King George V class battleships

[Martocticvs]

I guess it's worth me posting this here. I originally built this model (in Cinema 4D) about 10 years ago. I know it has been linked to here as reference a few times by various people. That fact made me feel a little bad last year when I was looking over the model again, and realised how bad it was in a lot of places, so I decided to start a full renovation project to bring it up to scratch in both quality and accuracy (and hopefully bring it to completion this time around - never did get as far as texturing it before).

As I originally built the model, it is kind of a mish-mash of both King George V and Prince of Wales. It was meant to be KGV at the time of the Bismarck battle, but references were sketchy and there were not many photos around at the time. This has totally changed now - there are more photos that I know what to do with! (Many thanks for your diligent efforts, Imperial War Museum!)

With this project, things have changed a little. I am slightly crazy, and have decided that I will turn this into four variants of the class. KGV in May 1941, as originally intended. Prince of Wales in December 1941, as she looked at the time of her sinking. And also KGV again and Duke of York as they looked at the time of the Japanese surrender in 1945.

For a full recap of the original project back in 2004-6, you can see all the renders on my website: https://www.prdobson.co.uk/project/hms- ... -v-1939/2/

Here's how things looked when I picked this back up again last year:



Please click the image for a full-size version. All new renders will be at least 1080p full HD resolution. Later ones will be 1440p resolution.

[Martocticvs]

The first area I picked to upgrade was the 5.25" secondary batteries. The KGV class carried 16 5.25" in guns in 8 turrets. This is how they looked to begin with:


After tweaks and updates, I ended up with this:


This is correct for 1941, but by some time in 1943, some minor alterations had been made to these turrets. Since I am intending to depict the late war versions of these ships as well, I built these changes...

[Martocticvs]

The next area to receive attention was the hull. The portholes were a little too low-detail for my tastes, and the drainage 'eyebrows' above them were simple ridges. Up front, the bow had the crease right at the top which was a feature unique to Prince of Wales. All other four ships had a smooth bow shape leading up to the deck. Porthole positions were also not quite right - and careful examination of photos showed that the positions were not identical between the three ships. Most are in the same location, but it is notable that all of the portholes aft of the armour belt on Duke of York are positioned slightly lower - the same level as the wardroom portholes, which are the only ones positioned slightly lower on Prince of Wales. King George V was fitted with rectangular deadlights instead in for the wardroom. Yet to be tackled is the fact that many of the portholes were plated over as the war progressed.

There were a number of other minor innacuracies - the propellors were the wrong way around, and there should be a small crease along most of the length of the hull, right at the top, from about the beginning of the armour belt to right aft. Above this crease the hull turns exactly vertical. I have added this in. The hull itself, as you can see, is smooth. I will be dealing with the hull plating via normal maps later on.

For King George V, it was necessary to rebuild the fore and aft sections of the degaussing cable as well.

Here's how the original model looked:


And after reworking the hull (slight shape adjustments aft, full rebuild at the bow):

[Martocticvs]

As I mentioned in the previous post, the bow needed a full rebuild. The profile of it just wasn't right. It had Prince of Wales' top crease, which would have been fine now that I was also planning on building the ship as PoW, but of course I needed the 'standard' version as well. Also, the very prow of the ship was much too sharp. So, I pulled up the original hull model and reworked it, and then carefully stitched it back into the model as it is now.

All details forward of the sea break I have deleted and replaced. The available references for this area 10 years ago were very poor, and I did not do a very good job with the equipment here. The anchors are completely new, and vastly more detailed. I will do a close-up render of these when I have dealt with the texturing of them.

Here's how things looked on the orignal model - very poor details!



And after what turned out to be a few month's work, thanks to lack of free time...




I've started work on the hull normal map in order to represent the hull plating. The paravane foot needed rebuilding, and now looks significantly more like the real thing! The links of the anchor cables originally were about twice the correct size, and generally out of proportion. Now much better. Later in the war, they seem to have stopped carrying the spare anchor, and the deck openings for the hawespipes were covered. I'll get to that later. I think they often took away the main cable for the spare anchor when it was carried early on, holding it with the smaller retainer/tensioner chains. I haven't yet replaced the paravane chains - in part because I can't work out exactly what happens with them. They just seem to be led aft towards the capstan, and then dropped there next to it. There are no ring bolts in the deck just there to attach to. Not very clear. They do seem to have been held on board by chain grips right up at the bow, so it could be they were just draped there... would have though they would want a way of restraining them though, given how wet these ships were.

[ModelMonkey]

Brilliant!

[Aop Aur]

I am so envious of your 3D designing skill, Martocticvs! I can very surely rely on the new model, right? I am building a Lion class battleship 1938 model in 1/350 and many details are identical to the KGVs. If this model represents accurate enough details, then I would use it extensively. Anyway you did a really good job on it!

Also, is the Cinema 4D a free software? Is it capable of being converted to be printed at Shapeways? I wanted to create a 3D Lion hull, but so far no luck with 123D design that I am quite experieced at.

Aop

[DrPR]

Very nice work!

Phil

[Martocticvs]

Thanks guys.

