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Leander Class Frigate(s)


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In Collaboration with Hawkeye60, Admiral189, and Crazy Eddie, we're proud to be announcing a project that will hopefully stir up some old memories for all the old sea dogs out there. I purchased this model from CGTrader, and wanted so much to see her in game, and I approached the resident Ship SME's and boy, they didn't half deliver..


Watch this space.... release date .....soon!!!


UPDATE: MOD RELEASED

Base Leander https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3320020/

R
oyal Navy Livery pack https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3320021/

Leander class mod.png


Edited by Oban
Mod released
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Just to whet your appetites. Initial release will be Royal Navy frigates, with both 4.5" guns ( All 26 of them!) and the Exocet fit versions ( I believe there was 12 of them)

HMS Andromeda.png

HMS Ariadne.png

HMS Argonaut.png

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Oh, for those days when the Royal Navy could still be classed as a 'navy'; when the fleet was still large enough to demand the RN trained its own engineering officers at RNEC Manadon (now a housing estate!).

As a lad, I well remember going, after school, to watch the launches of Cleopatra and Danae.  My father was involved in the design and refit projects for ICARA, too.

Look forward to the release of the models.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Time for an update, as we're nearing a release..
Not going to lie, the mod is going to be a large initial release, as it features Hi res liveries for all 26 basic Royal Navy Leanders, 12 configured for exocets, and 4 for the towed array versions.
She can be sunk, takes a fair bit depending on what's fired at her, but YJ84's are lethal !

From the air.png

Damaged.png

Screen_211127_131131.png

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I'm curious about the waterline paint, shouldn't the black band extend deeper? Or should the ship sit a little lower? The current DCS water doesn't help being almost crystal clear at these angles but it seems like the ship is riding pretty high. I did see some photos that appeared to look that way though, but then others at sea/underway didn't.

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Heatblur Rivet Counting Squad™

 

VF-11 and VF-31 1988 [WIP]

VF-201 & VF-202 [WIP]

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Most photos I found of the class do show a good portion of the black paint band being exposed while anchored and underway, but I wasn't sure if it should have more of that black band, which I understand is there to combat corrosion at the waterline, should also extend more past the waterline.

While trying to see if I'm totally wrong about it, I came across this, and there's a few others of the class in extremely rough seas with the whole bows exposed to the bottom, and they appeared to be completely black, or possibly the red bottoms were covered or discolored from being at sea:

EBoeCaUWkAIZSb_.jpg

I'm not sure if this is a different sub-class as it looks like the turret is gone, or maybe a conversion of some kind? If I'm reading right this would be the Leander herself. Is this the Ikara system?

 

In whatever case I'm glad to be proven wrong, I've just noticed a lot more lately that with DCS' current water implementation the waterlines and red underside paint become a lot more obvious. Proper sea transparency and visibility dropoff plus actual wakes and churn should alleviate it but some ships have looked like they are riding pretty high. It looks like across this whole class and the follow on classes there was always a black band visible so definitely not asking for that to change.

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Heatblur Rivet Counting Squad™

 

VF-11 and VF-31 1988 [WIP]

VF-201 & VF-202 [WIP]

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33 minutes ago, LanceCriminal86 said:

 

EBoeCaUWkAIZSb_.jpg

I'm not sure if this is a different sub-class as it looks like the turret is gone, or maybe a conversion of some kind? If I'm reading right this would be the Leander herself. Is this the Ikara system?

That is HMS Leander (F109) after her conversion to an “Ikara Leander”. With the Ikara missile system in place of the 4.5 Gun.  

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That's the Ikara conversion on HMS Leander, but yes, the DCS sea texture doesn't help, it's too transparent. I don't believe it would take that much to lower the whole ship to Midway on the Black waterline, Hawkeye is the man for that, as he's doing the modelling and animations part, I'm just doing the textures. 😁

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I think she is sitting at the right depth in the water now, its not the model that gives the impression of sitting high, its the water transparency that creates that illusion and there is nothing you can do about that, except add extra wind and thereby create larger waves to hide the red below the boot topping.  Even then you will need a bloody hurricane level of wind to hide the red even a little bit.

