Own a piece of rc warship combat history! 1/144 scale CL BROOKLYN...Hull #1 from the new mold at modelshipsahoy.com. Just pulled from the mold and looks beautiful! Designed and constructed to go in harms way. Features: One piece seamless fiberglass hull Warship Gray Gel Quadruple laminate Transom Shield Triple laminate topsides 1/4” diameter solid glass rod ribs w/ 2” spread Quadruple laminated gunnels Ribs pressed flat in bilge for water flow Prop shaft strut to allow V-drive Sold
Looks very good. Regarding the 1/4” diameter solid glass rod ribs w/ 2” spread: are the ribs 1/4” wide with 2” windows in between, or are they 1/4” ribs that are 2” apart center to center, i.e., 1 3/4” windows? Thanks, Mark
Yes, but.... the thickness of the ribs is in from the hull surface so you can sand a taper to make the outside skin of the rib 1/8” without giving up the strength of the ribs. I’m still learning the details of these rules. I can make you one with whatever rib spacing / laminate schedule you desire.
I'm just going of of thought if the ribs are already there then there is really no need to measure out and mark the ribs to me I like this idea.
you'd still need to mark them and verify widths, mark tops and bottom, etc. I doubt many are good enough to cut it freehand without marking or measuring
Drilling clean holes from inside out on each side of the ribs top and bottom help in the marking, cutting process. fine line tape up the ribs on the outside helps keep the gel from chipping off while you cut. you can drill a pattern of holes pretty quickly and the windows cut easily.
Great boat keep going build more we need a Graff Spee no one else makes one now. Ignore the snowflakes
Thanks! I can set ribs for any spacing Customers want even staggered spacing with bow ribs closer. Can build thicker ribs and pre install d bulkheads baffles water channels. Working on making ballistic shields for inside the hull sides. This is a complex confusing game. I’m still learning the finer details of what you guys want.
Be careful about doing too much work yourself, people won't pay you enough for it. This is also in the too much work category. Two liter soda bottle armor is fine and easy for most people to do. Cheap, too. Ain't that the truth. A couple of things to keep in mind: 1) People don't always know what they want, and often want the worst things for marginal reasons. (I wanna RODNEY!!!) 2) The people who hue and cry the loudest are often the ones you should listen to the least. (Those who know don't talk. Those who talk don't know.) 3) We lie. A lot. (What ship am I battling next year? Would you like to hazard a guess???) Hmmm... I'm going to be foolish and try to say something, and it may not come out perfectly, but I'm going to try. This may sound critical toward certain parties, but please don't take it that way, because sometimes things happen, and what I'm about to say is intended without malice. Honest. One of our suppliers of battling goods recently departed the market for reasons I quite understand. One of the (many) things I find sad about the whole thing is the extent to which he undermined his own marketing efforts. What's that you say? Well, it goes sort of like this: First off, as someone who's been around the hobby a while and seen things from many perspectives, I think that going into 'business' as a hobby turns it into a job and sucks all the fun out of it. Even to the extent of, "Here, I'll help you build a (whatever) for $nnn." Been there done that, seen people go down the rabbit hole & lose their enjoyment of the hobby and eventually disappear. No fun, would not recommend. Second, as a would be supplier, it behooves one to attend events regularly and participate, preferably at a competent to skilled level. There are people out there who will buy anything from anybody. The larger majority of people will buy things from people who have shown that their product can perform on the water. This is something that Charley (BC) has done very well. Others, less so. Personally, I prefer to build my own components when reasonable, and take pride in their performance on the water. However, sometimes I will make an exception, especially of late, as my lifestyle (such as it is) is somewhat cramped. If given a choice between suppliers, I will tend to choose the one who has shown the results on the water, and I suspect I'm not the only one. Likewise, a supplier who participates as a regular battler will have a better 'finger on the pulse' of what's actually happening in the hobby vs. what's happening in web forums, which are subject to bandwagoning, group think, and other internet vices. People will tell you one thing, especially if it strokes their own ego, but what you see on the water is the reality. Sometimes we even lie to ourselves, but then we get busted on the water, and the lie gets shown for what it is. All that said, it is easy to