Hi everyone im new here as you can see. i live on the central coast of california and im finally making a push into the hobby that has had me spell bound since i was 8 now im 22 have a full time job (truckin) and eager to build FINALLY!!! im working on the plans to my tennessee class battleship (1941) as my first ship that i had bought quite a long time ago off of ebay. i decided on big gun the WWCC rule set. i can see this will be a challenging endevour but one i can handle and slowly figure out. i was curious has anyone else built a Pre war tennessee or california? also i have a huge amount of construction questions that i have been thinking about but i leave that until later. im sorry alittle excited if it comes off as alittle bit much
Welcome! Where about in Central coast? I'm apart of the WWCC. We actually have a California in the club if I am not mistaken though it was not seen this season as the captain was busy with school! Here is our website if you haven't seen it yet: http://www.westernwarshipcombat.com It looks like our event calendar has not been updated just yet but should be soon. Jon
I'm near Stockton, considering going ahead with the frame I built for my post-refit California. It's been a while since I was in the hobby, but things are changing in my life, and I might go ahead with this. I need reliable cannon at a decent price. (home built? I might.....)
First off nice to meet you and thank you for responding. i live down by san luis obispo iv extensively read up on the clubs web site, rules etc. i m really gonna need help on electrical and weapon systems so i figured i better start making friends with the club members now not later haha
well you have come to the right place! Shoot me a pm on here with your email. I'll try to find the electrical diagram and gun diagram one of our guys by the name of Ben L. put together. It really simplifies it. Also I believe we may be having a build session coming up and that would be a great hands on learning of the systems and general construction. Jon
sorry for double posting i thought about building a post refit cali for the extra room. but something about them cage masts with "fighting tops" have always caught my eye i want to scratch build a wooden hull since i have access to wide amount of tools. really how durable are wooden hulls? and really what are the benefits from more or less ribs? whats the general consensus on this
Ahoy Rubberduck, welcome aboard! The WWCC is a great bunch of guys. I played with them for years. Lots of knowledge there, especially about wooden scratchbuilding. You'll find that wooden hulls are extremely durable if you build them right. Numbers and spacing on ribs is mostly a personal preference. Different people will give you widely varying reasons why they chose their rib spacing, but in general battleships are built with 3/8" ribs and 3 inch spacing.
ah interesting i am currently drawing up a mix 1/8" in the bow and stern then 1/4" amidships i felt like that would provide more of a tooth for sheeting the hull and creating more of a "solid area" because of the smaller gaps. but i just dont know how easily those ball bearings chew up the ribs so il change that if that isnt a good idea kotori :blink: very nice to meet you by the way thank you for posting
My suggestion is go with 1/4" or 3/8" ribs for 2 reasons, 1) mixing rib thickness means having to buy 2 different thicknesses of wood and 2) I found I did not like working with the 1/8" ribs when I was working on my Tirpitz hull (which has been mothballed) they were to flimsy for me personally. But like Kotori said rib thickness is a personal preference thing.
I had an H-39 that I built with 1/4" ribs at 2" spacing center on, except for the stern. The tail,end of the thing had some heavy curves, and it wanted some structure behind the skin. I also wanted ball bearings coming in at an angle to tear things up too bad. I went with 1/8" at 1" centers. I think the depth of the ribs was 1/2". I was able to get good skinning results and the rib density stopped tearing holes when being chased. Never lost a rib. I guess the epoxy helped with that.
