looking into the hobby

That is why I like the Von scores. These are not keyboard combatants.

 

gotcha, traxxas motors won't hold up.

looking at ships more and what hulls are available. I'm either going Konig or Maryland for a first ship. Which depends on what I see at a battle, and what I feel I would be better at. I'm also not sure if the differences in the ships are enough to make them very different. 4 props 1 rudder vs 3 props 2 rudders. The Konig will turn faster, but is slower at 28, but the Maryland is only 26. is the 2 extra worth losing a whole rudder, and will 4 props accelerate faster than the single prop? especially if I used a dual motor gearbox on the Konig (discussed below)?

there has been plenty of good advice. I have to take it and my budget into account. LiFe batteries would be the best, and the motors suggested are good. But if I can use a cheap SLA battery and what I have laying around, that would cut down on some cost. I will need to look at all the motors in my collection too, I have quite a few "stock" can racing motors that I think at 6v will meet the 10k RPM. They are rebuildable, and boy do I have parts to do that. I also have a case of like 8 identicals just sitting there. I think with a little sprucing up, they would work fine. At least if they fit I can once I get a ship going, get them fitted and test it out, before replacing with something better.

for the Konig, say I go with the 2 motor single output gearbox. that would add a lot of torque to the shaft, allowing it to get to it's top speed quicker. would this help offset the slower top speed? that's if I can fit it of course. I think that way I would also be putting less stress on a single motor, and if one does go down, I'm not dead in the water as the other should be able to limp the ship home.

I suppose I could combine both the Konig and Maryland and go with the Fuso. extra half unit, props and speed of Maryland, with dual rudders of the Konig.

 

that's all unless there is a certain ship recently posted in the for sale section is somehow still for sale come July when I get my "clothing" bonus. Most of the "hard" stuff I think would slow my building speed down is already taken care of. It would be a real big jump in, but would also be a big jump forward as well.

or for that matter if anything might come up for sale at a certain price point that would pique my interest.

 

Initial boat success (well any boat success) is much more dependent on captain building skill/amount of assistance received than on ship characteristics. Either of those ships could be decent, either could be not so decent.

Maryland will have a slightly higher top speed, Konig should turn way faster/tighter (pivot about the center of the ship), but otherwise the boats are similar enough that other differences are a wash (for a first build at least). Performance wise you should take a look at Iron Duke, it is 26 sec with 2 rudders, roughly same size. In general I think we need more axis ships than we do allied ships.

If you put a large prop on Konig (2") it can accelerate just as fast. Both ships should have gear boxes, but you don't need the two motor/single output for konig if you use the right motor.

I would not recommend Fuso to start, the hull shape is a lot more complicated than either of the other ships, it is also notably longer which provides a good deal more target area. Fuso will be my next build

The battles at GLAS seem to be pretty tame, the damage totals are usually weak, so you don't have to worry about taking a beating at first. Craig has a Baden which is very similar to Konig. They might also have some mothballed ships that they could be willing to part with that could give you a head start.

Having a good drive system and working pump cannot be over-stressed for a new boat. I totally get wanting to use the stuff you already have, we can speculate all day but you'll just have to test them out if you want to use a setup that isn't typical for reliable ships. I would recommend considering it from cost-benefit perspective. You can save about $20-$25 initially by using your other motors, but then if those motors continuously fail at an event then your $20 decision is preventing the ~$500+ boat from working...but like they say some lessons need to be learned the hard way. I usually end up changing out the motors on a lot of my builds because it can be difficult to predict exactly how the whole system will play together (batteries, ESC, motor, gear, props), and actually bring the boat to a pond and stressing it as much as possible is always a good idea.

Most people on this forum and in the hobby want new people to be successful, so if they say 'you probably shouldn't do that' they usually have your best interests in mind. I try to recommend setups that I see the captains with the most reliable boats use, which doesn't mean other setups wont work, just trying to maximize the probability that your stuff works.

 

Sucks when the new captain shows up with an uber weapon that does not work (been there, done that). We honestly want you and others to be successful as it adds to our fun, when you boat is at the pond and does not work, we have no one to battle...

 

I can tell you he is correct. I had a regulator icing issue that made the guns on the biggest ship in the pond unreliable at best. It was very irritating lol.

