Unit Preview: Kiev class VTOL carrier

[Dragon King]

Well, this is my second unit, and its coming along nicely. I have already finished the default and the run animations. I remember somewhere that someone wanted a Kuznetsov class carrier, but i think that the Kiev (im a previous post i put Moskva, by accident) is much better, particularly as a cold war unit. I think the russians had four of these, but none of them were sucessful, and there vtol fighetrs the yak-31? were crap. So they were only really good for ASW and were never good as CVNs. The russians never managed to build any decent carriers, after the kievs they built the Kuznetsov, but that was it (Kuznetsov was built on a Kiev hull.) A second Kuznetsov class was never completed after breakup of ussr. I think it was actualy sold to china for "entertainment purposes"...although i'm not sure but it might have been a diferent ship...i cant remember. The Kuznetsov, only saw on big op, so the Kievs were the best carriers the russains ever had...which is why i'm building it...but hey, i think it looks sweet.

Anyway, here is a gif of the default. Tell me what you think, any advice would be grately appreciate cos i want this one to be brill. The more astute of you should notice that i am building the unit over the invincible class VTOL carrier which Kinboat did, so thanks should go to him for that great unit.

[Dragon King]

The ship shown is actually the Minsk and this shown by its class number (117) on its hull. Here is a photo of the Minsk:

[Boulboulgadol]

So great !!!!!!!!!

There is not much flavor units for carriers !! Go on !!!

[Eliminator]

make the color a bit dark grey??

[Kingpin]

The landing deck on your model is on the oposite side of the photo. Was that intended? Anyway, it looks good, so far.

[Steph]

We'll need yak 31 to go with it

[Dragon King]

Well the colour of the deck is that creamy colour. I could make the hull a bit darker in areas, but you may find that some of the other directions are a bit darker in respect to the shading of the unit, and the red is the civ specific colour. I'll try to get a gif showing all directions of the unit, but it may have to wait over he weekend cos i wont be able to get to a computer that has and internet conection. Sadly in my flat i cant get a connection....well i could, but i generaly try to save money by using my universities super fast and free internet service

[Dragon King]

Originally posted by Kingpin
The landing deck on your model is on the oposite side of the photo. Was that intended? Anyway, it looks good, so far.

No, they are on the same side, just the ships point in diferent directions, so they apear as if they are on diferent sides.

[Dragon King]

Originally posted by Steph
We'll need yak 31 to go with it

I'm not good with planes, but then i wouldnt worry about it, i'd use it as a normal carrier, so it can carry any plane. I would set its transport capacity low, cos i may do the Kuznetsov later which can be used as a russian super carrier.

[Kingpin]

Dragon King,

You're right. I must have been looking at it upside down or something.

It looks good, though. Do you have colour pics of it that you're working from?

[Eliminator]

Originally posted by Dragon King


I'm not good with planes, but then i wouldnt worry about it, i'd use it as a normal carrier, so it can carry any plane. I would set its transport capacity low, cos i may do the Kuznetsov later which can be used as a russian super carrier.

oke.......how does the russian super carrier looks like than?

[Dragon King]

Heres the Kuznetsov:

[Dragon King]

dam, the deck colours are diferent, i had a pic of one with cream coloured deck like the kutnetsov which i cant find, but odviously they are not all the same.

[Dragon King]

Here it is:

[god_money]

Looks great Dragon King,... I much prefer the layed-back creme
colour to the harsh silvers of CivIII's ships; realistic or not
...especially when the unit is as detailed as yours.

Funny you should post this, I just saw my first AI carrier last
night. Figures the Mayans would build it

Looking forward to seeing your art in the modern era,
may the muse be with you.

[Dragon King]

Whoo hoo. I have finished the default, run and the attack animations. I have also started on a fidget where the lift goes down then up. Shouldnt take long, and i should have started on the death by tommorow....(i have a lot of house work to do today) Will keep you posted. I have also been playing around and i managed to tilt the images so i can have a death animation of the ship listing to one side then sinking which should be kewl.

[Dragon King]

Originally posted by god_money
I much prefer the layed-back creme colour to the harsh silvers of CivIII's ships; realistic or not

Yeah, i played around and made a default with the red black and silver deck colouring and it looked a bit too dramatic. Sea units always look much better when i see them on the water, so the creamy on might look a lot better than it already does. (I cant test it at the mo cos a freind has got my civ3 disk and i cant get it back till sunday night.) May the muse be with us all.

[Big Fruitty]

Thats a very nice looking unit. Maybe a Kirov class Cruiser would look good beside it. Anyways, keep up the good work!

[Dragon King]

Well, i have the death animation finished. I wont post it tonight cos i still have to sort out some shading on all the flcs but that wont take long so it will be up tommorow. I may if i haev the time tonight start on my next project which is the assualt ship which i said i would do. I'll try to have a preview ready for tommorow but i cant make any guarantees...i may still be working on the kiev carrier because i dont have much time tonight as i have aikido practice and there will no doubt be a big pub crawl after

About the death, i decided to scrap the idea about tilting the unit cos i treid it and it really looked crap! I dont want to give you a rubbish animation so i stuck with the idea for the WWII carrier done by Persoloco? I cant remember, forgive me if i am wrong. Bassically the ship gets engufed in an explosion, then disapears. The explosion looks good, but it would be naf if it was followed up by the ship sinking. Thats the problem with the cut and past method of unit creation, it is hard to do detailed animations of the units (the death for example.) I could draw each frame by hand and then it would look good but it would take forever.

[OmniMower]

Hey Dragon King,
this one look really great!!!!
...will you do the Kuznetsov after this one???