NCAJC - USS Oklahoma

[Darwin]

While waiting for paint to dry, I found my subject for the double-dog-dare challenge. I've taken on the USS Oklahoma (1941 configuration) in 1:200 scale. I am starting with a 1:350 Watkins design. What I finally wind up with is anyone's guess. This is going to be a massive redraw/redesign effort, and is going to take a bit of time even if I weren't up to my eyeballs with the hobby shop. I've run across a fair amount of reference material so far, but am still lacking a set of hull contours....anyone out there (Maurice....hellllpppp) happen to have a url for a set of Oklahoma (or even Nevada) templates? I did get the main deck drawn (300 dpi) without crashing Image Forge, but it is gagging on the file sizes I'm winding up with for the overall layout drawing of the hull....and that is just with waterline drawings. I get the feeling I may have to bite another bullet and upgrade to 4 Gig RAM. If this build does work out, I may start looking for a set of drawings of the 1920 configuration with the birdcage masts, but only if there is a triple-dog-dare challenge by then.

[dansls1]

...upgrade to 4 gig RAM...

- No clue about your setup, but consider that your video card may be choking instead of the PC RAM.

I love watching these design / redraw projects. Some day I'll get inspired enough to do one myself

[B-Manic]

The problem may have more to do with the software you are using. It is a bitmap editing program. These require huge amounts of memory compared to vector drawing programs. You can use it of course, but draw the model in smaller pieces per file. The main deck broken up into three or four pieces for example should be easily managed.

cheers
~Douglas

[Don Boose]

I'm clueless on the software, but I am delighted to see another pre-WWII US battleship appear in the jousts. Very best wishes for great success with this build.

Don

[Darwin]

Douglas, the problem does lie with the software....Image Forge is a terrible memory hog (and has one of the worst jpg compression algorithms I've ever encountered), but has so superior a drawing toolbox and user interface that I still prefer it to any vector-based program I've tried. I had no problem drawing the deck (the files are "only" 50 meg, which 2 gig RAM is comfortable with), but when I lay everything out in a single drawing (deck, base platform, keel) to make dimension checks, etc., things get real dodgy at 300 dpi resolution. The image size is pushing 200 meg, and that's without the red parts for the keel depth. Now that the base platform is properly lined up with the deck, I probably will break the layout drawing into two pieces to ease the memory crunch a bit. Decreasing the number of redos available should also help. I've currently got the setting at 8 redos, but am considering cutting that in half as well and just saving more often to compensate...just need to remember to empty the trash more often. Who ever thunk one would worry about memory management with over a terrabyte of hard drive space? At the rate I'm going, I may be to the point of an alpha build of the hull by the end of the month. at which point there will be some pics to spice up the build string. I'm looking forward to grappling with the tripod masts, but that is some time into the future.

Don, I agree there simply aren't enough WWI-configured US ships around. I suspect those birdcage masts are to blame. I've got a few ideas (still very much half-baked) for how to handle modeling them, but that's for another time. A question for you historians out there....did the Oklahoma ever have a bow wave cammo pattern applied to it?

[barry]

Looking forward to this one Darwin........and definately waiting to see a cage mast

[Don Boose]

Photos of Oklahoma in 1941 are hard to come by. So far, I know of no concrete evidence that Oklahoma was painted in Measure 5, but since the camouflage measures that included Measure 5 (painted bow wave) came out in January 1941, it is at least plausible that it was so painted. I hope you can get a definitive answer!

Don

[maurice]

'fraid I've never seen better than sketches on line for these ships Dar. But I'm looking forward to watching your efforts.

????? II. ??????? ????? "New York", "Oklahoma" ? "Pennsylvania"

(what a funny looking link but it works)

[Don Boose]

I've just discovered that the father (now deceased) of one of my two office mates served aboard Nevada at the time of Pearl Harbor. My office mate will be interested in this build -- and only wishes that you had chosen to build Oklahoma's sister ship.

Don

[B-Manic]

Darwin - If you still need plans this is on ebay
USS OKLAHOMA BB 37 ship boat model boat plan - (eBay.ca item 200248704483 end time 29-Aug-08 15:15:51 EDT)
I have dealt with this seller several times before, very reliable.



~Douglas