The southwestern Ohio battlestations folks are planning to have a battle on the weekend of August 19-21 at the Treaty conference at the Xenia, Ohio battle site. We will certainly be able to drive the boats around for sea trials. But the plan is to actually have some battles. Currently, we have the Strasbourg, Tashkent, Mogador, and Scharnhorst under construction. There may also be a Kitikami in the works. Mikey
Interesting! Clearly I need to up my game, construction-wise! I won't be ready by then, but this is exciting! You guys need a designated cameraman(woman?) to film it so we can see it on youtube!
Hey Mikey I cant wait ! I will be there tto battle in Treaty but I am really getting excited about 96 also, just have not picked a ship yet. Some one bugged me about doing the South Dakota again. Buddy
I will try to be there, Mikey, but I won't have a boat ready. I finished the move to Indiana two weeks ago, but don't have a house yet. My family of 5 + dog is staying in my in-laws 600 sq ft cottage until we find a house. Needless to say, my ENTIRE garage is in storage, and I've no way to work on anything until we get a house... The good news is the cottage is on a lake, so I have a place to do test runs once I've finished a boat, I just won't be able to battle there. Carl
Carl Good to hear that you are back up this way. It will be great seeing you again. We have build-sessions at my boat shop almost every weekend. So drop in if you get a chance. But more importantly. Do come down for the battle next month. Bring any plans, and stuff you have for the boats that you are interested in. We might be able to schedule a session just to get your boat started. Mikey
Thanks, Mikey! It'll be good to see you again, too! I'm trying to narrow down my choices. Shimakaze is on the shelf right now, just to difficult for me with the weight limitiations. I'll finish it later. Right now I'm eyeing the following: - Graf Spee - Caio Duilio - Giulio Cesare - Capitani Romani - USS Atlanta The latter two might still be too aggressive for a first ship, as they still are a little tight on weight for all the guns they carry. The Graf Spee would probably be the easiest of the five, with fewer guns to complicate things. But the Caio Duilio and Giulio Cesare are so tempting, with so much firepower in such a small package. I'm open to advice, gang. Which ship of the above would be a good first ship for a rookie? Thanks, Carl
Honestly, the Graf Spee would be pretty simple to arm with two triple 7/32, and would be a great ship--powerful enough to do everything but slug it out with a BB. That said, the Capitani Romani was designed to deal with my boat (The Mogador) and there may be some cannons that would work for the bow guns available locally. They came out of the Italian heavy cruiser Bolzano. I have one set, and the other may be available---again, here I am helping out people who will be shooting at me....
All really interesting, and great boats. The Spee would be an easy (and fairly cheap) build. Arm the mains in the short term, and perhaps arm the torps down the road. The two Italian battleships are fairly similar. One class is listed as being one knot faster than the other. The other two are also kinda similar. Both have twin turrets (so the cannons that Dustin has would almost certainly fit right into the Italian), but would probably also fit well in the U.S. boat. And both could have torps if you decided to arm them later (or sooner). The little Italian would be the hardest to build, due to it's small size. But it could be done. The others would be fairly easy builds. Just a matter of obtaining cannons. So looking into the availability of the cannons might be a good starting point. All things considered. I would suggest that you build the one you like the most, as long as you can get the arms for it. And we can schedule a multiple-day build session to help you get things started. Mikey
The whole point of doing a 1:96 scale ship is that you can do things in the larger scale that just aren't possible in smaller scale. A pocket battleship is moderately challenging to build in 1:144 Big Gun, but entirely possible and one of the more common ships in the WWCC. Duilio and Guilio are both interesting, so long as you get enough guns into them, but you'd get better results with a Viribus Unitis. In fact, the Viribus Unitis is perfect for a 1:96 scale battleship; it has all the benefits it's got in 1:144 scale (maneuverability, small target area, densely packed guns) and enough room to really, truly arm all twelve guns. And possibly even some secondaries. It just doesn't get any better than that. If you must have a ship on that list, though, pick the Romani. It's got better speed and a more reasonable armament than the Atlanta class, in a similarly-sized package. The Atlanta has so many guns that trying to arm half of them would probably push the limits of 1:96 scale construction. Plus the quad torpedoes on the Romani class are those cool double-over-doubles, rather than the traditional in-line sets. Just imagine the kind of chunking you'd cause with those.
Kotori, I have several practical constraints driving my ship list: 1) I wanted boats under 78" in length for easy transport 2) I need to build it cheap. Right now every penny possible is going into savings for buying a new house. 3) Quick and easy to build 4) Weight over 12 lbs Because of (2) I want to use plans I already have, and that narrows my list. I had plans for a SoDak, but it's about 85" in 1/96, and breaks my length limit. And I don't have plans for a Viribus Unitis, so that one is off the table. But you've definitely piqued my interest, Kotori: I'll have to do that one in a future build! Both Dustin and Mikey have good points. I will definitely add torps later for the ships that have them. Not only is that cheaper now, but it gets me on the water more quickly. But they also helped me realize that I need to let cost drive the decision on turrets, too, and that I wasn't thinking about before. I can build the Graf Spee and just arm two turrets for now. With the Diulio and Cesare, I'd need to arm 4 turrets, two twins and two triples. The Capitani would need all four turrets armed as well,while on the Atlanta I'd have to arm 8 turrets. So I think the most economical choice right now will be the Graf Spee. Thanks, guys! You got me thinking in the right direction. The Graf Spee it is! Carl
Well no one says you have to arm / rotate all the turrets at first.... I am pretty sure a VU will be built by the west Ohio/east Indiana by the end of 2012. For the Graf Spee, you could also do three fixed, daisy chained Arizona cannons at the stern at first for about $100.
Hmm. You're right. I thought we had a rule that required all guns above a certain size to be armed, but I don't see it in the current ruleset. However, I think the Graf Spee will still be the best ship for me right now. A small boat with only a couple of her BB-sized turrets armed won't be much of a threat, and will have trouble defending herself... Carl
The rules say that they MAY be armed, not that they MUST. If you wanted to build an Iowa that only had 5" turrets armed, it'd be legal. Dogmeat, but legal.
A 1/4" round travels faster than a ship and eventually that Shimakaze will have to get close enough to shoot.
As a rookie, I'm sure I'll die fast enough w/o the extra help of having a nearly defenseless boat! Thanks, but no thanks! I'll stick with the Graf Spee for this year. Carl
As I have a predilection for either obscure old and slow or lightly armed and armored cruisers I ma sure I will be joining you on the bottom.
If plans is all that's preventing you from building a Viribus, I think that can be dealt with... If there's a will, there's a way...
