Do you take requests for building ships? I'd like to see a minecraft version of the USCG Barque Eagle built: 1936 by the Blohm & Voss Shipyard, Hamburg, Germany
Do you take requests for building ships? I'd like to see a minecraft version of the USCG Barque Eagle built: 1936 by the Blohm & Voss Shipyard, Hamburg, Germany
I haven't played minecraft in ages. I came back to it and updated, but my selection of mods weren't up to date, then I just drifted out of it again. If I get the urge to build ships again and my mods are up to date... well, I can think of at least a dozen ships that I'd like to build. So I don't think I'd be taking requests.
What texture pack do you use, it looks awesome. I need a good one for my ships.
It's KDS Photorealism. Unfortunately the latest version is 1.5. Apparently it doesn't work with the little programs that convert old texture packs to the resource pack format, and its creator isn't that into minecraft any more and can't be bothered to do it manually. It's a shame.
If I do properly get back into minecraft again, I'll convert it to a resource pack myself rather than change to something else!
I must ask you, what dimension do you use for the Trafalgur battle ships? I want to see if my 1600's warship Alicorn is smaller that the ships you make (Alicorn is 39 blocks long and with 106 guns, I have her as my profile pic)
I must ask you, what dimension do you use for the Trafalgur battle ships? I want to see if my 1600's warship Alicorn is smaller that the ships you make (Alicorn is 39 blocks long and with 106 guns, I have her as my profile pic)
Sorry I missed this one; I'm probably far too late in answering you, but I do them roughly 1:1 scale, but they usually come out slightly larger than real life, maybe about a quarter too big. For my ships of the line, they're something like 70 blocks at the waterline.
---
Anyway, the reason I'm posting is to say: new ship, for the first time this year. How's this for a teaser?
Okay, here's another one.
Imperial Japanese battleship Fusō. As usual, more pics in the first post. I think there's more work to come on this one, perhaps a bit more detailing and maybe a version with the 1930's refit. Certainly a 'dynamic' version, under steam and firing the main battery. If I update it I'll update the pics too. I'm enjoying lining up screenshots with these shaders.
I've just started a water map where I'm 'docking' my WWI-era capital ships together. I'm thinking that once I've got a few more I'll put up a download as a "Dreadnought Pack"
At the moment, it looks like this -
We have, left to right, HMS Iron Duke, SMS Derfflinger and Fusō.
The eagle-eyed might notice that I've done a bit of a refit on Iron Duke. I looked at some photos and realised that what I'd done before wasn't very accurate in the bridge area, so I've given the bridge and mast quite a remodelling.
Right now I'm thinking that if this is going to be a Dreadnought Pack, it's going to need Dreadnought herself in it, so maybe that's the next step. It'll be interesting to do an early dreadnought (the very first one!) with some of the older features like off-centreline main turrets.
But there's loads of other ships I'd like to do too, and explore some of the other design aspects of these ships. Like some of the Russian designs that didn't have any superfiring turrets at all, all four of them at deck level. Or one of the Americans with the cool lattice masts (assuming that iron bars work to make a good lattice mast). Maybe even something French or Italian.
I've added her to the first post with a few more screenshots.
Now I'm honestly not sure what to do next. I started messing around with creating blocks in the Xtrablocks mod, so I want to overhaul my existing fleet to use the extra blocks and improve them that way - but I would always keep a 'vanilla version' and a 'modded version' of each ship.
I'd also be interested in doing 'dynamic' versions of my existing dreadnoughts - smoke pouring from the funnels, guns trained on the broadside, etc.
But I also just want to build more ships. I'm tempted to go back to doing another ship in my 18th century style, because I haven't for ages. I'm tempted to do a late 19th century ironclad, like perhaps the breastwork monitor HMS Thunderer (1872). Or a pre-dreadnought like Knyaz Suvorov, Mikasa or maybe one of the RN's Majestic class.
In the dreadnought era, I'd quite like to do USS Michigan, Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya, SMS Kronprinz (heck, all of the German dreadnought classes are cool and tempting)... there's just so many cool ships in the era.
And then I've got this crazy idea in my head to do the whole Royal Navy Grand Fleet from the Battle of Jutland.
