Hello all.
I am new to the forums, I found this site when searching for references for the USS Pennsylvania (as of the 1944 refit), especially the weapons—the 14in triple turrets, the twin 5″/38 secondary mounts, and 40 mm AA.
I am in the process of modeling ‘Old Falling Apart’ and realized that for the level of detail that I wanted to achieve, I would need expert input and more reference. I was looking throught some of the threads posted on this site and believe you all have the know-how and expertise, and would know where the reference is.
My main reference is blueprints I bought off od eBay, but unfortunately they are prewar (late 1941) and don’t have the modernization/refit details.
So here is my model thus far (major parts like the guns are being modeled separately, and will be assembled when complete). VERY much a work in progress, as I upload these I see how far I really have to go yet. oh well—any comments and critiques you have are welcome, I appreciate it 😮 !
Um, I seem to have picked a bad time. . .(what? it’s only quarter after 3 AM here, sheesh, that’s not late at all. . .) as photobucket.com is undergoing late night maintenance, so I’ll have to post through attachments, sorry.
EDIT: photobucket is back up and working!
14incher
5in 38 caliber twin turret
Don’t mind the holes, they are only unfinished portions and will not be there on the final version—I promise 😀 !
By: Unicorn - 19th November 2005 at 09:35
EpoPisces, I suspect that you and the owner of this site
Have much in common.
Unicorn
By: EpoPisces - 18th November 2005 at 22:52
Sorry for the delay. Anyway these latest pics are actually rather inaccurate, I rushed the ship to finish in time for class (unfortunately due to an error in mirroring I did not get it in in time anyway), so the superstructure and much of the area directly behind the stack is rather inaccurate. I am planning to go back and redo those areas, after a week of taking a break for other proj (so Tues/Wed I should be back on task).
By: EpoPisces - 11th November 2005 at 20:38
Um, interiors 😮 ? Wasn’t planning on doing them. . .in all the reference I could find I found maybe 2 pics of any portion of the interior. . .pics of the outside are hard enough to get!
So far, I’m at about 2 and a half weeks (I worked on it casually for almost a week, then took almost a month break for another proj, then in the last week I’ve started working 10 hours or more per day on this or other modeling proj), and 300,000 tris BEFORE smoothing—and I’m not nearly done yet. The major problem is if I want to pass this class I need to finish it by Tues. . .and need to have two other models completed (one is nearly done, the other is not quite that far along). need more time! (quick, someone model a time machine real quick. . .)
By: jbritchford - 11th November 2005 at 19:47
I hope the interiors are as good! 😀
Stunning work though, how long did it take you?
By: EpoPisces - 11th November 2005 at 06:21
Ok, this is the 40mm Bofors Mark IV, the anti-aircraft gun on board the Pennsylvania. I must tacitly admint that I overdetailed (if that is possible) this one. . .given its relative size to the whole craft, when I import it it will raise the bar for the entire scene. . .and this thing is kinda due Tuesday if I want to pass the class . Oh well such is life. At least as a gift it doesn’t have to be done to MY satisfaction till Xmas, only to the teachers’.
This one has the Rail removed for better viewing:
and what presentation would be complete without the guner’s pov?
By: EpoPisces - 9th November 2005 at 18:17
Before mirroring it is about 90,000 tris, after mirroring (and adding the third anchor chain) and smoothing the hull only, it is about 216,000 tris.
The hull and body of the 14in turret were both done in NURBS and converted to polys, all the rest was modeled straight from polys. If I had more Sub-D experience I would have used those instead, but with a deadline like this I stuck with what I knew best.
Here are some wires:
By: mixtec - 8th November 2005 at 20:53
This is a new military 3D modeling forum you should check out:
www.military-meshes.com
Edit: I see youve already posted there.
Also you might want to post this in the RC & Models section of this forum, which Im hoping will attract more military cg modelers.
How many polys does it weigh in at? Did you use NURBs or sub-Ds?
By: EpoPisces - 8th November 2005 at 20:14
Updates!
Please note the model is mirrored (I am only modeling one half right now, and copied it over for the picture) so things like the third anchor chain aren’t there yet. Details are coming along (so slowly it seems).. . .
It looks really strange without any hard shadows, I’ll add them in next update.
By: EpoPisces - 6th November 2005 at 00:33
I’m using Maya 7 (the one used to create Gollum 😎 ), educational license (the consumer version is $$$)
By: av8r1974 - 6th November 2005 at 00:05
So far it looks good to me. Q: I was curious, what software are you using?
By: EpoPisces - 5th November 2005 at 23:07
Updates!
I improved the 38 caliber guns, imported them into the scene, and worked on the superstructure. The pics show what it will look like when I mirror the one half over to create a whole (the actual model is not yet mirrored, only the version I used to create the pics. Cheers!
By: EpoPisces - 5th November 2005 at 17:17
Thanks, I’m checking them out now. Will post new pics later today (or very late tonight lol).
By: Bager1968 - 5th November 2005 at 07:51
These two sites have a lot of very knowledgeable folks, including some who have published reference works, some who teach University-level military courses, and at least one (Bill Jurens) who is a consultant for Marine Archeaology projects for warships:
http://p216.ezboard.com/bwarships1discussionboards
By: KJlost - 4th November 2005 at 22:35
I don’t know anything about ships pre-Cold War. However, I’ve seen some excellent discussions on warships1.com discussion forums. You should try there as well.
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November 4, 2005 at 8:26 am