Aop: I certainly can't say that it's exactly right, as I don't have access to the original plans. It's still necessary to just make the best guess you can for various details. But it's as close as I can make it with what I have.

[Aop Aur]

Thanks guys.

Aop: I certainly can't say that it's exactly right, as I don't have access to the original plans. It's still necessary to just make the best guess you can for various details. But it's as close as I can make it with what I have.

Well if you want to have access to the orginal plans, you will need to contact the National Maritime Museum. The price for the whole list of plans available is quite high, but speaking of the original, this is the one. Their website provides some contacts to request for plans.

Still, you have done a very very good job on the model!

Aop

[mcg]

Elegant work! Also enjoyed, on your website, the "War of the Worlds" models, especially the pre-dreadnought with the ram bow. Michael

[Mike Reading]

Beautifully made model, and well done on the research.

[Martocticvs]

Have been very slowly plugging away at this. Spent nearly as much time looking at photos as I did modelling!

I have ripped out the old catapult. Honestly, it was so pathetic, it's not even worthy of the name:



The Imperial War Museum has published hundreds of photos of these ships since I originally finished work on this model. They are amazing. They might be small, but there are so many of them that I can work out literally almost every detail That catapult trolley though... it appears in the corners of several photos, but there are areas of it that you just can't make out clearly. I think I came up with something reasonably close to the real thing. It won't be perfect by any means, but it shouldn't be obviously wrong either.

I haven't touched any of the surrounding superstructure yet, besides opening the hangar doors a little to avoid clashing with the rails, which I have shifted slightly from their original positions. Also the bottom of those doors is totally wrong.

Quick note - my lighting seems to have become worse since the last batch of renders. I didn't spend any time setting these up, so it's entirely down to my laziness. The next updates won't be so far down the road and I intend to put some time in on getting this sorted out as it's getting embarrasing now

[DrPR]

I recently saw a documentary on YouTube about the KGV class ships. It is part of a series called "A Sailors View" and contains all of the video footage the guy could find in the British Navy archives. Lots of pictures and not much talk. It has a lot of film shot on the ships - so lots of detail.

I know what you mean about spending more time looking at pictures than actually modeling. For me it is three to four times as much time studying photos and blueprints. That is one of the reasons it has taken me more than 10 years to get as far along as I have!

Phil

[Martocticvs]

I think I've seen some of that video. Some good material in there.

No modelling this time around (aside from a slight adjustment in the positions of some of the lower deck foward portholes), but I have completely redone the hull normal map. Looking at these renders, I'm considering regenerating the maps with slightly more prominent plate overlaps, but otherwise I'm happy with it. Not the easiest thing to work with - to be able to support the rivets, it needed to be 50k pixels wide and 4k high, give or take.

Also playing with the hull colour. With the information that AP507A and B are the same shade, I have darkened the hull down to something that is hopefully close to the correct shade. I've made it a little too dull though, so I'll be playing with reflectance settings later, when I start on the weathering.

[Martocticvs]

Well I've been distracted from the ship the last few months by working on a Supermarine Warlus to go onboard...

Most of the major modelling work is done at this point, the Pegasus engine aside. I decided to ensure that the landing gear actually functioned correctly, at the expense of a little visual accuracy. It's very hard to find decent plans for this plane, but I think I'm close enough with this.

Earlier render, with the wings folded back. I think I rebuilt the wings after this image, since I didn't have the ailerons quite right:


As the model is now, landing gear down:


And gear up...


And a quick peek into the interior... I won't go too over the top in here, pretty much just seats and flight controls planned...

[DrPR]

Very nice work! The plane is a modeling project in itself.

One of these days I will have to take on the SH-2 Seasprite helicopter we had on board. I haven't found many useful drawings, but I have a lot of photos. Like you, I am ready to finish my project, and I know the helo will take a long time.

Phil

[Martocticvs]

Thanks! You're not wrong - somewhat over a year later, and I have just finished modelling this thing... still have the material work to go though. The ships themselves are still a long way from completion, and I'm already gearing up for more!

I spent quite a while working on the Bristol Pegasus engine. It's quite an attractive example of a radial engine, so this was quite enjoyable work.



I omitted the rear of the engine since it would be entirely hidden inside the nacelle pod.


I got a little bogged down on interior details. Since the cockpit area is quite open, you can see a lot, so I added in everything I could see around the pilot's seat...



The rear hatch is rigged up and can be positioned however I please. A Vickers K machine gun could be mounted on the track visible inside the hatch opening (similarly in the fore hatch), but I haven't modelled one of these so far. I might later, or I might not.




I missed out the tail wheel when I built the main landing gear. It's more of a skid on this version of the aircraft, with a small metal castor set into it for protecting the decks of aircraft carriers. Again, this is fully adjustable.



And a few extra renders showing various small details and overall shots...







More info and renders here: https://www.prdobson.co.uk/2019/08/18/s ... -i-part-2/

[DrPR]

Beautiful! The modelling, that is. I'm not sure anyone would call the Walrus beautiful except it's mother.

Phil

[ModelMonkey]

Superb!

[DrPR]

P. R.,

Have you seen this video of the HMS London? It has some very good images of the walrus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJIp7kQ8D0o

P. R.