I was talking to a friend on the phone one night, and told me about ww2 ships shooting each other with bb's. Well I youtubed it. Now I think this is awesome, always like battleships like bismark. I want to do it as a new hobby for this next coming summer. Problem is I live in Omaha Nebraska. No clubs or no one I know who plays here. I bet no one even knows about it. I want to get other people to do it as well. Did some research. But only concerns I have... Person as myself having no clue about this. I looked all over the net for like retail sites,and the best site I found was strike models. Wish they had a shopping cart, and showed the pictures or videos of the ships besides the hull when viewing the product. Give them props for the playstation remote control. I was expecting to find battleships in like kits with their pretty picture in front. Like rockets you buy from hobby town or model ships/airplanes you see on the shelves that says "Shoot bbs" lol Totally opposite.... to sum it up sounds like your on your own. Anyways I tried to get a other friend involved, he thought $250 was the cheapest. But after I talked to strike it would cost $800, telling my friend that he dropped like a fly. I can afford a grand, other average people cannot Thing is with a single ship costing $1k or more its going to be hard to get people involved. Biggest complaint I have with other people telling me is ...expensive but love to get into it. Questions 1. Why does this cost so much? Why can't there be a straight up kit come out of box like $500 or less? or Already made ready to go, like a kid can build. Almost a "Simple" version for a person who does not have much time on his hands & just wants to battle. Still asking myself, since this has been around 30 yrs, why hasn't there been like a simple efficient ready to go out of the box type deal. I mean there is airplanes, other models. The reasons I ask this. I love building stuff to months on end. But telling people this is what they gotta do, just the only response I get is people grinding their teeth. 2. All I know so far the upper half that is wood, where the bb's get shot through. Can that easily be replaced like is it efficient to fix ships after sunk, and start battling again? Just rip off the shot up wood, and just replace new easy fix in 20 min? Just with strike told me, you don't actually destroy ships thank God. The fiber glass protects pretty much the heart and soul of the battleship from water when she sinks. 3. Where can I find a site, that shows step by step building these ships. Videos, parts,instructions on PDF... etc. Well I'm planning this for the summer, just trying to gather what I can before a I jump into this hobby. Thanks
Another model warship source is Battlers Connection. A person should be able to get everything they need to build a ship between the two companies. There has been discussions before on why there isn't a model warship 'kit' after all this time. It boils down to no one has the capital nor the time to design, manufacture, and package a complete kit. Many of a ship's componants are hand made vs machine made and requires a considerable investment of time to make, i.e. cannons. What we have today is the closest thing though. Companies like BC and Strike have pre-made cannons, hulls, pumps, props, even superstructure kits. All that is required is to put it all together. On the high cost to get into the hobby, look back at the last paragraph at the hand made part. Any specialized hand made componant is going to cost more than machine made parts. Most everything on the ship is hand manufactured, even the hulls. That requires a huge time and labor investment which leads to higher cost per part. There was an idea of a molded fiber resin plastic light cruiser hull with molded cannons and pump ... stuff that can be manufactured fairly easily. The only problem was engineering a design for the molding process, the substantial costs involved with making the injection molds, then the cost of making the the minimum number of hulls and parts. I liked the idea of having a simple, small, low cost ship to get people to try the hobby. If they liked battling enough, they would put in the time and effort to build a bigger, more complicated (and costly) ship. Phew! All of that just for the first question! Heh. By the way, I personally think a person can get into the hobby with a small ship for less than $500. The second question is easy. The side of the hull is cut into 'windows' that are covered with thin balsa that is easily penatrated by bbs. After a sink (or two sorties depending on which battling format you choose), the holes are patched with pieces of silkspan and a waterproof glue or dope. The balsa can takes lots of damage before needing replacement. Resheeting the side of the ship isn't quite a 20 minute job. It takes me about 3 - 4 hours to totally resheet my French battleship, from removing the old sheeting, cleaning the hull up, prepping the new sheeting, sticking the new stuff on the hul, trimming the new sheeting, and finally repainting. The good news is simply patching after getting shot up will get you back on the water in 20 minutes. Save the resheeting jobs for home. Resources for the actual building include RC Naval Combat web site. There is a wealth of information and people ready to help explain step by step how to build a ship. BC and Strike also includes instructions on various ship componants. I don't think anyone has put together a downloadable set of instructions ... thats a good idea. Heck, it'll turn out to be a book I bet!