 

why do the Icing Happen?
Nikki

 

Not sure what the issue was as I sold the ship before I got a chance to fix it.

 

I think I'm settled on the Konig for a first ship, if I have to build it myself then. I just took a look at it on BS, and there is a Ship kit available, which has a resin superstructure. That is one of the things I am concern about not being able to do on my own, at least to the point of making it look good.

I still think I might go with the 2 motor single output gearbox, just to take ease off of a single motor design. would also give a lot of torque, and I would assume if one motor does go out that I wouldn't lose drive altogether, and be able to limp it around.

looks like the biggest purchases would be the batteries, the ship kit, and the guns.

 

Here is a boat in Michigan you could buy and battle this summer.

 

Please don't try to sell MY boats thank you...I might have to put your I-boat on the market!.

 

You get me the right price I will sell one of my kids

 

If i do buy something, I would want to buy something that is for sale but I'm not opposed to that class of ship. Just if I have to go on my own building one, I'd go for the Konig.

 

so looking at the BC multi-b board, how does the (2) Dual firing circuits built in for 4 position coverage. does it fire 2 cannons per channel activation? dual firing makes me think it shoots 2 at a time. I'm probably wrong though.

thinking about it more before posting, it would have +/off/- per channel, (forward/neutral/reverse in car terms) and each way would fire a single cannon. thus 1 channel can fire 2 cannons separately, but not at the same time. Can that be set up? I was thinking with the Konig i'd go with twin sterns, and 2 side mounts (one bow mount pointing forward on the port side, and then a starboard side side mount on the second forward turret from the rear (rear super firing turret?) If the twin sterns didn't fire together, I suppose I would want them on one channel, and just flip the stick forward and back as fast as possible.

I would like to learn some terminology about battleships as well. not just look it up like i have been, or guessing (and probably getting things wrong)

 

The firing boards work as you guessed. Stick one way fire cannon A. Stick the other way fire cannon B. Now to fire 2 at once it gets better. You just drive 2 solenoids on one side/stick position. It functions as an electronic switch. It just activates the solenoids, they actually control the flow of gas.

 

what could another half channel be used for? with 4 guns and 2 firing together, that would leave half open.

also, is there any pictures of the entire BC Konig kit? I was wondering what the "basic" superstructure included detailwise

 

Usually plywood plates and foam blocks all precut. And the half channel will be useless.

 

would it be legal to use under the ircwcc rules or would I need to add more detail to it?

 

It'll be fine. Nobody is gonna tell you you can't battle because you're missing details on your ss. Just worry about building a ship that works reliably, that's the important part.

 

SO I took a really hard look at SteveT's Atlanta build thread. Really detailed and really helped me understand all what's going on.

I really think the Konig is going to be a good ship to start. is there any disadvantages though with a class 5 ship and not using the full units? I'm thinking for cost reasons I'm going to start out with 3 guns and pump, so I would only be short 1 unit.

Also does the multi B work with the poppet valves or only solenoids? it looks like the gun kits are poppet valve guns. if I have to buy solenoids along with the kit, I for sure will have to be under full units.

for batteries, I just want to make sure I have it clear that 20ah is a good amount for a day's worth of battling, and can be less if a higher voltage is used. I still think I'm goung to have to at the start run with SLA batteries and have a few to swap into the ship between battles. The drill battery thing is an interesting idea though. I might go with a higher voltage than 6v though, and I would probably go with the drill batts. They should be easy enough to get, especially since there is a new Harbor Frieght in town. I did see a while ago someone converted a charger to just a holder for a mobile RC charging station so they could swap in bigger batteries to run their chargers for smaller racing ones. I wouldn't do that, but could use it for the battery swapping. would need to armor the battery up, but if I could get away with 2 of the Zippy 8000mah batteries to start, I would probably do with those, and use one per sortie charging the out of battle one in between.

The jury is still out on batteries though, but if a higher voltage would let me get less expensive batteries because I can get less capacity and swap them out between sorties, I'd do that and have a few spares charged and ready to go. I might break down and just start out with the best, as I think I might just get all new support equipment for the hobby. would take me longer to get into action, but then I will be able to start out on a good foot instead of my cheap stuff I have now.

one thing I thought about is moving the ship around. I think a cheap handcart is in order to convert to a ship carrier.