I am new to this and am wondering what are good classes or types of ships are best for beginners. I am most interested in the Soviet Kirov Class Cruisers, American Alaska Class Battlecruisers, Italian Littorio Class Battleships, and Polish Grom Class Destroyers. Also, any information on speed vs armament vs armor would be good for me to know what to go for. Any tips on where to find these kits and hulls would be great too, thanks!
www.strikemodels.com or www.battlersconnection.com for ships and other related parts. Find your local club first and then choose a ship based on the battles you will be involved in. Good luck J
You will be able to find fibreglass hulls for the Alaskas and Littorios, the other two are some what rare birds as Eastern European navies tend to be under represented. You would have to build those from plans. The Taubmans plans section of Loyalhannah Dockyard may have them. Make sure you get the right Kirov as the latest ones are too new for our rules. Happy building.
First off, decide which rules set you plan to build to. Whatever is local to you is probably best. Based upon that you can decide which ship you wish to build, the ones you mentioned are not the best for a beginner in fast gun. Marty
Ah! You mentioned the Polish Navy. I agree that more countries should be represented on the pond. But the real question is play ability. In BIG GUNS, the small ships have smaller guns and thinner armor! Also the smaller the ship the harder it is to arm and trim! I have the ORP Dragon and Blyskawica on my list of future builds. These ships are not easy builds. I have learned that from the FNS Mogador I have sitting here. She is sea (Pond) worthy, but she is unarmed! There is so little room and displacement to work with. I have had to keep going to smaller batteries to be able to add any armorment! She has been a REAL PAIN to work with. I also have an armed Liberty ship. (Combat ready) Because of the hull confinements, the cannon is over four inches out of place. I had to get a waiver to sail her! So getting back to your question, I agree with jadfer and warspiteIRC. Pick a rule set and find a club and go from there. You might want to visit several clubs with different rule sets just to see which one suit you best. If you have your heart set on smaller ships, you may want to look at the 1/72 scale clubs.
Thanks to all replies. I would like to play big gun for the realism, but I think there are more treaty groups around. I am just an admirer of the Russian builds from the time. The Kronshtadt/Kirov, etc. It would be nice if it were possible to get my hands on one of these. Any events coming up that I could check out? I live in the Columbus, OH area. Thanks again. -Kevan
You have treaty and fast gun groups near you! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buckeyebattlesquadron/?yguid=350307690 Fast gun http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TreatyCombat/?yguid=350307690 Treaty
If you live in the Columbus, Ohio area, then you are in a pretty nice location. There is a fast-gun club over in Heath/Newark, and Treaty has battle sites in Ravenna (Akron), and Xenia (East Dayton). Our next Treaty battle in scheduled for Oct 16-17 in Xenia. I think the Newark folks are planning a build-session on Oct 2. Mikey
If you have your heart set on a destroyer, then we are also trying to get a Battlestations group started. They are 96th scale. So it will probably be mostly cruisers and destroyers. Destroyers are buildable in 144th scale. But due to weight, and room limits in that scale, they are rather hard builds. Mikey
As was already mentioned in an earlier post.. Alaska, and Littorio are perhaps not great first boats for fast-gun. But as long as you have someone help with the build, they wouldn't be too bad. Kronstadt is not allowed in fast-gun, as she was not completed. Alaska, and Littorio are very nice boats in Treaty, as our speeds are based off of the ship's historical speeds. Kronstadt is also legal, and is a really great boat as well. She would be similar to the Alaska. Kirov would be a great cruiser in both formats. Mikey
