Who's Independent?

Discussion in 'Independents' started by JohnmCA72, Oct 11, 2007.

  1. JohnmCA72

    JohnmCA72 Member

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    How about a quick roll-call of who/how many don't belong to any club? What format(s) do you compete in? Where are you located? What ships do you have, in what stages (i.e. have plans, building, complete/ready, veteran, etc.)?

    I'll start:

    I'm in Greenville, TX. I build mostly for Big Gun, but have also belonged to MWC in the past. I have a small gun Invincible, Big Gun Baltimore-class CA, HMS Hood, HMS Nelson, & South Dakota-class (BB-57) BB. All are operational & veterans of plenty of combat. I've been at it since 1997.

    I pretty much gave up on MWC. The dues were too high for the value (i.e. local battles pretty rare) plus I felt the talk-to-action ratio was too high for my tastes. I also quit the local Big Gun club after being told that I was running members off, but still visit them occasionally (just gave up voting rights; still battle as a guest sometimes).

    I asked to have this topic started, just to see who else was out there that doesn't belong to a formal club, what issues we might all have in common, & what we might do to help one another.

    JM
     
  2. JustinScott

    JustinScott Well-Known Member

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    WOAH! So you are not fighting with ntxbg anymore? Are you fighting at all?

    I guess you can call me an independant at the moment. I have moved to washington state & haven't yet joined the WCC. (I am absolutely planning on joining, however.)
     
  3. JohnmCA72

    JohnmCA72 Member

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    I still fight with them (on the water) now & then as a guest. I'm not a member anymore, so I don't get to vote on club stuff.

    JM
     
  4. crzyhawk

    crzyhawk Well-Known Member

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    Location:
    Alexandria, VA
    I suppose I would qualify as an Independant. I am formerly of the IRCWCC, and left for some of the same reasons that John mentioned for the MWC, and some other reasons. Currently, I battle Washington Treaty format, and absolutely love it. Right now, I can't see myself returning to a typical fast gun format. It's simply not as much fun for me. I'm currently the only Maryland treaty member, but there are some guys in Pennsylvania a little over an hour away, and I am not adverse to driving out to the Ohio battles.

    We've had a few small treaty battles up in PA; in fact I think there is one coming up this next weekend, but I am not sure. In the IRCWCC, there wasn't much battling going on locally (although there have been more small battles this year). It was pretty much Nats, and 2 regionals battles per year.

    I've been battling since 2004, and have the three ships you see in my signature: HMS Invincible, HMS Courageous, and USS Salt Lake City. The HMS Invincible is battle ready, and has been my primary ship for the last two years. The HMS Courageous was my 2004 ship (didn't battle at all in 05) and is finishing up a refit. She'll be a spare ship for next year. Realistically, the Courageous is a good, solid weekend away from being battle ready; I just haven't felt motivated enough to finish her wiring and re-sheeting/painting her. The SLC is over 20 years old and is being refit. She should be available to me for use in cruiser actions and as a back up next year, Ive got most of what I need to get her back on the water, I just want to build her a new superstructure (her current one is an original fully penetrable balsa superstructure which I don't want to get shot up).

    In my closet I have a Brooklyn class cruiser hull which I plan on building to have two interchangable decks. One will allow it to fight as a standard cruiser, the USS Helena. The other will be a carrier deck (Yeah, I know, Brooklyns aren't dead ringers for an Independence hull, but its close enough for my purpose!) so she can play as the USS Belleau Wood. The last hull is a wind class ice breaker hull, which will be used to build the USS Burton Island, the ship my father and uncle served on. I don't know if I will arm the ship or not.

    As long as I have two ships that work, and can find someone who is willing to drive one of them and battle against me, I plan on being able to play this game. Sure, it won't be the same as a full sized fleet battle, but I'll take what I can get. fortunately, there are guys to the north who are only an hour or two away who want to battle treaty as well.

