Leeuwin Class Hydrographic Vessels

Hi all,

This is my first original drawing, the Australian hydrographic vessel HMAS Melville in both the original white and current grey paint schemes.

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Very good begininng ;)

Looks great, on question though what is that ''balk?'' under the bridge painted white?

And btw that ''thing'' at the helispot sould that be crane?

There are some simple "basic" mistakes here...
1) the considerable overhang isen't shaddowed at all
2) Overlapsing black pixels, particuallry in main deck level, and in the forecastle are huge misshaps, you should get rid of them at first place
3) adjoing the ALAVAMs notion over the cranes.
4) are you sure the underwater part is black/dark grey?
5) there are WAY more prettier ways to drawn the fovard pole of illumation marking lamps than just crude tracing with black..

Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into fixing the mistakes.

Btw, if anyone has really good reference pictures of this class it would help a lot, I couldn't find to much ;)

Regarding the hull colour, I was going off these pictures which seem to depict a dark grey.

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Then again, I just found some pictures that suggest otherwise...would the red be better?

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well the actuall photograph seems to suggest red

Nice one Rowdy. Just a few further thoughts: I would chose red for the lower hull, in keeping with Aussie ships already done. If you check out the parts sheets or other drawings you should find some cranes that will look better than what you have - no need to draw your own. I would go for a slightly darker hue under the overhang and a darker line to indicate the edge of the overhang. Its just an aesthetic thing, but I'd work over the bow curve again to show a better shape.

This is a very good first drawing, I'm impressed :)

here are a few shots from Shipspotters.com
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The official RAN web site now has about 20,000 high res photos aviable of various RAN PR events !!! in the gallery section there are some ships in there too!!!! all hidden under the worlds worst search interface !!!!

Graham

Nice! Last class of ship i served on during my Naval career (H.S Blue Crew) before i left active Naval service in October 2006.

OK some helpful facts-

The underwater colour scheme when they were first launched in 1998 by NQEA to when they where immediately repainted to RAN standard Storm grey in late 2001 after there roles were extended to include off shore patrol duties was originally Copper Coat Black. Later in 2003/2004 these vessels where raised out of the water at Tropical slipways Cairns during there Ships maintenance programs and due to new Marine environmental compliance laws they were changed from the "Nasty" Copper coat paint for the more "Marine Friendly" Ecoloflex paint which is a light cherry/dull pink colour.

In 2006 the 4.7 metre RHIB and Davit on the starboard side was replaced during refit for a 7.2 meter RHIB and a new boat cradle davit was fitted. (Same type used on the Armidale Class PB)

When deployed for off shore patrol duties these vessels are armed with 2x12.7mm (.50 Cal) M2 browning H.B.M.G (located on the bow fwd of the ships bow davit and on the start of the bow bulwark) and a AS350B Squirrel (Battle Budgie as we called it) is detached to the ship from 723 Sqn

Besides that Great work for your first ship post :) :)

Hi all,

Thanks everyone for the help, here is the updated drawing...
I think I got everything, but if I didn't let me know :)

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The helico is not already draw by others members in "part sheets" ???

Looking good; but am I seeing depth charge throwers forward of the bridge? Also, you'll need to colour in the scuttles - same hue as the bridge. :)

Oh are they depth charge throwers? My mistake.
Also, what are the skuttles?

I recently in my own thread learned that the scuttles were the small, round windows :lol:

Yeah, we use this sort of talk to show we're 'old salts' :lol: