Remove ads

pjmoyer's artwork thread - Shipgirls, Serendipity, and other things

Reader mode
It's like a hospital photo, or is my family the only ones that do that?
 
Remove ads
Inktober 2016.09 - USS Vestal (AR-4)
  • Threadmarks
    • The Docboat is in, and she isn't taking any more of your *bleep*.



    Fun Facts!
    • Laid down and launched as a fleet collier in 1907-1909, she was recommissioned as a repair ship in 1913 (as the majority of ships were moving from coal to oil and diesel fuel).
    • She served in both World War I (in the Atlantic) and World War II (in the Pacific).
    • She was present in Pearl Harbor, moored alongside USS Arizona, when the Japanese attacked, and barely managed to escape going down with Arizona when she was torpedoed and bombed - rallied by her captain, Commander Cassin Young, who had been flung overboard by Arizona's detonation. He still needed to ground Vestal in the harbor to prevent it from sinking. For his heroic actions, Commander Young was promoted, awarded the Medal of Honor, and eventually put in command of USS San Francisco.
    • Despite her damage, Vestal took part in the salvage after the attack, including freeing sailors from USS Oklahoma. After her own repairs were completed, Vestal got to work repairing what ships she could assist throughout the Pacific theater, including USS Saratoga, USS Enterprise, USS Pensacola, USS Minneapolis, USS South Dakota, USS North Carolina and USS Washington.
    • After the war ended in 1945, Vestal participated in the occupation of Japan and China, performed rescue operations in the wake of Typhoon Louise, and assisted in decommissioning operations before being decommissioned herself at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in 1946. It would take several more years until she was ready for scrapping in 1950 in Baltimore.
    • Vestal received two battle stars for her service in WWII. Her ship's bell was discovered in the basement of a Baltimore home 62 years later.
    • Vestal has a guest-starring role in @theJMPer 's Belated Battleships, and considers it a small price to pay for keeping the rest of the girls in top shape.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Inktober 2016.10 - Richardson Family Outing (Washington Navy Yard)
  • Threadmarks
    • Many children, when asked to describe their perfect vacation getaway, describe an amusement park or game arcade, or possibly a national park.

    Jane Richardson is not "many children", and her family recognizes this.


    (Depicted left to right: IJN Jintsuu, Jane Sarah Richardson, USS Arizona (BB-39), USS Albacore (SS-218), IJN Mutsu, Rear Admiral John Alfred Richardson, IJN Hiei )

    Fun Facts!
    • The Washington Navy Yard was established in 1799, and is the oldest shore establishment of the US Navy.
    • Built in the southeast of Washington, DC along the Anacostia River, it served as the navy's largest shipbuilding and shipfitting facility, up to the War of 1812. (22 vessels constructed, including the steam frigate USS Minnesota, and USS Constitution was refitted there in 1812)
    • Upon the burning of the city by the British, the Yard's first commandant, Commodore Thomas Tingey, ordered the Yard burned to prevent its capture by the enemy. Only three buildings survived, including the Latrobe Gate (the ceremonial entrance to the Yard and a Marines barracks).
    • After the War of 1812, the Yard never regained its prominence as a shipbuilding facility, due to the shallowness of the Anacostia River preventing larger vessels from sailing it. Instead, its focus shifted towards ordnance and technology. It possessed one of the earliest steam engines of the US, made anchors, chain, and steam engines for ships, and in 1886 was designated the manufacturing center for all ordnance in the Navy.
    • It produced guns for the Great White Fleet, the World War I navy, and by World War II was the largest naval ordnance plant in the world. In 1945 it was renamed the U.S. Naval Gun Factory, and continued producing weapons into the 1960's. In 1964, it was re-designated the Washington Navy Yard and began its shift to becoming the ceremonial and administrative center of the US Navy, home of the Chief of Naval Operations, and the headquarters of Naval District Washington.
    • The Navy Yard is the home of the National Museum of the United States Navy, and it is open to the public. However, since it is on an active military base, visitors must enter from the visitor's gate and present ID to get a pass (on the weekdays), or possess an active DOD CAC badge (weekends and holidays).
    • The decommissioned destroyer USS Barry (DD-933) used to be stationed at the Navy Yard as a museum ship but was scrapped at the end of 2015 due to declining visitors, cost of renovation, and the construction of a new bridge that would have prevented it from leaving.
    • Jane Richardson and her family are having their picture taken in front of one of the anchors for USS Enterprise (CV-6).
      • The heights of the various ships are as calculated for @theJMPer and @Old Iron 's Belated Battleships, and may not reflect their actual heights as seen in other KanColle media.
        • Also, Mutsu decided not to wear her heels that day.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Inktober 2016.11 - USS Enterprise (CVN-80)
  • Threadmarks
    • Enterprise takes to the seas!