    Mike D
     
  5. DeletedUser

    DeletedUser Guest

    Johnmca72 dude could you sell me one of you ships
     
  6. JohnmCA72

    JohnmCA72 Member

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    Make an offer; everything's for sale if the price is good enough. Start with the "$150 Rule" & work up from there.

    JM
     
  7. DeletedUser

    DeletedUser Guest

    how about the hood i will start to save the money
     
  8. JohnmCA72

    JohnmCA72 Member

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    The "$150 Rule" says that "Everything costs $150" ("everything" meaning major components/systems). Here's how it breaks down for Hood:

    $150 - Fiberglass hull
    $150 - Radio
    $150 - CO2 system
    $600 - 4 armed turrets @ $150 each
    $150 - Misc. (motors, shafts, props, 2 pumps, batteries, decks, superstructure, skin, etc.)

    So far, that's $1200 representing what I have into it in materials alone, & it may be a little light at that. What about something for my time & work? Do you want me to document it all, or provide any sort of support afterwards? Bid up until it gets to a price I'll agree to. All included, ready to fight, it's over 6' long & probably weighs over 50 lbs., which you'll have to pay to have shipped unless you want to come by & pick it up.

    If cost is an issue for you, you'd probably be better off putting your own work into a ship than paying for somebody else's.

    JM
     
  9. DeletedUser

    DeletedUser Guest

    i wont have that much by may i will have 480 by may
     
  10. JohnmCA72

    JohnmCA72 Member

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    You're not going to get much ship for $480 unless you do a LOT of the work yourself. Time & money are the major costs. To reduce one, increase the other. An advantage of investing time vs. money is that you learn a lot more about what you've built than you'd learn about what you've bought.

    JM
     
  11. crzyhawk

    crzyhawk Well-Known Member

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    John has the right of it. You'd really be better off building your own ship so you know how the systems work, so when they break (and they will) you can fix them. Of course, you don't give the impression of that being what you want to hear.

    The bottom line is, you aren't going to get a ready to fight ship for cheap, and even if you did you wouldnt know how to take care of it and repair it when your systems fail. Just build something yourself, you'll be better off for it in the long run.
     
  12. DeletedUser

    DeletedUser Guest

    i can really work over spring break(ha ha it starts this friday). Im going to try to scratch build one
     
  13. JohnmCA72

    JohnmCA72 Member

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    Good idea. You might want to consider giving a cargo ship a try, 1st. You can put a basic wood-frame hull together for about $25-30, even less if you're resourceful & use a lot of scrap wood. The investment is mostly time, & if you screw something up you're not out a lot, plus you'll learn a heck of a lot that you can use on the next one. You can also get by with fewer radio channels, which means a cheaper set. If you're careful & clever, you might be able to build 2 cargo ships for that $480. Even if you just build 1, that 1 ship will answer questions for you that you don't even know to ask yet. You'll be an expert when you're done, & when you build an armed warship you'll know just what to do.

    JM
     
  14. DeletedUser

    DeletedUser Guest

    ok and the second Q that i need answered is how to build custom cannons
     
  15. JohnmCA72

    JohnmCA72 Member

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    That's another good reason to build a cargo ship.

    JM
     
  16. crzyhawk

    crzyhawk Well-Known Member

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    or just buy cannons from BC/BDE. Running a cargo ship and playing target for someone isn't for everyone. In most fast gun clubs you'd never get to run anyways.
     
  17. DeletedUser

    DeletedUser Guest

    yeah true but everybody will be shooting at me and a do a dang about it. I cant pepper them like i have a Co2 machine gun on board
     
  18. jpmarino

    jpmarino Active Member

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    Location:
    Addison, IL
    Hello:

    I'm an independent in Addison, IL, attempting to create a local chapter of the MWC. I attended the Port Polar Bear 'Ice Breaker' in 2007 with my USS Pensacola and am currently building the HMS Prince of Wales.

    Jp
     
  19. DeletedUser

    DeletedUser Guest

    JohnmCa72 Please lower the price
     
  20. DeletedUser

    DeletedUser Guest

    yeah by may i will give you the 480 and could you drop the price to how about 100 dollars for the cannons each