WIP HMS Bellona (1760 version)

[Armada]

Unfortunately I see no pictures Anything broken?

The links are different to older OneDrive image links, so perhaps these new links expire after a while.
I've added the images back with the same links, and posted alternative ones in case they expire again.

Well, if you need LODs, I can do this. But when I do this, you need to refit the masts into the Bellona. The LODs depends to the rendermesh.

I'll make whatever changes I need to; it would be better to have LODs for all the components, rather than LODs for the hull and not the masts.

 

[Armada]

Quick update: I've mostly finished the forecastle and poop bulkheads. The last thing I need to do with these is separate the doors so they can be opened properly.

Spoiler: Show images

Alternate link

Alternate link

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Yaaaas

 

[Armada]

Wow, it's been... err, quite a while.

Update time!
The ship now has gold rails on the upper sides of the hull, separating the blue paint a bit. I modelled the two ship's wheels based on the plans, and gave them three LODs to reduce the polycount in line with the rest of the hull. The helm itself isn't quite finished, but its overall figure is in place.

Most recently, I started adding the 'bitts' by the masts (painted red) and hatches/gratings on the decks, starting with the forecastle and quarterdeck and working downwards. The upper deck has gaps for the hatches but I haven't added them yet. The UVs on the hatches aren't finalised either, so I'll clean those up later.

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Adding details like the ones above is starting to bring life to the otherwise empty hull, so I'm quite pleased with how it's going. I need to finish adding the hatches and railings, and then I'll starting adding the knees between the deck beams, along with a few other small details (including the gunport lids, if I remember to finish those). After that, I can probably start thinking about the rigging...

I'm also trying to create LODs for most new parts as I go along, so I don't have to go back and make them afterwards. With the tri-count now over 200,000, I need to optimise the ship as much as possible.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Looking pretty glorious there, @Armada!

 

[Wedori]

Looks great

 

[Armada]

Time for another update...

Along with adding more details, I've now tweaked the hull colours slightly to look a bit more accurate and less saturated. The orange-tinted hull was starting to annoy me.
There's now less contrast between the gold and ochre paint, and the blue paint is slightly brighter.

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New details include the belfry and railings for the forecastle, poop deck and ladderway in front of the helm. I finished the hatches for the upper deck and added knees between most of the deck beams, before adding the steps and skid beams to the side of the hull.

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There's still plenty to do, but the ship is starting to look more and more polished.

 

[Wedori]

Great work!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I like it!

 

[Robert Nutter]

Absolutly gorgeous work

 

[Flannery]

Such a beaut!!!! Awesome work mate!

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Really getting easier to envision her anchored at Kingston or English Harbour, surrounded by 60 and 70 gunners, flying a broad pennant from the main

 

[Armada]

I've made some more progress, so here's what's new:

All gunport lids are now in place with hinges just above them, which means it's time to open them up...

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Some lids do look quite chunky where they include the width of the wales, but this appears to be accurate based on photos of HMS Victory.

I've also polished the bow slightly by adding a couple more components, repositioning the boomkins, and replacing the gammoning rope around the bowsprit.
The lower stern has had a major rework, with completely new windows and a refined shape around the quarter galleries. I realised the old windows were sort of "tacked on" to the outside of the hull, so now they're properly embedded inside the structure. Again, I referred to the Victory for this.

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I still need to rework the upper stern and replace the white pillars and latticework with better geometry, but I'm otherwise happier with how the stern looks now.

Lastly, I've been improving the interior details with partitions between the rooms. While doing this, I found out the poop bulkhead was too far forward (apparently this is incorrect on the NMM wooden model) so I moved it behind the mizzen mast to match the plans. I then added partitions for some of the cabins and the wardroom, plus the pantry on the upper deck.

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I'm not entirely sure what colour the wardroom and pantry should be, so I went with red to match the rest of the interior for now. If anyone knows better (@Post Captain; @Captain Armstrong?) regarding this or any other colours I've used, please let me know!

There are still several parts missing, such as interior windows and doors, bow and stern ornamentation, hammock netting and the rigging, but the ship's getting much closer to completion.

 

[Wedori]

Great work Armada!