Hey Squid, MWCI (www.mwci.org) has some members out nearish to you. If you check out the local contacts link on the MWCI site you can get some contact info, I think the closest one listed is in KC. Considering how few people are in the hobby thats not so far away, its not uncommon to drive for 4-6 hours for a weekend of battleing. Thats also why things cost what they do, there isnt much of a market for the items we use. Its not really a cheap hobby but its not really an expensive hobby either in compirson to a lot of other hobbies. Its pretty easy to drop $500-$1000 (roughly the cost of a ship) getting into a lot of hobbies, shooting/hunting, cars, computers, table top war games, paintball, video games, wood working, etc. all can cost that amount or more and are rather common hobbies, atleast for the types of people that are generally interested in this hobby. Also if you are good at building things and have a little help its pretty easy to save some money over just buying everything, takes more time and effort but costs less money. After you have a ship built they cost very very little to maintain and fight, the only costs then are the cost to travel to any battles that arent close by. I would reccommend getting in touch with the MWC guys out that way and they can help get you started, there will probably be some battles out there sometime this spring you could attend to see ships and battles in person. Good luck
We all wish that there was a $120 kit for sale at Walmart. Like the airplanes, cars and heli's this would increase our group 10,000 times. But there is not, so we have the $800 to $1200 investment to get new guys past. The nice thing is, like snipe said, once you make that investment it last for a long time. I still have my first ship and it still works from 11 years ago. RC cars, planes & heli's do not last as long. Check out the RC plane crashes on Youtube, some of those things cost $2,000-$3,000. If you can get over the cost and the time to build you will have a lot of fun.
Your best bet is to get as much as complete kit to get that is relativley easy to buld by this hobby's tandards. The intiatly investment is high but majority of members here have stucked to this hobby for more than 10 years so the intial investment has long since paid for itself. My Bismarck outlasted my Car, vcrs and vdieo game systems. This site has a wealth of resources, and contacts to help you get started. Battler's and StrikeModels are great for getting hulls and ship kits. These models are unique in what they do and the equipment involved. Robots battling from Japan cost over 1000.00 for a 15 inch high robot that looks like a tranformer. Most RTR vechiles cost between 500 and 1500.o0. Tanks can go from 200 up to 5ooo.oo dollars. These high end RC items are long term RC units. The market has grown so big with RTR (READY TO RUN) ITEMS unfortunalty thougn it's great it's mostly disposable RC with little or no support for parts and supplies for these units. IE walmart and RADIO SHACK brand type RC units. Subs have become more available but a decent sub can run from 50.00 to 300.00 and for the more serious RC subs anywhere from 1000.00 to 5ooo.oo. Helicopters can go from 40.00 to extremely expensvie units. I have 4 Micor flyers for about 300.00 and they are great indoor flyers with working lights and can survive a multitude of crashes. Fortunalty these have a parts supplier and I can get anypart I need for them. Can you imagine 4ft long RC combat boat kits on a Walmart Shelf? Never going to happen. This hobby is fun and educational and you'll find it will stay with you for a long time. It's avery rewarding hobby that requires a committment to really get the most out of it.
The investment really isn't as bad as it seems. The more you can do yourself, the cheaper it can be. The good news is that once you have a ship up and operational, the cost to maintain it is actually very low. Unlike the $300 park flyer airplanes, where you have to put out money for new props, new wings and new fuselages on a fairly regular basis (all at prices ranging between 5-50 bucks) once your combat ship is complete, all you need is balsa, silkspan and ambroid/dope with an occassional O-ring or hunk of co2 hose to keep your ship running for the most part. The expensive stuff doesnt wear out and break if you take care of it.
