This is a thread for origins. I got into this hobby about 8 or 9 uh 10ish years ago, when I found it by stumbling across some stuff on the internet. Maybe it was the WWCC guys or maybe it was somebody else, I don't remember anymore. I also ran into the early days of this site (a great idea Justin!) Eventually I got in contact with my local group and met Phil. Phil loaned me my first ship the heavy cruiser Suffren. At that time the local group had gotten quiet. Very little battling was happening but I wanted to show up and battle and Phil as well. Slowly we had more people showing up. After that I met Hovey. Hovey was the one who convinced me that a battle cruiser was a fantastic idea. From there I bought a derfflinger hull from Bob and spent another year building it. I also learnt a lot about how to build simple and solid reliable systems from Hovey. From there the collection of hulls and half-finished projects has only grown. Clark got me hooked on 3d printing a few years ago. Greg keeps me mentally engaged with new ideas and cleverly engineered devices. In summation I blame all of you, because all of you together make this a great community to be a part of. Enablers. So how did you get here and who can you blame?
...I was born a poor...* 1991 I picked up a copy of US BOAT &SHIP MODELER magazine. I was in the reserves at that time. Then Desert Storm, family job changes, moving. Built First boat in 1998 more of life getting in the way until finally going to a battle in Lansing MI in 2010. *for those not the age of dirt look up first scene of The Jerk 1979, Steve Martin
I got into this on or around 1999. I blame the old Frank Pittelli list. Built an Iboat in my dorm room at the time. stuck around till grad school then left for a while, battled then moved to utah sold everything to nick, then ended up back in seattle.
Let's see... it all started one afternoon in December, 2002. Walking home from school one day, my idiot brother Gascan mentioned the idea of RC combat sports. battlebots, airplanes, boats, tanks, etc. He then did a google search. He saw pictures of airplanes with long paper streamers (boring!), laser tag tanks (lame!), and one pretty picture of two battleships, bumper-to-bumper, with a massive eruption of water between them (cool!). This was the long-time front page picture from Battler's Connection. A week of google-fu later, he had contacted the local club (WWCC), and one summer job later I bought/overhauled my first battleship, which saw action in 2004. Fifteen years and over 100 projects later, I regret just one thing. Why haven't I built EVEN MORE ships?
I saw something with battling ships on public programming TV. It mentioned IRCWCC which led me on internet searches. I then found D.W. Fluegel who was the closest contact. He lived (lives) less than 3mi from my parents. This was around spring 2003. I rode my bicycle over to his house and he showed me his snazzy Baden that was getting a planked deck. He was extremely congenial and informed me of the different play styles (Fast/Big Gun). We had a nice long chat and he said I should check out the very active local Big Gun guys (NTXBG) to see if that style interested me. I hooked up with them (NTXBG) at Huffhines Park in Richardson, TX, and the rest is history. I drove loaner Liberty ships every battle for about a year. John Mianowski was the backbone of the club and I helped build a Cimarron and an Altmarck. I drove one of those regularly after that. I refitted an Aussie built Dunkerque in 2004 and battled it just a couple times before I left for bootcamp in March 2005. I have been back to visit Fluegel a couple times. Great conversation and profuse thanks for being such a good ambassador. I have now battled with SCRAP, WWCC, NTXBG, IRCWCC, and a great group of fellas from the South East (MWCI/IRCWCC). All thanks to the US Navy shuffling me around and the great start in the hobby.
I found this crazy hobby at a hobby expo while looking for RC jets in 1986 or 87 after talking to the founders of WWCC I put all my planes up for sale the next day. I have played with and against Queens Own, SCBG, Central California Combat Club and PMWC currently. Dan R. helped arm my first boat, Lutzow in 1/144 with four fixed guns that could not shoot through a wet paper bag, but I still had fun getting sunk every battle.
Started in 1982 with a copy of "Scale ship modeler" (out of print a couple of years later), Stan Watkins bought a Add that stated: Model Warship Combat a Reality, contact PO box, send in 5$ and you get the rules and info. I did, so I blame Stan. Ordered Mark IX gun from Stan and Hullbusters from Fuegel, gun took forever to come , Hullbusters came in a week. Gun really sucked big time, O ring was a beach to tweek, powered by freon 22 with needle valve to pressure the gun, it may fire or it may not just keep working at adjusting the O ring (crap). Invented the "Geek" gun then (I just could not go to war with a MK IX), it looked like what we use now but a ell in place of a tee, and no piston, with 5/32 winshield washer tubing for the restrictor. Pumps at that time were made with plumbing PVC caps and a penny with a whole drilled through the nose and vanes soldered on the penny and the penny soldered to the motor shaft. The service life of a typical pump at that time was 5 minutes, not good. I bought a very used Atlas 6" lathe and started to cut pumps and make impellers, "Camurati pump" was born, sold them for $15 at the time, and many had dry pants because of them. The masses started to think that the damage to boats was getting excessive (I did not) and a quest was started to invent a reliable single shot gun. I replaced the Ell with a Tee and piston and the current single shot gun was born, rate of fire was reduced and power went up. And Yes it is a wonderful hobby.
