Shipbucket

It kind of scares me that so many AUs are written about Australia. Is it an inferiority complex or just unreached potential?

Here are some pictures of an idea for an Australian AU I played with at the start of the year before leaving it behind. The pictures are to shipbucket scale but not the standard (no railings, no references, etc) and I’ve only posted them here for peoples enjoyment not as a proposal to be uploaded. Drawing these pictures is what exposed me to Shipbucket and as you can see I was quietly copying and editing other peoples art from the sidelines though this was only for personal use.

The idea for the AU was "what if" Indonesia invaded Papua New Guinea in November 1990 when the rest of the world was focused on Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait. Basically Australia would be on its own to free the PNG and the USA would be limited in its support because rightly Kuwait is far more important to the world’s economy than the PNG. Also Australia would be limited in what weapons it could acquire from the USA at the time because not much would be spare. Indonesia could not stand up to Australia for too long because their defense force and economy is much, much weaker. However it would spark a 15-20 year long cold war after the ADF pounds the TNI.

Anyway it was an idea for a thriller novel and I fleshed it out a bit and maybe one day I will actually write it. The pictures below are mostly of the kind of ships and aircraft Australia would built and acquire after the initial ‘Free PNG’ campaign.


Except these ships which are unfinished and on top the Kiev which Australia would buy –demilitarized - from the Soviet Union in 1991 (along with other support ships as the USN and UK have nothing to spare) and was then rebuilt in Finland into a flat top (with ski jump) aircraft carrier and commissioned as HMAS Kanimbla. The second ship is the Iron Monarch steel carrier that for some reason keeps on being talked about as an Australian LHD. The outline is half done and it would be commissioned as the helicopter carrier HMAS Anzac.


These are the RAN’s surface combatants circa 2010. On top you have the 18m combat boat design of Dockstarvent (famous for the SB90) in both inshore patrol boat with 25mm Typhoon gun and gun boat (120mm Amos mortar turret). Next are some strike craft with a SES and a monohull missile carriers. Then you have the Australian designed “Transmarine Town class corvette” (aka Tenix OPC) and its replacement in orders the Austal “Town II” class multi hull corvettes (WIP). Below it are the first and second batch of “Transmarine Tribal class” frigates (aka Anzac class) based on the MEKO 200 design but built “fitted with” not “fitted for”. The second batch has improved sensors and weapons. As the US Navy disposed of Spruance, Kidd and the first five Ticonderoga class the RAN purchased as many as were available and they were later refitted. Spurances were brought up to the Kidd standard and they and the Ticos had their trainable launchers replaced by VLS. Because VLS would not fit in the aft position of these ships a small VLS for quad packed ESSM and canister launched missiles were fitted on this deck. The last ship is the Australian designed “River class” destroyer that was entering service from 2008 to replace the old DDGs.


HMAS Kanimbla (ex Kiev) was always a lash up of a ship and was replaced by the Australia class aircraft carrier – designed in the UK but built in Australia. It is seen here with its new late 2000s air group with Australian built aircraft.


The carrier air group of STOVL fighters and compound helicopters was extremely powerful and could be rapidly launched and recovered from the Australia class.


After license production of the F/A-18 Hornet ASTA designed and built the Kareela in air force and navy versions.

The other aircraft are modern versions of the FAIREY ROTODYNE built in Australia because of the need for a hot weather, high altitude helicopter in the New Guinea highlands.





So these were the pictures for my Free PNG campaign…

Here is another AU Australia ship (WIP) but not from this universe. It is a 1970s maritime interdiction corvette for the RAN based on the Vosper Mk 8 design. It has lots of guns!

Strewth I'd just posted on your work list about seeing more on an AU, and you'd already started. I have a natural interest in any AU based around Australia/Indonesia; as some time ago I and a collaborator (Bronquites, who disapeared) launched the 'Coffee War', and only my innate modesty prevents me from stating how superior it was . I had the archive deleted ages ago, but if you scroll down on the old boards AU section you'll find stuff in there about the ships, under my name. Our AU was based around warfare between Indonesia and the AUS (or UAS), the regional power based upon Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea.

That said I really like what you're developing here; and so good to see AU's that look promising and actually feasible. Also, I see some promising designs in there - plenty of growth potential. My only advise is to err on the side of modesty when it comes to what both nations could realistically afford, in terms of g.n.p. and populations. I'm afraid much of what passess for AU here is spoiled by a basic lack of a proper foundation and preliminary research, its easier (for some folk) just to post kitbashed drawings that wouldn't work in real-life. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this ones goes

BTW, like good Beer, you can't have too much Aussie AU

Yeah I understand that. Firstly but this is very much a dead AU. Unless I get rich and can sit around and write a novel I’m not coming back to it. I just thought I would post the pictures here so other like minded people could enjoy them.

On the topic of affordability most of these pictures are from the time frame 10-20 years after the hot/cold war between Australia and Indonesia starts. So basically Australia has had its economy mobilised for warfare like Israel for 20 odd years. This is spending 10% of GDP on defence every year rather than the current 1 or 2%. So basically Australia is like Israel times five! Also like Israel is keyed in closely to the USA military economy. Even more so than Israel because the USA actually trusts us! So there is a lot of potential for a lot more new weapons and ships and the like. However in the early days of the AU back in 1991-93 it is a very different case with Australia scrambling to mobilise and find weapons. Of course because most of that stuff was off the shelf I didn’t feel the need to draw any of it because I knew what it looked like!

Thanks for the feedback and the info on the Coffee Wars. I can imagine the commie/green protest slogans: "No Blood For Coffee!" Who wouldn't be willing to kill or die for a cup of kaf at 6am in the morning!

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Shipbucket mainsite, aka "The Archive"
New AU project "Aravala"

Yes of course. In this case these were just personal use drawings I had lying around and thought I'd post them here just for appreciation:

I'm gutted Given that this still in draft form, it looks really promising; and I really like the look of the Kookaburra. But as one who once lost some of his sanity on an AU, it might be wise to not put another paw into the tar pool.

1. Why draw your own goalkeeper, while there is already a as much as possible maximum detailed one?
2. Why draw your own 5'' us armament's, '' '' '' '' ''

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Fryssian AU with Lt.Maverick 114
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9802&p=193331#p193331

Embarked on: HNLMS Karel Doorman A833
To do list:
-Zeven Provincien class cruiser
-Joint support ship all sides
-F124 Sachsen class frigate
-F125 Baden-Württemberg class frigate
-Clemencau class aircraft carrier
-Zeven provincien class frigate
-Poolster class AOR
-Amsterdam class AOR
-Minas Gerais aircraft carrier

Thanks I had a lot of fun with those modern Rotodynes. I'm 2/3s way through an aeronautical engineering degree and did a study on this configuration including the tail prop, tip rotor powered composite gyro/helo. So I had a bit of extra help! The Kookabura ARH along with the ‘stealthy’ Anzac class is what I am most proud of from this AU.
It’s not a Goalkeeper. It’s an AU Australian designed CIWS with the “Equalizer” 25mm Gatling gun (great name!). So it’s kind of a “Mini-Goalkeeper”. There are differences with the radars as well.
Like I said in the intro these pictures were not for Shipbucket but for my own use. I redrew the gun turrets because I didn’t like the look of the Shipbucket originals. I also liked the look of having the big barrels elevated like many ships do, which is probably a balance thing.

Well, no, we draw them horizontally.

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