What is the difference between big guns and fast guns? Can the same type of ship be used for both or are you limited to certain types?
Well big gun ships use different caliber guns. All small gun (aka fast gun) ships use BB guns (.177 cal), and use a system of units to determine how many guns a ship can have. Big gun ships use 4 different sizes ranging from .177 to .250 (1/4" ball bearings) and may arm any main and secondary guns they can fit in. Big gun ships also have a much slower rate of fire then small gun ships. Big gun ships also have different hull thicknesses based on the armor of the original ship. Small gun ships have uniformly 1/32" balsa. I think big gun ships have restricted rate of flow for pumps as well. I'm kinda hazy on a lot of big gun stuff as that's not my chosen format. Someone, Justin Scott I believe it was (not sure), was experimenting with quick change gun systems which would allow the big gun and small gun "weapon modules" for lack of a better term to be swapped out to make changing between formats with the same ship easier. Running a small gun ship slowed down to big gun speeds is LEGAL but that's not to say ADVISABLE. Big gun ships are not at all legal for small gun use. If I was looking to run both small and big gun, I think what I'd look at is a large, fast heavy cruiser such as a Mogami or Takao. I'd arm her with two stern small gun cannons and arm the torpedo tubes. When running big gun, you'd still be able to use your small gun stern cannons, you'd just have to watch your rate of fire. Your torps would be your main battery anyways. When running small gun, you'd simply not load your torpedo tubes, and run as every other heavy cruiser out there. Since you'd be in a cruiser with nearly no armor, I think your hull sheeting would be legal anyways.
Are all big guns in 1/96 scale? I was planning on building a fletcher class destroyer in 1/96 scale and two Des Moines in 1/144 scale. (My girlfriend is helping me with one of the des moines. she wants to try it) I would like to arm the torpedo tubes in the fletcher so I guess it would have to be Big guns but was just wondering if anyone runs 1/144 as big guns.
I'm technically physically in New England only for just over another month before heading into the territory of the MABG, but I thought I'd jump in here and answer. There's 1/144 Big Gun and there's 1/96 Battlestations "Big Gun" to my knowledge. I'm not quite certain if Queen's Own would be best described as Big Gun or something else altogether.
Most big gun ships are 1/144 scale. The Battlestations group is trying to get 1/96 big gun off the ground.
All true Big Gun ships are in 1/144 scale. Battlestations is very, very similar to Big Gun and operates in 1/96 scale. The Queen's Own is an interesting hybrid between Fast Gun and Big Gun that operates in 1/72 scale.
