Feedback wanted on a project of mine

[octopus7]

G'day all
I'm hoping some of the naval personnel here can give me some feedback on a project i'm working. I do 3D computer graphics as a hobby and am working on a naval scene featuring a huge fictional battle cruiser. Which belongs to the Australian navy. Heres a pic of what i've done so far.

So if you have any help, tips or advice then please post away. All comments will be replied to.

 

[Ozzy Blizzard]

Great graphic mate!!!!!!

love to know how you did it, what you used ect! is it hard to learn??

What era is that?? WW1 or WW2?? Whats with the small turret coming out of the hull???? Are there any larger gun implacemets further forward? those ones look a tad smal for a battlecruiser, like 5 inch from a destroyer. You need like 15inch pluss bad boys!!!

All in all its a great picture, i cant belive you just drew something like that!

Have you done anything on aircraft? Love to see it if you did!

 

[battlensign]

Well......where to start?

1) As Ozzy said, what is the Era? (Could be WW1 with side weapon sponsons, or WW2 with fancy type of gun director and potentially seems to rely on guns so it cannot be 'modern' as such)

2) The Design seems to be missing electronic systems (comms antenna, Radar etc) - potentially limited by your envisaged 'period' but likely to be comms antenna at least.

3) There would appear to be no currently included capacity in the design to communicate by flags, lights etc)

4) Armaments in general:

A) you seem to have at least 4 (and possibly five) identifiable gun calibres in this design - are they really all needed?

B) Sponsons are really quite an antiquated idea from pre-WW1 - their ability to traverse onto target is limited to one side, and favoured the earlier battleships that attempted to boast a range of armaments for varying threats (e.g: Primary 15'', Secondary 6'', 6 Pounder quick firing guns, Lewis machine guns etc). As such they were not used in later designs, making your idea of what period this ship is from important. The impresive anti-air (assumed by your graphic) is somewhat inconsistent with side sponsons.

C) If you are going to go to all the trouble of designing a warship with armoured turrets etc, why not make it a battleship (as opposed to battlecruiser) and give the main turrets 3 guns each? (IOWA style......or alternatively go a King George class and stick 4 guns in the forward main turret)


Overall though, good work - looks really impressive!

Brett.

 

[octopus7]

Thanks a ton for the replies
Now to answer a few queries about the ship.

The sponsoons : Believe it or not I started to make a replica of the museum ship USS olympia that had 5inch guns in sponsoons along the hull. As well as having larger 8 inch guns in sponsoons on the main deck as well as in a forward and aft twin turret. Somehow my design has mutated into what you see now. I am contemplating giving the sponsoons the flick.

The main armament :Ozzy blizzard you are spot on about the main turrets, they are in fact based on the 5inch turrets from the Iowa class battleships when in reality I should be using the massive 16inch main turrets. Thanks mate I will now be altering them to give H.M.A.S Eureka the massive firepower it deserves.

coms package : As this is only a work in progress I haven't yet done the main mast and radar equipment. But if you look on the bridge wings you will see signal lamps (still have to include the running lights on the wings as well)

Design era: This ship is set around the ww2 era, hence the Iowa class type fire control and range-finder equipment. I'd love to include a goal keeper or phalanx CIWS system but that would take away from the design.

Software I used: The scene is made in the excellent 3D software package titled 3D studio Max ver 8.0 and rendered with V-ray 1.5. Both are complicated peices of software as you actually build the objects as if they were solid. I can rotate my ship around 3 axis and render from any angle.

Once again thank you and I will keep you all posted when I update the design.

 

[octopus7]

Well I have heeded advice from both of you and gotten rid of all the sponsoon mounted guns as well as a complete overhaul of the main armament. Eureka now packs a massive wallop with 10 14inch guns (6 f'wd and 4 aft). I will resize the Iowa type 5inch turret and use it elsewhere on the ship. I would have included the 2 pom pom mounts on top of the quad turrets but I couldn't find any decent online pics of them. I had enough trouble trying to find refs for HMS King George.

 

[battlensign]

Now that is one damned fine Battleship! (Love the Quad-mount forward, a la King George )

Brett.

 

[Ozzy Blizzard]

Nice!!!!

