The Battle Of The Denmark Strait Warship+Aircraft Pack (WIP, Several ways to help!)

[SaturnianBlue]

THE BATTLE OF THE DENMARK STRAIT PACK (WIP)

 

This is the project page for the (currently) WIP Battle Of The Denmark Strait pack, and for the battle's 75th anniversary, I'm building the four ships that fought in the cold waters near Greenland in Late May. Currently Prinz Eugen, Bismarck, and Hood are complete: Prince Of Wales's is finished, but under going bug fixing.

Mods used in these ships: BDArmory, Community Ammunition Library, Kerbpaint(Not working in 1.1), Naval Artillery System, Tweakscale, and WW2Warships, RealShips, with Vesselmover/Hyperedit as well as any mods required/suggested on the pages of these mods.

 

Spoiler

German Ships

Prinz Eugen

The Prinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class Heavy Cruiser, the third of five such vessels. 

She served in the Kriegsmarine during World War II, and entered service in August 1940. She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an 18th century Austrian general. She participated in Operation Rheinubung with Bismarck, together destroying HMS Hood and damaging Prince Of Wales during an attempt to break out into the Atlantic in May 1941. Prinz Eugen detached from Bismarck to raid Allied merchant shipping, but the mission was cut short by engine issues. After undergoing repairs in occupied France, she participated in Operation Cerebus in a dash through the English Channel to Germany. She was deployed to Norway in Feb. 1942, but was torpedoed by the submarine Trident, requiring repairs to her stern. Later in her service, she served as artillery support for the German Army in the East, among other things. 

She was captured by the Royal Navy and then transferred to the US Navy as a war prize. After examination, she was assigned to Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll, and survived both blasts, and towed to Kwajalein Atoll, ultimately sinking in Dec. 1946.

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Bismarck

The Bismarck was the first of the twin Bismarck-Class Battleships.

She served in the Kriegsmarine during WWII, and entered service on August 24th 1940.

She was named after Otto Von Bismarck, the primary force behind Germany's unification in 1871.  It led a short career participating in Operation Rheinubung in May 1941 to raid allied shipping in the Atlantic. The British spotted her and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen several time in Scandinavia. They intercepted her and Prinz Eugen at The Battle Of The Denmark Strait, but soon HMS Hood, pride of the Royal Navy was destroyed, and Prince of Wales was heavily damaged. Bismarck took multiple hits and suffered an oil leak, and it split off from Prinz Eugen to reach Occupied France. The British Fleet’s Ark Royal deployed Swordfish bombers and one scored a hit on the battleships rudder, disabling it. In the final battle involving a huge portion of the British Fleet the next morning, the heavy bombardment resulted in her being scuttled by the crew. 400 shells were landed. 2200 men were killed. 400 men were in the water as the cruiser Dorsetshrire and the destroyer Maori approached,but Dorsetshire's captain ordered the rescue abandoned after lookouts spotted what appeared was a U-boat, and abandoned the rest, and a U-Boat and a trawler found 5 more men. Only 114 survived in total.

 

 

Spoiler

British Ships

Hood

The HMS Hood was to be the first in a series of four Admiral Class Battlecruisers designed during WWI, with Germany building large Mackensen-Class battlecruisers. She was laid down the same day as the Battle Of Jutland, and the loss of three British battlecruisers caused the work to be suspended, and was redesigned, with more armor. In 1917, the construction of the three sister ships were halted, as the construction of merchant ships would be more important. HMS Hood's construction continued. She was commissioned on May 15, 1920.

The Hood was involved in many "showing the flag" missions between 1920 and 1939, including a circumnavigation of the world with the Special Service Squadron in 1923-1924. While headed to Gibraltar for a Mediterranean cruise in 1935, she was rammed in the port side quarter deck by the battlecruiser Renown, damaging her left outer propeller and leaving a dent. Both captains were court-martialed, as well as the squadron commander. The squadron commander and the Hood's captain were acquitted, but the Renown's captain was relieved. 

The Hood was due for a badly needed refit in 1941, as the ship was outdated and her material condition was badly deteriorated. However, World War II broke out, and this was soon an impossibility.

She was employed with patrolling the vicinity on Iceland and the Faroe Islands to protect convoys and intercept merchant raiders and blockade runners. On September 25, 1939, the Home Fleet was spotted by German aircraft, and the Hood was fit by a 250Kg bomb, and needed a refit. In 1940 the Hood participat

ed in the destruction of the French Fleet to avoid them falling in enemy hands.

When the Bismarck sailed with Prinz Eugen for the Atlantic, the Hood and Prince Of Wales set out to intercept them. On May 24th, between Greenland and Iceland, they met. The Hood engaged the Prinz Eugen, the ship in the front. The German ship returned fire several minutes later, with Prinz Eugen scoring a hit, starting a fire with the ready-use ammunition. The Hood was turning to reveal her rear turrets, when she was hit on the deck by a shell from the Bismarck, at 16.65 Km away. A huge jet of flame shot out, and a devastating magazine explosion followed, destroying the back of the Hood, and the ship sank in three minutes, with the bow pointed near vertically. Only three survived.

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Prince Of Wales

WIP

How Can I Help?

Right now-

Help me in the struggle to find sources for Prince Of Wales-Hull lines are a notable thing I haven't been able to find anything too good on. Done!

Test this buggy early version of Prince Of Wales.

Find a Fjord on Kerbin for Bismarck/Prinz Eugen to find in. (Yes, that is a small thing you can do to help) I know people are looking for them, but I haven't gotten any reports on any "fjords".

Logo Design For The Forum Page-WIP

Find Some Music for the cinematic!-Done though if you have some good ones, feel free to suggest!

Give me questions for the Q&A!-Low-ish priority, need to be done.

Craft Building-

There are several crafts that I probably will be unable to make in time/probably better builders of these ships:

Aircraft-

Bf109 fighters (which protected Bismarck from air attack in Norway) WIP By Others

Spitfire (Which photographed 2 certain ships named Bismarck and Prinz Eugen...)-Done, now I need to actually pick whose to fly...

Ships-

Suffolk (County Class Heavy Cruiser, which were the first to detect the German ships)

Norfolk (A County Class Heavy cruiser subclass ship, a few modifications to the above should do)

 

Lower priority- 6 destroyers that were detached the eve of the battle.

Any thing else you can help with, go for it.  

Q&A

Q: Why did you go for building this project?

A: The answer I don't remember well, but I do know I wanted to do a Battle Of Jutland 100th anniversary pack, before realizing that this is in fact, a horrible idea, considering that it is, one of the largest battles ever. However, the Battle Of The Denmark Strait happened on a similar date, 25 Yrs later, and a fair few calibers more feasible.

Q: The 1st ship, Prinz Eugen is at 1120 parts, yet the larger Bismarck is at 907, and the slightly longer Hood is at 883. Why?

A: Probably something about experience and ship building techniques. Specifically, I probably use several WW2 Warship blocks for some straight areas, but later I might have used a tweak scaled structural panel, which is a weaker but all the more customizable, saving a a good dozen parts. The hull on the Prinz Eugen was also more complex, and the confused me may have had used more parts.

Q: What will you do with the ships once they are done?

A: I'll make a KSP film recreating the battle, and the events leading up to it.

Feel free to suggest more questions!

Thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions or offers to help, please let me know!

Edited June 3, 2016 by SaturnianBlue

[Columbia]

This has a lot of potential!

I might be able to modify my Bf 109 G-6 into the variants that escorted the Bismarck. I'm trying to find sources for which exact variants though -- All the photos i can find are either that of 109s escorting the Tirpitz or a Bf 110. I'll keep trying.

As for the Spitfire, I already made one, what mods can/should it have (Such as Kerbpaint and decals)? It'd be pretty ugly to see a completely white Spitfire with static props in the cinematic.

[selfish_meme]

Kerb paint does work in 1.1 just not for some Windows Users, all OSX and Linux users

[SaturnianBlue]

7 hours ago, Columbia said:

This has a lot of potential!

I might be able to modify my Bf 109 G-6 into the variants that escorted the Bismarck. I'm trying to find sources for which exact variants though -- All the photos i can find are either that of 109s escorting the Tirpitz or a Bf 110. I'll keep trying.

As for the Spitfire, I already made one, what mods can/should it have (Such as Kerbpaint and decals)? It'd be pretty ugly to see a completely white Spitfire with static props in the cinematic.

Yep, once kerbpaint starts working, It would be great to have it painted.

6 hours ago, selfish_meme said:

Kerb paint does work in 1.1 just not for some Windows Users, all OSX and Linux users

Correct.