think of this or that idea, and think it would be great to make it and sell it, but if you're solving a problem that no-one is interested in, people won't care. Likewise, if your products are either marginal off the water, or on the water, people will eventually develop a negative attitude toward you, and your business will suffer. Worst of all, if you seem disconnected and out of touch with the hobby, well, people will eventually ignore you. Which brings back recent events. I am very sad and regretful that one of our suppliers has left the hobby. It's very unfortunate, and to be honest, I liked them a lot and tried to support them with my occasional purchases. But I'm only one customer, and my needs are fairly small, mostly the occasional hull or superstructure bits, bottles, regulators, that sort of thing. I understand that living in the Pacific NW, he was unable to attend a lot of our battles, but I think that if he had been able to attend more often, it would have been of great benefit, both in terms of reputation, and in terms of research and being able to know what the hobby wanted and provide that, rather than wasting time and money on, um, marginal things. What does this mean to you? Probably nothing. If you're really pursuing this because you just have fun making stuff, go ahead, knock yourself out. If you want to contribute to the hobby, go to some battles, talk to people, learn how things really work and why, and you'll have a better handle on what sorts of things we really want and need, versus what people cry about on the interwebs. On the other hand, if you really want to make money, well, this probably isn't the place to do it. Now, I hope that didn't come off sounding harsh toward anyone, but ... you might should keep it in mind. Good luck to you, and hopefully we'll see you on the water sometime soon.
A quick comment on this part, as Stephen's wife. While he wasn't able to attend all of the national events, for years he did send new products as prizes and to ask people to try them out and ask for their feedback. The vast majority of the time, he would not even receive acknowledgement that he had even sent the products, much less any feedback or thanks. Believe me, we have talked extensively about this, would have done many things differently if we were to do this over again, and so on and so on.
Hey, Keri ... <3 to both of you. I tried not to name names, because I don't want to shame anyone. I know you guys tried, and tried hard. On my end, I tried to be supportive, and I don't want you to think I'm being negative toward you or anything like that. I guess that's part of what makes the whole thing feel so sad & unfortunate to me, because I like you and wanted you to succeed, and also because I'm a bit selfish and want to be able to buy nice stuff. To be honest, some of the same thoughts and concepts apply to ol' Swampy, and names we haven't heard in a long time like Brian Craven, both of whom put themselves through this wringer. Trying to make a business out of this hobby is ... well, I think I already described what it is. So, anyway, I hope there's no hurt feelings here. That's not my intent. Honestly, I want people to be happy and enjoy the hobby, but as time goes by, so often I see the same patterns play themselves out again and again, and wish there was a way to stop it. But, I suppose I should not let it get to me, and let things things play themselves through, as they always do, rather than waste keystrokes on them. Have a great weekend up there, and do stay warm.
To Dori and I, this combat model segment is a bit of an unknown. Our main advantage is quality, price and diversity. We are a RC Fiberglass Shop. Our products range across many sectors of the market. Powerboats pay the bills ...Sailboats, airplanes and scale ships are just getting started. I used 1:144 scale to build the PE long ago because it seemed the right scale for the model to be big enough to impress people and not too big to put it out of reach for moderate income modelers or make transportation difficult. Combat guys started snatching them up and we were dragged into this market. We have about 50 Models. They have spent a decade and half in storage. 27 are in production. More are being re-activated soon. I think Strike Models did a great job of providing high quality combat specific products. Trying to figure out how what they have and do can be combined with what we do in a way that makes good business sense. Don’t really know enough about it all so input is great. But we do realize the limits of this little group. I don’t mind experimenting with a few ideas that might cost us a buck or two more than we might make just following the pack if we learn from them. We document time and materials pretty well so if we take a bath on something we will adjust. In the end, the quality and wide range of products will keep us afloat. Pun intended.
