hello all new to the forum and to rc naval combat and i am looking to build a fast gun rule set iowa class ship i was wondering if anyone had a laser ready plan set i can purchase or if someone can point me to the way to get paper plans into a dx format for the cutters thx jim
Building an Iowa or other very large ship for your first one is not a good idea. Most vets don't do those ships. It's like becoming an Ice Road Trucker before you get your drivers license. Start with a cruiser or smaller battle cruiser.
I don't think you will find a dxf file in that is usable to build a ship for RC Naval Combat. Our rib spacing and scale is unique so it is unlikely that what you want exists. You may find someone that has developed a 3D model of an Iowa, but you will have to do some CAD work to get the rib profiles that you need. So if you want to do an Iowa, buy the fiberglass hull, it will be cheaper. If you want to do it on the cheap, or just like working with wood, download the free plans of the New Jersey from hnsa.org and cut it out by hand.
It would be difficult at best to talk someone into generating a dxf file of the Iowa for you. The sheer hours involved are mind-boggling. If you put a value on your time at all, buying a fiberglass hull, or cutting one from wood are FAR cheaper. Not even counting the cost of getting the laser cutting done.
first off thank you all for the speedy replys i knew it was unlikely that i would find the files but it was worth a shot i can cut them by hand just time i could spend elsewhere . as far as building a cruiser or something smaller than the iowa im not sure i understand the logic, if it is the modeling i do have a lot of experience there just not recently. i used to have a 48 inch biwing plane i built from a kit and i have built 2 fairly large planes from plans and raw balsa and plywood so i have an idea of what it will be like . the thought of spending a lot of time building a boat as a trainer doesnt seem to make a lot of sense either as i would have to relearn on the bigger ship and if its the expense i would rather spend the money on something i would enjoy building well there i go rambling please reply with your reasoning for the smaller project first one more thing it seems to me that it would be easier to build a larger boat due to how confined the hulls are when loaded with the gas systems and propulsion i truly do appreciate the replys and the recomendations i would just like to understand the reasoning behind them you all have a lot of experience in the hobby i spent most of the day reading posts here yesterday and i am impressed with your knowledge as well as your intelects thanks for the help jim oh ps i was going to buy plans from strike so i would presumably already have a combat plan set please tell me if that isnt the case
you know i have been to this site i like the texas model there but i love the constitution i may build one of those
hey guys another thing i should mention on my reasoning for the iowa class and the reason i wanted to get it laser cut.when i decided i wanted to make this my hobbie i realized there was no one to play with here in tennessee so i began to talk to people i know and family my girl friend my daughter and her husband want to play but they have no building skills so i agreed to build the hulls well for me to make 4 of the same boat makes sense with the iowa class i have 4 named ships that are all the same so i can generate 4 of everything and go to town now i wasnt gonna mention it because you already thought i was crazy to build one, but there you go.
Honestly, you will not find what you are looking for. The effort in creating a tolerably acceptable dxf plan for any ship is very high. both RCENGR and I have done that (he is far more prolific than I) for laser cutting. I don't know how mark chooses his ships he kits but for me it has to have some interest to me, ample documentation, and either a hull is not available or something about the hull form I really don't like. I've done a Littorio and a mackensen and am working on provence plans. it has taken many hours to get the hull modeled correctly and will probably take till december to get the rib, keel, drivetrain done. (if I could do it in a continuous block it would probably take around 20-40 hours to do the remaining work) The only way a large ship like an iowa is likely to work out well for a beginner is if you either have - someone who's setup works well and can be exactly duplicated - are willing to completely gut the ship after the first season of battling and re-do it to correct mistakes - are willing to likely repeat the previous line after the second season Don't forget, you will probably be everyones favorite billboard, and will absorb rounds like crazy if you make any battles with others. The cost of cannons alone (even in fast gun) to outfit an iowa is quite the chunk of change, so to speak and could outfit the entire armaments system on a more reasonable class ship. Save your dream ship for a build or two in, and use the money and time saved to first build reliable, well functioning smaller ships, battle them. That will get you on the water much faster and you can be having fun with your non-favorite smaller ship while you spend the time building your dream ship well.
