Awesome, so dont have to worry about props. Looks like brushless has become more popular reading through the forums since i last battled. Dont know much about brushless, will have to do more reading. Haha yeah wouldnt want to damage drive trains, but i imagine it was a hoot to run your ship at 100%. Gotcha. Yeah the vid where i thought i saw a kaiser was the nats 2025 vids on the ircwcc site. Man such a good looking ship, and as reno mentioned that dual haymakers sounds like fun. But also VDT is a good looking ship and 26 seconds. I remember a GLAS battle i went to and craig’s baden (or bayern?) was the only 28 second boat in a battle of 23-24 sec ships and he commented how everyone (including me in my helena) was just staying away from him and it was getting boring lol.
it is boring right up until everybody decides to jump you, lol I had a rather hilarious incident with Texas in NATS 2022 where I was yelled at to protect one of our carriers, and I looked over and it was under attack by Tyler's Yamato. Decisions were made. As I was limping away, Two Nagatos showed up and stole my lunch money. literally rammed Texas up onto a stick and impaled it. But yeah so Brushless is the way to go. a lot of us on the east coast use the 1250 and 2400kV Tenshok brushless inrunners. Why? because we can rebuild them! the motors can be popped open and the bearings replaced. then we drill out a hole in the top so we can shoot them full of WD40 to keep them running. they can be kept operational for YEARS like this, even with heavy use. just keep them oiled and replace the bearings every once in a while.
Yeah, I imagine once someone DOES approach you with a good captain theyll be in a lot of hurt. For a couple battling seasons though im sure ill get holes haha. Ooooof a pair of Nagatos, thats vicious. Nagato is another beauty, but I briefly ran a NC, and a 6 unit BB was a little too much ship for me, hence looking at a class 4 BC/bb. Yeah when i was in the rc airplane world 10 years ago brushless is universally used over brushed now too. Running years without a full motor replacement would be nice too. Also on further reading, looks like lipos are more popular now too? I have 7.4v life batteries
BC is effectively out of business which is a shame. The brushless motors have become very reliable if you take care of them. I don't even change the bearings anymore until they go bad but I agree with filling the cases full of corrosion x or similar after battle. The BL10 speed controllers are robust but they really only stay happy with 1 esc per motor. Brushed still works fine too, just throw the motor away at the end of every season. Still hose them down with corrosion x but they don't have rebuildable internals so once they squeal toss em.
Yeah despite the same length of the boats, that widened beam on the Kaiser would definitely help with construction space. Very sad to hear about BC. I was wondering if they were going out of business too as their webpage no longer has the larger collection of combat gear electronic, and seems like their cannon page is empty now. I'm assuming there isn't really a source of premade cannons currently (I should be good though, I have more than enough leftover strike cannons and a spare BC cannon for a build). For the XT30 gun boards on SJS, I'm assuming you can have 2 guns per board based on the picture of the board, so to run a VDT or Kaiser I'd need 2 boards for the 3 guns?
I would say not matter what ultimately build which ship you like the best. But as I’ve had 24-28 second boats I do think a 26 sec is an awesome all around boat with a good neutral mix. My Malaya has been an awesome ship from jersey shipyards at 26sec. I have a vdt I built from there kit as well I haven’t battled it much myself but I let Ronnie borrow it for a couple battles at nats this year and it performed well for him running there suggested setup with his guns. you will be happy with ether but I’m just in love with the way the vdt looks myself it’s a cool looking boat.
Just placed an order at SJS for a VDT. Also added pump board, brushed esc, pump housing, and 2 firing boards to the order. Plan to make this build brushed since that's what I have with my old strike drive kit. Thanks for the advice all. Greatly appreciate the help and insight from everyone. I was very torn at the end between the VDT or Kaiser (Initially was focused on "min/maxing" speed, hence considering only 24 or 28 sec boat initially, so thank you anvil for bringing her up). Kaiser’s dual haymakers and single shaft was really appealing for me, but in the end I feel I prefer that 26 second speed. VDT feels like a nice compromise between a Tiger and the Kaiser. In any case I have enough leftover cannons for a Kaiser or 28 sec ship in the further future. Love the VDT's look and history at Jutland. Somewhat similar looks to the Moltke which I had considered for my first ship back in 2017 when I briefly dabbled in this hobby. Funny enough Vicious I was looking at your VDT build minutes before I placed my order to see if there were any equipment I didn't have that I could bundle with my VDT order. Absolutely love that camo. Once kit arrives and I'm ready to build I'll start a build thread. Will be asking lots of questions. Next step is to obtain epoxy and building supplies. Have transmitter and receivers, LiFe batteries still good. Will use the strike solenoids that the Tennessee cannon kit came with.
