My concern is that as this superstructure you have made is amazing and looks great.. it WILL take damage. My Baden has taken serious shelling to ALL decks but as it is all wood.. no serious damage was taken except to the tripod mast where fiberglass decks have pretty much been broken repeatedly.. even though they sit well above the ship. As I have no 3d printer, and am not building a static model, I would prefer a way to make the parts from wood so they wont break. My other concern is once again, while its a beautiful piece of work, if I plan to battle the ship.. (and with no way to replace parts except to re-purchase at an unknown cost... ) I still have to pay for this SS even if I plan to build the SS out of wood. I understand you have a time investment on this as others but unless the SS is going to be $10 .. I doubt anyone that battles regularly will battle with it. As a static model.. fantastic... as a model warship combat ship... an expensive option. Releasing the files allows users to borrow a printer and get affordable replacements. Just an idea.
Johnny, if you yourself have a piece break in combat that I haven't put a half-dozen spares for in the box, take some photos so I can stare at the failure mode and I will personally ship you multiple replacements on my own dime. **Note to everyone else: I didn't actually ship the kits with much for spares. Why not? Because printing parts just to complete all the kits is a huge time sink. Also, because I decided to provide the STL files so you can print your own, as a lot of you have printers or have access to them. If bought a kit and you end up needing spares and don't have access to a printer of your own or through someone local to you, please contact me and we'll work something out.
My main concern is shipping. Then having to pay for shipping again when stuff breaks and I've run out of spares.
Alright, I need an opinion. The kit is designed around the new style traxxas gearbox with metal plate. To use the gearbox you need to buy the set (2 gearbox one joined metal plates), cut the plate in half, and use one of the gearboxes leaving you one spare. I would prefer to generally leave this up to the purchasers to procure on their own as it may significantly alter the shipping box size (up to a higher shipping cost bracket) if I include it. So the big question: How many are comfortable doing this work themselves vs how many would need it included in the kit?
I don't need it. I already have them.. .no point in buying from Tower and marking it up. Will the BC gearbox work? If so then you are leaving folks some choices.
the mount points for the traxxas gearbox are designed in to make it easy. No reason another gearbox would not work but you will have to mount it yourself.
This! If nick is cool with it, I will make molds of the pieces that will be abused the most (no 3-d printer for me). Pieces are for my own consumption, not to be sold to anyone else.
We obviously need some destructive testing to happen. If Nick was willing to release one or two parts, I'd be willing to print them in various materials and shoot at them (for science!) Maybe the aft bridge or a funnel?
Why is everyone acting like 3D printed superstructures haven't been around for a couple of years and been shot at plenty?
Most likely because there are no good pictures, on these forums, of a 3d printed superstructure that's been through multiple battles. Please prove me wrong by providing examples : P Added 2016/12/4 - Rcengr pointed out that there are some pics in this thread: https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/3dp-damage-tolerance.443915/
MMmmm... I did destructive testing years ago* (there's an article in the old TF144 on it, with pics and discussion of failure points and modes of failure), and we've had several battlewagons down south go a couple of years (not cruisers, real sluggers) without losing SS parts. If your 3D printing is weak, it's probably not the material that's to blame... ABS is really tough stuff. If you want an example provided, spill a box of Legos on the floor, and walk thru barefoot in the dark to see how many you crush underfoot Seriously. To suggest that 3D printed ABS is somehow too weak for combat is outright trolling at this point. We have multiple superstructures, and not just multiple cannons, but multiple types of cannons, in use from east coast to west, buy multiple designers and printers. *At a range of 6-12". I took a full-on ricochet to the nuts for this.
I know, Tugboat. I've read it and I'm a proponent of 3D printing. I'm not trolling. I'm just trying to get you to post up pictures of how the the superstructure parts stood up under real battle conditions : P
Hey, I play with toy boats, thats funny sh.t. Thank you for your dedication Tuggy, I greatly appreciate your sacrifice for the rest of us and I bow to the master!