thx for the reply i guess what i dont get is why a 70 inch model is so much harder to build than a 40 inch it wasnt my experience with aircraft can you offer me some examples why the size of the model makes it so much more likely i will not do a good job also i assume you mean the smaller ship will get shot up less because of fewer guns. i have never battled but i wasnt aware that the hobbie had class s in battle i thought all the ships went to the pond all at once do they get broken down by class when battling? if they do then i understand the reason for a smaller ship if not im just a bit smaller target with far fewer weapons
I also came into this hobby after doing model airplanes for a while, so you most likely have the skills to build a ship from either plans or a fiberglass hull. Setting up a reliable ship tends to require a bit of trial an error. If you can find an experienced mentor to help with your ship build you will be able to avoid making some mistakes. But, if my experience is any indication, you will find that you don't like certain things about your first ship and will do things differently for your second ship. So that's the advantage of building a simpler ship first, and moving on to a more complicated ship later. I personally recommend starting with a 3 unit cruiser, others may recommend a 4 unit battle cruiser. As long as you don't pick a small cruiser, they are not really hard to fit all the equipment in. My first ship was a USS Roanoke, about the size of Baltimore, and I ran it for 3 years. The cruiser does cost less and most of the equipment will move right into your next ship. With only two guns you will be able to reload and turn the ship faster, this is important until you get battle experience. Plus, a cruiser has all the systems that a battleship has, just less guns, so you get the experience you need to make each system reliable. The other advantage the cruiser has is speed - the ability to disengage from a situation when you get into trouble.
i think i should clear up a couple of things that may not be obvious i am in tn there is no one near me to battle with except family members that have no battle experience. i really dont care what ship i build first i didnt pick the iowa because i thought that was the highest end ship i would ever want to build actually i would rather build a yamota i chose it because it had the simplest looking plan set of a 6 or 7 class ship i looked at as for the size the subject i put these posts under hulls says theres no replacement for displacement the iowa class has1 page of plans from strike the yamato has 2 the bismark has 5 i looked at several builds with pictures on these ships and decided it would be easier for me with my facilitys to build the iowa class i chose which modes also by their scale width assuming that would make it easier to center more of the weight as for the original post on the dx files i found a laser cutter that says they will take the paper plans and convert them i assume the have the expertie to mat a correctly sized part from a file they generate but that was gonna be expensive so i decided after reading some posts with mentions of cad programs being used if any of you had done this before me i also read about some pdf to dx file converters i was going to check on that next in short it doesnt need to be an iowa but i need 4 boats and it seemed like everything fit my needs as far as skill well noone knows till it happens i believe i can build it i believe i can do a fair job at it as far as perfect i believe there are 2 types of people in this hobbie battlers and modelers dont be offended at that i mean some care more about the ship and her background some, like me are only picking a ship to use to sink the other guys ship thats me one other thought i want to get more people into this hobbie and the bigger the and more armed ship i put out to show the more people will have interest in my opinion
Read the first couple articles on this site. It covers my views on first ships. http://www.portpolarbear.com/reports/index.html I built my first ship in '98 first NATs in 02. I've seen Iowa at NATS in 04 (2), 09. The guy in 09 stopped battling it after Monday, one day was enough. Yamato was around in 02 (2), 06, 07. The last 3 years there has been 1 or 2 Yamatos used only in campain. The really big ships are not popular because they are heavy, take a lot of maintenance, tons of patching. It's like keeping two battle ships running at one time.
rcengr thats what i mean weapons and tactics is a good reason to build a different boat i looked at the speed differences it doesnt look lik much on paper but if you say its noticable i can go with thathanks to all of you you know most people really dont know why they think a certain way about a subject and thats because its not their thought they just repeat what someone else said anyway 3 or 4 gun ships anyrecomendations for a fist time captain on a ship class thats easy to build not too small and turns well
The Iowa is 6+ feet long of billboard, heavy, and possessing suboptimal gun placement options and all the guns means more points of failure. That is why people don't suggest it as a rookie ship. "There's no replacement for displacement" is just a quip. It doesn't mean 'The biggest ship is the best ship' -- Note: Do not think the opposite: the smallest ship is also not the best. All ships have good things and bad things, some more than others, and some are better at some things than others. There is no best ship, there is no instant-win button. There may be a worst ship, but there would be a lot of debate on which and why. Page count of plans doesn't really indicate much about the complexity of the ship's build. For the most part, more pages simply means more detail is available for the ship. Often more superstructure levels, maybe diagrams of turrets, etc.
whst do you guys think of brooklyn class cruisers and you guys have convinced me t wait on an iowa i just need advice on a cruiser
I would say the following. to help you choose it would be beneficial to know the following: 1. Format: IRCWCC, MWCI, BIG GUN , TREATY, your own? 2. Rough budget 3. How much RC experience do you have 4. Timeframe you want to build the ship in.
ircwcc is the rulezet i intend to comply with whatever it requires to build it i have built and flown a few planes and i designed and built 6 pnematic robots for a haunted house i have a couple of years of electronics school also i need 4 of the same class hulls finished by febuary
Why 4 of the same class? 2 each of 2 classes would lend some variety to your little fleet. Slightly less efficient, but more fun!
