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This ship has been sitting around for far too long, but a part of this project took quite a while to complete as it came a little out of nowhere. Juts like with the Sub/sea-plane fleet stuff, there are some elements on this project that are linked to one-another in such a way that it made more sense to do this as a separate. Plus, carriers have always been a bit more special to me and there's plenty to talk about this one. So, as the title says, i will also be showcasing a couple model aircraft carriers as-well with this project. These are a 3D paper-model of the IJN Akagi and a 1:350 scale model of the Graf Zeppelin. These are the carriers that this project mixes and matches together. I created this carrier to be a sort of ultimate carrier that can operate pretty-much every and any carrier aircraft imaginable...so, i made this one a whole lot more massive compared to the older carriers that where mostly built on top of my battleship-hulls (some carriers in real life where built on top of/around battleship/battle-cruiser hull's. Akagi and Lexington (CV-2) are perfect examples of this. then there's also the Independence class light aircraft carrier's that where built on hulls of Cleveland class cruisers). Because of the size of this thing, i used tweackscale a little more heavily than usual, mainly on the hull. This increased scaling allowed me to make this the most detailed carrier, and one of the most detailed ships in general. Lifeboats, lights, working doors, and other small details missing in my previous carriers are all there on this one. The doors lead to: Hangar, flight deck, island lookout platform, aft and fore deck, and deck sides witch are walkable from end to end. As you can probably make out from the picks, the ships main hull follows a similar design to the Akagi, while the island (bridge) is similar to the Graf Zeppelin. The lifeboats are actually inspired by the Yamato, witch had little tunnels from where the lifeboat could be moved out using a little crane moving on rails bolted to the tunnels ceiling. Defensive armaments are pretty-much like they are on the Graf Zeppelin, with the turrets integrated to the aft and fore hull and the dual-purpose guns aft and fore of the island. This time i wanted to try and create some actually useful lights and symbols that would help people when landing on the carrier. And i have to say, those IJN style light show up really well during night time. Basically they are just small wing-panels with lights shining on to them. NOTE: as is usual with these carriers, the aircraft-elevator on this thing likes to "sink" over time, so be careful when landing as the elevator may not be so flush with the deck anymore after a couple landings. But, the carrier should be big enough for people with the right amount of design/flying skill to operate from the remaining flight-deck. (the bit's on the flight-deck are from the Corsair i tried to land on the deck...i kept on hitting the edge or going off the deck) I had forgotten to strut up the four segments of the elevator (1 panel per gantry-rail), witch made landing hell (hit the edge and your done) and operating the elevator a game of chance (will it work or will it bounce me upside-down). (this pick shows an older version with less landing-gears and fewer engines) You can see that this carrier uses steerable landing-gears this time, this allows the carrier to "crab" itself off the runway, but that's not advisable as the carriers stern tends to rotate faster than the bow, so is suggest just turning like a car instead. for that you will have to click on one of the landercans on the rear (not sure) and say control from here to turn off the crab style movement. One other thing you may notice, is the cleanliness of the hull, no more engines sticking out like a sore thumb or flat hull sterns. Instead the engines are inside the hollow stern and bow section, as-well as in the torpedo protection bulges. Just like with the K.S.S midway, this one is a little lacking in friction/drag when in water (you can thank tweackscale), so because of this, speed is quite high on this one, and it can also turn on pretty-much on the spot when going slow. NOTE: during my test's, i noticed that the faster you go, the slower the carrier turns, so keep that in mind when you need to change course. Alright, i think it's time to show off the paper and plastic carrier models. 1:350 scale 3D papermodel IJN Akagi 1:350 Trumpeter model of the Graf Zeppelin Technical specks: Armaments: 7x abrams turret and 6x Goalkeeper MK.3. Top-speed: 71 m/s Length: 255.6m Width: 55.5m Height: 45.2m Parts: 849 Mass: 15,180 tons. Action groups/IR stuff: Actiongroup 4 is for engaging thrust-reverses on the main engines, you WILL need these if you want to slow down in less than an hour. in the IR window you will find controls for the aircraft elevator, island warning light, and radars. Mods used: Tweackscale, Infernal robotics, and BD-Armory Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7d68vsy30t4o0c0/K_S_S GrandCarrier.craft?dl=0 And there it is for you, the pride and joy of our ever expanding navy. I hope you enjoy it