The plan set is Profile Morskie Nr 44, HMS Barham, 1941. Morskie can be ordered online and he will even scale it to 1/144th. If using the double bulged Cole hull, the casements will need to be cut into the hull. Also, the Barham's step from the upper to stern deck is further back than the other ships and will require 3.25" of length added to the hull step down. Lastly, read the casement rule carefully. It is possible to build the ship but will take some work to make it legal. The sub deck changes thickness multiple times from 3/8" to 1/4" to 1/8" back to 3/8" ... all to meet the maximum of 1/2" horizontal hard area that includes the stringers, casement deck, and subdeck. Of course, I supposed a stringer or two could simply be left out to make it all easier. Heh. I said the casement rule made it possible. Never said it made it easy.
I cannot attest to how sinkable Tim's ship is. I DID see it float quite easily with both sides of the bow removed last year. I've not made claims to facts I've not observed. However, the point was that even a dog like the Vanguard can be made competitive and attempts to change the rules to help or hurt a certain ship are generally a bad idea.
Bad captain + well built ship = bad ship Good captain + poor quality ship = bad ship Too many individual variables to say elite ship. Guy that is building and battling the boat is the true "elite". In terms of ships, you need to pick your battling style (hug/slug, cruiser tactics, sniper) and look at options. With today's material choices, there should NEVER be a solid cross section with holes drilled into it. Best example is take a paper cup and cut out the bottom, now pour water in it. Now, take another cup and drill a hole in the bottom. Pour water in, does it take longer to drain the cup?
Well said!! There is no better way to say the above. If I build a Nagato.. I will be bad.. my boat will be bad.. for a while at least. When I learn the right way to battle it, work out the bugs, and make it reliable, then MAYBE it will be an 'ELITE'.. combo... The cup analogy is priceless and ACCURATE! I don't see how a cross section of a ship could ever be argued as a 'rib' anyway.. but that is another story for another day !!!
From Kieth's missive: " To the Allied captains – Are you blind or _____? " There is NO way to read this statement that makes it sound polite nor friendly.
Apologies to Keith Maxwell... I was reading his post and I meant to hit 'Quote', but hit 'Edit' (a danger of having Admin powers), and did not notice until after I had replaced his text. Sorry, no censorship was meant, just blurry vision after a long day.
I have the original content from an email update. Your killing me here. OK open another beer. Here we go... I am in agreement with everything you said……. If you start with a Nagato you MIGHT become an “ELITE” combo. However…… If you start with a Hood. Never. Some boats simply start too far in the hole for battling skill to overcome. What I have been saying is ALL single rudder boat that do not get the 1.5 allowance fall into that category. A good captain in a similar sized dual rudder boat will ALWAYS have an advantage over a good captain in a single rudder boat. ALWAYS. And we made the rule to make it that way! I started this conversation because I was interested in a West Virginia. Good Length/width ratio, good gun placement, but it only has one rudder. There is no way that a 3" rudder can cover the prop wash. Even with 4.5” of rudder you can only just barely cover if you are using 1.5” props. That gives 3.53 sp inches of drag prop. Now a Baden will run a much bigger single drive prop over dual rudders. I would drive it with a 2” prop. That would give 6.28 inches of drag prop. There is no way that the West Virginia would be “best of class” even with dual rudder, not to mention Just getting the 1.5 bonus. Couple of last thoughts. The vast majority of single rudder boats are Allied. All single rudder ships start in the hole. They can only be so good no matter who the captain is. All of the three shaft boats are Axis. All 3 shaft boats have a built in potential to be better than 4 shaft. To the Allied captains – Are you blind or _____? To the Axis captains – I understand why you are fighting my proposals. Keith
We are not being flooded with Bismarcks. As I said before, to generate support from those (like me) who are fans of "fair", present data on the amount of torque generated by various rudder configurations. Rules based on "common sense" and "feelings" generally result in awfulness.
Thank you, Beaver and Professor Chaos, for replacing what I accidentally killed I felt bad because I didn't want anyone to think that I was deleting content on purpose. I agree with Herr Professor that we are in NO danger of being flooded by Bismarcks. Shame, because they're pretty. Which is the main reason that I choose to build any given ship
My advice to Keith is to build a WV, if that class is pretty and you like it. A good captain will do well in a good ship, and Nats is not decided on number of rudders or props. Reliability is FAR more important. And harder to acheive
My rookie ship was Yamato. I built it becasue it's the prettiest battleship and it reminded me of one of my favorite TV shows. I was pretty effective in it, but I wanted to hug and slug. I do, on occasion, consider putting it out again. I need to work out my core a bit first so I don't hurt my back.
Thanks every one for the debate. It is past time to put this one to bed. I will be building the 4 prop 2 rudder bulged casemented Barham. Keith
It took a few seasons of battling with my most recent ship (Lil Scharnie) before I felt like I could call it 'good'. Honestly, there are still areas that I would like to improve (consistently popping guns comes to mind...).
