We're only 4 days away from the first-ever RC combat event in San Diego's Balboa Park. A feature of the 1st Annual San Diego Maker Faire, Western Warship Combat Club, with help from the San Diego Argonauts and the USS Midway Museum, will be building a 40' x 72' pond in the parking lot of the San Diego Air and Space Museum, starting Thursday morning at 8:30 am. The first battle is scheduled for 11:00 am on Saturday, with 4 scheduled for both days. In addition to 6 cargo ships available for audience members to run, WWCC has just completed 7 torpedo cruisers (HMS Kents, with state-of-the-art 3D printed torpedo guns, designed and engineered by WWCC member Jeff Krolik). The files for these guns will be made available to selected members of the RC warship combat community for advanced beta testing after next weekend's 8-battle shakedown. The seven HMS Kents are available at this event for any experienced RC combat skippers who come to us in friendship, and simply ask. Contact me in advance if interested, at rwood@hypergold.com 7 HMS Kents awaiting skins, paint and ballasting. HMS Kent ready for combat.
I am curious about the guest captains, as this is an issue that has come up twice. I thought Namba rules said that if any participant was not a Namba member that it would void the insurance for all participants. Is that correct? If so, how are you handling the insurance issue for the guest captains? I know I wanted to let someone drive a ship for a few minutes and the insurance issue was brought up.
We provide one-event NAMBA waivers. $15. The skipper fills out the form, hands our sec/treasurer $15, and they're covered for the duration.
They look really good Rob. Congratulations to you and Jeff (and whoever else worked on them) on getting the series built. I'm a little curious as to why you want an experienced combat captain to run a torpedo cruiser as opposed to being open to possible recruits running them. They seem like an ideal platform to turn an 'interested' into a 'hooked'. Is it a liability issue or just concern of a persons first experience more complicated than needed?
I'm back in the states after the latest visit to sunny Diego Garcia and the submarine over there, but I won't be in the San Diego area. I have some family in the area, so I'll suggest they swing by and take a look.
We have 6 cargo ships for first-timers to run at Maker Faire: forward, reverse, left and right. Last cargo ship afloat wins the battle for its team. Sounds simple, but is intensely tactically challenging. That's the basic requirement for "experienced combat captain." Two of our members who joined the club after Maker Faire in May fit that description, and will be running a cruiser each at this event. Rob
How did the event go? My dad swung by and took a few pictures and a short video or two. I'll see if I can share them.
The event was an unqualified success! We scheduled 8 battles (4 per day) over the 2-day event, but actually squeezed in a 5th battle on Sunday afternoon, just 30 minutes after the 4th one was over. The new 7 new Kent class cruisers performed flawlessly. (There's a lot to be said for "embracing the sink" when designing and engineering a ship and its systems.) Each of the 8 scheduled battles were SRO (Standing Room Only), even though it was raining off and on on Sunday. The bleachers were full for the 5th battle on Sunday. We had a crew of 38 people, including over a dozen WWCC members who made it down from the SF Bay Area, 6 WWCC members who live in San Diego county, 9 members of the San Diego Argonauts who supported us, 1 member of Task Force 96, and several volunteers from the Maker Faire community. A typical battle line-up... Axis: 1 Roma, 3 German pocket battleships, 1 Z-boat, 4 Kent-class torpedo cruisers, 3 cargo ships (operated by audience members) Allied: 1 HMS Rodney, 1 HMS Hood, 1 Iowa, 3 Kent-class torpedo cruisers, 3 cargo ships (operated by audience members) In several of the battles, Kent-class cruisers were skippered by captains who had begun as cargo ship operators in a previous battle over the weekend, Two of those local captains, along with their parents, have submitted club membership applications. We also have 6 additional membership applications from locals - all due to having been given the opportunity to run cargo ships in the battles. I kept 2 of the cruisers here in San Diego as club loaners. I also have the HMS Hood, HMS Rodney, HMS Abdiel, Le Fantasque, USS Cimarron, and 2 of the club cargo ships. We experimented with some interesting technology this weekend. We had a 360fly video camera mounted to HMS Hood. This camera shoots video 360 degrees around, and 240 degrees overhead. It's worth taking a look at the footage: More images and videos to come... I want to thank our sponsors, Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, the National Robotics Education Foundation, Hitec RCD, and ServoCity for their generous support and contributions to our project, without which the Battle Pond would not be as successful as it has become! Tired but happy! Rob
To be honest, that was a brilliant idea to build those HMS Kents. I think that presenting this hobby with an interactive standpoint will work out. If only stuff like this went on in Richmond.
I think it's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that handing a transmitter to someone with that particular gleam in his or her eye is a short cut to hooking someone on this hobby. IMHO, the biggest obstacle to entry is the daunting prospect of having to become a model ship builder, before you can begin to play. The model airplane industry started the whole ARF craze to satisfy that instant gratification thing that seems to have taken over the US, and now that has evolved into the drone insanity, where anyone can learn to fly a drone in your face in no time flat. We are being forced into a similar approach, because that's just the way life is. Our theory, and it remains to be seen if it will pan out in the long run, is that by instituting this cruiser "Lend/Lease" program, new members can borrow or lease a super-user-friendly cruiser with a very nasty bite (single shot left, single shot right, then race to port to rearm and reload), to have fun in combat while building ships of their own. We have 2-day combat events every 2 months, with build days in the off months. That way, we can help new members build their ships, and provide a dependable, easy-to-maintain cruiser for them to battle with. Note the hull skin: It's duct tape. This cruiser can sink, you can dump the water out, and continue to run it. Rob
Sorry I think Admiral Kas was hitting the keg again...we'll put him back in his own tab...KAS! here boy..
