R/C Naval Combat

Probably first thing is to look up/find the nearest club to where you are. They will be able and even willing to give advice for any question you may have. Chances are, they will be battling the more popular format in your area too.

Where are you located? Pacific Northwest I'd imagine...?

Im located in Oregon

Welcome!

Our closest members to you are in Olympia-ish I think. Queens Own (1/72) may have some members closer to you, but I don't think they frequent the forum here.

If transport is a difficulty I would think maybe you could find a friend who is interested and has a vehicle? That has the additional benefit if both you and your friend decide to get involved you could form a local-to-you group. More is always better!

thanks,
I really haven't tried seeing if there are others here interested. I have been reading through the build threads and I think that I might be able to talk my professor into leting me do one for a shop project. Do you know how the club would feel about someone using a Normadie Class? I have plans for one that should work, just might have to get some of the French translated by a friend first.

You can get plans for any French BB class absolutely free So if the club you are near doesn't like Normandie, you can always use one of her cousins

yes, a truly lovely thing they did there. My next choice would actually be one of the Standards, probably a Colorado as I have the plans for her as well (but I would probably paint her up as the USS Washington, just to keep that never-were feel)

I doubt anyone would have a problem with it so long as it was armed and built according to the rules. The Normandie's plans were pretty much set, guns were ordered, the hull was built. Last year Hovey and I were floating the idea of building Mackensen class battlecruisers and everyone we asked had no problem with it.

The only pesky thing about building a non-IRCWCC authorized ship is that if we start holding sanctioned battles, it cant play (that's my understanding at least).

I don't know of anyone in our group with a Colorado class, so you'd be unique (always nice)

now just to get my prof to let me do it, I should be able to as he is flexible with shop projects

Better plan: Talk him into building one for himself as well.

Knowing this prof, he might bite. Crazy guy rewired his house over the summer, by himself.

Battlersconnection sells a Colorado, really nice hull. Also Strike has the reconstructed California/Tennessee/West Virginia. I believe that they are popping the full kit for it basically right now. They are good ships, lots of internal room, very beamy so they turn quite well for singe ruddered ships. Somewhat attractive looking with the clipper bow as well.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, buying a fiberglass hull is a bit out of my price range right now considering the cost of running gear and such. Also, I have next to no experience with fiberglass but will have access to someone with lots of woodworking experience. So for now, its wood hulls or bust. I have seen at least two great threads that cover wood builds, so between those two I should be able to figure it out. Also, does someone have a link to the rib calculator that I have seen referenced in several places?

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Your thread on the Bearn build is very very helpful, I plan on reading the whole thing again. I do have a question about using a twin keel, as long as the ship has a flat bottom is it doable? That seems like a great way to make the waterchanel.

The twin keel works to build in the waterchannel into a ship. It runs for the length of the flattest part of the hull before it starts to curve upwards into the stern and before the bow gets too narrow. Lately, most of my waterchannels are set to 1 3/4" inside width ... the perfect width to set a BC large pump on top of.

I wish I could claim the idea, but the first time I saw someone use it was in the twin Vanguards of Clark Ward and Brian Koehler. It made sense to me.

As an alternative to using a sanded balsa bottom like the Bearn has, the builder can plank the hull bottom with 1/32" thick strips of plywood cut to the width from center to center of a pair of ribs. There is a couple build threads showing the method. The ply planking method makes far less mess than the sanded balsa bottom type.

I hope you enjoy building a wood hull. I certainly do!