4.5" Mark 6 naval gun is the wrong shape and fires the wrong rounds

[Northstar98]

Hi everyone,

 

I've noticed some minor model issues with 4.5" Mark 6 naval gun, common to all of the Leander-class ships and the 2 Condell-class ships introduced in the new asset pack.

Starting with the gun rounds, the 4.5" Mark 6 naval gun, as the name suggests, has a calibre of 4.5 inches (114.3 mm), at the moment however it's firing 130 mm rounds (presumably copied from the Slava class' AK-130). The real gun should have HE, SAP, AA (not sure if it has a timed or proximity fuse) and possibly, illumination.

 

Secondly, there's the 3D model of the turret itself, which looks a fair bit off; the gunhouse is largely the correct shape (though roof doesn't look as sloped), but the main problem are the barrels, which are way out of proportion and serve to make the turret look more cartoony IMO:

Spoiler

Here's an image of HMS Ariadne:

 

And here's more-or-less the same shot in DCS:

The turret just doesn't look right (also note the incorrect HF/DF antenna and the lack of ESM & ECM antennas).

 

Going closer up, compare this:

To this:

Also note the barrels, which are way out of proportion.

While this is going into a whole new territory of nitpicking, the warning sign should read "train" instead of "move".

 

The main issue though is the barrels, which look way out of proportion (namely in diameter, but also in length) and to me look fairly cartoony. The muzzles should also be thinner compared to the rest of the barrels:

Compare this:

 

To this:

 

And this:

 

To this:

 

Edited June 23, 2022 by Northstar98
reformatting

[Rudel_chw]

14 minutes ago, Northstar98 said:

While this is going into new territory of nitpicking …

On my country we have the saying: "perfection is the enemy of good" … of course, it would be nice if this asset were more accurate, but the man-hours needed to correct the 3d models and the textures would (in my opinion) be better spent on creating more Falklands assets. When I’m on my aircraft and about to attack one of these vessels, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t be able to see these issues.

[Northstar98]

On 6/22/2022 at 8:47 PM, Rudel_chw said:

On my country we have the saying: "perfection is the enemy of good" … of course, it would be nice if this asset were more accurate, but the man-hours needed to correct the 3d models and the textures would (in my opinion) be better spent on creating more Falklands assets. When I’m on my aircraft and about to attack one of these vessels, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t be able to see these issues.

I didn't say these should take anything like high priority and I did describe them as "minor".

I'm also not after perfection per se, it would be fantastic if we could get a 1:1 replica of the real thing, but given that we're working with free assets for the time being, I'll take whatever small corrections I can.

The thing is though, RAZBAM have done an absolutely amazing job on the Oerlikon Mk 7 20 mm guns, to the point where I'd describe them as perfect: they're incredibly well detailed and their models and textures are incredibly high resolution - it's one of the highest quality objects in DCS (even surpassing very similar guns in the WWII asset pack). I'd also say the same for the Type 965M and Type 1022 radars - RAZBAM have done an outstanding job there. I'm sure you don't fly enough to notice these but it does go to show some inconsistencies with the quality - not only compared to other free assets (such as the La Combattante IIa, whose OTO Melara 76 mm gun is very well modelled), but also compared with other elements on the exact same ship. And personally, I'd say the 4.5" Mk 6 is way more noticeable than the quality of the Oerlikon Mk 7 or 965M.

 

I am also fairly certain that this exact model will be copied and pasted onto the County-class destroyers (which have at least been teased) which is supposedly coming as part of the paid-for asset pack. While I own the South Atlantic map, I expect paid-for assets to be as accurate as possible and at least be as high quality as free assets (again, look at the La Combattante IIa's OTO Melara 76 mm compact, compare it to a real one and then do the same for the 4.5" Mk 6). The good thing is that RAZBAM only has to make a corrected model once, once they've done that it can be copied and pasted to every unit with a 4.5" Mk 6.

It should also go without saying that the effort needed for the model corrections would almost certainly be far less than creating a brand new asset, especially when hardly any of the ships present exist today, whereas a 4.5" Mark 6 survives in the museum of naval firepower in the UK.

 

As for noticing stuff or not - I didn't need to be up close to it to notice that the barrels that are completely out of proportion with the turret. Having a family member who served on Ariadne doesn't help either.

 

With all of that said though, I'd also put the fact that it fires completely the wrong rounds as a bigger issue than the model.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Northstar98