It's ridiculous, but hugely tempting. That would mean ignoring all my other ideas and concentrating on just British ships. I could easily tweak my HMS Dreadnought to represent the Bellerophon and St. Vincent classes, so that would cover Bellerophon, Superb, Temeraire, St. Vincent, Vanguard and Collingwood. I could tweak my Iron Duke to represent the whole Orion, King George V and Iron Duke classes, as well as a couple of the one-offs built to a similar design. For Jutland, that would give me Orion, Monarch, Conqueror, Thunderer, King George V, Ajax, Centurion, Iron Duke, Marlborough, Benbow, Erin and Canada.
It would be a big start, but then I'd still need plenty more. I'd need a Neptune/Colossus design, I'd need HMS Agincourt, a Queen Elizabeth class and a Revenge class and that's just the battleships. There's the rest of the fleet too, and even if I didn't do the smaller ships I'd need the battlecruisers. Invincible class, Indefatigable class, Lion class, Queen Mary and Tiger. Hmm, big project. Still don't know if I ought to go for it or not.
On top of all of that, I fancy doing some more liners, like Campania or Lusitania, or maybe fitting out my Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse with the stuff in Xtrablocks. Too many ships to build. Argh.
For starters, I've 'finished' HMS Invincible of 1907.
I've edited her into the first post as usual. I've also been back to Iron Duke and given her another remodelling. When I first built her, I was using the real ship more for guidance, compared with my newer ships which I'm trying to do much more exact. So, the first remodelling I did was to make the bridge structure match up much more closely with the real ship. The second, which I've just finished, was to improve the shape of the hull. It won't show in most cases, since it was mostly below the waterline! I think a third remodelling might be in order, since I have a feeling that the main deck is a little too low compared to the forecastle, and the secondary armament casemates are too big. I might raise the main deck by a block and remodel the casemates, or I might raise her one block higher in the water and see how that looks. I'm keen to get this ship right, because I want to chop it about and remodel it to represent a lot of other British battleships of similar designs - and I want the 'original' model to be right before I start doing that.
You can see in this screenshot, the forecastle is about the right height above the water, but the main deck aft looks too low. I'm hoping that if I do 'remodelling no.3' to fix that, I'll be finished and happy with the ship -
Since I'm really fond of HMS Iron Duke, I might use her as my blank canvas for improving my ships with the Xtrablocks mod. I've already done red-tinted iron blocks to use below the waterline. I'm thinking of what else to do. A few different shades of metal blocks so I can do a bit more with colour, change the ladders and railings to something less wooden-looking, maybe some way of doing good portholes and battleship-style doors. I'm also tempted to use the 'panel' style blocks to try to make it look like it has the torpedo net booms in place. Should be interesting. Project Jutland shall happen!
Another new ship, SMS Westfalen (1908). I've already added her to the first post.
Also, continuing with the remodelling of HMS Iron Duke, I've got her to this state:
I'm pretty happy with that, I think. All of this is going towards my new project, link in my signature. Project: Jutland 1916, where I'm trying to build all of the capital ships which took part in the battle. It may take some time!
Quite impressive. I'm thinking of doing a shipyard for famous passenger ships. I'm currently building the RMS Titanic, and plan to follow it with the RMS Mauritania and possibly the RMS Queen Mary (that's big one...) and maybe some others.
Quite impressive. I'm thinking of doing a shipyard for famous passenger ships. I'm currently building the RMS Titanic, and plan to follow it with the RMS Mauritania and possibly the RMS Queen Mary (that's big one...) and maybe some others.
That would be cool, and I'd like to see it. I've had a few ocean liners in mind that I'd quite like to build, but mostly I've never gotten around to them. I did build SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, but I've still never done an interior for her. That was one ship that I really wanted to do the interior on. I'm quite happy doing my battleships as empty shells, but an ocean liner isn't much without suites and saloons. I'll really have to go back to that at some point. Also now that I've been playing around with Xtrablocks to make portholes I'll be able to install those everywhere.
I was also thinking of doing RMS Campania and maybe even RMS Lusitania (since I've already built the U-boat that sunk her!), which would of course be really similar to Mauretania if you build her. But that's all on the back burner at the moment while I work on Project Jutland. Which will involve a rather different Queen Mary, the one with HMS on the front and a penchant for spectaular explosions.