[pTrevTrevs]

I believe I've spoken with you before about making Swordfish for the pack. I have the fuselage of one nearly done, if you want them in this pack I can get to work on finishing them.

I could also do the Bf-109 and Spitfire if you like, although it looks like other people have already offered to do those.

If I can figure out how to take a screenshot in Silent Hunter 4, I can load it up and take a few pictures of the KGV class in the museum. I don't remember if SH4 has it but I know SH3 does.

[Azimech]

And I'll give WW2 Warships a proper 1.1 update (although it already works).

[Columbia]

1 hour ago, SaturnianBlue said:

Yep, once kerbpaint starts working, It would be great to have it painted.

Correct.

A few questions:

1. How many parts does it have to be? The Spitfire's at about 180 and the Bf 109 is at 150, but I can reduce that with use of mods (Procedural Wings).

2. A bit related to my first question, how many mods can it use? For the best appearance, KAX, Procedural Wings, Kerbpaint and a decal mod *might* be needed. 

3. Fairey Swordfishes also participated in the attack against the Bismarck, would that also be part of the aircraft needed?
 

Thanks!

[SaturnianBlue]

1 hour ago, Columbia said:

A few questions:

1. How many parts does it have to be? The Spitfire's at about 180 and the Bf 109 is at 150, but I can reduce that with use of mods (Procedural Wings).

2. A bit related to my first question, how many mods can it use? For the best appearance, KAX, Procedural Wings, Kerbpaint and a decal mod *might* be needed. 

3. Fairey Swordfishes also participated in the attack against the Bismarck, would that also be part of the aircraft needed?
 

Thanks!

1. That part count is ok, but if you can, It would be good to drop that.

2. Go ahead.  

3. The thing is that the Swordfish fighters were involved after the Battle Of The Denmark Strait, so I don't consider it a top priority, but it certainly wouldn't hurt, as I could make a short additional video showcasing that too.

[kapteenipirk]

I think i may have found just the thing you need for making the hull of the Prince of Wales, but im not sure.

And yes, i did search around for about an hour and a half.

 

[SaturnianBlue]

1 hour ago, kapteenipirk said:

I think i may have found just the thing you need for making the hull of the Prince of Wales, but im not sure.

And yes, i did search around for about an hour and a half.

 

Awesome! While I'd like a couple more cut aways, this is a start.  

While a couple more cutaways/ hull lines would help, this will certainly come in handy. The sources for the royal navy are pretty hard to find.

Edited April 26, 2016 by SaturnianBlue

[pTrevTrevs]

Alright, apparently Silent Hunter 4 does have the King George V class battleship in the museum, so here's a load of screenshots. If the ship's camouflage looks ugly, I can always go and take pictures of the one in SH3 instead.

More or less isometric view.

More or less isometric again, but viewing the stern this time.

Close up of the superstructure and fore turrets.

Superstructure again, but from the other side. You can see the funnels more easily and see the floatplane's position (probably not accurate, Silent Hunter isn't known for its good looking/accurate planes).

Bow of the ship.

The ship as it appears in the game's recognition manual.

Edited April 26, 2016 by pTrevTrevs
Typos fixed

[RixKillian]

This sounds like a fantastic project! I too have a BF109 and Spitfire built, so you can of course decide who's you'd like to use. Mine are 1:1 scale and I can definitely reduce the part count if needed for the film.

[kapteenipirk]

9 hours ago, SaturnianBlue said:

Awesome! While I'd like a couple more cut aways, this is a start.  

While a couple more cutaways/ hull lines would help, this will certainly come in handy. The sources for the royal navy are pretty hard to find.

I will try and see if I might be able to find more, but I'm not sure if there are anymore to find.

I also might have a go at creating my own photo-reconnaissance Spitfire minus a working propeller (because Firespitter hasn't been updated yet). You know, just for the fun of it.

 

[kapteenipirk]

I searched around for another hour and a half, and these where the only picks I could find.

I don't think i'm going to find anymore picks of this type, but if anyone wants to give it a shot, be my quest.

Edited April 27, 2016 by kapteenipirk
typos, TYPOS everywhere

[Columbia]

Well, Kerbpaint broke my install, I've yet to try Procedural Wings, but I've been able to use Infernal Robotics for the propellers for the Spitfire, I'm yet to try it on my Bf 109:

Also, here's how the Bf 109 looks:

Oh well. I'll keep trying to get Kerbpaint working with my install.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Columbia

[selfish_meme]

@Columbia your planes could fit @erasmusguy turbo prop

 

[SaturnianBlue]

3 hours ago, kapteenipirk said:

I searched around for another hour and a half, and these where the only picks I could find.

