Ok so it has clearly been a while since this was thought of. Few questions: 1) is there any interest in getting this going again? 2) has anyone done anything towards this? (I assume no) 3) what are the biggest obstacles in having this organization? I like the idea of this personally, because I am envious of the fast gun organizations number and unity (at least on the surface).
not much has been done due to lack of interest. Most folks are more likely to join Fast Gun due to public, easy availability of cannons. Unfortunately folks these days just don't know how to make Big Gun cannons anymore. I am slowly pulling together a 3d-printable Big Gun cannon, as are others, but at this time nothing is ready for production. It's sad, really. I much prefer Big Gun. I have a whole fleet of Big Gun ships. But since there aren't any Big Gun battlers around, I have little choice in the matter. Any battling is better than none.
Last statement is very true. I’m very tempted to get a fast gun ship just to have something to play with. I just love rotating turrets to much.
I'll have to see about refitting my Big Gun fleet, maybe bring some of those to the October battle in Georgia.
No Georgia is not ridiculously far from depending on location. Who is battling and where? (I assume it’s fastgun)
Southeast Attack Squadron (SAS) in Statesboro. It's a two-day event on the 12th-13th, so I usually drive down the first day, stay at a hotel, then head home the next day.
I would love if Bug Gun got going again as I like the idea of having rotating cannons, but being in Canada everything is so far.
We have a 3d printed rotating turrets (not field tested) for 1/144 treaty and a few design ideas in different stages.
I like the idea of treaty, I think. I’m not 100% clear on rules. But then again I do love my 1/4” ball bearing cannons lol
Then go to battlestations plenty of room to put in 1/4 rotates and all secondaries plus torps.I have a mogadore with a quad rotating torpedo in the center plus primary weapons
I got bored while waiting for this hurricane to pass so I drew up some basic Big Gun cannons in Fusion 360. The test cannon is printing right now, with a few necessary fittings and bits on order. I should have something ready for testing as soon as the fittings arrive, in about a week. As much as I appreciate the incredible engineering I've seen in other 3d-printed cannons, they fail to deliver on the most important aspect - easy manufacturing of general-purpose cannons for the whole hobby. It's great that an experienced engineer can 3d-print a negative-pressure cannister cannon with built in bearings and servo mount, or use exotic plastics and CNC'd aluminum accumulators that can withstand unregulated CO2 pressures without rupturing. But few of those designs got past the prototype stage, and none have seen use in more than a single ship. BDE had the right idea: a general-purpose cannon that can be used in most ships is good enough to keep the hobby alive and growing.
I have often wondered about making templates to use with a pattern bit router. The angled feed tubes would need some kind of special drilling jig, or could be cut with a router if they were stair-stepped. There are plenty of cheap attachments to turn a dremel, or foredom, into a small, precision router, No fuss, no lathe, or no mill required. It's the bearings and and valves that I can't wrap my mind around as far as manufacturing.
Is Big Gun still around? Just moved back to SoCal. Was one of the early members of South Coast Battle Group back in the late 80's early 90's with J.C. White and Dean McWilliams. My capital ship was the HMS Repulse and I also ran the HSK Michel, B110, USS Benson. Would love to know what happened to my Repulse, but alas it is what it is. Still have a lot of my old kit and was building a couple of ships to run up in Northern Cali, but as with all things life got in the way, but I'm back and looking to get back into the game. I'm up in the Lake Arrowhead area, so not that far from Prado Dam where we ran our boats back in the day. Still have all the old drawings, plans and diagrams, etc., etc., for building Big Gun systems, although I'm sure things have progressed technology wise in the last ten/twenty years.
Hello from the WWCC! We are still alive, we had an informal event last Saturday. We have a Repulse with @NukeBoom235 but I don't think it is the same one though. I know there is a SoCal Fast Gun group, but I'm not sure about South Coast although people have talked about starting it up every now and then, but I don't know if it ever happened. If it does get started back up that would be great. There are also clubs in Texas and Virginia, not sure about them though. We've also been doing more with 3D printed Guns and even ships. BigGunJeff is the expert at that. Z Boat has also developed functional submarines as well as reloading torpedoes (we allow only 3 torps per side but reloading). The submarines shoot bullets, with the I-400 having 4 tubes. Torpedoes fire every 30 seconds and allow 30 rounds per ship I think? Some members in our club have also advocated for 2 second rate of fire for BB guns, I think that's passed, but I'm not exactly sure. Welcome back!
Nibbles, I'd love to see the South Coast Battle Group resurrected and back in play. Not even sure how we'd go about that, especially considering all the restrictions we have to deal with today because of the WuFlu.