So yeah, I'd enjoy following a series of ocean liner builds while I get on with my dreadnoughts. Please do!
Very nice work , i particularly like your HMS Minotaur, and HMS Dreadnought.
Out of curiosity; how long does it take you to build a battleship from scratch?
Thanks.
I usually start by looking for photographs and plans - I'm particularly looking for a scale drawing that has both a side elevation and a plan view. Then I get them in GIMP, shrink it down to 1-pixel-per-block scale and plan out exactly where I'm going to put my blocks. That takes a little while. I've been getting faster at the builds as I've got more used to what I'm doing. I finished SMS Westfalen in a day, started her in the afternoon and finished in the evening. I've been working on SMS Schleswig-Holstein for a few days, but only on-and-off.
Honestly, I haven't been timing it!
I do like to get the process quite quick and streamlined. I've got plenty of ships I need to build before I finish my Jutland fleets.
I've realised that today is the 75th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow by U-47, 14th of October 1939. Since she was at Jutland (and therefore goes into my project), she seems like a fitting next ship. I might make a start today, just so I can say I laid her down on the anniversary.
I'm also still working on Schleswig-Holstein, so I might have two ships on the go.
Okey, so it's close? you know, you could add more ships in pack after you made more, incase if you make a early release, hehe
To be honest I hadn't thought about when I would release anything. I'm definitely planning on releasing my entire Jutland set together, but that's quite some way off at the moment. I might put some up at some point before that, or I might hold off until I can release the entire set. Not sure yet!
I've just finished another Jutland build, this time one of the German Pre-Dreadnoughts that were present. SMS Schleswig-Holstein of the Deutschland Class. She's more famous these days for being one of the few capital ships that Germany was allowed to keep after WWI, mainly because she was very much obsolete, and fired the opening shots of WWII when she opened fire with her main battery on the Polish ammunition depot at Westerplatte.
I ought to go to bed, so I'll add her to the first post tomorrow, but here's a couple of screenshots in the meantime.
I've just done a really quick build, but it's made me think that maybe doing the smaller Jutland ships isn't such a bad idea after all, since it was so fast compared to doing the battleships.
Kaiserliche Marine Großes Torpedoboot 1913. I reckon I'll call it SMS G39 after the leader of the First Torpedo Boat Flotilla at Jutland. Hipper briefly transferred his flag to her between leaving Lützow and transferring to Moltke.
Since I've done one of the small Germans, I might just have to do an Admiralty M-class destroyer pretty soon!
Really got the shipbuilding itch at the moment. Once again, I ought to go to bed, so I'll just leave a couple of screenshots here for now, and put the most recent couple of ships into the first post at some point in the next few days.
Still haven't gotten around to adding SMS G39 or HMS Royal Oak to the first post, and since then I've remodelled HMS Iron Duke *again*. I think I'm finally happy with her now. I felt that the superstructure was a bit too big, the funnels a bit too far apart, she was missing the boat crane, the rearmost of the forecastle casemate guns was a bit too far forward. I think I'm finally happy now.
I've also set about creating one of the similar super-dreadnoughts. The original super dreadnought HMS Orion, for which I used my HMS Iron Duke model as a base. As it turned out, I did an entirely new superstructure and substantially remodelled the hull, so it was only barely faster than doing things from scratch, but ah well. Scratch off another one for Project Jutland!
I was wondering - what texture-pack do you use for the Napoleonic-era ships?
I'm building a brig at the moment using advice from your shipbuilding guide page, and in every single resource pack I use the black wool in the stripes looks really out of place.
(Love the torpedo-boat btw)
Hi, and thanks.
I'm using KDS Photorealism, which I have used for the last two years or so. The older screenshots in the thread are pure KDS Photorealism from back when it was up to date. Unfortunately it's no longer updated, so what I've had to do recently is take the most recent version and convert it to the resource pack format myself, and merge it with another up-to-date resource pack to fill in the missing blocks. I've taken to calling it "Frankenstein", because it's currently a mix of two resource packs with blocks that I've edited myself for the Xtrablocks mod.
