For anyone looking for a little laugh on a Thursday, yesterday I felt like grilling......but waiting on parts
So, yeah, someone sent me a message asking how my Bismarck did at Nats, and I figured I should probably post something here so that everyone else can have a laugh too. (Note to self - insert pic here, if it ever gets here from the phone) So, yeah, in the midst of my usual pre-Nats motivational issues, someone left a Seydlitz on my doorstep, swaddled in a blankie. Well, not quite, but they were going to be overseas for a few weeks, and wouldn't be able to finish re-sheeting her. A couple of weeks and lots of procrastination later, well, I mostly finished re-sheeting a Seydlitz. Hadn't touched Bismarck. Yay. Anyway, with last minute assurances from certain parties, I tossed her, and some pre-prepped balsa in the trunk with said Seydlitz, and we headed East, I mean North, I mean ... well, lots of directions, in hopes of evading Illinois as much as possible, because fie upon them. Many parsecs later, we arrived in Michigan, and I took the opportunity to collapse from exhaustion, apparently. I have no recollection of that event, Senator. I think I may have been semi-coherent by Sunday afternoon, but probably not. Thankfully, with a lot of help from those certain parties, Bismarck's new hull skin was attached, and she was ready for testing. Mostly. Well, aside from that wee issue of a 20-ish year old 775 motor burning out, that is. Yeah. Yeah. Monday morning, and it's time to finish speed testing. No time to tweak things out, just use the ESC to dial the speed (90%), and away we go. How do botes work again? Oh, yeah, very carefully. Thankfully, the drive motor issue was the only one, and everything else worked fine all week. Yay. Even the new 3D printed rudder gear, because ServoCity doesn't make one in the size I needed (46 tooth). I did get the joy of discovering, or is that re-discovering how much damage a Bismarck can take if you're not careful. I got too aggressive Monday afternoon (I wasn't the only one), and ended up taking something like 95/20-ish and 45-ish below hits. Thankfully, she didn't sink (good hull skin), but that's way more damage than I like to patch. Note to self - be more cautious for the rest of the week. Tuesday was more of the same, except with more caution and less damage taken. The thing about great hull skins is that once most of the balsa is gone, they're not so great anymore. Gotta watch that, you know. In the fleet battles, when possible, I tried to team up with Seydlitz and/or Missouri and occasionally Jean Bart to try to tag team the opposing ships. Sure, you can turn away and evade one of our sidemounts, but try turning away from two of us ... (!) Campaign was kind of fun, I got to shoot up a few convoy ships, and Brian and I sank one of the opposing battleships who wasn't careful enough to stay away from our sidemounts. My aunt and uncle came to watch the show, so I was spending some time chatting with them, when Steve suggested I borrow his Des Moines. It was very amusing. Almost enough to make me want one of my own, but I think I'd rather have something a touch more maneuverability. It was still fun running around and triple stern gunning some convoy ships, and then trying to finish them off. Non Bismarck related, Wednesday had a trip to Grand Rapids in store, with a visit to one of the few remining "real" hobby shops, Rider's. It was delightful, and I'd like to have spent a lot of $$$ there, but I was well aware at that point of how crowded the car was going to be for the trip home. I begged Nate and Brian for a visit to the local Big Boy, (old hometown favorite from back in the day), and had a delish "Hot Fudge Ice Cream Cake" treat for my birthday. Thanks, guys, I know, Big Boy is marginal otherwise, but I do appreciate it. Dusk, I mean night battle approached, and Ian showed up with his lovely little Dreadnought lit up like Times Square, and Kas showed up with his USS Manatee, or something like that. Arrayed against this were seven of our battleships. Needless to say, it was short, and about what you'd expect. See pictures above. I probably mostly whiffed on my shots on Dreadnought, but it is what it is, it's so smol, ya know. Thursday was more fleet/campaign madness, with similar results to previously, then a rules (sigh) meeting and Friday's fleet battle later, and it was all over. Oh, yes, and thanks to all the other captains for voting my Bismarck for best of scale. That was a treat, to say the least. Unfortunately, as seen in the picture above, she was a little the worse for wear at that point, but hey, isn't that what the whole 3D printing thing is for, right? Which is to say, I think that while the PLA mostly held up okay, it's showing definite wear and tear, and the ABS bits held up much better. (As expected) Now that I have an actual enclosure for my printer, I will probably re-print the PLA pieces with ABS so that it will be more durable in the future. Maybe TPU, but that depends on some things, like how well the larger pieces hold their shape when printed out of more flexible material. (It was fine for my Seydlitz superstructure.) Anyway, sorry if that's a bit short on details, I'm hoping people will post some videos eventually, to (ahem) refresh memories, etc. Meanwhile, if I had to give an overall impression of things, well ... Bismarck good, Bismarck fun, but ... Bismarck heavy. Thanks for Justin, Matt, Will, Tom, and all the other folks who gave me a hand throughout the week. I mean, heaven forbid I lose a Bismarck's worth of weight so she'd be easier to carry, right? (Easier said than done) Otherwise, I'd have to say that I enjoyed battling her throughout the week. Her configuration is a bit olde skool, but I like it because it suits my preferred battling style, which is also olde skool. She's fast, maneuverable, and powerful enough to get things done. But the downside is she does have enough target area to where if you aren't careful, the damage will rack up on you very quickly. Will she be on the water again next year? Most likely. It seems that I volunteered myself to be an Admiral next year, and it probably wouldn't do for the Admiral to be bringing a cruiser or pre-dreadnought to Nats, right? I mean, seeing as Matt (the other Admiral) is planning to bring a Baden next year, it might be nice to arrange with certain other parties to go light next year and bring a bunch of WWI/Class 5 ships and leave our heavy sluggers at home, but hahaha ... we all know that won't be happening. So Bismarck it is, and heaven help us all ... especially my back!