RC Boat: Small Destroyer Remote Control Model

Small RC Model Missile destroyer I designed and printed for proof of concept. It has been appreciated by my local club members and the public, which is nice, and I put it out there for others if they wish to make one.

Main hull is double skinned for rigidity and safety (2 perimeters and 10% infill).  There have been some changes from the first one I printed to try and improve construction and other bits (see CAD image), but this is the first draft put out on Printables (Jan. 2024).  Pictures are of the original version.

Hull construction I have changed to allow use of filament to help reinforce the link between hull sections.  I printed the hull sections on end; the first layer is solid to try and improve the first layer but then 2mm holes for inserting 1.75mm filament my making a hole through if required.  The bow retains the original overlap shelf due to the shape. I used CA glue for the hull joints but reinforced with a 3D pen on the inside just in case as I did not have the filament inserts at the time. Deck was put into the hull with epoxy.  Small parts used CA glue.

Do check your parts for your personal printing preferences.  I printed the hull 0.35mm layer height for speed, other parts in 0.2 (superstructure) and 0.1 (detailed parts).  Tolerances should be ok for things to be a friction fit based on my experiences.

I can create construction plans if required but the idea is to make it your own.  Duplicate parts will be needed.  As made:

4 no. Bridge Wing supports

8 no. Missile tubes and connection rings, 2 no. Missile tube frames.

Multiple small_Mooring_points

2 buoy shelves and 4 life buoys.

3 no. small Aerial mounts, 1 large, 4no. cylinders (I used long bits of old printed perimeter strings for the actual aerials, gluing into the cylinders).

1 no. Front Winch

"small" just means “small parts”

There is no rear gun tube: I used a nail as it was stronger and looked the part.

Rear access hatch: the missile mount is on a mounting plate allowing it to overlap from the rear hatch onto the main deck (only glued onto the rear hatch - Deck_5_inner - to allow removal of the hatch).

The front gun unit fits onto a tube to allow it to rotate from the inside somehow (which I never got round to).

There are now cut-outs in the bridge wings to allow for navigation lights, and an area to put wires through, but you will need to poke a hole through the relevant areas if you wish to fit them.

Deck_3 has mid supports that can be cut out when the deck is glued together.

Standard propeller shaft and small rudder unit will work fine.  Not a fast thing so a small motor (brushed 380 type) and smaller propeller (no motor mount or servo mount for rudder included in the design).

There is a lot of buoyancy so you will need ballast to bring it to a good water line.

Overall the model sails well and looks nice on the water (see pictures) but place  any weight LOW and test for overturning in a bath (or similar) as it does lean dramatically in fast turns and did make me cringe the first few times!  My waterline is about half way up the hull.

I had mine with a water cooled ESC so there are marks/internal holes for installing water cooling inlet pipe adjacent to the rudder, and an outlet in the side of one of the hull sections.

Material used was PLA but noted some warping of the superstructure after a while so I increased the wall thickness, and would probably use ABS or similar if I did a similar model again (and could control warping whilst printing).

I have spent a while on it and getting a bit bored so moving on to other projects, thus there may be areas people wish to improve on or modify (the crane is very basic for a start, maybe some railings, decals, inflatable boat on the rear deck, etc).

Hope you enjoy the model.