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Getting ever closer to the bellona sailing once more!

This model of the winchelsea of 1764
shows red for the wardroom just as you have it, though I realize it's not a ship of the line. If you look closely at the captains cabin in images 1 and 3, you'll see a combination stained/white painted paneling, with the majority stained and the insets painted-a possible alternate if you are feeling like using artistic license.
Winchelsea (1772); Warship; Fifth rate; Frigate; 32 guns - National Maritime Museum

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Fan-bloody-tastic, @Armada!

 

[Armada]

This model of the winchelsea of 1764
shows red for the wardroom just as you have it, though I realize it's not a ship of the line. If you look closely at the captains cabin in images 1 and 3, you'll see a combination stained/white painted paneling, with the majority stained and the insets painted-a possible alternate if you are feeling like using artistic license.
Winchelsea (1772); Warship; Fifth rate; Frigate; 32 guns - National Maritime Museum

Nice find; that's a beautiful model! I think I'll keep the wardroom red for now, but that reminds me that the captain's cabin needs panelling.

 

[Armada]

Happy New Year! Can you guess what one of my resolutions is?

Here's the latest progress:

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The ship now has a rail across the waist and space for hammock netting along the quarterdeck and poop deck rails. I haven't yet added the netting or the hammocks because I haven't decided how to present these. There are three options: 1) empty (only the netting installed, no hammocks), 2) filled with hammocks, or 3) covered with a black tarpaulin (in which case, there's no need to model the nets or hammocks). The latter two options would make most sense for action at sea, when the hammocks are stowed away and provide light cover from musket fire, but both would reduce visibility from the deck. Which do you guys think would look better?

I also started work on the binnacle; it needs two compasses and a lantern fitted, but the rest is in place. I initially made it white, but decided the helm area then looked a bit too white, so went with red instead.

My favourite new feature has to be the helm indicator; the white strip mounted above the helm which shows the position of the rudder. It's not represented on the plans or the wooden model, but some contemporary models do show it, such as this one of the Victory as launched:

Spoiler: Show image

The best part about this feature is we could actually make it work in Unity (same applies to compasses). A helm indicator would probably be a useful UI element anyway, so a physical counterpart on ships that support it would be a nice touch.

One last thing I forgot to mention previously: I checked Bellona's scale against the Rossiya and thought it looked a little small for a 74, so I double-checked the measurements and found it was indeed smaller than intended. I was still using the same scale as @pgargon's old Bellona model, so I've now made the new one 6.3% larger to match her true size, which makes a surprisingly big difference.

 

[Flannery]

Happy new year, mate!!

Love the work and progress made!
In ToW we use a helm indicator in the player UI compass, where one indicator shows the ordered position and a second one which shows the actual location of the rudder as it moves to the ordered position - and that corresponds to the location of the actual models rudder.

So implementing indicator like that as a actual piece moving according to it on the ship itself should be no problem at all.

Looking forward to see how this moves forward!

It's such a magnificent ship, and you really are doing it justice!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The ship now has a rail across the waist and space for hammock netting along the quarterdeck and poop deck rails. I haven't yet added the netting or the hammocks because I haven't decided how to present these. There are three options: 1) empty (only the netting installed, no hammocks), 2) filled with hammocks, or 3) covered with a black tarpaulin (in which case, there's no need to model the nets or hammocks). The latter two options would make most sense for action at sea, when the hammocks are stowed away and provide light cover from musket fire, but both would reduce visibility from the deck. Which do you guys think would look better?

I'm afraid I cannot quite picture the difference, so I cannot really provide feedback on that.
Would it be possible for you to make a mock-up of the options? A simple Paint sketch would probably work.

My favourite new feature has to be the helm indicator; the white strip mounted above the helm which shows the position of the rudder.

Rudder angle indicators are VERY useful when the ship is equipped with a steering wheel!

In ToW we use a helm indicator in the player UI compass, where one indicator shows the ordered position and a second one which shows the actual location of the rudder as it moves to the ordered position - and that corresponds to the location of the actual models rudder.

That is VERY cool! That's more than actual modern ships have though.
They mostly just have a read-out of the actual angle; not the ordered one.