I was actually editing the thread while you were posting that. I had several new ships that I'd been building too quick to get around to properly posting in the thread. And the first post is now getting so big and complicated I'm finding that the only way I can keep it under control is to type it out in a Word document in straight BB code and paste it into the edit box each time I want to update!
I've still got some editing work to do on the thread, because I want to at least update all of the steamship screenshots to use the same shaders. I'm not in such a hurry for the sailing ships because they're not a mix of shaders and non shaders, but I'll probably do it eventually. I've also got a slight edit to SMS Derfflinger and a set of alterations for her sister ship SMS Lützow which I need to add.
New ships in the first post include the ones that I'd shown here but hadn't edited into the first post yet (torpedo boat G39, HMS Royal Oak, updated HMS Iron Duke, HMS Orion) as well as two new ships that I haven't shown in this thread yet, SMS Von der Tann (1909) and SMS Wiesbaden (1915). I've already added them to my Project Jutland thread.
Next up, I'm not sure. I might have a go at making the battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable, which is basically an enlarged HMS Invincible with the wing turret/funnel layout altered a bit to try to improve cross-deck firing angles. I've prepared my construction plan for the German Kaiser-class battleships, so I'll do them soon. I'm also keen to do a Royal Navy light cruiser and/or destroyer.
I haven't played minecraft in ages. I came back to it and updated, but my selection of mods weren't up to date, then I just drifted out of it again. If I get the urge to build ships again and my mods are up to date... well, I can think of at least a dozen ships that I'd like to build. So I don't think I'd be taking requests.
It's KDS Photorealism. Unfortunately the latest version is 1.5. Apparently it doesn't work with the little programs that convert old texture packs to the resource pack format, and its creator isn't that into minecraft any more and can't be bothered to do it manually. It's a shame.
If I do properly get back into minecraft again, I'll convert it to a resource pack myself rather than change to something else!
Sorry I missed this one; I'm probably far too late in answering you, but I do them roughly 1:1 scale, but they usually come out slightly larger than real life, maybe about a quarter too big. For my ships of the line, they're something like 70 blocks at the waterline.
---
Anyway, the reason I'm posting is to say: new ship, for the first time this year. How's this for a teaser?
Imperial Japanese battleship Fusō. As usual, more pics in the first post. I think there's more work to come on this one, perhaps a bit more detailing and maybe a version with the 1930's refit. Certainly a 'dynamic' version, under steam and firing the main battery. If I update it I'll update the pics too. I'm enjoying lining up screenshots with these shaders.
At the moment, it looks like this -
We have, left to right, HMS Iron Duke, SMS Derfflinger and Fusō.
The eagle-eyed might notice that I've done a bit of a refit on Iron Duke. I looked at some photos and realised that what I'd done before wasn't very accurate in the bridge area, so I've given the bridge and mast quite a remodelling.
Right now I'm thinking that if this is going to be a Dreadnought Pack, it's going to need Dreadnought herself in it, so maybe that's the next step. It'll be interesting to do an early dreadnought (the very first one!) with some of the older features like off-centreline main turrets.
But there's loads of other ships I'd like to do too, and explore some of the other design aspects of these ships. Like some of the Russian designs that didn't have any superfiring turrets at all, all four of them at deck level. Or one of the Americans with the cool lattice masts (assuming that iron bars work to make a good lattice mast). Maybe even something French or Italian.
I've added her to the first post with a few more screenshots.
Now I'm honestly not sure what to do next. I started messing around with creating blocks in the Xtrablocks mod, so I want to overhaul my existing fleet to use the extra blocks and improve them that way - but I would always keep a 'vanilla version' and a 'modded version' of each ship.
I'd also be interested in doing 'dynamic' versions of my existing dreadnoughts - smoke pouring from the funnels, guns trained on the broadside, etc.
But I also just want to build more ships. I'm tempted to go back to doing another ship in my 18th century style, because I haven't for ages. I'm tempted to do a late 19th century ironclad, like perhaps the breastwork monitor HMS Thunderer (1872). Or a pre-dreadnought like Knyaz Suvorov, Mikasa or maybe one of the RN's Majestic class.