Hi there, I'm the infamous Will of "Will from SJS" fame. I saw your order. Working on getting things set up with a new primary hull production printer. It did a fine job on the first 2 pieces of your hull, will get the other 2 pieces done asap. Newly married, newly promoted, have had a bit of a rough summer busy-level wise, you can ask @Renodemona who's still waiting on an order from me that I feel like I've said is "going to ship out monday" like 3 or 4 times now. I am just about caught up with only his order in the backlog and it only having about 2 hours of hardware assembly left before it can leave. I was hoping to have it boxed and out for UPS, but two very young kittens decided my face was a fun trampoline all last night and I am completely spent for today. The VDT kit comes with gearboxes for main drive, depending on your voltage and motor choice you'll need to pick up some gears for it. I suggest starting at a 1.5:1 ratio and adjusting up/down from there, I have suggested part numbers on the SJS website in the "Ship kit details" section. If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to reach out to me here, via email, or on the RC Warship Combat discord channel (discord being the fastest/most reliable way to get me.) -WT
I'm just having the full "Italian Navy" Experience @bsgkid117 VDT is a great all around ship, good to start with, good to be experienced in.
Hey Will!! Nice to speak to the one and only who runs SJS. Really glad SJS exists to continue to provide kits since strike and sadly now BC is potentially out of business. Appreciate the updates, no worries, was anticipating 1-2 months to receive my kit. Have cruisers ready to battle (at least on the bench they work) so no rush. Congrats on getting married; im no stranger to life getting in the way, hence my 4 year hiatus from the hobby. Good to know about the gears. Will listen to the veterans and use 1.5 ratio to start. I plan to use 550 brushed motors and 6v. Might be a little outdated but my cruisers all use this (except 365 motor can for my brooklyn class). Ill have to check what traxxas gears my tennessee drive kit has. Might be able to use them if they have the proper ratio. As an aside, @bsgkid117 I noticed today reading your vendor page thread you potentially will release a renown? I know its a single rudder 66” ship, so not a combat star, but Id be interested in it as a future 4.5u ship after a VDT. Looks even greater than a tiger or a kaiser. Would have enough cannons after a VDT to complete a 4.5u ship. After a VDT i probably wouldnt mind having a less combat effective ship for fun. Yeah, von der tann seems the most beginner friendly from my initial list, cant wait to get started on her! Will definitely ask questions for you will and reno
We do have a WW2 renown kit that's been "almost ready" for a while. We are a little behind some kits in terms of superstructure work so before I would get renown ready to go I would want to get that work taken care of. We also have SMS Mackensen, not sure if you saw it on the site. Mackensen is a very good looking boat, has the potential to be very competitive, and is the first true 5 unit battle cruiser in the hobby. 24s, casemates but not difficult to sheet, dual rudders. In terms of build difficulty, she's no more difficult than a VDT (in some ways, she's easier), just 1 more gun. Physically quite larger though, so you have to be able to transport a 61" long ship. I'm not a WW1 German fan but Mackensen is very good looking to me.
Ah perfect. Any second ship i build will be well after vdt so no rush in that department too. Figure renown would be a unique ship on the water. Was thinking of a tiger or kaiser for later build until i saw renown is on pipeline. With a VDT to have to battle, wouldnt mind a second sidemount ship that is less competitive Yeah saw the Mackensen too, definitely a beautiful ship and twin rudders and casements could make for a good battling ship. Sadly SCRAP fights under the old MWC rules, and doesnt seem legal on SCRAPs ship list. That Mackensen in the picture looks gorgeous. I actually slightly prefer ww2 ships but a lot of ww1 ships like ze german bb’s and bc’s and tiger are great looking as well. Just checked: if i remove the rear seat and move the front seat forward, with some creative diagonal positioning I can theoretically fit a 70” ship in my jeep. Renown should be good. Times like this i almost wish i got a 4 door wrangler. Worst case i borrow my brothers car haha.
Ahhh, I didn't realize your location and that SCRAP might not follow IRCWCC rules, otherwise Mackensen would've been a good fit for you! That's too bad.
Question: I have x1 life 6.4V 20AH prismatic battery pack, and x2 life 6.4 15AH cylindrical cell battery packs. SCAP combat rules do not allow for battery changes between sorties for class 4 and over. For the VDT, would a 15AH life battery be sufficient for 2 sorties? I used the 15AH batteries for my cruisers and they did last 2 sorties with no issues in past battles.
I think you can but it's on the light end. 2x 6v 10Ah NiMH packs is about the lowest I'd go. 3 2S 8000mah packs would be ideal
Yeah man, Neal's boat looks awesome in person. definitely hit him up for VDT specific stuff because he did an excellent job with his. oh also, somewhere Will put up a whole list of boats he wants to eventually make available. it takes a lot of time for each kit (for obvs reasons, lol), but the list will expand for sure. Plus every once in a while, a weirdo like me will dump a year or more into a hull for their own lunatic schemes and give Will the hull form to make his complicated life a tad easier. But None Of You Hosers Are Getting Dale Earnhardt's Custom Superstructure lololololol
