This is a hobby, and we are part of a very small group that builds ships. Now most of those guys see us as nuts to battle them, so we are even a smaller part of that group. If you think that the guys that are suppliers are making a ton of money, you really need to go into business for yourself. You'll be rich in no time.[] Hey, you think the casements are wrong you will need to post to the group your resources. If you want to "Correct" the mistakes, build a part that a person can add to that hull. Cut off the "offending" casements and glue on the super-correct new and improved part. Don't use any part of someone else's hull and call it your own. It's not a reputation you want in this small community.
Just to clarify I'm not the guy - and i don't know who is. I was only saying I understood why he might think it was right. I would never do this - mainly because i CAN'T do it, hehe, but if i could i still wouldn't!
I have seen 3 different VU hulls, made by 3 different people. 1. Ralph - Canada 2. Michael - Australia 3. Don't know who made the third one. The 3rd one has been around for a bit, and the casemates are totally wrong, it looks like they put Radetzky casemates on it. My guess would be the fellow in Ohio has one of those, and does not know who made it. Ralph and Michael's casemates look fine, and I don't think anyone would say somthing was wrong with them.
I have not made a VU plug. My hull plugs are made useing Cad and CNC equipment. They are solid pine or mahogany. I always try to use 2 sets of prints when there available. There is a alot of work,time and money that goes in to makeing a plug. No ones happy to see there hard work copied. Ron H PortPolar Bear President MWCI
Hey Guys, Hey Bob it was me that asked and I meant no harm by it. I wasn't planning on mass producing the hull. However if someone wanted one I would of made one for them. I was told it was in accurate and asked if I could fix it. I apoligize that this has upset you. I will not use the hull in any manner, however I do not feel my reputation as a good person should be "tainted" for asking a honest question, and a simple no would of been fine with no question ask. Thanks Lee Donahue
Hey guys, Hey if anyone would like to call my number is [redacted by moderator] please feel free to call me and I will answer any questions. Again I would like to apoligize and I am sorry for asking. I did not know that asking that particular question was a bad idea If I got a simple no i would of forgot all about it and left it be. Thanks and apoligize again Lee Donahue
There was a person in the MWC that did copy others work and it caused a lot of bad blood. You can probably tell that from the responses. The hobby is just too small to risk losing any suppliers of boat hulls. While a lot of guys can build their own wooden hulls (or made out of whatever), first time builders/ battlers really benefit from having a hull available. There is so much work to do it get it ready (don't we all know that) that this helps them get on the water. If you find an issue with a particular hull, cite the resources you have found (there are plenty of bad plans out there) and show how you fixed it. Then you are helping out a fellow battler. If you want to make a new casement so they can add it themselves I personally don't see anything wrong with that (correct me if I am wrong on that). No hard feelings from anyone, you just touched on a sensitive subject. just my opinion. Lou
This, I think, is the crux of the matter. The subject has less to do with legal considerations than it does with supporting the few people in the R/C warship combat community who at least try to manufacture quality products for the rest of us. My approach to this is very simple: If I have what I think is a better idea for a product, be it truer to scale or stronger, or whatever, then it is up to me to either produce that product from scratch, or make a deal with the original manufacturer to modify and then sell "improved" copies. There is no other honorable way to do this, In my opinion. And my point of view about making my own mold of someone else's hull - even if it's just for my own use - is that it's wrong to do that without at least attempting to get permission from the owner of the rights to that product. Why? Because I'm depriving the owner of a sale, and taking food off his table. How can we expect people to labor on our behalfs, only to have us then take value from them without compensation? My 2 cents. Rob
For what it is worth, do not be too quick to assume copying. One of our club members just ordered a VU. But it is coming from a builder in OZ (not Bowning), and it is my understanding the builder did build his own plug/mold, etc. Don't know the guy's name, though. Wouldn't mind a VU myownwself. Cheers
I suppose there is this side of the argument: Suppose two people got copies of the builders' blueprints of a particular battleship, and then a year later, one of them started selling hulls that were faithful to the blueprints. Then suppose a year passes, and the second guy started selling hulls that were just as accurate. How could you tell if the second one had actually made a mold of the first one's hull? Rob
If your guy #2 was the second person to produce said hull, and had coincidentally already bought a hull from guy #1 a short while before, it'd smell fishy, to say the least. Like if I bought a BC Cleveland hull, and a month later announced that I was producing Cleveland molds. Note: this is not a commentary on Lee, who to my mind has cleared up a simple communication problem and is fine by me. I am only answering Rob's hypothetical question.
Hi Guys.. In my Opinion, I don't think copying someone else's hull to sell as your own is just not right! The builders of the molds and hull have contributed immensely to this hobby and should be credited (paid) for their work. I've built 3 combat ships with fiberglas hulls, and 1 wooden hull Royal Oak. I built a wooden hull only to say I did so. I certainly didn't save any time building the ship, given the amount of time I spent on building the wooden hull! If someone wants to take the time to research the accuracy of the hull lines, and make a plug and mold, then sure.. sell your new hull, but don't make your mold from someone else's work. There is honour in this hobby, and let's keep it that way.. Perhaps, we can have a site dedicated to the ship makers so we can see what ship is available in this hobby. We can find makers of hulls that are unique and there will probably be a few makers with the same ship. The chocie can be to the buyer who the purchase is made from. One of the West Coast clubs had a site for this, but I'm not sure if it is still active or up to date. But was very handy having it when considering which ship to build and who sells the hulls... Mark OAF
Is this the site you're thinking of? I think it's very old and out of date, but the idea is really good. Maybe Justin can start a similar page on the rcnavalcombat site: Visit this site Rob
He means the one at the SCRAP website, I think. Hasn't been updated in a while, I've been meaning to email them and let them know where most of Bob's molds have/will be gone to so they can update that.
The SCRAP site is still up. I don't remember off the top of my head who runs it, but we still have SCRAP members in MWC... I have a work in progress list of who makes what at my site, but it only lists what hulls, which scale, who makes them, and contact site or email. I wouldn't want to put ratings on it because as a hull maker myself, a bad rating on one hull or the other might make me look like I'm trying to do negative marketing. The people/companies on my list right now are Ralph, Battlers Connection, Bowning Shipyards in Oz, the Scale Shipyard, and Steve Hill. Bob's molds are listed under RC-Artwerks, even though I haven't bought them all yet. I know that there are other people making hulls; if you guys will kindly look at the list and email me anyone who's not on it, I'll add them. Like the plans thing, my goal is to help battlers find the hulls they want, whether from me or from someone else To view the list (remember, work in progress go to www.rc-artwerks.com and click on the link at the bottom of the page. Any help in adding to or cleaning up the list is greatly appreciated.
Its actually not Browning, its the Tone shipyards, by Michael. Browning is Brett. The list I gave you was from Michael.
The website I got the info from was titled "The Bowning Shipyards", and had ordering info and pics... URL is: http://www.ausbg.org/BSY/ Who are the Tone shipyards?
Tone is one of the guys who originally did Bowning. I think the two that worked on Bowning split off at some point. Both seem to refer customers to each other still so it may have been a mutual agree split to just provide more sources for ships was all.
