Since I'd really like to make it to NATS'24, I figure I should probably start building a fast gun ship.
It also helps that its one of the few capital ships of the dreadnought era with 3 stacks....that looks like a kongo and an iron duke had a baby...
Yup, I found out after chose Tiger. I’ll def’n want your recommendations on this build. Fast gun ships are a different beastie than I encounter around here.
Im confused...are you not using the WoW model? Your SS in the picture above looks 100% like its lifted from the WoW 3d model. Generally I provide copies of the .stl or .obj for @Beaver and then he or I use them as a 3d set of plans to then make hulls/ss/etc from. (I only say this because I don't want you to get scammed by people who are reselling ripped 3d models on the internet, when you can get them for free)
This is exactly why I asked! I have very little insight on how you guys build so quickly. The SS is WoW, I paid like $10 for complete models for all of the ships in the game. Where are you guys getting them for free? I tried to convert the WoW model hull. However, none of my attempts ever got me to the level of quality that I wanted. Two days ago I threw it all away and went with a set of BDE hull plans, and the hull looks 1000% better for it. I slapped the SS on last night, but even now it's driving my OCD crazy. This morning I'm pulling it back off and will try another attempt to make it prettier, less bloated, and more consistent. How are you guys getting good results from those models?
I can't speak on behalf of @Beaver, but I can speak for my own workflow. The trick is: I'm not either. I import the mesh and I use it as 3 dimensional plans. I plane cut the mesh to create rib stations. I create sketches on the cut planes I used to then draw my own ribs for the hull. I then surface loft with 3d sketches and guiderails to make a hull. The way I do it so quickly is because I've done like a dozen of them now. Same thing for superstructures and turrets. I don't try to make those mesh files usable, I just use them as a 3d reference to then create my own. I have pre-made "stamps" I call them for doors, windows, steam piping, vents, etc, and I also just don't care about detailing that stuff as much as some. (And more than others apparently) @Beaver is my prime outside contractor who will help me out sometimes on certain hulls, he'll do the solid hull body and then I'll take over from there and SJS-ify it with my standard build methods. Nothing is new here, everything is standardized subcomponents that are dragged in and manipulated to create a finished product. My hulls aren't trying to be overly engineered, my hulls are just plastic versions of relatively traditional build methods. When I had hosted the little video share session a while ago, I tried to explain that the quickness is because of the premades that I drag into the design and the standardized workflow for every ship. If I need to come up with a new way to do the same thing for a ship because of XYZ reason, that's a problem for me. I want a uniform design across all SJS models. When you see three in a line and look inside them, they will all look very similar design wise. I offer a "hull bounty" if someone has a solid body of a hull that I can actually use, they can get either a discounted production run of the kit for that hull or some amount of SJS credit. @darkapollo provided his Admiral Graf Spee and some others in this method, which jumped that ship's progress by a lot. Years ago I paid like $5 for some gamesmodels3d website and I use that for pulling the models. There are predatory "artists" out there who will do the same thing or rip the files right from the game archives and then sell them online as if they're their own work. I've seen a 100% ripped War Thunder model for sale for $50 before.
Got it. Thanks for this! My models are from gamesmodels3d as well, looks like they increased to $10. I had considered the 'plane-cut' approach until I found the BDE plans were available to me. I'm going to throw away the SS now as well; I'll use the model as blueprints and build it up from scratch. I think I'll be pulling components out of the Deutschland and Abercrombie/Roberts and pushing them into this build as well. I really liked the motor mounts on the Abercrombie. Lastly... Buckle up, as I'll absolutely be over-engineering Tiger.
Honestly, thank you for this write up. You were incredibly detailed in your approach where others in your position as a vendor probably wouldn't have been. Thank you.
Over engineered and works are very different things in IRCWCC... I look forward to seeing it in June, vive la plastique!
Like Will I use the model as plans. I scale and position the nose on the orgin point, then lay out a series of offset planes wherever I need a hull station. Then, in the mesh modeling section, under Create there is "Create Mesh Section Sketch". Click on that, select the plane you wish to get a sketch of, and boom, perfect hull station. Do this down the length of the hull and you get a perfect set of 3d plans.
And _I_ do a combo of both Wills and Calebs method! For Supers I use WOW models as a build guide. I also use the points from the mesh sections to create spline points to create a solid hull. Slower than Wills method.