There is another solution of course, paint the red hull black - whilst not accurate the problem is solved.  

 

 

Screen_211208_105705.png


Edited by crazyeddie
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I have sent Oban a bunch of new edm's to try.

Lowered in the water, and black hull on one ship.

It is now in his hands to decide what to release.

 

We do appreciate the interest in making this ship the best it can be.

We strive for excellence!

 

Thank you!

Stay tuned!

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"Yeah, and though I work in the valley of Death, I will fear no Evil. For where there is one, there is always three. I preparest my aircraft to receive the Iron that will be delivered in the presence of my enemies. Thy ALCM and JDAM they comfort me. Power was given unto the aircrew to make peace upon the world by way of the sword. And when the call went out, Behold the "Sword of Stealth". And his name was Death. And Hell followed him. For the day of wrath has come and no mercy shall be given."

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Looks lovely - my father worked on most of these… Ikara conversions, Exocet, Sea Wolf and towed array (a quick search suggests 13 Exocet boats…)

As for the boot topping line - the strongly visible black line between the hull red and North Atlantic Grey - just get rid…

The Navy painted them out during the Falklands conflict. Not sure whether it was real or perceived, but the gen at the time was that the black line was too strong a targeting and range cue for the low flying Argentine pilots…

Fantastic boats though - I still hear comments that they were some of the quietest ASW platforms that we’ve ever had

 

ETA image showing painted out boot topping

E04D54A4-774B-4D2A-9A4F-C7E0C542F9D7.jpeg

Note the very, very light weight main mast and lighter funnel on the Batch 3 (Sea Wolf) conversions.  My father worked on several of these conversions including Charybdis (above) and Hermione


Edited by rkk01
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In the initial release, which will be massive due to all the liveries (unless you all  want to have the classes split up?)

The focus will be for Royal Navy vessels for initial release, the rest (maybe) will be done in 2022

26 RN 4.5" gun liveries for all initial Leander class's
13 RN Exocet liveries

4 RN standard class towed arrays, even though they didn't actually exist, the towed array is eye candy only anyway.
 4 RN Exocet towed arrays the 5th (HMS Arethusa, was in Ikara conversion, which sadly we don't have a model for)

All of them have the new style working wakes
I'm of mixed opinion about the Brick Red anti-fouling hulls, but the all black also looks pretty mega as well, Hawkeye60 will look at converting all 4 variants and I will make a decision once I check them out.

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A couple of points on the models / images shown above with Sea Wolf:

F28, Cleopatra was Exocet / SeaCat, not Sea Wolf

F69, Bacchante kept her twin 4.5” guns throughout - no Sea Wolf

 

At least some of the Batch 3s had towed array - certainly Charybdis and Hermione were fitted (eta - looks like all Sea Wolf Leanders had towed array)


Edited by rkk01
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32 minutes ago, rkk01 said:

A couple of points on the models / images shown above with Sea Wolf:

F28, Cleopatra was Exocet / SeaCat, not Sea Wolf

F69, Bacchante kept her twin 4.5” guns throughout - no Sea Wolf

 

At least some of the Batch 3s had towed array - certainly Charybdis and Hermione were fitted (eta - looks like all Sea Wolf Leanders had towed array)

 

The model parts unfortunately are as is, it would mean modelling the seacat system from scratch, I'm taking hawkeye60 away from his other projects as is, using what's modelled is the compromise, Hawkeye created the extended flight deck for the towed array exocets already..believe me, the mod has already grown arms and legs beyond what was intended lol

The Bacchante you're looking at in the picture is a tester only, if you look closer, she has the ASW mortar on the focsle as well, the default texture for the Leanders was for HMS Bacchante 😁

I will post pictures of the full line up tomorrow mate, it's 0110 here in Iraq, so time to get my fat napper down!!


Edited by Oban
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