I don't think i'm going to find anymore picks of this type, but if anyone wants to give it a shot, be my quest.

Great! Thanks you.  

[kapteenipirk]

Just now, SaturnianBlue said:

Great! Thanks you.  

Happy to help .

[Columbia]

10 minutes ago, selfish_meme said:

@Columbia your planes could fit @erasmusguy turbo prop

 

They look nice, but I'm trying to aim for low part count for SaturnianBlue's cinematic, so I'll have to resort to Infernal Robotics. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Now to find a way to get Kerbpaint working/File a bug report.

 

[selfish_meme]

13 minutes ago, Columbia said:

They look nice, but I'm trying to aim for low part count for SaturnianBlue's cinematic, so I'll have to resort to Infernal Robotics. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Now to find a way to get Kerbpaint working/File a bug report.

 

The closest you will get is telling me, and theres nothing I can do about it. If you have a windows machine somewhere you can get it going on that, but it does not matter if your intended audience ( @SaturnianBlue ) does not have windows to make the movie on.

[Columbia]

1 minute ago, selfish_meme said:

The closest you will get is telling me, and theres nothing I can do about it. If you have a windows machine somewhere you can get it going on that, but it does not matter if your intended audience ( @SaturnianBlue ) does not have windows to make the movie on.

Alright, I'll resort to decals for the aircraft.

 

[SaturnianBlue]

3 hours ago, selfish_meme said:

The closest you will get is telling me, and theres nothing I can do about it. If you have a windows machine somewhere you can get it going on that, but it does not matter if your intended audience ( @SaturnianBlue ) does not have windows to make the movie on.

Macs do have IMovie though, so I can still make the movie, but yea, Kerbpaint will need fixing.

[kapteenipirk]

You remember that Spitfire i was talking about, well, after about an hour of searching around i was able to find that the Spitfire that was used to film the Bismark and Prinz Eugen was a:

Supermarine Spitfire PR Mk.VI (aka PR.I type F) photo-reconnaissance version flown by pilot officer Michael "babe" Suckling. (no registration of the aircraft tough).

But,because i couldn't find even a single pick of it, i made the MK-XI instead.

Edit: Forget what i just said, i did find some picks. Looks like i,m going to have to modify my MK IX into a type F. (different propeller, exhausts, rudder, canopy and cameras)

Oh well, shouldn't take too long.

 

And here is the aircraft itself. It's fully stock except for the BD-armory "cameras".

I really wish Firespitter would get updated so i could get this thing to move faster than 70 or so m/s.

And yes, it is very manouverable. and very easy to fly. but i doesn't stay straight with SAS on.

It still isn't perfect, but i think it's the best that can be done with stock parts.

Edited April 27, 2016 by kapteenipirk

[SaturnianBlue]

1 hour ago, kapteenipirk said:

You remember that Spitfire i was talking about, well, after about an hour of searching around i was able to find that the Spitfire that was used to film the Bismark and Prinz Eugen was a:

Supermarine Spitfire PR Mk.VI (aka PR.I type F) photo-reconnaissance version flown by pilot officer Michael "babe" Suckling. (no registration of the aircraft tough).

But,because i couldn't find even a single pick of it, i made the MK-XI instead.

Edit: Forget what i just said, i did find some picks. Looks like i,m going to have to modify my MK IX into a type F. (different propeller, exhausts, rudder, canopy and cameras)

Oh well, shouldn't take too long.

 

And here is the aircraft itself. It's fully stock except for the BD-armory "cameras".

I really wish Firespitter would get updated so i could get this thing to move faster than 70 or so m/s.

And yes, it is very manouverable. and very easy to fly. but i doesn't stay straight with SAS on.

It still isn't perfect, but i think it's the best that can be done with stock parts.

Great! Now the problem will come when i need to pick whose to fly. 

[Columbia]

Well, I've found nothing about the Bf 109 escorting Bismarck, but other sources say Bf 110s of II/ZG 76. More sources say it's Bf 109s, but I'm not sure exactly what variant. In 1941, both the E and F variants (which were very different) were in operation.