In the dreadnought era, I'd quite like to do USS Michigan, Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya, SMS Kronprinz (heck, all of the German dreadnought classes are cool and tempting)... there's just so many cool ships in the era.
And then I've got this crazy idea in my head to do the whole Royal Navy Grand Fleet from the Battle of Jutland.
It's ridiculous, but hugely tempting. That would mean ignoring all my other ideas and concentrating on just British ships. I could easily tweak my HMS Dreadnought to represent the Bellerophon and St. Vincent classes, so that would cover Bellerophon, Superb, Temeraire, St. Vincent, Vanguard and Collingwood. I could tweak my Iron Duke to represent the whole Orion, King George V and Iron Duke classes, as well as a couple of the one-offs built to a similar design. For Jutland, that would give me Orion, Monarch, Conqueror, Thunderer, King George V, Ajax, Centurion, Iron Duke, Marlborough, Benbow, Erin and Canada.
It would be a big start, but then I'd still need plenty more. I'd need a Neptune/Colossus design, I'd need HMS Agincourt, a Queen Elizabeth class and a Revenge class and that's just the battleships. There's the rest of the fleet too, and even if I didn't do the smaller ships I'd need the battlecruisers. Invincible class, Indefatigable class, Lion class, Queen Mary and Tiger. Hmm, big project. Still don't know if I ought to go for it or not.
On top of all of that, I fancy doing some more liners, like Campania or Lusitania, or maybe fitting out my Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse with the stuff in Xtrablocks. Too many ships to build. Argh.
For starters, I've 'finished' HMS Invincible of 1907.
I've edited her into the first post as usual. I've also been back to Iron Duke and given her another remodelling. When I first built her, I was using the real ship more for guidance, compared with my newer ships which I'm trying to do much more exact. So, the first remodelling I did was to make the bridge structure match up much more closely with the real ship. The second, which I've just finished, was to improve the shape of the hull. It won't show in most cases, since it was mostly below the waterline! I think a third remodelling might be in order, since I have a feeling that the main deck is a little too low compared to the forecastle, and the secondary armament casemates are too big. I might raise the main deck by a block and remodel the casemates, or I might raise her one block higher in the water and see how that looks. I'm keen to get this ship right, because I want to chop it about and remodel it to represent a lot of other British battleships of similar designs - and I want the 'original' model to be right before I start doing that.
You can see in this screenshot, the forecastle is about the right height above the water, but the main deck aft looks too low. I'm hoping that if I do 'remodelling no.3' to fix that, I'll be finished and happy with the ship -
Since I'm really fond of HMS Iron Duke, I might use her as my blank canvas for improving my ships with the Xtrablocks mod. I've already done red-tinted iron blocks to use below the waterline. I'm thinking of what else to do. A few different shades of metal blocks so I can do a bit more with colour, change the ladders and railings to something less wooden-looking, maybe some way of doing good portholes and battleship-style doors. I'm also tempted to use the 'panel' style blocks to try to make it look like it has the torpedo net booms in place. Should be interesting. Project Jutland shall happen!
Also, continuing with the remodelling of HMS Iron Duke, I've got her to this state:
I'm pretty happy with that, I think. All of this is going towards my new project, link in my signature. Project: Jutland 1916, where I'm trying to build all of the capital ships which took part in the battle. It may take some time!
That would be cool, and I'd like to see it. I've had a few ocean liners in mind that I'd quite like to build, but mostly I've never gotten around to them. I did build SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, but I've still never done an interior for her. That was one ship that I really wanted to do the interior on. I'm quite happy doing my battleships as empty shells, but an ocean liner isn't much without suites and saloons. I'll really have to go back to that at some point. Also now that I've been playing around with Xtrablocks to make portholes I'll be able to install those everywhere.
I was also thinking of doing RMS Campania and maybe even RMS Lusitania (since I've already built the U-boat that sunk her!), which would of course be really similar to Mauretania if you build her. But that's all on the back burner at the moment while I work on Project Jutland. Which will involve a rather different Queen Mary, the one with HMS on the front and a penchant for spectaular explosions.
So yeah, I'd enjoy following a series of ocean liner builds while I get on with my dreadnoughts. Please do!
