PMWC Introduction

Originally Pacific Model Warship Club was know as Central California Naval Combat when formed in 1992. The club was very active until 2002 when the club went on hiatus for several years. 10 years later in 2013, three former members (myself included) decided to give it a try again. To help jumpstart the effort we started contacting many former members to see if we could buy their ships. The answer was always "NO, then I would have nothing to play with". In the less than 2 years since reforming, we now have over 20 members and our 2014 Labor Day event had 17 warships and 2 cargo ships participating. Many of our members are new to combat, but several are former Big Gun members with WWCC (and two from Fast Gun) who wanted ships with less guns, which means less $$$,and mostly so they could concentrate on building finer looking ships with more detail.

 

Gary.

Do you have your building regs/battling rules available anywhere we can peruse them ?

Regards,
Kevan
Sydney, Australia

 

For the most part we have been using the base Queen's Own rules. Once we (here in California) started playing again a couple years ago, we found that we needed to make some updates. For example we had two pages addressing radio frequencies and conflicts. We also wanted to reduce the size of the rule book by taking out redundancies and common sense items that were just not necessary. We need to remember that our club here in California took a 10 year nap, so it was time for a few updates. The major change and most challenging that we have been addressing has been trying to expand our ships list to include more classes of warships. Originally Queen's Own created mostly a "destroyer" and "torpedo boat" game and only allowed a few cruiser classes into our game. Over the years we have gradually expanded the list, but many members have been expressing a desire to build more World War I classes of Battleships. Between QO in Washington and California, the largest ships that have participated in combat have been three Pocket Battleships, HMS Exeter and the American heavy cruisers Louisville and Houston. We are just now buttoning up all our changes and just haven't finished typing them up. As soon as they are completed, they will go out onto our Pacific Model Warship website.

 

Excuse me, but I am a new member to this site, and seeing as I am moving to Idaho this summer, you are one of the closest options.
I am also new to model naval combat and have some questions, if you could help answer them that would be wonderful:

1: I would like to have a semi-small first ship. I think that a naval patrol/gunboat would best suit my experimenting, so that a screw up isn't too costly. I was thinking one, swiveling gun, and a simple motor/rudder rig. Do you think this is a good idea, and do you have any suggestions on how I build it/what materials to use.

Thank you for your assistance...

 

Good first ships in 1/72 are in the range 310' to 350' long and at least 1,200 tons (cutoff for two guns ships, three gun ships start at 2,800 tons). This gives you a scale model length of between 49" and 55" long and it will give you two guns. Two guns will allow you to place one in the front and one in the rear; the rear gun is mainly for protection and you can rotate the front. Ships in this size range that have been successful in our club have been the Swedish Goteborg Class, German B-97, Japanese Mutsuki, Italian Soldati or an American Bagley. There are others. Some of these plans I have electronically and could send to you for printing locally if you are interested. As for what to build the ships out of, general guideline are usually 1/4" plywood frames, 1/8" sub deck and 1/8" deck, sheet the bottom with any material, up to 1" below the waterline and then cover with fiberglass cloth and resin. The penetration are would be 1/16" balsa, covered in any grade silkspan. The superstructure is built as lightly as possible, but strong enough to prevent some shot damage. Once you pick as ship and get serious about building, I can then give you more specific assistance.

 

Okay thank you.

 

Following your advice, I am now looking at an Insect-class gunboat. It has a forward and rear guns, and measures 230 feet in full size. That's going to make it a little larger than 3 feet, and I believe this is a good size. I do intend to follow all your construction suggestions. What do you think?

 

Hi Slyfly, I recommend you go to our sight and look at some of the posts on there pertaining to building ships.Home Port | Pacific Model Warship Club I also recommend that you visit the Polar Bear Club's sight. There is alot of helpfull information on it. Please note that the Polar Bear Club is a 144 fast gun club, so some of the regulations are different.

 

Tonnage for the Insect Class (650 tons) would place the ship in our 721 Class of ships, which get 1 gun. To build a gunboat in the 722 Class of ships (2 guns), you would need to build something like the USS Erie.

 

I see

One gun was my original plan (keep it simple keep it safe) so I don't have a problem with that.

Although I was just looking at my wall and saw a souvenier of the USS Alabama, perhaps I'll do that one instead.

Yes, how about a South-Dakota class battleship? Would that be better suiting (especially for a begginner)

 

No wait, that would be to large... Okay, insect class sounds fine. Does anyone have plans?

Or Asheville-class gunboat plans?

My decision has been made:

1: Asheville-class Gunboat
2: Insect Class Gunboat

Does anyone have plans for either (preferably the first).

 

Cornwall Models in England has a 1/48 scale HMS Gnat.

HMS Gnat Model Boat Plan MAR2300 - Marine Modelling International, Traplet Plans

 

Cool
What exactly are the purposes of plans?

 

I'm not really sure what you mean by your question regarding "Plans"? Most of us that build ships totally from scratch, use plans (plan, profile and ribs for a specific ship) as a pattern so we can construct it. For those that start with the kits from one of the manufacture's, still need plans in order to assemble the ship correctly. I hope this answers your question.

 

Lol ya that was an impulse question.

 

Slyfly.
This game really was for Destroyer and below. There are cruiser rules but, an Exeter is about 96 inches long. Pocket BBs can be built.
Think of this game as gee I always wanted to build a destroyer,but they are to small in 1/144th scale. They can be decked out with nice detail also. You get into the bigger WW 2 vessels and all those AA guns to put on. Besides an 8 inch gun cruiser carries 1/4" guns.
Overall you will find this a good scale to play.

 

We plan to very soon. The rules just went through a major revision where a lot of the text rules have been converted into a more comprehensive ships list. We also took out a lot of game play rules, so we could get it down to the important things you really needed to know. I'm really the hold up. I just need to finish typing them up and giving them to our web person.

 

Gary.
You retired and you have less time than when you were working. I know the feeling.

 

Trust me, once everyone found out I was retired I suddenly had 6 jobs to take the place of the one I had with the Assessor's Office. But like I've been saying for a year and a half now; "Every day is a Saturday".