Fightercat Daytona

[kwiktsi]

OK, not as nice as some of what I see here, but it's just going to be a fun boat to run at the lake here :). 37" Daytona, Leopard 4082 1600, Swordfish 200A 8S esc, Kintec strut and rudder, custom laser cut the motor rails and battery trays by me :D and I custom made the hatch thumb screws and nuts, hatch "pin" and socket, antenna holder, water outlet, through hull water fitting and steering boot "nub" on the lathe for it.

I am trying to get a few things worked out and still undecided if I am going to leave the steering servo where it is or not but once it is all dialed in and servo location is finalized and such, I will be painting it Viper GTS blue, charcoal and some Dodge GoMango orange (5 year old son says it has to have orange on it lol).

The hatch pic shows the pin just pushed in place, it has since been glassed in. I glassed the tunnel and bottom of hatch using fiberglass and West 105, didn't want to spring for CF on this one lol.. Anyway, on to the pics! OK, just realized there are no full on shots of the boat, I'll add more later :D.

[kwiktsi]

And more..

[kwiktsi]

Still more... Notice the motor support :). Most of it is covered up but I had to add some FC details to it! I have too much fun playing with the laser lol.

[jetnfast]

Looking good man!

[kwiktsi]

Thanks! I moved the rudder servo today. Laser cut a servo try to mount it flat on the tunnel. I liked the looks of the CF mount on the side, but I think this will work better overall. Going to take a little bit to get it dialed in but it's getting there. Once I'm happy with it's performance, it's coming back apart for paint and I will update then as well :).

[kwiktsi]

Any tips on how to remove the servo mount from the boat? It is epoxied in with West G Flex epoxy. I was thinking maybe soldering iron to melt the epoxy.

[jetnfast]

You could use a heat gun, that might soften the epoxy enough. As a last resort, bust out the dremel and grind away. Just be careful with all the dust and crud kicked up, its more messy but will get the job done.

[kwiktsi]

You could use a heat gun, that might soften the epoxy enough. As a last resort, bust out the dremel and grind away. Just be careful with all the dust and crud kicked up, its more messy but will get the job done.
Yeah, I tried a soldering iron with no luck. I was thinking a heat gun might distort the hull. I was trying to save the mount but it looks like it will have to be cut uo and out. Oh well, not the end of the world.

[jetnfast]

Looking closer at your hull and that mount, I think you could get away with sanding it with a dremel bit instead of trying to cut it out. Just take your time, and it should be too hard to do.

[kwiktsi]

I tried but can't really get to it with a dremel :-(. The problem is I can't get to the inside screws to get the cross bars out, it was assembled and then glued in. With the bars in there, I can't fit the dremel anywhere. I'll mess with it more when I get back in, I didn't have a lot of time, we were on our way out. When I get back in town, I'll have more time to mess with it. I'll figure something out :-). Thanks!

[jetnfast]

Dremel makes a 90 degree attachment, that might be what you need. They also sell a flex shaft attachment that might work too.

[kwiktsi]

Haven't used the 90 but I have the flex. I'll look more when we get back and figure something out. I'll get it out, I was just curious if there were some simple way using heat or something like a soldering iron to do it without hurting the surrounding area but that doesn't seem to be the case. Thanks again.
Joe

[jetnfast]

At least it's just ply and not CF or fiberglass, I think those would be a lot more difficult to drill or grind out.i guess worst case you could just leave it since it looks like like you have the other servo mount in there already.

[kwiktsi]

It is cf lol :-). I laser cut an acyrlic plate to screw to it hoping to mount the BEC there but the BEC ended up being too big to fit, so now that mount is completely useless lol. Yeah, I already made and installed the new mount. I knew better than to mount the servo there in the first place but figured I'd give it a shot. Oh well.

[kwiktsi]

Nothing new to really update other than I decided to go with the Bud Light theme on it- http://nautiboats.com/50%20Mystic.htm I will be doing the painting and having MonoJeff do the decals :D. I have some Viper GTS Blue here that will look killer with the Bud Light graphics!

