Was Axis dominated! We seem to have removed the two largest obsticles to Allied domination this year!
I believe you may have left one too many obstacles behind.... Don't underestimate the power of the "dark side"
"I believe you may have left one too many obstacles behind.... Don't underestimate the power of the "dark side"" The Force is still new to this young one, this year he may have second thoughts about who controls the pond.
I 've lost before, remember I was allied! Running the triode of death, 1 and two, two and one with the option of switching back and forth.
"I have taken on this one and his side kick before, let me handle this one." OK Marty, but make sure "the boy" has his swimmies on, he may be using them.
So what's the tally for the SE regional? So far I see commitments from: Mike Mangus Clark Ward Ralph Dollar Steve Tyng
Side note, the detail parts arrived from Strike for the DKM Lutzow I'm building They have some really good guys making stuff for them!! The twin 88 AA guns have to be seen to be believed; the searchlights are impressive, too. Also ordered the Grey Wolf Sqdn Lutzow main turrets. They will likely be seen in a pic this weekend as part of Lutzie's SS...
I have to work Friday night. So the plan is to make the drive down from Ohio on Saturday afternoon, after taking a couple/few hour nap. I hope to be at the motel late Saturday night. Oh well. It's better than not making it at all. Mikey
From a posting on the IRC list the SE regional has supposedly been moved back a week. "As the original dates I had planned is Easter weekend which would prevent several people from attending. I am changing it to the following weekend. The new dates are Friday April 29th through Sunday May 1st. Brian & Fred, Please change on the websites, thx."
Unfortuantly, I've another commitment on the new dates for the battle. It is dependent on weather though, so if the event I have to go to that weekend is washed out and the weather in North Carolina is ok, I'll make the battle.
I'm back on to be at the battle. Also, we may see the return of the Richelieu ... much upgraded of course after it's brushless/LiFE/Cannon refit.
Attending were: Rob Stalnaker (Tirpitz) 7.0 Units Rich Spencer (Tirpitz) 7.0 Units Niel Humbel (Bismarck) - Saturday only 7.0 Units Mike Mangus (Erin) 4.5 units Ron Hunt (Invincible) 4.0 units With so few battlers attending we had a relaxing weekend to debug our ships. Friday Battle 1 Sortie 1: Erin and Invincible vs the Tirpitz twins. Rich's Tirpitz lost propulsion and partially fried the speed control when a brush on one drive motor failed and shorted. It made smoke and was on the verge of sinking at the end of the sortie. Rob's Tirpitz lost the drive prop into the murky deep when he pulled it out of the water. It had been slowing before that so the prop was probably free spinning on the shaft. Battle 1 Sortie 2: Erin lost rudder control and spent the battle driving in circles. Rich's Tirpitz withdrew after he discovered it would go dead every time he tried reverse. Rob's Tirpitz had poor acceleration due to in incorrectly sized replacement prop. Took 61 belows and sank. Battle 2 Sortie 1: Erin and Invincible vs the lonely Gray Wolf. Erin lost second drive motor and partial steering, Mike had been experimenting with a twin brushless drive system. Invincible and Rob's Tirpitz performed adequately. I beleive this was when the pictures were taken. Battle 2 Sortie 2: Erin's twin drive system continued to malfunction. Rob's Tirpitz lost steering when the rudder linkage bound up. Saturday Battle 3 Sortie 1: Rob's Tirpitz and the Invincible vs Rich's Tirpitz and Niel's Bismark. Somebody sideswiped Rob's Tirpitz and pointed the A turret backwards at about a 45 degree angle. He later said he liked it there. Invincible shredded the Tirpitz's bow with 0 degree angle stern gun shots. Bismarck lost reverse and a drive motor. Battle 3 Sortie 2: Rich's Tirpitz ram sank the Invincible early in the sortie by pusing it sideways and under for about 10 feet. Shows up nice in the video. Dumped out the water and kept on going. In return the Invincible blew the rest of the balsa off the Tirpitz, the sink looks cool on the superstructure cameras. Bismarck blew another drive motor. Battle 4 Sortie 1: Erin and Rob's Tirpitz vs Rich's Tirpitz, the Bismarck and the Invincible. Rich's Tirpitz went out of control, Erin got shredded and sank with a weakening pump stream. The pump motor saw it's last sortie. The other 3 boats all performed OK. Battle 4 Sortie 2: Rich's Tirpitz had a mutiny and changed sides. Mike Mangus drove Rob Stalnaker's Tirpitz for this sortie, his unfamiliarity with Rob's gun placement showed when he collected two quarter sized blowouts and 45 belows and sank. Bismarck threw a dogbone, got stuck on shore and pounded until sunk. Battle 4 Sortie 3: The sunken ships having been patched, we decided to go free for all this sortie. Mike Mangus drove Rob's Tirpitz again. Rich's Tirpitz began experiencing intermittent throttle control problems, the internal overload breaker in the speed control was tripping and resetting. Bismarck blew a hose. Sunday: no notes, but here is what I remember: Erin sank second sortie, Rich's Tirpitz sat out with throttle problems, Invincible sank and was refloated when I left the pump off for 3 minutes at the start of the second sortie, and it wasn't until the third sortie that Rob's Tirpitz accumulated enough damage to sink, leaving the Invincible as the last ship afloat. Only a couple of photos taken, by Rich Spencer using my phone when he sat out a sortie. The shoreline is in the shade most of the day. There are some videos from his twin GoPro cameras mounted on his superstructure, but they have not been posted anywhere yet. If I remember right during this sortie both the Tirpitz and Erin went out of control. Ron Hunt
