Hi All, I'm for the north side of the San Francisco Bay area. I've had a bit of RC experience, that includes cars, planes, even Battlebots. No boats so far, so I expect to be bumping up against the learning curve for a while. I first heard about naval combat when a friend I play Airsoft with told me about a bunch of crazy guys that mount BB guns on RC boats and try to sink each other. It sounded interesting but I was busy practicing squad tactics and shooting as many of my friends as possible. (I'm doing that a lot less these days.) Last month I noticed a link on the Make Magazine home page, that led me to the WWCC homepage, and a campaign they were having over Labor Day weekend. I'm hooked! I just hope I haven't put this off too long. It looks like the end of the season is coming up quick. I guess that means time to build. Terry
welcome droidling. sounds like you know some, but look around the forum to get a better idea of what your dealing with
Thanks, for the welcome. I've been looking through the 17 pages of the "Rookie Ship Design" thread. I hope once I finish the read it will turn out that they are just about ready to find a new guy to try out the build procedure.
dont get your hopes up, i dont think that there is much progress there yet, but still read it, it's very interesting. I would take a look at www.battlersconnection.com for shipd:they are fantastic. make sure you post what ship you want to do first, as the members of this forum will have lots of advice for you before you begin.
Battlers Connection looks like it is intended for Fast Gun. The WWCC is Big Gun are the hulls likely to be compatable? I thought the rib spacing was different. I've been looking at BDEs Ship Database. There are several ships that look interesting from the specs. I need to find a good reference, so I can tell what they look like, and where the weapons are mounted. The BDE Tashkent laser-cut kit was mentioned in the rookie ship thread. I can't seem to find it on their web site. If it is still available that might be a good torpedo cruiser. The Mogado, or Shimakaze look interesting to.
It is focused on fast gun, but you have to cut the ribs out yourself, so it wont matter. So, as far as i know, you can use their hulls for ships in big-gun. And BDE is a good site for Big-gunners(youll forgive me, i am not good when it comes to big-gun, i noly know small-gun). I think you read it wrong, Tashkent is the manufacturer of the laser-cut maodels, but they are not meant for this hobby as far as i know.
Droidling, you have come to the right place. A number of guys here are fast gun, but we are all willing to sin... I mean help you. My brother (Kotori87) and I are both members of the WWCC, and you probably met us at the campaign game you visited (we were the twins with the little unarmed transports). If you want to buy a used boat, we can help you find one. If you want to build a boat from scratch, we have learned from a master, and have just started on a squadron of four Viribus Unitis class dreadnoughts, and can help show you some major design elements in person. We normally meet at Neal's shop every Saturday to build. Next Sunday the 5th, there will be a gun design basics lesson at Dave's house. Either venue would be good to get to know some of the other members and get their full attention without the distractions of battling or passersby. Better yet, attend both our regular build with Neal on Saturday and Dave's seminar on Sunday. Club events coming up include Wooden Boats on Parade on Sat, Oct 11 in Spreckels Lake in Golden Gate Park. The next day we have a battle in our usual location at the percolation ponds. We also have a maneuvering event November 9. While the battling season isn't yet over, it will be soon, and the building season is getting started. If you want something ready for the Maker Faire and other early events, you will want to get started very soon. The hull we received as part of the Rookie Ship Design project has been passed on to Neal who happens to really like the Emile Bertin and will be able to deal with mistakes and offer practical improvements to the design. However, there are other hulls without guts that may be good starting points. I know of at least one Kitakami and one very nice South Dakota hull that would be great. There is a Lutzow that may date back to NASWCA and the founding of Big Gun, and possibly a slightly younger Iowa and H-39. I have a Cleveland, which has some potential or could be converted to a light carrier. Also, as I mentioned earlier, my brother and I are starting on a squadron of four Viribus Unitis dreadnoughts, and we've only got two skippers so far. One of the four transports we built is for sale. It's a bit pricey for a transport and may need a new rudder servo, but is otherwise combat ready and her sisters have performed well this year. I'm sure there are more ships in the club that people would be willing to part with, so ask around next time you meet some club members. The hulls from Battlers Connection are fiberglass, so you can cut the ribs to be legal for the club you are joining. However, the WWCC prides itself on its scratch building, and the vast majority of ships are scratch built wooden hulls. BDE supplies some very nice cannons, but there have been some recent issues with contacting him. If the BDE communications issues are resolved, I would highly recommend their cannons. However, most cannons in the WWCC are built by members, so you can still buy some if you don't have the equipment to build your own. The BDE ship database is missing a few data points (such as the Viribus Unitis), but provides a pretty good overview of Big Gun ships. Tell us what ships look interesting and we can provide some comments on them. To start with, the Tashkent, Mogador, and Shimakaze are really cool destroyers. They are small, fast, maneuverable, and carry a good load of torpedoes. Being destroyers, they are also smaller than light cruisers and hence more difficult to fit everything in. This is part of the reason the Rookie Ship design Project selected the light cruiser Emile Bertin, with the Capitani Romani and Kirov.
Hi Eric, Yes I remember meeting you and Carl. I think I ended up talking to your dad for a while to. I'll plan on going to either Neal's or Dave's next weekend and to Spreckels Lake the following week. can you PM me the information on where and when? After looking more at the destroyer specs I realized bigger might be easier. If I don't end up building the Emile Bertin I'll be looking for a cruiser. Probably between 10,000 and 20,000 tons at 35 knots, with a couple of 3/16" turrets and an option for torpedos. The Trento, and the Nachi are possible. Of course you have a much better idea what works in Big Gun so maybe the dreadnoughts are a better way to go. Hopefully we will get a chance to figure it out next weekend. As far as building goes, I usually figure that if I can't make it better, or cheaper I might as well buy it. That being said I would get a certain amount pleasure out of scratch building a hull, and I have already been thinking about ways to make smaller more effecient cannons. Do you think a fiberglass hull would be acceptable if I it lay it up myself?[] Terry
Most ships in the WWCC are scratch-built wooden, but only because most members like that building style. There is nothing wrong with laying up your own fiberglass hull or buying a fiberglass hull. I think its more interesting to to do the wooden build. We can talk more about different ships and their roles and attributes at Dave's cannon building seminar.
