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Model warship combat is an international club activity, in which participants construct radio-controlled scale models of actual warships, most commonly those built by various nations during the early portion of the 20th century prior to 1946 such as the , or . These models are armed with pneumatic cannons, and fight against one another on ponds and lakes. Model warship combat is sometimes considered to be a form of Naval Wargaming, but can also be considered a water-based version of Robot Combat since much of the internal systems and concepts are the same with similar radio control electronics, and in some cases possess similar pneumatics systems. The sport is predominately divided into 'Big Gun' and 'Fast Gun' (or 'Small Gun') clubs. Both 'Big Gun' and 'Fast Gun' formats host annual national/international inter-club events. There is one major 'Fast Gun' club, the International Radio Control Warship Combat Club (IRCWCC). As of January 2015, the other major club, Model Warship Combat, Incorporated (MWCI) has been dissolved, and its members are being incorporated into IRCWCC. IRCWCC hosts a yearly week-long national event, "Nats", where the fleets, divided up by historical alliances, (Allied and Axis), wage war against each other. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the week, wins that year's Nationals. 'Big Gun' battlers have the annual event known as the North American Big Gun Open (NABGO),〔)/> and - since 2008 - the annual Big Gun Robotic Warship Combat open invitational at California Maker Faire.〔(Big Gun Robotic Warship Combat open invitational at California Maker Faire )〕 The Australian Battle Group (AUSBG) has two annual National Battles, held in January and June. ==History== Radio controlled combat of warships owes its popularity to a small group of men living in Texas (USA) in the late 1970s. The founding fathers of the hobby are Stan Watkins, D.W. Fluegel, and Jeff Poindexter. Back in the day, these men "toyed" with the idea of using radio controlled ships and equipping them with some kind of cannon so that they could then engage in combat.〔( History of Big Gun Combat )〕 After much efforts, Stan created the "Mark I" cannon using an odd variety of plumbing parts and pieces. In those days, freon was used as a propelling agent and often their engagements resulted in little if any damage. After some time, and more engineering, they were able to "sink" an opponent in combat by shooting steel balls through balsa hulls. Organized groups formed very quickly after this achievement, with the formation of the IRCWCC, and Big Gun groups starting up in 1982 with the formation of NASWCA.〔(NASWCA History by Paul Fleming )〕 Complete Mk I gun system 1977. The iron pipe fittings formed the Freon 22 tank to power the gun operation. The small water valves were used to fill the tank and to supply pressure to the o ring “spool valve. When the gun was not in the fire position, the o ring separated the pressure source from the gun magazine hose. When the radio control unit was activated the servo moved the spool valve to the position that allowed the freon to flow from the tank to the gun magazine hose. As the magazine was pressurized, the BBs flowed into the restrictor tube until the pressure built high enough to force the BBs through the restrictor and out of the barrel. The exit velocity of the BBs was enough to enable the BBs to punch holes in the model ship’s 1/32 inch hull skin. This linear magazine and barrel assembly was not able to fit a small model ship’s gun turret. To improve scale appearance, a brass elbow fitting was added to reduce the above deck size of the gun. This enabled the magazine to exit the deck vertically into the base leg of the elbow. This was the reason for development of the new Mk II breach/barrel assembly. The first of these was installed on (Stan Watkins) earlier constructed model of the USS Arizona (l/144 scale). The BBs (about 100) were loaded into the clear hose. When the gun pressured the hose, BBs would feed into the smaller clear plastic tubing behind the barrel brass tubing. The pressure would build until the BBs could blast through the small (restrictor) tubing and out the barrel. At that point, they had adequate power to penetrate the 1/32 balsa hull skin. Numbers of BBs would “spurt” out. To get more than one spurt, the warship combatant had to rapidly close the spool valve after the start of the spurt. This was possible since the Freon feed hoses were small and had low flow.〔Mk 1〕 From this inauspicious beginning and after years of technological advances, the hobby has improved dramatically in both reliability and playability. Many different groups having formed, fighting scale model warships ranging from the reasonably rare 1:48 scale to the most common 1:144 scale, with different and largely regional variations on the rules used. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Model warship combat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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