Hello, first let me state that I live in Canada and if you aren't willing to ship then don't read on. To those that are still reading I am looking to get into this hobby but have no one around that can help me so I am hoping to purchase 2-4 boat all at once or singles. I am not looking for big ships. I am interested in smaller Armed Carriers or Convoy raiders. This will give me something to base all my future ships off. If anyone is willing to build the ships for me we can discuss a plan for delivery and payment. I am not in a rush to get these and will wait while they are being built, I know that this is a hobby so it takes months to a year to build one ship. If there is anyone you know that is willing to ship to Canada please let me know. Thank you for your time. -Will
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Sorry I missed one very important thing I am interested in BigGun only. Thanks again. -Will
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Around where are you? There's 2 clubs in Canada that I know of -- Ontario Attack Force, and North Atlantic Battle Squadron (Nova Scotia). Me and my girlfriend are looking to start a club in the Montreal area and are currently building ships. Be warned though, I haven't seen anyone using the Big Gun rules north of the border; If you're looking for inter-club scrims or to join the Cannats, you might want to rethink that choice.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers By the way, on Ontario Attack Force's board, they're selling off a complete (minus gun) HMS Eagle carrier for cheap: http://groups.msn.com/OAF/forsaletrade.msnw
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers I live in Alberta so those clubs and there rules are not going to affect me. I was on that web page about a week ago and Emailed about HMS Eagle I have yet to receive any reply so I am assuming that it is sold or he doesn't want to ship it.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers I would be looking for both but if you have only ships then I could get BDE guns mounted.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers I'm looking for Carriers British or Japanese in make because they don't have rotating cannons so will be easier to operate. Armed Liberty or similar raider that has 1 or 2 guns. As well as C2 Cargo or T3 Tanker or a Japanese transport ship.(Fuso Maru/Mamaya) Having them built or mostly built is a must, I don't have a clue on how one goes together. I need to see one to make it.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Since there are no Big Gun clubs in your area I would assume that you're trying to start your own club. In addition to looking for ships, you should also start looking for members. Tell your friends and coworkers. Show them photos and videos. You would be surprised how fast things start to happen once you get a group of people together, so start recruiting. Well, I don't know of any Big Gun ships for sale in my area, but I can do the next best thing, which is show you photos of how ships were constructed. Take a look at my club's photo gallery: http://www.westernwarshipcombat.com/gallery/ The gallery has photos of several people's projects. I would especially recommend the pages of Ben, Randy, Neal, and the Bitondos (That's ME!). These people have been pushing the limits of wooden hull construction, making beautiful ships that no mere fiberglass hull could ever hope to compare to. Most of the other shipbuilders in this gallery are hacks and klutzes, but there's still a lot you can learn. You can also look in the Tips, Tricks, & Shortcuts section at the various Construction threads. Almost all of those are fiberglass Fast Gun ships (very different technology) but they do show important basics like penetrable windows, propshafts, rudders, etc. I also have a build thread in there for a series of Big Gun transports, so it's definitely worth taking a look. As for getting several ships, I'll ask around. The WWCC awards meeting is next sunday, and I'll ask about used ships then. I'll keep my eyes open for any high-quality used boats. The WWCC has a very long history, and some ships are more than 21 years old. The construction techniques in most used ships are crude and outdated, but they still usable and can (with work) be brought up to modern standards.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Thanks Bitondos, I am gratful for all your help. I have already talked to some friends of mine they are interested but as we have never built ships before they are reluctant to buy part and try. -Will
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers I started doing Big Gun in an area that didn't have any Big Gunners (MWC was there, but I didn't find them until much later or I probably would have just joined them & never done Big Gun). I had never built any kind of model ship before except plastic kits when I was a kid. I started scratch-building a cruiser with help by e-mail only, but eventually got to a point where I felt like I needed to actually see something that somebody else had built. I talked a friend into going halves on a used ship, but he decided that he wasn't interested after he saw that it was a lot of work & I ended up buying him out. About that time, another guy moved into the area, who already had a ship that he had battled in California, & we found one another on a relay list. For about 2 years, it was just the 2 of us. We made sure that we were reliable about sticking to a schedule, being where we were supposed to be, & when, so that if somebody did show up to a battle or meeting, there would be something going on. We tried to stay visible, & people found us. The club we started is still going strong, 10 years later. JM
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers That is great news and help in getting a club togther I might also suggest look here in the photos. I recently built a Oregon City Class cruiser for Shakeybo and he has pics from me as I put it togther, take a look at them it could help and if you want send me your email and I will send more to you. I don thave any small carriers but I did build a large Jap carrier and have pics of it as well.In your response you said carriers dont have rotates I am not sure so let me ask this do the cruisers have rotates?
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers JohnM that's very encouraging, I hope someday to have a club up here to call our own. Hey Buddy my Email is williamshopik@hotmail.com if you wouldn't mind sending pics of your carrier that would be great. Depending on the size of the cruiser they can have rotating cannons some people seem to also use them only for torpedoes.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Buddy, Darist is interested in Big Gun ships. The technology and basic design philosophy is different, so if you offer to build him a ship be prepared for some differences. The only Big Gun Oregon City class cruiser I've seen was reasonably successful against larger, unmaneuverable battleships when used cautiously. It also proved successful against merchant ships. It's real weakness was the small caliber of shot it was throwing. Its small, 3/16" cannons were effectively useless against the quick, devastating torpedo attacks of destroyers and light cruisers, and it always lost if it simply swapped broadsides with a bigger battleship. An easier build would be the Deutschland Pocket Battleship (fewer turrets, larger caliber guns) and even better than that would be a Scharnhorst or SoDak. Carriers are an interesting bunch of ships. Each Big Gun club has its own way of dealing with them. For 20 years, my club assigned one 1/4" fixed cannon for every 10 aircraft carried, but just this year we switched to three to four 1/4" guns per quadrant (total 12 or 16 guns) depending on displacement. Some other clubs require all cannons to be fixed off the bow, or treat them the same as a transport.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Hey Darist, it looks like there will be a few ships on the auction block at my club's awards meeting this Sunday. They're old ships and they'll need work, but if you're interested I'll try to get them. The guy who's selling them has a garage full of old hulls and ships, and it seems like he's cleaning up a little. I will also ask if he's got any other ships he'd be willing to part with.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Kotori, that sounds great, let me know what he says and what ships are available, if you can. thanks. -Will
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Thanks for the information.I was interested in seeing what the differences were.Just trying to help out if I could.
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Great news (for me) I am getting a unarmed HMS Eagle. So that's one for the prairie fleet. I have been reading the rules for Carriers and think that I like the 1 1/4 gun for every 10 fights. But the problem with that is I'll have seven barrels all at the front. Is that even doable? Maybe I'll split it 4 froward and 3 to the rear. What do you guys think? Please keep in mind that I am still looking for a Japanese carrier and some convoy ships. -Will
RE: WTB Convoy/Carriers Well Darist, some clubs do one 1/4" gun for every 10 planes carried, but not all. Those that do the 10 planes thing also permit side-mounted torpedoes or secondary cannons to discourage folks from getting close. In such an instance, the 4-3 split sounds fine. My club, the WWCC, got fed up with the 10 planes rule. We found that carriers were too weakly armed to fend off serious attackers, and even a determined destroyer could cause serious problems. Just this year, we instituted a new standardization of carrier armament. All carriers 20K tons and under get 12 1/4" guns, split into four groups of three (one for each quadrant). All carriers over 20K tons get 16 1/4" guns, split into four groups of four (again, one for each quadrant). We don't know if that is enough to make carriers effective in battle, but at least people are talking about building them again.