A couple of things I haven't seen addressed yet. We frequently have boats offered for sale. They normally range about $300 dollars and can be hull to completed hull with some internals. I picked up a Arizona with 3 guns, a servo and motors and rudder in place for $300. It was sheeted, had a superstructure all made and came in it's own box. My bismarck was also $300 and came with hull, superstructure, turrets, prop, and sided. The deals are out there if you look. The other thing is we hand make a lot of items so if you are needing something in particular, most members will have spares to offer. We always build in lots so we have duplicates. Another thing is "retreivable investment" My radios, guns, co2 parts and batteries go from ship to ship so I can outfit any hull I may have with the same working gear (most of it anyway). If you decide to build something different, you don't have to buy everything new again. Buy and build in small segments and it won't seem like such an overwhelming task. Also people close and in the hobby helps a lot (but not always possible. I maintain two ships. It is always easier to have a friend over to use the spare boat if you want to play. It's a good recruiting tool also. Plus it's just more fun.
Rob has some good points. You have to look for the deals though. Some guys might need to make some money to finance their next project, some people might need to make room in their shop, etc. Most of the time with these ships, you're just getting the model and just need to install the guts, which once you understand how and why it works is pretty easy. There are also lots of how tos and guides out there that can be of help. Once you've chosen a club, someone in the club may have something for sale. There is also the for sale section here at RC Naval combat, and a buy/sell/trade yahoo group for RC combat. If you look to aquire a "fixxer upper" (most ships are not sold combat ready), try to avoid spamming email lists and forums with "wanting to buy posts". People tend to get annoyed with that quickly.
This is the kind Bismark I want to build. It's my fav. ship since I first read about it when I was kid actually first book I pulled out when learning about battleships. I like this ship because how much detail he put into it. Anyways that’s what I want to do for the course of a few months from now before the summer. If anyone can point me anywhere on building a bismark battleship I appreciate it. http://www.rcnavalcombat.com/Portal...%20004.jpg I can buy a used ship but that will take away half the fun for me But having no clue how to build it, on top of that taking time to go out discover out how to build - that is time consuming. This is most likely the problem for many people just like me. Has for a suggestion for this site & helpful is giving people the option to upload ebooks or PDF files of how to build ships and stuff. I can read about it all I want, but I'm kind of picture/video or visual type of guy in order for me to build anything. This is my .02 cents, even though I don't have any experience with this hobby. Everything your speaking of that is hand-made can be mass produced or already is. If they can mass produce RC ships/planes already. I'm sure they can easily do RC naval combat ships...debating if its liability insurance cost but then again they sell BB guns like hotcakes. The way I see it is a opportunity. I'm still surprised that no one was attempted to mass produce starter kits somehow that is cost effective without exhausting someone's full weekly paycheck. Having it cost under $150-$500 on the open market. I just don't see capital is a problem if you somehow start very small & simple. Not only for the consumer but as well for future investors. Just create a simple prototype that can easy to build, combat, drain, fix- repeat then outsource it. Pay people to throw it in a box, get it shipped out. Make it so simple a 10 yr can understand. Because its going to be the young teenage group begging their fathers to buy it, and build it with them. Personally I believe there is a way bigger market people think there is. Just hasn't been exposed yet. When I speak to other people about it, they just reply "I heard of it" but never actually witnessed it themselves. Getting groups such as boy scouts, schools(Math & reading), father day etc.. to get into it will really expand the market. Plus upfront cost $1k is usually a turn off for average consumer. When people mention cost of $1k or more first thing they think of is like buying a new car or something grand. That’s why like video games or other hobbies with low end cost can get some consumer addicted to their hobby. Then end up spending over $5k-$10k over their lifetime without even knowing they did such a thing. It's like any other hobbies such warhammer 40k is what I sell as a online retailer. With all hobbies making companies billions a year, all have one thing in common. Something is very low cost to get the consumer started. Plus like what someone said, having someone getting into the hobby dirt cheap like $150-$200 will end up getting a larger group people to get involved. Heck it can be a simple tugboat with one gun on her, will be good enough to get kids wild up about it. Then the addiction to the hobby begins lol.. Also once that happens, then market expands into other areas. Such as people creating playstation remote controls or even PSP like creations such has putting a small video cam on each gun or top of the ship(HQ). Apps for like ipods to measure how much water is in your ship, speed of your ship, distance of other ships or even hell actually be the remote for your ship by driving it with a feel of touch etc... also tournies too. Then the next you know, tugboats with one gun is selling like hotcakes because of her simple cost. Now consumers want bigger ships such as bismark,hood,iowa etc.. well this is my .02 cents, I'm just throwing ideas out there.