    Fun Facts!
    • USS Enterprise (CVN-80) will be the third Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier, built to replace the aging Nimitz-class USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), and named after the retired USS Enterprise (CVN-65).
      • As such, she is fully aware of the massive legacy that she is meant to uphold, though she tries not to let it get to her. She copes with a mildly snarky attitude that shows up in private and a love for a well-spent life. Better to live fully than to mope around, after all.
      • While she recognizes the common Enterprise nicknames, the one she feels closest to is "Fordy" and prefers it to avoid confusion with the other Enterprises. (She's the Ford-class Enterprise, or "Ford-E")
    • Due to be laid down in 2018 (with launching in 2023 and commissioning in 2025-2027), Enterprise, as a member of the Gerald R. Ford-class, is meant to capitalize on the decades of technical developments that have occurred since the Nimitzes were launched and upgraded. These include an improved flight deck layout with a higher sortie rate (including an electromagnetic aircraft launch system instead of steam catapults), a new nuclear reactor design (two Betchel A1B reactors) for greater electrical power output, dual-band radar, the ability to carry up to 90 aircraft, and increased automation allowing for a modest reduction in crew numbers compared to the Nimitz (and better, more private, crew accommodations in general).
      • These are all reflected in her stripped-down design, featuring a sleek bodysuit, precision compound bow (used by the US Navy Archery Team), and voluminous hangar/flight deck quiver.
    • Depending on when she actually gets built (and which era/rendition you're using), Enterprise will have quite a selection of aircraft to choose from, including the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler, Grumman C-2 Greyhound, Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II, Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, and unmanned combat aerial vehicles such as the Northrop Grumman X-47B.
      • Her squadrons are stored as her arrows with unique arrowheads in the shape of the planes they represent. The fletching indicates which squadron they're from.
      • She also possesses a full suite of trick arrows (sonic stun, ricochet, explosive, grapple, tangler, taser, etc.) that she'll use against human opponents if she feels the need.
    • In essence, she's a six-foot-six blonde Kate Bishop Hawkeye. With a dose of Optimus Prime tossed in for flavor.
      • She once jumped out of a C-5 Galaxy transport while in mid-flight without a parachute to land on an abyssal cruiser because "it was the fastest way to deploy to the AO". (and because it was hella awesome, she'd admit in private later.)
      • Fordy may be a no-nonsense commander of people, planes, and ships, and a model of Kanmusu-Military interactions? But deep down inside, she's still a giant Dork.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • While it's only one carrier so far (in game), I'm kind of sad she doesn't use a ridiculous looking AR-47 thing. Saratoga has a big period machine gun that is also a flight deck, so I'd expect other carriers to kind of follow in that way.
     
