Shipbucket

Finally getting around to something I've wanted to do for a while, working on the early US Navy. For the moment I'm looking at the "6 Frigates" and the early US Navy.

First, we need to reference Colosseum's Topic as he began the USS Constitution in it's War of 1812 appearance:
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... nstitution

the 1790's was an interesting period as the US was a new country, economically growing, maritime oriented, and militarily non-existent, it was ripe for the taking by any power that wanted it. With the revolution and British occupation fresh in the population's experience, nobody was thrilled with the idea of a standing military, or financially supporting anything beyond a bare-bones government. If Britain and France hadn't been preoccupied with each other...

Maritime trade was flourishing to the point where US shipping was starting to rival Britain, the American merchant fleet found also itself a ripe target in the Mediterranean for the Barbary Pirates and pretty much anyone who wanted to take the ships, cargo, and crews. The merchant interests finally said enough, the US Navy was born, as was the start of bureaucratic American government.

First up: The 44 Gun Frigates Constitution, President, and United States "As Designed". 1794.


This is a WIP nearly done; a little more time needed on the rigging and Q/C checks. I'm trying to locate some running rigging references to flesh out a few of the sails.

I've got my USS Wasp in the image for use as a comparison and personal benchmark to better. It's also there to help me with stylistic consistency.

The drawing source material includes the earliest paintings of these ships I could find on-line, the Building draught from Chapelle's "The American Sailing Navy", and the sail plan dated 1803 (the earliest I could find and it compared well to similar US ships from the 1790's).

The ships were designed to to be more heavily timbered and armed than comparable British and French frigates, and outrun anything larger.

As soon as this one is done, I'll modify it to "As Launched" as there are some important changes that reflect lessons learned from the Napoleonic conflict between Britain and France that were incorporated during construction.

CraigH

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In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

Awesome work so far!! Looking foward to see it completed ^^ You are very knowledgeable about USN ships of this time, since I am not and I do like to ask someting

Good stuff. I'm not sure about the styling (the lack of the standard three-pixel-wide detailing bothers me), but this is very well done regardless.

The challenge involved in rendering a ship using our guidelines is what makes this hobby difficult - and what makes drawings that do it successfully so nice.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Alvama,
Ask away! Worst that could happen is; "Beats me!"

Collosseum,
Regarding the 3 pixel wide item, I'm aware of it, but it was driving me nuts on spars and the like that are less than 6" thick in reality. I'll continue to juggle with that standard however.

The underwater hull as that's going to come up, I'm staying away from the coppering line-work. I've worked with a similar process (tern metal) for period railroad car roofing on real cars and in various scales (modeling). At our scale viewing distance in SB, that line-work would be invisible.

CraigH

_________________
In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

IMHO, the non-three-pixel details hold up much better in sailing ships.

I've always interpreted the Shipbucket guidelines as sort of an outgrowth of the recognition-manual style guide, in which freestanding objects (masts, for example) must be rendered extra-bold so as to be seen even in a low-pixel drawing. On a sailing ship, yards and the like are something in between regular freestanding objects and surface details (like hull knuckles and creases, which have always been okay at one pixel thick). They're details of a cohesive whole, and as such the detail-rules start to be more appropriate.

Not suggesting policy, merely thinking out loud.

I'm with Colosseum on 3-pixel standard, and I think that for the most part it would be possible to incorporate it with minimum esthetical penalty - but it's Your drawing.
And it looks awesome so far.

This is great work so far and truly long awaited. I can't wait to see all the early American ships!

The one nitpick I would make is the amount of sails. As built the big American ships were quite underpowered and even though larger topmasts were added pretty fast this resulted in the ships springing their mainmasts every time they weathered a storm. When they were being fitted out for the 1st Barbary War the anemic lower masts were replaced, and then replaced again with even more towering masts during and after the War of 1812. I'd base the as built sail plan more on contemporary European 4th and 5th rate sail plans rather than the 1803 plan.

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"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." Thomas Edward Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Syzmo,

Re-masting modifications slated for Version 3! This drawing reflects "As Designed". Version 2 will be "As Launched" to reflect design changes learned from watching the battles between Britain and France while the ships were being built.

Ver. 3 will reflect Pre-War of 1812, the masting you're referring to.

Grappling with that damned 3-pixel rule this morning. Trying it on the Bow 1/2 of the ship.

CraigH

_________________
In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

In my opinion it's a wonderful drawing and I rather stick to Erik-T's view regarding the pixel issue with the spars

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Work in progress:
DD County Class PNS Babur (1982)(PAK)
FF Type 21 Class D182 PNS Babur (2000)(PAK)
All relevant Coat of Arms

Here's a test shot incorporating the 3 pixel rule.

The spar deck rail goes strait to hell, visually they become about 18" thick. These are handrails.
The stunsail booms become clubs, these should be maybe 1/2-1 pixel when scaled, not 18".
Ditto on various fittings at the deck edge.
Ditto on mast tops.

The flying jibboom works as 3 pixels in this case (it doesn't in smaller ships).

For the "powers that be":
I'm wondering if these bits should be treated more like gun barrels, antenna, SB Scale aircraft props, and railing on modern ships?

Just a thought.
CraigH

_________________
In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!