges, in my opinion it is also too heavy but also too
far towards the middle of the ship. Generally speaking, I like to be in more
control of ballast weight. I’d rather put lead along the outsides of the ship
and screw it down so the ship is more adaptable to future modifications. And another
principle of ship design that I like to keep in mind is that if you have room
for extra ballast weight it should be battery if possible, so it is functional
rather than dead weight. For these reasons I like to keep water channeling
material light. Another important principle is ship stability. Ships perform
better if the weight is as wide as possible along the bulges for the width
dimension, and as close to center as possible for the length dimension. For
these reasons fixed ballast in the form of water channeling is less favorable
to me.
This picture was taken as the ship was getting closer
to being rid of the concrete sealer.
This picture shows how the concrete sealer was removed
from the entire ship down to the ribs and the wood layer that was placed on the
bottom of the ship. This process was extremely laborious. I used a combination
of Dremel cut off wheel/sander/routing bit as well as a hand held ½ inch belt sander.
It was very messy and I used the shop vac extensively as I was grinding the
probably toxic material out.
Here the balsa was cut to fit and glued in then sanded
to fit the shape of the left behind ribs.
An angle from inside the boat shows how the balsa
blocks are fit to shape on the inside. The far bow was built up to ¼ below the
open window which was about 1.5 inches from the benchtop. The next level back
will probably hold the radio box so I didn’t want to build it up quite as high.
It is not quite 1 inch tall from the benchtop. Ultimately this will be filled
over with epoxy. I intentionally leave some small cracks at seams so the epoxy
will fill in all the spaces it needs to while it is liquid.
Here is the mid section water channel and bow section
is visible too. There is a white tint to the epoxy because of micro-balloons.
Fiberglass cloth is used over the balsa in the bow so the incoming shots don’t
do damage.
I was not happy with the amount of deck rim in the
stern part of the ship so I opted to replace that whole section. Most of the
decks were not with the ship any way.
I sanded the top ¼ inch of the 3/8 inch deck/subdeck
assembly leaving just a 1/8 inch thick portion.
The 3/8 became 1/8.
I then traced a new 1/8 inch thick sub deck and glued
it in.
I did the same for the deck that I did with the sub
deck. This is the rough cut and will be sanded smooth.
This picture shows the three sections of 1/8 inch
coming together, bottom was original, middle is the new sub deck with much
wider overlap, and top is the new deck and deck rim. This picture also shows
how I use aluminum 1/8 inch stock to bend an armor belt into place. This is
pretty tedious but is very strong compared to wood.
The bow section was done a little different. The need
for a tight deck seal is not as great in the bow so I just left the deck rim
and cut new 1/8 inch decks to be inserted into the slots that were already
there. The far bow section in this ship will be permanently glued down as there
is minimal need to access that space in a larger ship. The bow most removable
section will have the 2 bow turrets. The raised middle section that sits under
the superstructure will be one of the primary access points. The stern most section
will also be removable but generally need to be moved less often. The midship
stern section will also need to be routinely accessed to change batteries/etc.
I don’t usually like four sections and prefer 3 but the central turrets and
centrally located step leaves fewer options.
This is also a good look at the super structure and
barbet locations though the barbets are not the correct height in this picture.
Stringers have been glued in and decks are “planked”
with pencil marks. The barbet holders are circular pieces of ¼ inch thick
plywood, the barbet is screwed laterally through into these pieces of wood. I
do this because the turrets that contain the actual gun are higher off the
water and I don’t have to glue the entire barbet into the ship.
With the superstructure and turrets in place it is
starting to look like a real ship.
The plan at the time this picture is taken is to set
her up with dual sterns in the furthest back turret, stern sidemount in the 2nd
to stern turret and a stern sidemount in the elevated midships turret. It will
either have one or one and one half pumps, TBD. In this configuration it should
be spacious enough especially in the bow to have enough room for two pumps.
Ster with motor mounts and drive shafts in place. I
made forms for rudder servo(s) that will push rod to the large gear, which will
turn 2 smaller rudder gears.
With the gear in. The radio box sits up front. Most of
the parts were robbed from the Derfflinger 2.
The middle part of the ship is busy. The cross brace for
the step is annoying, but there are not too many sensible ways to do that. The
batteries and bottle were designed to have just enough room. I went with a 7 oz
bottle, which should be plenty. There are battery holding blocks of plastic in
the front of and behind the batteries. There is room for 2 pumps, but initially
I battled with just one full unit pump. The gun hose for the more middle turret
is definitely in prime real estate, conflicting with the batteries, bottle, and
pump holder. I will probably re-do this part of the ship at some point. The drive
motors are wide with the pump in between them.
This ship got one of my last Traxxas Villain gear
boxes. The far stern of the ship is also crowded mostly due to the solenoids
and cannons. The revisions to this ship will include cutting out the water channeling
even more below the stern most turret. The rudder setup is seen here. It can
handle one or two servos. It seems like a standard servo is enough to push it
however.
Here she is awaiting her first battle. This is always
a leap of faith. I think it will probably float, maybe somewhat appropriately,
but really you don’t know until it gets floated. I was feeling both confident
and a little stupid, so really didn’t even float test it before the first
battle.
Sheeted and ready.
Twin stern guns, port stern most haymaker with 75 rounds,
starboard middle haymaker with 50 rounds. 1 full unit pump.
Chrysanthemum.
In the water for the first time September 12, 2026 at
a local battle in Minnesota. It required about 4 pounds of lead to get to float
somewhat normal, this picture is in the trimming out phase. I needed more lead forward
at this point. It battled fairly well. Turning was probably about as good as
you can get this long class 5.5 ship. The damage taking ability was very good,
I sank in the first battle because I forgot to put screen on my pump (I had
been using a place-holder pump to build it out and never put a battle ready one
in, that wasn’t smart). I later sank with 67-17-61, which is pretty
respectable. I had debated putting a second pump or even a 1.5 unit pump in but
I think I will hold off on that for now. It should have the ballast lead
strapped down better, move the bottle and maybe batteries slightly forward, cut
out more room below the stern gun so the hose doesn’t catch as easy. But otherwise,
I think is functional enough and fun enough to keep playing with it.
Jap ships make cool silhouettes.
I ended up battling it at 33.2 pounds, I think another
pound or two heavier would be OK, it is a fairly big ship.