Merchant Fleet Mod Progress Thread

[iambecomelife]

Screenshots of a very small merchant vessel. One image has a motor launch for scale purposes.

[Chisum]

Fantastic job indeed !
Very appreciated.
Hope one day someone can do the same about the british merchant fleet too !!

Thanks again.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Chisum

Fantastic job indeed !
Very appreciated.
Hope one day someone can do the same about the british merchant fleet too !!

Thanks again.

Don't worry - even though these particular skins are American & Dutch this model will be available for the Brits, too.

[Anvart]

Last shots:
Porthole, life-buoy, rigging VS anchor = scale proportions ???

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Anvart

Last shots:
Porthole, life-buoy vs anchor = scale proportions ???

You mean the anchor looks a little off? That can be fixed.

Hellraiser, check your PM for information on the Liberty and "Victor Ross".

Thanks.

[Anvart]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

You mean the anchor looks a little off? That can be fixed.

...

Yeah, anchor very small ...

[G.K.]

So, are we still talking about release date before Christmas?

[bookworm_020]

Originally Posted by G.K.

So, are we still talking about release date before Christmas?

Which Christmas???:hmm:

J/K

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by bookworm_020

Which Christmas???:hmm:

J/K

I am well into the camo skins, so it just might happen. I can definitely release an unpolished "open beta" for the community by then, but I am shooting for something more polished.

In other news, I finished a couple new CAM-ship models, an alternate Empire Freighter, and a twin-funneled freighter like the "Brant County" (seen below). They were rare, but they did exist and I needed a little variety from the standard one-funnel split superstructure config.



Picture courtesy of Uboat.net.

[iambecomelife]

Variations amongst British wartime merchantmen. Note the difference between the "midships island" configuration and the ship with the superstructure resting on the main deck.

[iambecomelife]

A few screenshots of large American tankers. Both have fairly extensive neutrality markings, which are appropriate for 1939 - early 1942. (Yes, some ships actually kept their markings even AFTER the declaration of war & merchant ship sinkings off the US East Coast!)

[Jimbuna]

Some really nice lookers there IABL

[iambecomelife]

I was too sick to mod yesterday - I swear, this town is such a pesthole. Today I dragged myself out of bed & got some node positioning done. That way cargo & hull objects will not intersect the ships' weapons. As usual, having S3ditor has been a tremendous help, making it less necessary to alt-tab out of the game every few minutes.

It's my opinion that a lot of the merchantmen in SH3 are over-armed late in the war, so I am reducing the armament on many of them to about 4 AA guns and 1-2 heavy weapons (3 inch or 4.7 inch).

Tankers will tend to have slightly better armament than freighters, and large targets of 9,000 tons or more are very likely to receive top priority for armament early in the war. Just a warning for anyone who is used to charging in with guns blazin' circa 1939-1940.

[kiwikapitan]

Fantastic looking ships IABL.

Almost too good to put a torp into. But I'll admire them for a few seconds more before I push the red button.

I await the mod with great anticipation as do all my fellow kaleuns.

[iambecomelife]

UPDATE: BRITISH MOTOR MERCHANTS.

Ever since the late 1800's steam engines had been the preferred means of propulsion for British merchant ships. This did not change during WWI. Although diesel engines existed a large diesel-based wartime shipping program was out of the question - in fact, diesel was not even popular for warships at the time, let alone civilian vessels.

Having a large established merchant marine was a mixed blessing for the British. Although it meant that they dominated man trade routes it also seems to have created a lot of conservativism amongst UK ship builders. As upstart maritime nations like Japan and Norway rapidly added diesels to their merchant fleet in the 20's and 30's, many British shippers remained satisfied with having large fleets of steamers. Many steamers relied on coal, which had several major disadvantages:

-Coal-fired engines required larger engine room crews, which meant more overhead costs.

-Coal engines had greater difficulty maintaining a constant speed.

-Coal took up more space than oil, leaving less room for cargo.

-In wartime, tall smoke plumes made coal burners easily visible to the enemy.

Eventually, the British government began to prod shipbuilders to replace old coal-fired tonnage with motorships. The Great Depression slowed the process, but by the early 1940's the UK had produced a large number of fine motor cargo ships, such as the "Wandby" (sunk 1940), the "Silverpalm" (sunk 1941), and the "Orari" (scrapped 1971).

In keeping with the state of merchant fleets in the 1940's there will be several motor merchants in varied styles. Some will look quite modern, while others will still incorporate features found in older ships. Below are three models in a variety of British paint schemes.