What ship are you building?

I will go out on a limb and start building my first 1/96 ship: DKM Lutzow [8] (Deutschland class "pocket battleship")

I was going to build Tirpitz, but the size is a little big for right now (moving in a month or so, to my new ultimate playground... house has a 20x20 heated/cooled workshop, plus a pool for model testing in comfort

 

Ahh.. yeah, Pew^3, I post here in my capacity as a 1/96th builder... For the 1/144 stuff, I'm in the SAS Forum. I love asnwering questions and such, so drop by and share what you're doing!

 

There are several clubs on the forums here... The "Fast Gun" (or Small Gun) clubs... All use BB cannons and nothing else, as weapons. They limit the number of cannons you can arm and the number of pumps you can use (like my HMS Invincible can only arm 3 cannons and have one pump). The ship speeds are faster, and there is no limit on rate of fire of your guns. The Big Gun clubs let you arm everything on the ship above a certain caliber (usually 3"), and generally run at a slower speed. They also require a waiting period between shots to simulate the crews reloading the guns.
This forum is the home of Battlestations, which can best be thought of as a Big Gun group, that uses 1/96 scale ships instead of 1/144 scale ships. So the boats are 150% of the size of the other groups. There is one group that I know of out there that plays with 1/72 scale ships, but I have not seen pictures of anything larger than a cruiser being built.

The MWCI SAS is the southern region of a Fast Guns group that I got into the hobby with, and still battle with, cause it's FUN! Battlestations is a different animal entirely. I'll say it's more expensive and more difficult to build the shipson the basis that every gun you arm adds to the price, and also the complexity. Ask Mark about his Yamato! I'm doing a slightly smaller ship to keep it simple for my first big'un

If you have an Andrea Doria hull, it's probably 1/144, and I encourage you to come to some of our (SAS) battles, they're a hoot, and you can talk to some experienced captains who are also really nice guys who love to share know-how.

To answer your earlier question, the SAS website address is: http://www.mwci.org/chapters/SAS/

I'd also go to www.mwci.org where we have a lot of related links and how-to's.

 

Yeah, Pew^3, we just had a battle in Orlando this weekend... We have another battle coming up in Savannah, GA at the beginning of May, should be a good one. One of the founders of the hobby (Bart Purvis) will be bringing his cruiser and mixing it up. He's a great guy. Lots of others coming, too

 

Guns can't elevate more than parallel with the water (ie not UP), but you can lower and raise them, yes. Rotates are definately allowed. Torpedoes are allowed, too. A 1/96 ship is much more complex than a 1/144, and if you've already got a 1/144 ship building, I'd finish it and play with that while building the bigger one (kind of like I'm doing with my HMS Invincible)...

The Bismarck is 8 and a half feet long, Iowa is 9'4" or so... Not counting carriers, that's about as big as they get, lengthwise. They're also very heavy. Mark, if you're reading this, how much will the Yamato weigh?

 

Right now, they are totally scratchbuilt. The same type of pumps used in 1/144 work, so Basin Shipyards or Battlers Connection could supply those. The BB cannons which are used for 4.7" to 6.9" guns are also sold by Battlers Connection.
I will be making detail parts (turrets, AA guns, some superstructure stuff), but I have to finish the 1/144 Kingfisher plane and then the first 1/96 parts will be Yamato turrets. After that, it's up to me, I guess.

 

Turret work has begun, I forget which thread I talked about it in

 

That's great, Mikey! I wanna see pics!!!!

If you ever get the urge to build something else French, I have many many Froggy plans. I just did a test printing at the blueprint shop of my 1/144 Jean Bart plans. Happy to say they came out great! The 1/96 ones are more limited because the shop can only print 3 feet wide, so I have to break it up some.