I have seen so maney sets of plans for Fletcher class destroyers on the web i was doing a search and found the Gearing class, do people build/use them ofton.
Why is that they wear built with in the timeframe of the rules and little larger then a fletcher, duble cannon turet over the fletchers single turet? Are they in the forbiben ship list? This seems to be a better ship fire power wise how are they not really used?
because (in 1/144) DDs are limited in utility and effect and most damningly of all, they're small, which makes them touchy and delicate and expensive. Take a gander at the Fletcher project thread. With a great deal of effort they've managed to produce a viable kit for a Fletcher, and are modifying it for a Gearing, but they had plenty of issues, such as all of them turning turtle at a battle... Now, if you were looking to play 1/72, DDs are probably 95% of the ships built.
Im gessing its the 14.4 feet draft is the issue as a posed to the fletchers 17.5 feet draft im gessing the lack of a lower draft is what you are refering to...
I think he was saying it's really hard to be anywhere near combat effective with destroyer level firepower. And the aren't the easiest of builds to do well which just makes it even harder.
Others will chime in, but the fletcher kit is going very well. Cost is low for entry, build sheets are included in the kit. Gearing is almost done, first hulls are going through testing now. Phil just does the work, he is not on this site enough to post. Turtle situation was rectified by increasing the depth 3/8th , scale hull looks great but just didn't work so well. No more turtle for you!
Fletcher was first produced, this had a single rudder. Sumner is the same as the fletcher, but with double rudders. So with one plug, you get two ships (makes marketing sense). Gearing is a Sumner with 14 feet added between the funnels, so the manufacturer took the fletcher plug and added the extra length. So by building the Fletcher first, the manufacturer was able to affordably make three different hulls. Keep in mind that some will not make a combat ship, they just want RC. So the manufacturer is catering to another group and this keeps the cost down for our group.
I read a thread last knight on a Mogador build, whats up with the rules about only one wepon for destroyers? And 15 shott clips or 50 shot clips i dont rember reading those rules. Could someone please explain it for me? Just say for giggles a builder could build a 144 ship and build it with more then 2 turited main guns what is the deal about only loading one wepon in a 2 wepon turet?
Destroyers are the weakest combat boats we use so they get the least amount of firepower. Typically a 1 unit cannon which is either 15 rds (i think that's the right number, someone will correct me if im wrong) in a spurt gun or 50 rds single shot. Spurt guns historically (in the hobby, not real life) were more dangerous so you get fewer shots, if that reasoning is still valid or not is probably debatable. Bigger ships with more firepower obviously get more guns. You can load more than one weapon into a turret assuming you have the available units and room in the turret. Dual and triple stern guns are common, dual sidemounts are getting more common. I think with the ability some small ships have to split units you could try to get two 25rd (fired single shot/semi-auto) guns into some of the larger destroyers.
i had managed a twin 10 round spurt in my shimakaze but a single 50 was impossible due to depth. adding in that 3/8 allowed by rules would have made a single 50 possible but still very hard. Shimakaze had about the same internal space as the fletcher just longer and somewhat thinner.
The fletcher is plastic and designed to be disposable after a season (YMMV). No internal ribs, tons of space (well, more than others)
At some point you will have to ask yourself is it worth it to spend a year building a boat, travel 5+ hours to an event and be blown out of the water in the first minute because we arm all the guns... Rules are in place to "balance" as much as we can so everyone will have fun. I have always thought it would be fun to stand on the shoreline and throw bricks at the ships. Its not in the rules and I don't care if you arm all the guns. fun for everyone! (of course I am kidding)
In my own opinion if a ship has say 4 turits and at 144 scale if it all happons to fit by chance the ship should be able to use what it baraught to the fight, granted in real life a 5 in deck gun would have most likley been used for AA purposes rather then firing another ship. Yes i know thers a diffrence between ones opinions and a set in stone rule for a game but that was my thouts.
If it was fun, no i dont mind at all as long as I and others had fun, even if it went down in flames. I wouldent mind doing it again.
BigGun sounds like your cup of tea. Or maybe Battlestations. Cant remember their arms limits offhand.
Battlestations is a 1/96 scale big gun type format. I've seen 2 Gearings in Battlestations, though only one was battled (in New Zealand). Still not easy, but more feasible in 1/96 than 1/144.
Because this is a battling sport that attempts to balance firepower by allocating an amount of "battle units" to each ship class by it's relative firepower in real life. A DD had minimal gun firepower as compared to bigger ships so it's gets only 1 or 1.5 battle units (depending on class). In practical terms, a DD gets one cannon because that's all that will fit.
