Shipbucket

OK, so, I thought to myself, "Self, you know, for your first drawing attempt you ought try and not take on too frelling big a project. Start small." Well, thats just what I did, the Royal Navy's Archer class Patrol and Training Boats. I suppose I could have gone smaller and done like a fishing dory or something, but that seemed a bit too extreme.

Anyhow, I figured I ought post this and get some feedback. Try not to rip me to shreds, please. At least not too badly.

VERSION 8


I'll just do a copy/paste from Wikipedia about this class boat as anything I tried to say would be virtually identical. I hope that is allowed?

About the Class in General - The Archer class (or P2000) is a class of patrol and training vessels in service with the British Royal Navy, commonly referred to as a Fast Training Boat. Ten vessels were ordered as the P2000 class, based on a design of an Omani coastguard cutter, from Watercraft Marine. They are twin-shaft vessels with moulded glass-reinforced plastic hulls. After that company went into liquidation, the balance of the order was completed by Vosper Thornycroft.
The Archers were initially used as Royal Navy patrol craft and as training tenders for the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and University Royal Naval Units (URNU). Four identical vessels were ordered for the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (RNXS) as Example-class tenders. When that service was disbanded in 1994, the Examples were transferred to the Royal Navy for similar duties as their Archer-class brethren (under the same names under which they served as "XSVs", all of which begin with the first syllable "Ex"). Until 2005, the 4 Examples were still painted with a black hull.

In 1998 two additional vessels (Raider and Tracker) of this design were commissioned into the Royal Navy from Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, to replace Loyal Watcher and Loyal Chancellor as URNU training vessels to the two newest URNUs, serving Cambridge and Oxford Universities respectively. This brought the total of Archer class vessels in the Royal Navy to 16, of which 14 form the 1st Patrol Boat Squadron (formerly the Inshore Training Squadron), each one attached to an URNU (one per unit) under the command of a Lieutenant. The remaining 2 vessels (Pursuer and Dasher), having formed the Cyprus Squadron from 2003 to 2010, and URNU vessels before that[2], returned to the UK in April 2010 to form the Faslane Patrol Boat Squadron, performing security duties within HMNB Clyde - these can be identified by a number of pintle-mounted L7 7.62 mm GPMG machine guns and armour plating. Ranger and Trumpeter were also formerly allocated to the Gibraltar Squadron for guard ship and search and rescue duties, but were replaced by the dedicated Scimitar class. Unlike the remainder of the class, both these ships remain capable of being mounted with a 20mm cannon on the fo'c'sle.

The NATO designation of a P2000 is "PBR", denoting a "Patrol Boat - Riverine and Harbours".

And about the HMS Biter in particular - HMS Biter (P270) is an Archer-class P2000-type patrol and training vessel of the British Royal Navy. She is assigned to Manchester & Salford Universities Royal Naval Unit, a Royal Naval Reserve unit based in Manchester. The ship is based at HMS Eaglet, the Royal Naval Headquarters (Merseyside) in Liverpool. As part of her sea training programme, she often makes visits to local ports for ceremonial visits or occasions.

_________________
"Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way." - The Seventh Doctor

Hi Zephyr. I wholeheartedly support Your idea to start on SB with smaller ships, as I have the same approach.
Your drawing looks generally nice, but - despite being relative newbie here too, and not knowing much about that ship class - I have some thoughts about it.
(And forgive me any language issues - English is not my native language)

First of all - You should use SB-style railings (In the beginning I was drawing them - like You - "as they are in real life" - but older users insisted I draw them standard way - now it's my turn to insist that on You ) - two levels of bars with vertical bars 5 pixels apart.
I suppose that doors should be bit wider (one pixel perhaps) - I'm sometimes drawing more narrow doors to my ships, but that's because they wouldn't fit otherwise, and here You have lots of space.
Also, I think that there should be a light shade on hull just below the deck level, and the lower part of the bow should be made bit more rounded.
Not sure about that - but I'd rather make mast black, and gave a contour to the semi-circular thing on the stern.
Also, I would try to add more details.
And my last thought: on Your drawing and on the picture You've linked, the ship colour is beige-ish, but on most pictures these ships look rather more grey.

ok, edits made and new pic edited into the OP.

You're partially right about the grey color of many of the Archer class. Many pics I've seen were indeed a light grey, but a few seem to be the beige color as well. It just happened that the side view I chose happened to be of the beige-ish variety.

On a side note, I mentioned to my wife I was working on a drawing of the HMS Biter, and her first comment was "Is it from The Walking Dead?". We lead a strange and geek-filled life.

_________________
"Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way." - The Seventh Doctor

I suppose that the issue with colour might be because of light - different angle, surroundings etc.
Shading under the deck was supposed to be at the whole lenght, actually - my fault I didn't mark it properly.
Also, the hull should be of slightly darker shade than the superstructure.
You still didn't make the railings SB-style, Your doors still could be more detailed (and not so square - cut the corners) and generally it lacks details.
When I looked on pics of the ships of this class it seemed to me that the front part of the superstructure doesn't break at 90deg. angle.
And the biggest part of it, I've noticed only later - You forgot about the open bridge.

Every picture I've seen, regardless of grey or beige, the hull and superstructure have been the same shade. Same with the front of the superstructure, they all break down at a 90 deg. The shading under the hull has been there from the beginning, that is what that "stripe is, the first row of shading, and if you look carefully, you will see a second, lighter, stripe under that. The class has a pronounced "lip" at the top of the hull, which is why I made the shading stripe 1 px below. Look at the pictures and you will see that.

_________________
"Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way." - The Seventh Doctor

Shipbucket introduction and guidelines, point 4.3

The next stage involves coloring the ship. Coloring should follow the real life color schemes as much as possible, but rules still apply. Use two hues of the same color to color your ships: a darker hue for the hull and any outwardly-sloping hull surfaces, and a lighter hue for the superstructure, weapons, and systems.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16

I don't think the front of the superstructure breaks at 90 deg. Very close, but not 90.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hmsch ... er_arp.jpg

Shading (and contour) of the hull (I did look carefully):



Railings remain non-SB, and details are still quite scarce.

I cannot find anyplace in the tutorials where the railings must all be identical instead of following what the ship actually has. Until I do, I believe I shall keep them "as is". As for the contour you are pointing out, that is a single pixel wide. The bow itself appears to be of a straight line quality, so what is it you are suggesting?

_________________
"Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way." - The Seventh Doctor

The bow has to be outlined in a single black pixel width line. You've got three spots on the bow and near the bow that are lacking this line (one pink and two grey).


I'll have to think on the railing (with the rest of the staff who are free to jump in here). Historically we've stuck with a standard railing, but a few minor variations have been allowed lately, and here we do have hard evidence for what it looks like.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

In my experience, railings should be angled appropriately. A railing that is almost beam-to-beam should be 'closer spaced' in terms of uprights, as if the usual-spaced stanchions are running almost beam-to-beam.

OK, now I understand the bow thingy. Thank you for explaining. V4 edited into the OP.

_________________
"Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way." - The Seventh Doctor