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Released Frigate "Rossiya", 1728

Armada

Armada

Sea Dog
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Storm Modder
Ahoy mateys,

My latest modelling endeavour is another upgrade project for a PotC stock ship; this time based on its real-life counterpart!
Thanks to this site, discovered by SeaNorris, it's become clear that the stock Frigate1 model was actually based on the Russian 32-gun frigate Rossiya (literally meaning Russia).
The photos there show a spitting image of Frigate1... or rather, what it could have been if the modellers at Akella had tried hard enough. :rolleyes:
As if that wasn't good enough, that site also provided the drafts to which their wooden model was made, so everything is in place to give this ship a full makeover.

Information provided by this site suggests that the ship was launched in 1728, and remained in service with the Baltic Fleet until 1752, after which she was eventually broken up.
It also states that her armament was 20 12-pounder guns on the lower gun deck and 12 6-pounder guns on the upper gun deck.
The stock Frigate1, however, carries a total of 42 guns (actually 44, but two guns don't have locators, so don't fire).
So, to prevent this being a downgrade, I will keep her bow and stern chasers (2 and 4 respectively), but stick to the proper 32 broadside guns, giving 38 guns total.

Anyway, here's the first preview of progress so far. :dance

Frigate1_new1.jpg

This screenshot compares the lines of the stock ship (highlighted in greed) with those I've made based on the plans of the Rossiya.
The model has been made slightly longer and the gunports have been moved around to match the plans.
The UVs are going to be a mess because of that, but I want to do as much as possible to make the ship compatible with the original texture.


UPDATE 25/11/12: The model is now finished; version 1.2 is available for PotC here: Rossiya_v1.2.7z
- V1.2 includes some minor fixes and tweaks for the hull, plus a walk file and five texture variants in total, each with a figurehead.
(CoAS version coming soon)

See below for some images of the finished ship:
Rossiya1.jpg

Rossiya2.jpg


Rossiya3.jpg


Rossiya4.jpg
 
looks good so far! You seem to be taking on more and more modelling recently :onya I assume you will make real quarter galleries and add much more detail than the stock frigate currently has? Judging by the wireframe you should have plenty of tris to spare.
 
Cool stuff mate, it will be awesome to see a much more detailed stock frigate!

I assume you are planning on using your patented bump mapping technique? That should really make that scroll work stand out nicely!
 
Thanks for the support guys! I'm hoping this will be something to be proud of when it's done. :doff

Captain Armstrong said:
looks good so far! You seem to be taking on more and more modelling recently :onya I assume you will make real quarter galleries and add much more detail than the stock frigate currently has? Judging by the wireframe you should have plenty of tris to spare.
Click to expand...
Well modelling is something I've always wanted to have a go at, so I'm trying to do more here and there (within reason). :yes
I certainly plan to make real quarter galleries and add as much detail as I can. A lot of it can be represented by simple geometric shapes, anyway.
I'm even contemplating adding a cabin, but we'll see how things go...

Thagarr said:
I assume you are planning on using your patented bump mapping technique? That should really make that scroll work stand out nicely!
Click to expand...
It's hardly patented (Legendary_Spider is making good use of it, too), but yes I'll probably use bump mapping for the textures. :onya
 
Here's an update on the ship's progress so far. I'm working on her in my spare time, so she's coming along slowly but surely.

I've reshaped the deck to match the plans, which meant making the bow nearly twice as wide- still getting used to that. :blink:
I've now also completely remade the keel and bow, which makes the ship look very different!

Frigate1_new2.jpg

Next up are the stern galleries, and then I'm going to look into making the main gundeck walk-able. :dance
 
Amazing! Isn't that bow change going to mess up the application of the original textures to the model? :shock
 
Excellent work mate! You know It's good when you can flip between pictures of the wooden model and your version and tell its the same ship instantly :onya
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Amazing! Isn't that bow change going to mess up the application of the original textures to the model? :shock
Click to expand...
Oh, that's already messed up thanks to some extensive reshaping of parts of the hull. I knew that would happen, so haven't done anything about it yet.
I'm planning to sort out the UVs once the model is done, and see what I can force to work with the stock textures. Not looking forward to it, mind. :urgh

@Capt. Armstrong: thanks mate! :doff I'm very grateful to have such high-res reference images to use; they're incredibly useful!
 
The stern galleries are nearly finished; here's how they look, and a comparison with the stock ship:

Frigate1_new3.jpg Frigate1_new4.jpg

A bit different now, don't ye think? I made sure to model both the inside and outside, so I can come back later an fill in the cabin interior. ;)
So far the stern alone is worth just over 1,000 polygons, which doesn't seem very much, surprisingly. The whole ship stands at just under 5,000, which is still not much more than the stock ship.
This is without any cannons though, and the high-detail guns are sure to increase that poly count quite substantially.

Now I just have some gaps to fill in, and then it's onto the gundecks! :dance
 
Iron Roger Flint said:
It's going to be a great ship once finished. As I understand you are modeling it in maya?
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm using Maya. I have a couple of other modelling programs I have used for college work, but they're not as easy to use for shipbuilding, I find.
Besides, it makes exporting to GM format quicker and easier, of course. :cheeky
 
Great job Armada! Quarter galleries are the trickiest bit to model IMO. Looks like there might be a cabin interior in the future as well? :keith
 
Thanks mate! I certainly did find this bit much more difficult to model than anything else so far.
The top half of the stern was the biggest pain, because the plans didn't quite agree in all dimensions, so I had to judge for myself what was right. :urgh
Even after that, it still doesn't look quite the same as the wooden model photos, but it's close enough, I think.

My plan is to model the interior and allow access to the cabin in first person view, to make up for removing access to the roof of the cabin. :onya
 
Wow Armada, you getting to be quite the great modeler! She looks like she will be quit nice mate! Give joy to you and your projects.
danse1.gif
 
Cheers mate, that's much appreciated! :cheers
 
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