What's your guys' treaty ship status at the moment? Invincible is pretty much combat ready, minus being slowed down to treaty speed. I plan to attempt using smaller props to accomplish my speed reduction. One of my sidemounts doesnt work right; not sure exactly how to fix it. She'll battle with or without it. Pump is probably pretty close to what it should be. I'll have to do some testing when it gets a little warmer. Salt Lake City needs a lot of work. Her superstructure is old-school fully penetrable, and I need to rebuild it out of something more durable. I am concerned about weight. I've got 8"/55 turrets at home for her, that I ordered from Krijn in Canada. Very nice turrets. She's got 4 motors installed at the moment and an ancient Dumas speed control; I plan on removing the outer shafts and props, to save them as spares. I'll probably also convert her to a MAG throttle as the dumas takes up a large amount of space. I've got a spare RX and pump to install in her, so that's no problem. She's also in need of guns and a CO2 system. I'll probably order the two stern guns, but I don't know anyone who manufactures a 1/2 unit gun so I'll probably need to build that myself. Courageous will not be battled this year. She's in desperate need of a major overhaul. Maybe next year she will be ready to see action again. Mike D
My Strasbourg will be ready for sea trials the weekend after the Toledo show. Hull and superstructure are finished, and the internals are almost ready to be installed. This will be my primary ship at the May battle. Jean Bart is torn down just now, and needs to be re-sheeted, then have all of the intenals re-installed. I need a long weekend to have her battle ready. I plan to have her at the May battle also. Bearn is sheeted, and has the rudder, and drive in. I need to install the pump, and cannons, and associated stuff, and she will be ready. I may bring her to the May battle, but I do not expect to have her battle ready. She may run sea trials though. Mikey
I'm thinking about bringing the Salt Lake City to the May battle as well, and run sea trials regardless of her "battleworthiness". I just want to see the ship hit the water, move and maneuver under her own power for the first time in over 20 years. That I think is a very do-able goal. Mike D
Be nice to see that Iowa out there. I think with the speed advantage Iowas have over everything but a few select cruisers, they'll be very interesting ships. There will certainly be reason to build them over North Carolinas. Heck, the speed rules that we are implementing has me looking forward to getting the Courageous back on the water. Standard fastgun rules had me thinking about trying her at biggun since she was hopeless as a fastgun ship, but now, "dogs" like Courageous, Renown, and Alaska look quite appealing. I'm looking forward to seeing how she performs. Mike D
Last night I had to swap our the RX in the Invincible for the Ravenna battle. The Polk didn't seem to be working right. Later investigation showed that might have been due to a low RX battery...I may try to put the polk RX back in tonight before I re-seal the WTB. Motors and pump are working, repairs and reinforcements to my gun and pump actuators are complete. There should be no more issues of the epoxy breaking and leaving me with no weapons in the middle of a fight as I have reinforced them with screws now. Mike D
Mike, As you know Alabamais ready. I start on Kongo today. I have the forward s/s started and hope to have the hull here by months end. bOb
Nice. I think Kongo will be a good ship. That throttle is still giving me grief. I pulled the WTB apart last night, and forward was working full time. I'm really not sure how to run down that problem when it always seems to work on the bench. Its more then a little frustrating. Mike D
I did a little work on the Salt Lake City this afernoon, before I decided to shift my focus to getting Courageous back on the water since she is closer to being combat ready. For the Courageous, I pulled the last of her original fixed stern cannons out (removed one previously for the Invincible) and replaced it with a BC coil mag gun. The mounting will be different, so I'm making some changes. Eventually, I want to have both the bow and stern sidemounts change sides as rotates (I prefer 2 position rotates...full left and full right to adjustable rotates) but for now, the bow will be fixed to one side, and the stern will be fixed to the other for the sake of expediency. I'm also trying to decide between 2 75 round sidemounts or 2 50 rounders and 2 pumps. As long as she is, I'm thinking a bow pump and a stern pump just MAY be the way to go, but I am undecided. Any thoughts? Right now, I've got 2 50 round coil guns in her (its what I have) so I may end up re-commissioning her a unit short of what she's authorized. I've got the fixed channel 61 radio that I'll be installing, which means if I have the Invincible out at the same time, I'll be stuck using my craptacular Polk TX on the I-boat until I can get another Futaba radio on a separate channel. I'm thinking about checking out the new Futaba 2.4 gig radios; anyone have a report on them good/bad? I've got a BC pump to put in her, so I really only need to get some spare batteries (only have enough for the Invincible atm, and really need one more for her to be safe...) another regulator, and another 3.5oz bottle and she should be good to go. I also did a little superstructure repair work. Once I get the hardware working again, I should be able to re-sheet and paint her, and we'll have another treaty ship ready for action. I'm anxious to see how well the epitome of fast gun "dog" will perform under the treaty system. Its one more reason why I chose to refit the Courageous before finishing the Salt Lake City. Other guys will have cruisers out there to see how well they perform (if Phil's Suffren was any indication, the answer should be "quite nicely") but I don't think anyone has anything similar to the Courageous to put on the water to see how well she performs...especially if that one guy Buddy was referring to decided to go forward with his Renown. Courageous should perform VERY SIMILARLY to the Renown, so we'll be able to give him some idea of what to expect. Mike D