I believe in 2006 I saw Kotori87's videos on youtube. I bought a used Japanese big gun ship that got really smashed up in shipping and never took the time to fix it. Fast forward to 2016 and I decided it was time to get a ship going after seeing video from the Bay Area Maker Faire.
This is where it all started for me: of course I didn't actually get to participate until around 2008 or so...
1998, back of a magazine ad by Swampy. Got a Hipper hull from NABS (Ralph) and found a few local guys in Atlanta. Met Bart Purvis and the rest was history (Baxley GA battles were the best). Lou
In the 80's while in the Navy, picked up a model boating mag that had an article on the hobby. Stuck in the back of my head until I ran across the hobby again in the mid 90's when the internet came online (Alta Vista search probably). Went to a few MAG meetings at Frank's place and they gave me an old cruiser to rehab. Started on that but fell into the tank hobby for a decade or so. Anyhoo, dropped the old cruiser hull and started on a Mogador and got that battling after an extended build time. A year or two later, up at Frank's one evening working on tanks and he gave me an uncut QE hull. A couples years building that and today, I've got a Barham on the water.
Back in 2012 saw one of Kotori's YouTube videos (The Bottom Line I think) and thought it was pretty cool. Did some research and was kind of turned off by the price (read accounts of needing a $200 radio) but finally decided to build a hull and worry about the expensive stuff later. Found this site and decided to build a Suffren class cruiser. Found a leftover piece of luan plywood and with an old jigsaw started cutting out the ribs. Slowly worked on getting the Suffren built with all you guys help, but it was discouraging and I was losing interest in getting her finished. Then in 2014 I saw a post on the RC Tank Combat list by Steve saying there was going to be a battle in Gettysburg with some extra assets to run and I thought that would be fun so I contacted Steve about going. Had a great time and was encouraged to finish my cruiser (plus build an artillery piece for RCTC*) Finally in 2015 finished the Suffren and made my first battle. Been hooked ever since. I guess I can blame Kotori, but it was really all of you. Great group of guys (and gals) in this hobby. *That artillery piece turned out to be the most feared in rc tank combat history, just ask Steve.
In 01 going to school in Tulsa at Spartan school of aero. we had to do some kind of report and a local guy going their at the time did his on rc warship combat. I definitely wanted in on the fun, but assumed it was much more expensive than it actually was. well 15 years later I finished paying on the home and figured the money going to it could now be used for a hobby. and while I haven't battled yet my alaska will be finished any day and I've gotten more satisfaction from building it than I could've with anything else I'm capable of doing. Seth EASTON
Had to look at the Most Fear Allied Captain trophy to figure it out, but my first battle was Nats in 2003 (I had thought it was 2004, but the Most feared Allied Captain in 2003 was Ming in the Musashi, which I was present for, so it was a unique year). I found the hobby back in 2001 (age 13) probably after messing around with RC cars for a bit, like Kotori I googled 'RC combat' one day and saw the boring airplanes with streamers, and then found the IRCWCC and swampworks (super cool!). After a year or so I saved up enough money from my paper route to buy a hull, bought an Espana from Ralph Coles, and my dad drove me down to Don Fisher's house about an hour and a half away to check out his workshop. Over the winter I built the boat on my own with occasional guidance from my dad (woodworker), using 'The building of the derflinger' by Tom T and reading the emails on the Pittelli page. The first Nats didn't go so great, but the overwhelming support from all of the captains to keep my boat on the water and the camaraderie after the battles had me hooked. Since that time I battled on and off as school and the Navy allowed, fortunately for the past year and a half I have been able to build and battle a lot, and continue my time in the hobby with a great group of people.
Those were the magazines that got me interested and finally hooked. Loved looking at the pics and reading the articles. The descriptions of the battles really got me into it.
I found out about it in 1987 in a model boat magazine . Then came those ads from Skunkworks of the kits. In between that my good buddy Paul March had introduced me to a tape by Fluegeul describing how to build these ships . With that he built for me the Tenryu and he built the Graf Spee. His was our first firing model ship and it had a pump that was ripped out of a water pistol. The entire ship was made of balsa. In 1993 I ordered my first combat ship kit with a gun package and stuff. The rest is history.
Back in 1982, I saw an article in Scale Ship Modeller about how to build a New Orleans Cruiser and get into the game. Rick Schultz and I each built one and I went to my first battle in New Jersey, Then went to Nationals in 1983. Have not missed a Nationals since.
