Inside the HMS Tiger

4.5 Unit Battlecruiser Rated 24 sec over 100’

Built by Randy Stiponovich

While most people make their rudders out of wood Randy make them out of plastic. Randy is not a big fan of wood in his ships and tends to make every thing out of plastic. You can see the brass rod bent and sticking out of the top of the rudder. The narrow stern makes installing the rudders difficult to install. You can see the rudder on the left comes up just under the lower part of the open window in the hull. Randy has Dumas 1 ½” four blade cast props. These are very nice props.

In this side view you can see the screws that hold the rudders together. The props are mounted just past the skeg in the middle of the hull with the rudders just in front of the props. At the right is the dummy outer shaft the normally has a drag disk on it.

Inside the stern of this ship it is very tight. At the right Randy has a waterproofed servo with two push arms on to the rudders. He uses the Traxxas Villian gear boxes. Just to the right of these Randy has two fill points into the stuffing tubes for grease. He holds his deck on with small plastic pieces that are screwed on to the solid deck and turn over the removable deck.

On Randy’s stern guns you can see the Pirate Smurf he is famous for. His guns are very original. He has cut the T’s out of clear plastic. He said he did this so he could see what was getting jammed in them. But since he made them they never jam up. It is pretty cool to watch the guns work. He has the solenoids tucked under the drive motors. The pump is on the left. It has a blue fish filter around it to keep the balsa and bbs away from the pump. You can also see the pop bottle interior armor on the side of this ship.

On the right at the accumulation tanks for the stern solenoids and the pump. The pump is the lager BC pump with a stinger motor. Randy has a combonation of Deans Altra connectors and Power Pole connectors. Right by the cross is the split in the main air hose. It looks like Randy is using some Clippard fittings to make this split. The power comes from two 12 amp hour batteries.

Randy’s Radio box is an Otter box. It is water tight up to 100’, with out wires cut into it. But if you epoxy them in right and keep the o-ring clean it will stay dry for a long time. At the left of the box Randy has a popit valve he uses for the bow sidemount. It works well for the single gun, he’s done some major damage with it. Randy uses disposable CO2 bottles to power his guns. He has a Palmer Rock the Boat regulator. It is an adjustable regulator that is also a lot lighter then the stand brass one. If you use it make sure and keep it clean and oiled or it will have pressure spikes. The water channeling in the ship is a close cell foam.