3D model of Lusitania

[FelisLeopard]

Hello, guys. I'm making a 3D model of Lusitania and actually i feel like i'm almost done. But there are some places, that i want to cover and i have no info about it. So i have few questions. Also i'd like to receive critics, so i could improve my model.
Right now i have no plans for it. I wanted to make a real-time sinking animation, but i already see it's being done and done pretty well! Making a game is my other desire, but it will take a lot of time to learn many things and remake the model to use textures instead of Cycles shaders in Blender.
Any way, here are my questions:
1 - I have only two photos of her bridge. What are those flip tables and watertight door indication panel looked like?
2 - Fire alarm bell? It is marked on bridge plans, but i have no images.
3 - Reading testimony, i found crew mentioned, they read her tilt in degrees. How does this gauge looks like and where was it located?
4 - what is the exact locations of life-rings? So far i found only 14 positions on photos.
5 - I have doubts about aft cranes. On photos they seem to have fixed tilt. But there are also photos, where their beams hanged horizontally. How did they achieve that?
6 - what was inside that little house under her docking bridge? I assume there might be another set of steering wheel telemotor, but i'm not sure. And no photos.
7 - Any images of telemotors charts? Like docking, lookouts, etc. I made my own textures, but i'm 100% sure they are not correct.
8 - Are there any good deck plans. And by good, i mean better, than those on www.rmslusitania.info . As good, as Titanic's plans here on this site. If i had them, i would consider to make interiors as well.

Thanx in advance for your help and critics. Now have some renders of the model
I also created a dedicated YouTube channel and post videos of my work there. RMS Lusitania 3D

 

[Itsstillthinking]

Looks amazing! And dont feel discouraged on doing a real-time animation, never a bad thing on having multiple sinkings!
For the plans i think i Bruce Beveridge made some of the ship.

Its kinda of a pain as there where alot of changes done post 1912 that are not the most well documented, the like the bridges connecting the boat deck to second class ect.

 

[FelisLeopard]

Oh, those kind of details are visible on the photos and off-course i will consult the photos first. Plans are good for reference and they give accurate sizes of various rooms. Like i had trouble locating pillars in Open Cafe, looking at them from different angles on different photos. Also the location of chairs there. Never knew they were actually bolted to the deck
Luckily i bought that book "The Unseen Lusitania" - it contains some photos, that i've never found on Google and gave me some info of some parts. I maybe buy some other books. I would even buy the plans for a reasonable price.
If some historians or photo collectors show up here - i will post more details to ask about them

And yes, i will do more animations. Problem is - render time. I'm not using any game engine and my first video rendered about 3 days. And it's only 35 seconds!

(another famous photo recreated)

 

[FelisLeopard]

Another render. Yeah, about half of the time i spend just rotating the model and rendering it from different angles

 

[Itsstillthinking]

I find myself doing alot of that too

I really like some of the finer details of your model, i had to scale features out of the one im using due to too many poly's for it to run smoothly. Its the same reason i had to drop featuring the interior for the demo

 

[Christian Pierce]

That looks great. Did you do this on your own? That's gotta be some effort.

Any plans to do any other ships afterwards?

 

[FelisLeopard]

I find myself doing alot of that too

I really like some of the finer details of your model, i had to scale features out of the one im using due to too many poly's for it to run smoothly. Its the same reason i had to drop featuring the interior for the demo

Yeah... It's about 2 mil poly-count right now. My biggest problem was the shape of her decks. They are not straight in any direction. Not only along her hull, but sideways too.

That looks great. Did you do this on your own? That's gotta be some effort.

Any plans to do any other ships afterwards?

Yes, i made it completely from scratch. My initial effort was to make something for one community, where people fascinated by Titanic and other ships of that era. I left it, because my personal approach to history wasn't appreciated. But after months of work, i just couldn't left the work and here i am - asking questions to improve it
At first i thought Lusi had less attention and been in shadow of Titanic. Probably many people learn about Lusitania only after they learn about Titanic and became interested in overall history. But now i see it's not quite true. Many books, models, videos. Even a movie

As for other ships... You see, right now i'm doing it for free, aside from my main job. As a hobby. So probably no. Except maybe a tug boat, that i gonna need for animations. If i will not find any free model to put into it.

 

[FelisLeopard]

Still, i'd love to get answers... Right now i'm kinda stuck and don't know what to do. Maybe i will start searching for a tug boat 3D model and photos of the New York docks in 1915.

For now, have the night render of Open Cafe. Yes, it's grainy. take it as a photo with high ISO

 

[Itsstillthinking]

Il try if i get sometime in the next few days to look for that answer to some of those questions, i myself would love to learn

 

[FelisLeopard]

Found a free model of Hercules tug. Imported it into Blender. Still needs some fixes, but i couldn't resist put it into the scene

 

[FelisLeopard]

Another object added to the scene
I need to make some generic skyline and work more on the tugs. Then i will add smoke, steam, bildge water... And may start another animation

 

[FelisLeopard]

So far no replies... Still looking for a good plans. And by good i mean like this (first image), but for the whole ship... I only found a small parts of the plans here on this forum. But some people share some parts of their plans, and they look like this (second image). I may even consider to buy them for a reasonable price.

 

[FelisLeopard]

Working on the docks more. Not sure about colors and signs locations and font.
I guess i found the spot, from where that video was made

 

[Itsstillthinking]

Fantastic to see the piers in once piece again!

 

[FelisLeopard]

I still need to make a skyline for both sides of Hudson. Or at least get some image to set up on background.