[srislash]

Notice a H&M rudder on there Kwiktsi, what size is that one(100?120?170?) and what is the actual blade length? Some measure from under the bracket and some are from top to bottom. Translations aren't working for me on their page.
Thanks for the insight.
Shawn

[kwiktsi]

Nope, this is the $28 Kintec Chinese rudder. Overall, 110mm- about 90mm under bracket. Almost wonder if it needs more though- the boat pulls right pretty hard with a 45mm prop on it.

[srislash]

These hulls are pretty narrow so the prop walk kinda takes over. They go straight great though,real light on their feet,so to speak.

Just rudder hunting for the Fantasm.

[kwiktsi]

These hulls are pretty narrow so the prop walk kinda takes over. They go straight great though,real light on their feet,so to speak.

Just rudder hunting for the Fantasm.

Yeah, I kind of expected it to walk, but this is bad! With a 45x1.4 CNC prop, it takes 1/2-3/4 turn to the left to keep it straight! Much better with an x 440. Going to try an x642 today, hopefully it is a happy medium! I see people running 47's on these boats but judging by how mine ran on the 45, I don't see how!

[srislash]

My Gieco gets waaayyy worse prop walk with the strut raised up, settles it in the water but it walks in a bad way. Just sayin'.

[kwiktsi]

Hmm, my GEICO tracks dead straight lol, but the only upgrades are offset rudder and the same CNC 45mm prop. What's done to yours? Thanks for the info!
Joe

[iridebikes247]

To get that thing out I would say cut the top bit of the servo mount off and slowly grind it down as low as possible. I wouldn't try to snap it out as I would on some of my bigger boats, those hulls are thin not worth trying to do that. After doing it I would sand down and put a layer of FG cloth down.

[kwiktsi]

Actually got it out a long time ago, thanks. I ended up grabbing low and snapping it, then glassing over as well :D.

I took the boat out today to test with the 642 prop- it seemed to really like that prop! Woke it up quite a bit over the X440 I was running and very little propwalk compared to the 45mm I tried! I even did some 8S testing today with that prop as well and it ran VERY well! The boat needs some dialing in though, gets pretty loose and rocking up top- I see what you mean by light on it's feet srislash!

Lol, I decided to run it at a local park where they race sailboats on the weekends. Not a very big area to run in but accessible all around should something happen and it needs to float to shore or be retrieved. Well, since my last time there, they put a LOT of markers out there and I ended up harpooning one of them at a pretty good speed. I cut it close a couple of times but they just bounced off the side- this was dead straight into it! It hit so hard that it flipped over forward like a lever! Cracked up a sponson tip and stuck it into the foam buoy so far that it took two of us to get it apart- one pulling on the boat, the other pulling on the buoy! I just got done grinding and glassing the sponson, probably finish it tomorrow when I get home. Glad this happened BEFORE paint!

[srislash]

Trust me here...Make sure that sponson tip is sealed. Should the boat ever end up nose up in the water at least it will stay that way if the nose is sealed. Lost my Shocker due to the same incident as you had.

And my Gieco has a 1515 , SK180,offset rudder and all blueprinted.Fav prop is a M645

[kwiktsi]

Trust me here...Make sure that sponson tip is sealed. Should the boat ever end up nose up in the water at least it will stay that way if the nose is sealed. Lost my Shocker due to the same incident as you had.

And my Gieco has a 1515 , SK180,offset rudder and all blueprinted.Fav prop is a M645

Ouch, yeah, nice little air bleed there :-). It's already sealed tight and will be even more so once filled and painted. Thanks for all the pointers.
Joe

[srislash]

Any chance of a link for that rudder sir.

[kwiktsi]

Sure- here it is at Kintec http://kintecracing.com/Hardware.html, you have to scroll almost all the way down to it. I had good luck ordering from them but have heard some horror stories here as well though. Here is it at hobbyking too if you prefer to order from them- http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__12699__Rudder_Large_.html. You can also find it on ebay, just have to search around there a bit. Hope this helps.
Joe