    Glitchrr36 said:
    While it's only one carrier so far (in game), I'm kind of sad she doesn't use a ridiculous looking AR-47 thing. Saratoga has a big period machine gun that is also a flight deck, so I'd expect other carriers to kind of follow in that way.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Well, I drew her back in the middle of October, so we didn't know what KC would use for American carriers back then. Honestly, I'm kinda mixed on the gun-launching flight deck paragdim 'cause you can't realistically get many planes up as rapidly as firing a full-auto or semi-auto rifle puts out bullets. Given how many smaller ships have their turrets as handheld guns as one type or another, it could lead to confusion if carriers start acting like cruisers in terms of shooty shoot shoot. ^_-;;

    For what it's worth, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42) probably has a gun-deck design, to balance out her sisters' origami summoning and archery (Midway and Coral Sea, respectively).
     
    Last edited:
    Inktober 2016.12 - USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19)
  • Threadmarks
    • Give a warm welcome for the "Finest in the Fleet"!



    Fun Facts!
    • Laid down and launched in the late 1960's, USS Blue Ridge is the lead ship of the two Blue Ridge-class command ships, specifically designed from the keel up as Command and Control ships, and she is the permanent command flagship of the United States Seventh Fleet (Pacific).
    • Commissioned in 1970, Blue Ridge is currently the US Navy's longest active ship, and is entitled to fly the First Navy Jack. Previous holders include USS Independence (CV-62), USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), and USS Enterprise (CVN-65). She is expected to remain in service until 2039, so she's not letting it go anytime soon.
    • Blue Ridge participated in the last major combat amphibious engagement of the Vietnam War, the Easter Counter-Offensive in 1972, and brought POW's home after the war. She then rescued refugees from Cambodia and South Vietnam in 1975 during Operations Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind. Through 1990-1991, Blue Ridge served as the flagship for ComUSNavCent during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, for which she received a Navy Unit Commendation. The remainder of her time in the Pacific is spent with humanitarian missions and US/allied training exercises.
    • Initially homeported in Naval Station San Diego, she transferred to Okinawa in 1975, and then to Yokosuka in 1979, which has remained her home port up to the present day.
      • Consequently, she not only speaks, reads, and writes Japanese better than Midway, she approaches native levels of comprehension which can take some Japanese shipgirls by surprise.
    • Packed with advanced computers, radars, radio, and satellite uplinks, Blue Ridge is an indispensable asset for any Admiral lucky enough to have her on their staff. Her distributed network pulls from multiple worldwide military and civilian sources into a single integrated database to assemble a comprehensive tactical picture of air, surface, and subsurface contacts.
      • This also means she's the unofficial IT girl for the base. Sometimes she's happy to help, other times... not as much.
      • She also has her own Facebook page (seriously!) and maintains that of the base (and anybody else's if they ask nicely and aren't a pain about requesting updates).
    • For all her computing and communication prowess, Blue Ridge is starkly light on armaments. Two Phalanx CIWS guns, 4 Bushmaster cannons, and 8 .50 cal machine guns are the most she can bring to bear, so she is dependent on other members of the fleet for protection. She also carries two SH-60 Seahawks for multiple roles.
    • Personality-wise, Blue Ridge can be considered a cross between Ooyodo and Glynda Goodwitch. She's less likely to fly off the handle, and can be gracious and kind and sometimes a little silly ("What do you want from me? I have RSS feeds in my head."), but by the same token you do not want to be caught in the sights of one of her famous disapproving glares. Said glares are known to put the fear of the CNO into rambunctious destroyers, and even cruisers and battleships have been known to be pulled up short by their intensity.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Ash19256 said:
    Could just be that her fairies decided to dress up. Or she met those particular artists and wound up becoming good enough friends with them that when they died for whatever reason, they became a part of her crew.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Or the equipment she's using is so closely associated with certain artists that their representative fairies look like those artists. (Hence Skrillex Fairy next to the laptop, and TR-808 Rhythm Composer Fairy being a 80's black girl with cornrows and shutter-shades.)
     
    Inktober 2016.13 - USS Eldrige (DD-173)
  • Threadmarks
    • "Στην υγειά μας, την αγάπη! Το ιππικό είναι εδώ!"