 

[AegisFC]

You have a lot of nice attention to detail but you are still missing a mast!
Also you have too many what looks like portholes (weak spots in an armored design) and very few crew served AA mounts (if this is around WW-2 era they would cram as many AA guns as they could fit).

 

[octopus7]

Ok I am back with another update on my battleship. She now has a radar and radio communications (still have a few more details to add to the mast) as well as anti air guns on top of the quad turret.

 

[AMTP10E]

It's getting there and I gotta admit that this is pretty impressive work.

I'd get rid of the manned guns on top of the forward turret. Having exposed personnel that close to the blast of the main guns would turn them into strawberry jam.

Also you would need to add at least 1 exhaust stack (more like two aft and lower than the mast.

What time period are you going for?

 

[battlensign]

The time period seems to be well into WW2 - Increased anti-air defence was a somewhat later modification.

The manned guns on the forward turret could be moved to the second turret (with 2 guns), so that their crews are not ......"liquified". Single 20 mms can be added to the deck with the solid rails.

Brett.

 

[AMTP10E]

The time period seems to be well into WW2 - Increased anti-air defence was a somewhat later modification.

The manned guns on the forward turret could be moved to the second turret (with 2 guns), so that their crews are not ......"liquified". Single 20 mms can be added to the deck with the solid rails.

Brett.

Even on the 2 gun turret the exposed personnel are mush. I'd move the manned guns either to 01 deck above the first set of life rings or 03 deck underneath the grilled air intake (one on each side).

Can we get a profile view to see the superstructure better? That way we know what real estate we've got to play with.

 

[octopus7]

Thank you again the positive feedback! Yep i'll relocate the anti air of the main turrets. I seem to have forgotten what the effects of concussion etc would have on their crew. Although on the King George and even the Japanese monster Yamamato, anti air guns were actually placed on top of the turrets. Anyway here is a side profile render of the superstructure. I'm about to do some more work on it very shortly.

 

[octopus7]

Ok, I've removed the turret mounted AA guns and placed more AA on the railings as suggested as well as on the bridge deck. Have also made a funnel that is loosely based on a Spruance class destroyers.

An once again thanks for the feedback. I posted this on a computer graphics site and everyone ignored it!:unknown

 

[icelord]

...sweeeet....very very sweeeet
Will you be creating a fleet of these X-creations or a sailing cruiser along the high Seas for your naval scene?
Also, on the finished project the name of the ship goes on the side, so you know whose pulling beside you with guns blazing.

 

[octopus7]

Thanks mate!
I'll be sure to fix up the name plate. I should have known better it's not as if i've never set foot on a R.A.N ship before.
The actual scene that I was originally building this ship for will be a large naval dockyard, with a rather odd (marlin shaped) submarine in drydock.
I will probably do a scene just with this ship though as well.

 

[octopus7]

The Eureka now has even more fire-power (guess too much is never enough when it's needed ) with 4 rear 5inch turrets. Incidentally they are mounted above the small hangar that will house a sea plane. Have also included a triple torpedo launcher (both sides) and another motor launch. Excuse the crummy water effect but i'm still trying to work out how to render great looking sea water.

 

[KiwiRob]

where is the aft big gun, most battleships I can think of have at least 3 main turrets. The aft hanger isn't going to be much use because the amunition for the guns on top is going to have to pass through it as are the mounts for the turrets. I also can't think of any battleships that had a hanger for their seaplanes.

 

[octopus7]

Thanks for the feedback Kiwirob. I have abandoned the idea for a hangar so I guess the area the 5inch guns are mounted on will be used for storage. As well as space for the magazines and supports for the 4 5inch turrets, there is a 4 barreled 14inch turret aft but it's not visible in the image. BTW here's an update on the scene, still more background work and some touch ups on the ship to go.

 

[kato]

I also can't think of any battleships that had a hanger for their seaplanes.

Ise class, post-conversion.

Had the aft two turrets removed, and hangar, cranes and catapults fitted. Could carry up to 22 seaplanes, and still kept 4 dual 14-inch turrets of their battleship outfit (two forward, two aft).

... Of course, Japan in 1944 didn't have the appropriate seaplanes, so the two ships never embarkes any.