Out of curiosity; how long does it take you to build a battleship from scratch?
Thanks.
I usually start by looking for photographs and plans - I'm particularly looking for a scale drawing that has both a side elevation and a plan view. Then I get them in GIMP, shrink it down to 1-pixel-per-block scale and plan out exactly where I'm going to put my blocks. That takes a little while. I've been getting faster at the builds as I've got more used to what I'm doing. I finished SMS Westfalen in a day, started her in the afternoon and finished in the evening. I've been working on SMS Schleswig-Holstein for a few days, but only on-and-off.
Honestly, I haven't been timing it!
I do like to get the process quite quick and streamlined. I've got plenty of ships I need to build before I finish my Jutland fleets.
Now I feel under pressure!
I've realised that today is the 75th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow by U-47, 14th of October 1939. Since she was at Jutland (and therefore goes into my project), she seems like a fitting next ship. I might make a start today, just so I can say I laid her down on the anniversary.
I'm also still working on Schleswig-Holstein, so I might have two ships on the go.
To be honest I hadn't thought about when I would release anything. I'm definitely planning on releasing my entire Jutland set together, but that's quite some way off at the moment. I might put some up at some point before that, or I might hold off until I can release the entire set. Not sure yet!
Thanks.
I've just finished another Jutland build, this time one of the German Pre-Dreadnoughts that were present. SMS Schleswig-Holstein of the Deutschland Class. She's more famous these days for being one of the few capital ships that Germany was allowed to keep after WWI, mainly because she was very much obsolete, and fired the opening shots of WWII when she opened fire with her main battery on the Polish ammunition depot at Westerplatte.
I ought to go to bed, so I'll add her to the first post tomorrow, but here's a couple of screenshots in the meantime.
Kaiserliche Marine Großes Torpedoboot 1913. I reckon I'll call it SMS G39 after the leader of the First Torpedo Boat Flotilla at Jutland. Hipper briefly transferred his flag to her between leaving Lützow and transferring to Moltke.
Since I've done one of the small Germans, I might just have to do an Admiralty M-class destroyer pretty soon!
HMS Royal Oak (1914)
I've also set about creating one of the similar super-dreadnoughts. The original super dreadnought HMS Orion, for which I used my HMS Iron Duke model as a base. As it turned out, I did an entirely new superstructure and substantially remodelled the hull, so it was only barely faster than doing things from scratch, but ah well. Scratch off another one for Project Jutland!
Hi, and thanks.
I'm using KDS Photorealism, which I have used for the last two years or so. The older screenshots in the thread are pure KDS Photorealism from back when it was up to date. Unfortunately it's no longer updated, so what I've had to do recently is take the most recent version and convert it to the resource pack format myself, and merge it with another up-to-date resource pack to fill in the missing blocks. I've taken to calling it "Frankenstein", because it's currently a mix of two resource packs with blocks that I've edited myself for the Xtrablocks mod.
I was actually editing the thread while you were posting that. I had several new ships that I'd been building too quick to get around to properly posting in the thread. And the first post is now getting so big and complicated I'm finding that the only way I can keep it under control is to type it out in a Word document in straight BB code and paste it into the edit box each time I want to update!
I've still got some editing work to do on the thread, because I want to at least update all of the steamship screenshots to use the same shaders. I'm not in such a hurry for the sailing ships because they're not a mix of shaders and non shaders, but I'll probably do it eventually. I've also got a slight edit to SMS Derfflinger and a set of alterations for her sister ship SMS Lützow which I need to add.
New ships in the first post include the ones that I'd shown here but hadn't edited into the first post yet (torpedo boat G39, HMS Royal Oak, updated HMS Iron Duke, HMS Orion) as well as two new ships that I haven't shown in this thread yet, SMS Von der Tann (1909) and SMS Wiesbaden (1915). I've already added them to my Project Jutland thread.
Next up, I'm not sure. I might have a go at making the battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable, which is basically an enlarged HMS Invincible with the wing turret/funnel layout altered a bit to try to improve cross-deck firing angles. I've prepared my construction plan for the German Kaiser-class battleships, so I'll do them soon. I'm also keen to do a Royal Navy light cruiser and/or destroyer.