    Fun Facts!
    • USS Eldridge was one of 72 Cannon-class Destroyer Escorts built in the middle of World War II to protect the convoys in the Atlantic and Pacific.
    • Between January 1944 and May 1945, Eldridge escorted men and materials in nine voyages to support the Allied operations in North Africa and southern Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.
    • She was then transferred in late May to service in the Pacific, but by the time she arrived at Okinawa on August 7th, the end of hostilities was only a week away, and she was put in reserve in June 1946.
    • After the war, the remaining ships were split up and transferred to other navies - France, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Uruguay.
    • Eldridge was one of the ships transferred to the Greeks, and she served them as the HNS Leon II up until 1992, whereupon she was decommissioned and sold as scrap in 1999.
    • While her wartime record is pretty decent, the event that Eldridge is most noted for is her involvement in the ostensible "Philadelphia Experiment", whereupon the US Navy supposedly attempted to perform "Invisibility experiments" to render the ship undetectable to enemy forces in the summer of 1943, culminating in the final experiment on October 28, 1943. According to the stories, it either worked too well and harmed the crew, caused the ship to teleport from Philadelphia to Norfolk before returning, or briefly caused the ship to travel in time.
    • In reality, USS Eldridge was not commissioned until August 27, 1943, and it remained in port in New York City until September 1943. The October experiment allegedly took place while the ship was on its first shakedown cruise in the Bahamas, it had never made port in Philadelphia (which can be confirmed by checking the ship's logs), and the stories about being made "invisible" were misunderstandings of the common naval procedure to degauss the ship to make it "invisible" to magnetic mines.
    • Regardless, when Eldridge was summoned as a Kanmusu, she had a bad case of being "unstuck in time", and it took a while for a suitable solution to be found. With better control over her temporal displacement, she makes life hell for the Abyssals and is a source of amusement for her allies.
    • For the record, she is American-Greek, and she has a fondness for French ships.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Inktober 2016.14 - USCGS Alexander Hamilton (WPG-34)
  • Threadmarks
    • There's a million things she hasn't done (because she got sunk early in WWII), but just you wait, just you wait...



    Fun Facts!
    • USCGS Alexander Hamilton (WPG-34) was launched in 1937, one of seven Treasury-class high endurance cutters built. These ships were highly cost effective, serving in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, surviving to the 1980's (with the exception of Hamilton). Two were sunk as artificial reefs (Bibb and Duane), one as a target ship (Campbell), one was scrapped (Spencer), and the remaining two became museum ships (Taney and Ingham).
      • Notably, Taney is one of only two military ships still afloat that was present during the Pearl Harbor attack, December 7, 1941.
    • During World War II, the Treasury-class cutters served as anti-submarine convoy escorts, and had the highest kill rate among the sub hunters (.57 per ship, compared to the .1 of the US Navy's Destroyer Escorts). They also served as amphibious task force flagships during WWII, performed pilot SAR during the Korean War, and participated in Operation Market Time during the Vietnam War.
    • Unfortunately, Hamilton missed out on almost all of that, because she was torpedoed early in 1942 by the German submarine U-132, ten miles off Iceland near Reykjavik. Salvage attempts were unsuccessful and she was sunk by USS Ericsson the next day.
    • She was later rediscovered by the Icelandic Coast Guard in 2009, and was followed up by visits from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2010, and a team of Icelandic divers in 2011 and 2013, who attached a memorial plaque to her hull.
    • Hamilton was accidentally summoned August 2015 either in the back of the house on the opening night Broadway performance of Hamilton at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, or during the after-party for the cast, crew, and guests at Pier 60 on the Hudson River. Honestly, the whole evening is still kind of a blur for her, though she does recall the feeling of triumph and accomplishment from the show's success, and she has nothing but good feelings towards the cast and crew.
      • She will also quote the show, or any of the collected works of Alexander Hamilton. Consider this fair warning if you're not interested in Broadway musicals or long and detailed discourses on politics and financial establishments. She can also rap at the drop of a hat - any hat.
      • It is suspected there were at least some US Coast Guard officers present in the audience which may have contributed to Hamilton's accidental summoning, but the Richard Rodgers Theatre and Ticketmaster refuse to release the lists of attendees for those dates citing privacy concerns.
      • When off duty, Hamilton can often be found wearing merchandise from the show or Coast Guard sweatsuits. She is especially fond of her "ASK ME ABOUT MY FINANCIAL PLAN" tee, which was a custom order.
      • She also appears to have inherited Javier Muñoz's nose, even though he didn't start performances as Alexander Hamilton until President Obama saw the show.
    The Treasury-class cutters are dressed as Coast Guard officers of the 1940's, with accents appropriate to the era their namesake Treasurer lived in. In Hamilton's case, this means cavalry boots, frills at wrists and neck, and a tricorn hat.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Inktober 2016.16 - USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000)
  • Threadmarks
    • "Pax Propter Vim."



