[REL] S-Class Dazzle skin

[runningdeer]

K-CLASS ZEBRA camouflage skin for all S-class boats in SH4.

I saw a request for a camouflaged sugar boat. I thought it might be a fun project, and a way to contribute to subsim and you all. So I did some research and came up with this skin. My googling only turned up one photo of a K-class boat done in a ZEBRA paint scheme. I based my skin on this one photo and other information that I gathered on camouflaging early war boats. Not much was available on submarine's that were done in camo. It was used primarily for ships.

I wanted to be as historically accurate as I could. I hope that I accomplished that with this skin.

First is the photo I found online. Showing the "K-2" or (SS-33)...pre-war. 1916. Looks like a prison boat, lol. But it is an actual boat and was what I had to go on.




Early war


Early war 2


Late war


Late war 2


Of course this skin doesn't effect the games AI. But its kinda cool. From what I gathered of dazzle camouflage, it did not improve a submarines attack, and probably wasn't as useful as it was on a ship. I think i would have wanted one that was the same color as the pacific ocean, but what do I know? .

I hope some of you enjoy the mod. This is my first mod and upload. I am new to skinning. Having learned from tutorials found here at subsim and from all the replies to my thread(s). Thanks all. Especially ichso & tei for taking extra time to explain things to me.


UPDATE:

Early war - tower skin refit:



Late war - tower skin refit



JSGME ready, available here:

SUBSIM: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//dow...o=file&id=1205

FILEFRONT: http://www.filefront.com/13930199/K_...ZEBRA_CAMO.zip

SHMF: http://www.silenthuntermods.com/foru...hp?topic=149.0

-Enjoy

[ichso]

Nice work, keep it up

[virtualpender]

Nice work! Thank you.

[Highbury]

Awesome, just awesome. I was one of the people asking for this so I am quite excited. I am sure RR will be as well.

Now, I have USS S-27 parked in Surabaya.. think I will slap this on and go for a patrol!

[runningdeer]

Thanx fellas...my nerves are finally starting to settle down. This is my first mod and upload. But I'm quite sure that all is proper...after downloading and running it myself like 10 times .

[keltos01]

nice work !

look at the tower : isn't it dark in the Navy picture ? and the dazzle diagonal on the periscope standarts ?

just a thought, keep up the godd work !

keltos

[Highbury]

Originally Posted by keltos01

nice work !

look at the tower : isn't it dark in the Navy picture ? and the dazzle diagonal on the periscope standarts ?

just a thought, keep up the godd work !

keltos

We can just call it a different variation Ships tried and changed Dazzle patterns often. These pic are both the USS West Mahomet, before and after a major refit I would assume as there are some big differences in silhouette, but they are both credited as being the same ship. It may actually be in the yard still in pic 1, and the hull profile is hard to make out.. which was kinda the point.



That is the great thing with Dazzle for a skinner. Use your imagination, mix it up a bit. runningdeer, while this skin is very good you could certainly play around with other patterns etc. Since this is your first uploaded skin that could give you some good practice if you are interested. In my last post in the Gato thread (where this was requested) I put a link with alot of the US Dazzle systems detailed. I would be perfectly happy with this skin for the rest of my SHIV S-Boating days, but like any greedy bastard I want more more more!

[runningdeer]

Thanx all, for the feedback.

I updated the skin...tower skin refit to include stripes also darkened the tower a bit. However I still had to be creative on the tower, simply because I cannot see the tower well enough in the photo I had to work from.

But the stripes turned out nicely, thanx Keltos... .

[Rockin Robbins]

Thank you! Your pics are K-5 with the narrow stripes and K-2 with the wide stripes in 1916. Four subs were used with varying widths of zebra stripes. Testing revealed that all schemes actually made the boats easier to see! I'm going to use the narrow stripe pattern just as soon as I get a chance! This is great! I love both S-Boat dazzle skins! Keep 'em available, please.

There is a tantalizing piece of info over at navsource:

Submarine visual camouflage became an issue again before the outbreak of the Second World War. This time the question was not only one of concealing a surfaced submarine, but also of hiding a submerged submarine from aerial observation. Once again, a series of trials was conducted to test various ideas. Tests between 1934 and 1936 were inconclusive. A new series was ordered and took place off Pearl Harbor in mid 1937. Four boats of the old "S" class were used. S-28 (SS-133) was painted entirely black, S-35 (SS-140) was dark blue-gray overall. S-21 (SS-126) was given a coat of dark purple. In a second series, disruptive patterns were used. S-21 carried black and green. S-35 was painted in black, blue and green. For a third, and final, test S-22 (SS-127) was given a pattern of dark blue and black. The conclusion reached from these experiments was that dark blue offered the best concealment in deep, clear, tropical waters. As a result, Commander SubRon 4 ordered boats of SubDiv 8 to be repainted in blue as paint became available. Paint for all navy ships was under the provence of the Bureau of Construction and Repair in the Navy Department and appropriate instructions were covered in the booklet issued by that Bureau known as C&R-4.

[OrangeYoshi]

I understand why you would put stripes on something, (zebras for example) they break up the outline etc. But wouldn't stripes on a ship just make it easier to spot? When you are shooting from a sub you don't really need to see the outline.

[runningdeer]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Thank you! Your pics are K-5 with the narrow stripes and K-2 with the wide stripes in 1916. Four subs were used with varying widths of zebra stripes. Testing revealed that all schemes actually made the boats easier to see! I'm going to use the narrow stripe pattern just as soon as I get a chance! This is great! I love both S-Boat dazzle skins! Keep 'em available, please.

There is a tantalizing piece of info over at navsource:

Thank you RR. Just goes to show myself that I need to be more thorough when researching these things.

I found the 'quote' interesting. That a dark blue color was determined to be a good scheme. And it seems natural to use a shade of blue.

Now we have another skin to make .