Hi I would like to build a model of the USS Montana or a ship of the same class, and I would like to know where I could get such plans(Front, aft and side view with bulkheads, as I would like to make it with a wood frame, balsa wood hull, and fiberglass coating)
Welcome! I think Strike Models has plans. I'm not sure where you can get a hull though... Just remember: Montana isn't legal for fast gun.
Also I am new to this so what is the rule with bulkheads? and do you put a protected citadel in to waterproof equipment?
The Montana was never built and is not on the IRCWCC ship list. Assuming your building to IRCWCC rules.
Since there is no commercial manufacturer of big gun style guns, your best bet is making your own. Look around this site for information on that. I'm not a fast gunner but Battlers Connection sells high-quality fast gun kits.
Hey there, I'm in Alexandria, we have a pretty good IRCWCC group in the DMV area. It's much easier to answer questions in person. We are planning on a build session in Annapolis on 12/7 where there will be about 20 boats to look at, including a few Des Moines. Gun availability is a non-issue for fast gun. You can get good reliable guns from BC, we can show you how to make guns, or possibly make some for cost of parts (about $10 each). Plenty of loaner ships available as I have way too many operational ships to use them all. Could you share a little bit about yourself to help us get better acquainted?
The MABG is a Big Gun group active in VA and MD. We have members near you in NVA and Silver Spring. A couple of our members are developing cannon in addition to the big guns 3d files on this website.
Hi, my name is Ethan and while I have never built a RC ship before, I love building and have plenty of experience. I am a junior at a science and tech school and I am interested in engineering. My high school has a project known as the Senior research project, even though it may not involve much actual research. The project involves expanding on a previous class, for instance, in energy systems you could build a motorbike by hand, and with the available materials. There is limited school funding, but I would be able to use many tools that others might not have access to. I would do this in the prototyping or robotics labs, but either way I would be able to do the same things, as the work together often. The only problem is that I might not be able to build the cannons at school, so I could assemble the parts at home and simply install dummy turrets for presentation. While I am a Junior, I would like to do as much as I can now, so that I can do more later.
Hi Ethan, that sounds like a good plan. I followed a similar path. I started my first boat when I was 14, back then there were only a few build articles online to go off of. When I applied for college (engineering as well) I had been in the hobby for a few years and I talked a lot about it in interviews. There is a lot of integrated systems design that goes into a boat, requires out of the box thinking to make a functional ship. It made the interviews go quite well. I used my building and design skills from the hobby in my sophomore robotic design class to win a trip to Brazil to represent the US in an international competition. For my junior year instrumentation lab I correlated sound intensity with BB velocity for our guns. Since that time I've come and gone from the hobby as school/work allowed, but I still see a good number of the same people that helped me out 17 years ago getting started. Working on a boat in the evenings is a good break from sitting behind the computer all day. Now a days I sometimes even get to use my hobby experience to help troubleshoot issues on real warships. Back on the spring we had a ship get a vapor locked pump, no one could figure out why the pump couldn’t clear the air that was getting in the casing. The design from the 70’s didn’t include a vent line from the top of the pump - every battleship captain learns the importance of a good priming hole! You're interested in battling the boats at some point, right? I wouldn't worry too much about the guns at this point, there is a lot of work getting the rest of the boat together. check out some build threads in the warships builds section to get a better idea of the process, there is a lot of good info in the posts of this sight (also a lot of other stuff)
Yeah, I would like to battle at some point, but first I want to get at least one ship fully functional.
It is a great hobby to get into for the aspiring engineer /technical person, particularly when young. I got into it in college, built three ships in college (two in the dorms) back in the day. On the get it going front, one thing to keep in mind is both the cost and complexity of the ship you want to build first. Big gun has a number of simple torpedo cruisers that sure look fairly simple and documentation is available. For fast gun, generally the easiest build is something in the class 3/4 (my preference is class 4 due to weight being much easier to hit) but it really depends upon experience. I would never recommend a new captain build something much larger than class 4/5 (or smaller than the large end of class 3) unless they had significant rc boat experience (scale not hydro or racing) as well as a really good technical understanding of pneumatic and electrical systems as well as stability of vessels of our hull form. The one exception to that would have been the now out of production strike Duca if you had access to a 3d printer and knew how to use it, but even then, it is not the easiest ship to fight and is very unforgiving of strategic mistakes. On the cannon front, one other thing to keep in mind. Provided you reserve space for the cannons (and weight) it can be quite fun even if you don't fully arm the ship initially, shake it out and see what works and what you like, then add in the rest. Other suggestion... after you know what you are doing, get your big ships out of your system when young... I still miss my old Yamato at times, but I have zero interest in lifting the thing up nor any interest in repairing that bb magnet.
I honestly would battle first and get a feeling for what it is like running a ship. Meeting up with a club can be insightful too. I wanted my first ship done before my first battle, and let me tell you, it didn't go well. Also a Montana is a difficult and lofty goal, especially as a first ship. It also will cost a lot to get guns and build and everything. Montana is huge, heavy and complicated (although it would be cool to build one ). Definitely consider it for a future project. I agree with @GregMcFadden, get a torpedo cruiser for big gun (easy weapons and easy to use. They also aren't expensive). If you have a 3D printer, torpedo gun blueprints are readily available on this site. If you want a first combat ship (any kind) for big gun, get it secondhand and refurbish it.
Hello Ethan, welcome to the hobby! It sounds like you have two different clubs in your area, so you get to choose. I would highly recommend that you visit both clubs and meet people before deciding which one to go with. Watch some videos of the different formats, talk with people, and look at the ships. Big Gun and Fast Gun my look similar from a distance, but they are distinctly different flavors of combat. You are lucky that you have a choice, so take advantage If you are interested in something for a senior research project, a number of options come to mind. The ultimate project would be a fully autonomous battleship, but that is a huge project better suited for a team of college engineers. A more reasonable project would be an autonomous transport, capable of doing convoy runs and taking evasive action for an approaching attacker. The technology is readily available in the form of ArduPilot, an autonomous drone software suite that can be configured for multirotors, fixed-wing aircraft, wheeled or tracked land vehicles, or boats.
Also is there any way to get the plans as an image or pdf? I am asking this as I have access to a machine that, if I CAD the ribs and frame, can cut them out automatically with greater precision than I would be able to do myself.