    Fun Facts!
    • USS Zumwalt is the lead ship of the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers, laid down in 2011 and commissioned in 2016. While 32 Zumwalt-class destroyers were planned, cost overruns in R&D and production drove the number to be built down to three.
      • This is one of the reasons for the restart of production of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, whom the Zumwalt-class was meant to replace.
    • The Zumwalt-class is meant to put into implementation several newer technologies that have come into maturity (or are approaching the same). These include:
      • Reduced radar cross-section via a tumblehome hull, lowered acoustic signature, and a reduced infrared signature, in order to improve stealth capabilities.
      • Advanced Gun System, a 155 mm naval gun meant to use both guided and unguided munitions (though the intended LRLAP munition was canceled because the reduction of Zumwalts produced raised the price to where each shell would cost the same as a Tomahawk missile).
      • Peripheral Vertical Launch System, distributing VLS pods around the outside of the hull (while having a thicker inner hull to prevent detonations from damaging the interior).
      • AN/SPY-3 active array X-Band Multi-function radar and dual-band sonar.
      • Advanced Induction Motors for propulsion with an Integrated Power System to allow for ten times the normal electrical power available over current destroyers, which also reduces thermal and sound signatures.
      • Automation allowing for a reduced crew compliment, and a total ship computer network to improve sensor processing and easing mission operation and planning.
    • Unfortunately, the cost overruns and the shifting needs of the US Navy has called into question whether or not it was worth it to build these ships in the first place. Its ability to provide Ballistic missile/air defense capability, overall missile capacity, and the fact that pretty much nobody has managed to match the ability of the Iowas to provide naval support has led them to question its place in the current navy's TOE.
    • Regardless, Zumwalt does her best to fulfill the role her designers initially envisioned for her. Clad in sleek angular armor (to bounce away radar emissions), with shoulder and thigh multi-missile emplacements, and arm-mounted cannons, Zumwalt is capable of putting a lot of hurt on somebody from quite a distance away. She does tend to regularly need her boots' drive shafts checked, which is usually provided by that cute Egyptian repair ship she totally does not have the hots for, honest.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • >Peace Through Power
    I had no idea Zummie was affiliated with the Brotherhood of Nod or Kane.
     
    Burning Baron said:
    Well, Peace Through Superior FirePower sounds like a challenge. And, you can't deny that Zumwalt would pack a hell of a punch.

    Out of curiosity. Is that a helmet in her left hand? It looks a little strange, and I can't seem to identify it.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    it's her superstructure. Many canon shipgirls have a tiny version of it on their head
     
    Burning Baron said:
    Out of curiosity. Is that a helmet in her left hand? It looks a little strange, and I can't seem to identify it.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Glitchrr36 said:
    it's her superstructure. Many canon shipgirls have a tiny version of it on their head
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Both correct! It's a helmet made out of the upper back half of her deckhouse, mated to the upper fore part of her tumblehome prow, so as to make a half-helmet that covers her upper head and eyes. It's not as obvious because it's being held upside down and the pointy bit is pointing towards the back.

    It makes it look like she's wearing a beak on her head when she has it on, though. ...
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top