Royal Navy Vintage Carrier project

**lazarus** · July 18th, 2011, 03:01

It seems that the retro carrier team is here to stay. The next project is well in hand. I'm taking the Casablanca CVE's in hand to go with some repaints provided by one of the matelots of Phil's FM2 . Another lad has started a few skins for Bruce Fitzgeralds Pensacola class to stand in as a Minotaur-Colony class CA, the first batch came in on send space- though I beleive a early take of the Wildcat V is on FS.com. Anyway, the FIGS of the CVEs- HMS Searcher, HMS Trumpeter, HMS Attacker, 3 of the Martlet/Wildcats, and 'HMS Belfast'. The Cats look great!. I've been suprised that that model has not atracted any repaints. I am also suprised at how vivid the cam colors are on war time ships. Stay tuned...

**roger-wilco-66** · July 18th, 2011, 03:52

Great news, thanks for the good work you guys are doing on the carriers!

:ernae:
Cheers,
Mark

**delta_lima** · July 18th, 2011, 08:17

Well done Laz (et al)!

In addition to the Martlet, the Sea Hurris, Stringbags, and Corsairs will have another deck to visit .... possibly some Avengers - lots of RN FAA aircraft out there that could make use of this lovely adaptation.

dl

**YoYo** · July 18th, 2011, 08:23

Wow, thank You. Estimated date of finish this project ?

**lazarus** · July 18th, 2011, 14:54

Release date... not too far off, I expect. Theres 4 other bodies besides myself, so; as time and life permits. A AI Carriers Convoy set is being put together, and JM was mumbling darkly about a few more RN wildkittys- Not too many I hope! With 40 some odd lend-lease CVE's in RN service-34 Bouges alone, every one of them had several unique paint schemes, and finding reference material's like finding integrity in the Legislature... this way madness lies. Thank Zoroaster I had an old Vallejo paint reference around- though it unhelpfully gives equivalents in Tamiya and XtraColor values. One day I want to sit down and convert all those military colors into RGB/HEX values- though the differences in monitors and cards probably makes that a moot point.
On the subject of large AICarrier formations. Are there any thoughts on a size limit for at sea convoys- covering some tens of miles- viz a viz framerate hit. One demo file working up right now is a 30 some odd ship OPERATION CORPORATE scenario covering a good sized chunk of sea. Would monolithic formations be better, or several smaller formations using the multiple manual start method- which gives greater flexibility of maneuver.
Oh yah. One of the two CVE's out there- they're both Mark Fitch source - has aircraft on deck. Could some one point me to where I could find the file. I thought I had it a few times,but have never seen any deckpark, though one has the elevators locked down, making for a sporty arrival!

**mfitch** · July 18th, 2011, 21:40

Originally Posted by lazarus

Oh yah. One of the two CVE's out there- they're both Mark Fitch source - has aircraft on deck. Could some one point me to where I could find the file. I thought I had it a few times,but have never seen any deckpark, though one has the elevators locked down, making for a sporty arrival!

My latest carrier package is in the library here (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum....php?catid=114)

There is no AI version with an elevator down. That sounds like the pilotable version which could raise and lower both elevators using open/close exit. They can also toggle visibility of a few planes on deck. For scenery use the AI versions (all in the same package) would work best.

Do you want a specific configuration with respect to the planes? Changing the configuration of these extras is easy enough to accomplish if you want a custom model.

**lazarus** · July 18th, 2011, 23:06

The Third Sea Lord! A pleasure, sir! I've been mightily enjoying your CVE's since release. Funny, I was digging this afternoon for the readme file so I could find your contact information.I'd never really clued in to your handle. Duh. Mystery solved with the elevator thing. thank you for the kind offer. As the ships really only had a flying off and landing deckpark- one or the other-all I was interested in was if the aircraft on deck are textured or coded into the model file and can be repainted. CVE's on tactical ops only kept aircraft parked on deck during landing or flying off evolutions- front or back, and even then, tended to elevator them below as quickly as possible to clear the deck, so what ever configuration the ships come in is fine- though I'm sure other voices will sound off on the subject now! Thanks for sorting that for me. My boats folder is getting confusing and needs a clean up.

**AndyE1976** · July 19th, 2011, 07:38

This all looks like superb work, very much looking forward to seeing this released.

Great effort from all involved.

**mfitch** · July 19th, 2011, 20:05

lazarus,

the wildcats sitting on deck are embedded in the model. It does have its own texture sheet which could easily be modified by someone with skill at painting. A separate copy of the ship would have to be installed, but that is easy enough to do. The texture file is WC.dds. If someone wants the Photoshop file, I can provide that.

**lazarus** · July 19th, 2011, 21:38

Hi Mark. Well. I down loaded the latest, re installed the AI version, And I'll be a blue bottomed baboon if I can find the deck park model,textures, any of it. The CVE 73 land model has its elevators down,but its a hard deck right across, the full model is just an empty deck, and the crew figures are un textured- just black. Very odd. I'll dig about in it a bit more- read all the read me files. One of those minor mysteries that will be resolved in the fullness of time. cheers for now- off to do some deck texturing. finally found a few decent hi-rez photos of RN CVE decks.The Swabbies painted those ships so often, I'm starting to think that they were using 2000 tons of displacement for the paint locker!