This is my Bismarck build http://www.rcnavalcombat.com/Forum/tabid/58/aff/566/aft/441297/afv/topic/Default.aspx I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for but it will give an idea of the time and effort I put into my ship. Check out other builds to see other ideas.
Hey Squid, thanks for the input. This topic is one which we have all seen over and over. We have all discussed getting a ship for the masses ready but as much as I said and thought the same as you I learned it just wouldnt work. When I joined the hobby I only had two or three skills, I had run r/c cars, I knew how to solder, and I could push buttons. Thats it. So I bought a ship kit and it sat for over a year as I struggled with a lack of tools and knowledge of how to build the ship. I am a visual learner and it was just very hard for me. One thing to note is that if I had built the ship any old way then it wouldnt have performed well, I would have been discouraged and might not have continued having blown all the cash on the ship. So I bought a used ship that was not completed. That was another mistake as I didnt know how to build gun mounts and other things. So after another 8 months of frustrastion I decided to master one area of the ship at a time. Drive-train, water tight box, water tight servos (disaster.. thank god for traxxas servos), air systems, pumps, cannons, etc. I am certainly no master now but I know enough to take care of most of my issues pondside, not all but some, so that I dont take a veteran away from their ship and their enjoyment. I pissed and moaned about the lack of a RTR ship but in the end its all economics. I tried getting some custom parts made but unless I pay a mega-premium for the part I would have to buy hundreds and hundreds of units to make it cost effective. The market is not large enough to support that. Even an assembly line making ships would take approx 20-40 man hours to make a totally combat ready, charge the batteries, load BB's throw-it in the water ship. I am sure the skills need would require someone making more than minimum wage so the labor I estimate would be 400-600 minimum added to the cost. Also if you went with the lowest price point that means using the less competitive parts (at least in fast gun) which probably wouldnt give you the best experience on the water either. You would have to have a wooden ship, poppets, cheap wires from home depot (not good silicone, SLA batteries for sure, no ESC but rather mag switch throttle and pump switch, cheap motor in the pump (less volume) etc. etc. So there is a monetary barrier to getting started. I have enjoyed learning what I know now and have learned woodworking, metal working, electronics, some related robotics (electronics also), pneumatics (air systems), strategy, gun-smithing (some). I have actually used some of these skills on the job. So my recommendation is to get a ship in working order and then start to go through it. Get a ship that has all of the internal components like the servos, guns MOUNTED!!, etc. The pump and radio are drop in items. Once you run that ship for a few battles you will LEARN what you want out of a ship and this is NO BS. I lived it for real. I thought I knew what I was doing until I went to two regional battles. I learned 10 times what I thought I knew at the first battle and doubled it again at the second. So yes I would love to see RTR ships in the shops and wanted to try that myself just to get more peeps on the water but in the end I would have to spend all of my time prepping their ship and not mine, and in the end as they have no personal investment might not even come out to the next battle anyway.... and I lost a valuable battle date. I know Ryan's VDT in Minn. is a good performer and a good starter ship. If you are near fast gun, pick it up, get it running (doesnt need much) and then after 3 battles you will say WOW now I get it!! Then you will be able to say I want to change this or I want to change that OR I now knwo what ship I want to build to suit the way I want to battle. It turns out although I have a Bismarck, its sooo big, harder to turn, and gets shot up by everyone... I actually enjoyed the slugging style of the Baden much better. This is the kind of info you will aquire once you hit the pond. There is just no other way to do it. So take a chance, pick up a ship, and enjoy the learning process. Its not just about the BB's, its about the build as well. Can you out build Me or anyone else? Try it! You might like it! And if you do out-build me then I will incorporate what you learn!!! hehehehe See ya Johnny
For you visual learners there is the How to Build a Warship DVD, 5+ hours of building video, step by step going from hull to functional ship.
There were hand built ships available for a while. they weren't great but they taught me one important lesson. If you give someone an RTR ship they can easily get it on the water. They will end up on the beach pretty soon when something goes wrong and they have no clue as to where to start to troubleshoot the problem because they don't know what the systems in the ship are much less how they work. I continue to particapate in the hobby because of the people it attracts and holds, not because I can blast away at something. It is cheaper and easier to take something up to the gravel pit where I am not limited to a particular caliber... I prefer to spend time with the folks who choose to invest time and effort to make something.
