I agree. We had a couple big Frenchies with just the main turrets armed, and they were great ships. On occasion, we had only one turret armed on them, and they were still a tuff ship to tackle. And as the other mentioned. You can always arm more turrets down the road, when the funds become available. Mikey
Like everything, it depends: If you have kids, start with the cruiser. Once they have taken it over, you can start working on your battleship. (We have father / son and father / daughter teams...) You can build a battleship on the cheap and you can put a lot of money into a cruiser. Probably the more important question is what is most important to you. Some folks are always looking for the next great thing. Some folks are quite happy playing the same old game time and time again. You can put more money into equipment that you can move to a larger ship later. A good rule of thumb is to start with a class 4 plus or minus 1. That means the ideal is a battlecruiser. They have more space so are easier to work on but are not as big a challenge to build and battle. Part of the puzzle is the club you are near or will battle with. If they have a lot of large fast battle ships, you are going to feel out of your league. If they have a lot of slower ships, then a large battleship will get out turned.
Not to topic hyjack, but a cruiser is a harded first build. I would go with something wide to give yourself some room and some weight to build with. A tippy cruiser can easily make the hobby frustrating. The rookie I know (with big fat hands!) built a Maryland class, he had lots of room (even joked about keeping his lunch in there also) He went out and mixed it up real well and took lots of damage. He made it back to shore every sortie and the smile on his face said he was having a good time. It may cost a bit more to outfit but it was a great learning tool and he had enough parts to go to any direction of shipbuilding after that. The bigger co2 bottles will be at home also. Remember as a rookie you're going to make a lot of mistakes and having a boat with some forgiveness built in will help. The extra room will enable you to use cheaper OLD technology cause you will have room for servos, poppets, mag switches, pumps, waterholding boxes, small elves to bail, ect
About seven years ago I priced out a heavy cruiser with dual sterns (Suffren class) built to the IRCWCC specs. The spreadsheet showed about $700. A class 5 battleship was probably another $250 - $300. The spreadsheet probably didn't have enough to cover paint, misc tools and other incidentals. It did include an otterbox which may be considered NEW technology (if you have been around long enough). It was based on a mag throttle and poppets driven by a servo. One of the main sources of cost was the radio at a bit over $200. The next highest cost item is the hull. I personally would rather spend the money on a fiberglass hull as I have more money than time. Most of the rest of the stuff is a trade off between cost and time. A kit is more expensive but saves a lot of time. If you have the time, you can scavange more cheap stuff. One of the challenges is mail order. Lots of parts can be had very cheaply... until you factor in shipping and minimum charges. If you have time, work with the other folks in your area to do group buys. If you have five captains buying parts, meeting a $30 minimum charge and splitting a $10 shipping charge is much easier! Another way to reduce cost is www.radicalrc.com. Their shipping is only $3 which makes buying servo extenders possible. One thing to remember is that once your ship is built, You are looking at maybe $75 a year to keep it running. You will also spend money on gas, food and such to get to the battles. A modest cost compared to other past times (you can spend that much or more to go to one football game or a couple of Baseball games) Figure to spend between 40 and 60 hours getting your first ship on the water. How much time do you really have free to work on it. If you devote 4 hours each Saturday afternoon (while listening to college football) you are looking at 10 - 15 weeks which is 2.5 to 3.5 Months. If you save up a block of cash, Something in the $400 range. You can order the plans and hull and start working. An additional $100 a month as the needs arise and you have $700 in the ship budget based on saving or spending $100 a month. Much easier to do for some folks than to save $700 in cash.
Speaking of Hobby shops. Find out if your local hobby shop supports your club. Mine does, the hobby shop gives all of our members a 10% discount on anything purchased!