Replaced the "forward" microswitch on my MAG throttle. It works on the bench (just like the old one), and I am hoping that will cure my throttle issue. We'll see next weekend. I resealed the WTB to give the RTV time to cure before I get sunk by...errrr....engage the Alabama. I sure hope my WTB works as well as it did the LAST time Alabama schooled me. On the Courageous, I got the aft sidemount solidly in place. So, both guns are in, and ready. I sealed the receiver pack, since there was no reason to keep it unsealed anymore. The rudder is in, and operational, and the throttle ready to be installed. I need a new rudder since the one currently installed doesn't have the extra 50% its entitled to, but for now it will be good enough. For the moment, I am thinking I am going to run the pump full time (I don't feel like installing another servo JUST to turn the pump on) but I may get creative and use the MAG throttle to kick the pump if I go full reverse. The gun servo and poppets are ready to re-install; I just need to secure it to the hull and connect the hoses. I've already run most of the Courageous' wiring, so I just need to hook it all up. I had planned on doing that this weekend, but I had an unexpected BBQ and had to move a car I wasn't planning on so my ship time was lower then expected this weekend. Still, Courageous is nearly ready to float. The biggest thing I have left to do is sheet, and I'll be honest, I'm NOT looking forward to doing that. All in all though, she should be battle-ready soon, and should be a fast, valuable asset to the Allied fleet. Good Mike
Mike, Thank you for your comments about Alabama. Hopefully we won't have to test your waterproof box. Do you have any pictures of Courageous? Last time I saw here was when I was running my Baden. I do remember that it was a very nice looking boat. El Bob O
I'm getting ready to take one to post. She's not looking tip-top atm, since the last time I battled her I ran out of ambroid (tube blew up in my car from the heat) and had to use some grey paint to patch with. Once I get her internals done though, I'll be ready to resheet her (she's hard as a rock right now). Once I get her sheeted, I plan to paint the sides (not the superstructure) a variation of the paint scheme Repulse wore as part of Force Z in 1941. A neat Force Z website which is ESSENTIAL to anyone interested in a Repulse or a Prince of Wales should check it out: http://www.forcez-survivors.org.uk/ Good Mike
Got some images posted now in the photos section of this website and also on the yahoo group. Good Mike
Yes, I know that a 1/2 unit gun only holds 25 rounds. I don't want to count while I load, I want to load to capacity, so I need a 25 round mag on my gun Good Mike
I have had good luck with replacement clear tubing for my magazines. cut off your copper tubing 1 inch from gun and 1 inch from fill cap. glue in 1/4 id tubing. in the proper length for 25 rounds all my guns are this way which gives me 0-150 capacity.
I got my new props installed on the Invincible this morning. I also re-attached a few places where the balsa appeared to be separating from the hull. I should probably resheet, but I don't really want to, especially considering I need to sheet the Courageous soon. Since I have new props on, I'll have to re-time the Invincible, since I went to a smaller prop, I shouldn't need to de-tune the pitch quite as much. Hopefully the smaller diameter props won't impact my turning ability. Next weekend will probably be the Courageous' weekend. I'll probably try to get her re-sheeted and finish the wiring. I also need to cut down her gun barrels as they stick out WAY too much. That being said, I hope to have her on the water in the next few weeks. That will really depend on my level of motivation haha. Good Mike
My Strasbourg just needs some patching, and batteries topped off, and she will be ready again. I was thinking about taking 25 rounds out of one of my sidemounts, and adding a half-unit pump in the bow, but I think I would be better off just not making a habit of double parking next to a six unit battleship. Hehe. Mikey P.S. I still recall Bobo sinking first.
I've gotta tell you Mikey, I was really impressed by how well your Strasbourg performed. I didn't expect her to turn as well as she did, and she has plenty of hull volume to work with. 31 knots is also nice. Those Frenchy BCs have a pretty excellent mix of speed, firepower and maneuverability. Given how the treaty tactics are seeming to work out as being more sidemount friendly then your typical fast gun event, I'm wondering just how scary a Bart or a Rodney would be with those dual sides. I'm thinking that they could dish out an awful lot of pain on an opposing ship. Mike D
Mike D. There is no question that the big French battleships would be a tuff nut to crack. With more speed, and twice the number of sidemounts (in dual firing sidemount turrets no less, they would be a force to be reckoned with. I also think that the Rodney class battleships would be nasty customers. The question would be.. How would one arm it, in order to get the most use out of it? I have never really been a big fan of stern guns. So I am not sure that I wouldn't pass on the single stern gun, and set her up with a single pump, dual sidemounts (on both sides), and a chase gun over the bow. I would like to see one out there. Mikey
