Hey, looking at poking at this hobby a bit, and trying to find local events to check out. I dabbled at this some years back with a buddy, and we both tried to build German destroyers out of wood, but neither of us were exactly great woodworkers, and somehow by the end we'd both managed to get some significant warp in the keels and sort of put the whole affair aside. Thankfully, 3d printing has come a long ways, and I have the good fortune to have a modestly sized print farm of X1Cs, so this time around I can just print hulls. Found a pretty good liberty ship plan in 1:144 on Thingiverse, that should finish up printing tonight for assembly this weekend. I'll need to carve holes in the hull for damageable area, but that should be pretty doable once everything's functional. I did also see a fairly detailed St. Louis print, and a number of other print that required more intense conversion/rescaling/detail work. If anyone has suggestions for solid prints for getting started, always appreciated. It looks as if there's a big gun club nearish, popped on the facebook, but don't see much in the way of events. If ya'll know of any, by all means, let me know.
Being in Maryland you have your pick of fast or big gun. There are a lot of captains around you too. I am in PA, along with a few others, there are several in NJ, a few in MD, and a couple in VA. Will runs the South Jersey Shipyards. Ive sent him a few of my designs to convert to combat. There are a few free designs for combat use available on the site. I would recommend buying a ship kit first before you start designing your own hull from scratch specifically for combat use. A LOT of planning needs to go in to the hull and that knowledge comes from experience. I say this as someone who has designed and printed many ships that were never quite right and I did not have the skills to MAKE them right.
Big gun in practice doesn't really exist on the east coast. Fast Gun? You're in prime territory. We are having a build session in Annapolis tomorrow, and I will be there with a bunch of South Jersey Shipyards kits to show off and deliver to eagerly awaiting captains. @darkapollo hit the nail on the head. Trying to design a ship without really knowing what the hobby is like is like trying to design every aspect of a car, having never seen or driven in one. Having never seen a combustion engine. Etc. Like trying to print a solid-sided hull to then cut out. I can tell you that will be a lesson in frustration and wasted plastic. I don't and won't share my kit files, I provide a lot of stuff on the forum for free for the hobby (and anyone who knows me knows that I'll do whatever I can to help someone out). My kits are as beginner friendly as you can get in this hobby. And I have some prototype hulls that are serviceable but otherwise not-production floating around the garage that I could probably let go for cheap/basically free.
Aw, I appreciate it, but wasn't able to make this. Is there a schedule of local events somewhere? I would love to pop out and get a feel for things.
Pasadena, so not a horrible drive away, could pop by for a little bit tonight, I suppose. Hit me with the when/where, and I'll try to stop by.
