It is good to plan. However, I would save a bare minimum of $500 befored I planned in earnest. Adult participation/help is absolutely needed. I started at 17 with the NTXBG. I did not have my own ship till I was 18 and working. I put $1000 into a French Battlecruiser Dunkerque and it only had 2 turrets to arm! If you really want to get on the water. Buy/build a transport of some sort. Like a liberty ship or a Golo. With a little sage advice you could get one on the water for less than $200. That is from scratch, including basic tools to get it done. For a combat ship, a Big Gun "torpedo boat" is a cost effective way to start. These are usually light cruisers and the like outfitted with a triple barrel gun on each beam. Swoop in, smash, dash. Speed, firepower, lower cost. I think building lightweight ships is relatively easy... many would disagree. It is all about component selection and planning. The "Big Gun" Capitani Romani on my shelf is under 4lbs and it is supposed to be a 5lb boat. I need to ADD ballast. I am originally a "big gun" guy but play fast gun because it is local. Don't get wrapped up in the format. Both are a blast! Literally and figuratively! nyuck nyuck. There are battles coming up in Louisiana and Minnesota. Try to talk someone into taking you. Do chores, mow yards, etc... If you want to do an event in Texas. Wait till around Jul 4th weekend and there is a big week long event called NABGO. Take a Greyhound bus down there and see if you can split a room at the location with someone. Sometimes you have to be persistent and sometimes you just need some patience because it isn't a feasible time in life.
Some very good advice from mike there. I wouldn't get to wrapped up in planning for a long time as the tech and techniques used do change over time. Save your money, get a part time job, and maybe try to go to some events regardless of format.
Much of the above advice is really good. DO save your money. You are not at a stage in life where you are positioned to throw money at this piecemeal and do anything but waste money. Absolutely do _not_ go buying a part here and a part there. A tool now and then that you have no real use for. A dremel won't build you a ship, they're useful tools, but not really to you at this time. If you can at some point get yourself to one of the larger events within a day's drive, do it. In the meantime, absorb everything online you can. Watch videos, read rulesets (all of them), look through every photo gallery you see, get as good of an understanding as you can. If your school offers shop classes, take them. If they offer robotics or electronics courses, take them. Even something like a mechanics/automotive/small engine repair class would probably be useful in that it gets you used to problem solving and working with your hands in useful ways. If you want to get involved in this before you are 18, you will NEED an adult. To get an adult you are likely going to need to show restraint, proper planning, patience and maturity. If you don't like any of the above advice, I can recommend some good sci-fi and fantasy novels to occupy your time with instead. Some good non-fiction war history stuff too.
Read through this thread SB-101 (Building the Edgar Quinet by Tugboat). It will describe some of the hand tools (minimum necessary to build a wooden ship. Personally, I can't live without my scroll saw, power drill, mouse sander & belt sander.
You could build an entire ship with a dremel, coping saw, soldering iron, sandpaper, and wood to mount sandpaper to for sanding blocks (total $80~). However as mentioned above a drill, scroll saw, and combination disk/belt sander come in very handy(additional $150~ if you craigslist and shop Harbor Freight). I tend to use sandpaper over wood vs a flat file because files can tend to "clog" and sandpaper just gets tossed instead of cleaned.
I do know i got some good drills I can use since my dad is a construction work/owner.Also I think I have a dremel too
So now I have a job.I do not want to start a club.If there is any other person than me with a ship it would be my cousin or my brother.But they show little to no interest.If I need tools I know some people with work shops.We literally have a shed full of tools and we got 2 soldering irons from when my brother was in the rock crawling groove.Now I have heard generic advice to go with ships like the South Dakota and if I go smaller go with the Pocket battleships.Know I am wondering is there any other ships out there good enough for a new person.All I want to do is get the hull laid out.If get that done it might help with support. And to say right now I am not a city kid who only plays games.I have worked for most of my life.From helping my uncle in his lumberyard to helping my dad build the best quality buildings in the area.I know how to work and I got the patients not to rush and do it wrong.From the start I have been taught to take my time and work.
Fastgun or big gun? Nationality and era preference? Do you want to hug and slug? Run around the edges of a battle and take shots of opportunity? Meander through the middle of a furball looking for targets?
Big Gun and well....I have a heart for both ww1 and ww2.I actually have been looking at the Queen Elizabeth class.When and if I go to battle I want to be able to have a little range.I don't want to be at point blank range knife fighting I want to be at least pistol ranges and more.
I'm not an expert on Big-Gun, but you're going to run into a problem: as far as I know, you're a good ways from any big-gun group and you're not in a position to start one. Range isn't something you'll find as a common feature in fast-gun though, except for some flat shooting cruisers that pluck away from the edges, still you might see if you can get to a fast-gun event more local to you and check things out, the knife fighting in a phone booth isn't as bad as it first appears. Maybe some of our resident Big-Gun experienced captains can chime in on the question of ship choice. @Kotori87, @Gascan and @Rob Wood come to immediate mind, though I know I'm forgetting people. Well there's not a whole lot of point in building a ship if you never go to a battle. Is there?
It's very difficult to recommend any particular Big Gun ship to someone who has no access to a club, or who hasn't visited a battle or two in person and had a chance to speak with veteran captains while there. However... As a first Big Gun Axis ship with rotating turrets, I like the German so-called "pocket battleships" of WWII (Lützow, Admiral Scheer, Graf Spee). These ships only have two rotating turrets (7/32"), so expense and maintenance is kept down. They have a reasonable amount of displacement for a heavy cruiser ("officially" 10,000 tons, standard), which means they can take some abuse from larger battleships (at least for a while). Bonus: They can have two triple torpedo guns on the stern. Another bonus: The size of the ship means it can fit in virtually any car, and also means it doesn't require a lot of storage space or a large work table or workbench to do repairs and maintenance. Downside: Not a lot of internal space for equipment. My recommendation for a first Allied ship with rotating turrets would be the SoDak (South Dakota) class of US battleship. Plenty of firepower, 1/8" armor, two pumps and excellent turning ability. All that said, an armed RC warship, whether Big Gun, Fast Gun, or any other flavor, is pretty useless without another one to battle against. Rob
A French heavy ship like Dunkerque or Richelieu. Still only 2 turrets but they have 4 barrels each. It concentrates firepower. Only requires one rotation system for both turrets.
So I think I have a ship I want to build the Dunkerque.I have looked at the WWCC rules but I seem to not understand what size of plywood I need.Like the thickness can anybody help me on that?
Tempted to just tell you but look up how thick Dunk's armor belt was... and then look at the balsa thickness table.
Gunner, the wording of your question isn't very clear. Are you looking for the thickness of the balsa wood armor that a Dunkerque is allowed, or are you looking for advice on how thick to make the ribs and other structural parts of a wooden hull?
No sir not the thickness of the balsa just the thickness of the ribs.And possibly the thickness of the deck of the ship.
