前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

[Mail Call] 9/23/2017 – Weekly Round-up (ish)

by Morgane 2017年9月23日

Hi everyone! Just thought I’d sort of leave a note on where things are. Morgane is obviously sick (it explains why no new content, for instance), so she probably shouldn’t be working.

Everyone else has been pretty busy, too. Zero is running around working hard at both his job and on Pacific, so we’re expecting to bring a new batch books to print when he can return to Chengdu to oversee printing. The artists are drawing (as well as settling in their new jobs, too) and the rest of us are either busy with exams or other forms of assessments.

So have a cute fat bird. I’ll be back later! 🙂

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

(Historical Inspirations) Nose art in the Pacific War

by Morgane 2017年9月21日

I’m still sick, but I thought I’d talk a bit about something an old, old reader of ours asked.

Reading your creations was a pleasure & I’d like to comment.

[Commentary on shipgirls removed]

Your grand father surely are aware that WHILE the NAVY had stricter rules from THIS OLD FARTS PERSPECTIVE plenty of WARPLANES had nose art on them THOUGH I THINK (I MIGHT NOT BE WRONG HERE …) the BRITS had a lot MORE of their planes with nose art on EM

BUT WE HAD

yes we definitely had nose art on our aircraft. MIGHT BE TOO RISQUE FOR YOUR WEBSITE but it WOULD BE NICE to SHOW THE JAP GIRL & YOUR CHINAMEN what some of the ART looked like. I WAS ON SAIPAN IN 1944 & THERE WERE DEFINITELY BOMBERS THAT HAD TO BE PATCHED UP I DEFINITELY REMEMBER SEEING NICE YOUNG WOMEN PAINTED ON THE SIDES OF ‘EM

ONE OF THEM LEATHERHEADS THAT WAS REAL GOOD AT IT TOO HIS NAME WAS MARK I WONDER IF YOU’D KNOW HIM

ONE HAD A NICELY PAINTED YOUNG LADY THAT LOOKED KIND OF LIKE YOUR IOWA BUT SHE WAS COYLY HIDING HER ASSETS BEHIND A NICE BIG BOMB

You should see if you can find some to show IT WOULD BE NICE

[Rest of the message redacted]

Firstly, thank you for writing in. You’re definitely not wrong in your memories there. Family members mention that while the officers are generally very strict on nose art/pin-ups being not allowed on the planes, below decks & inside the cockpit were different tales.

Secondly, as the war went on, these standards became less and less relaxed. I am more familiar (ironically) with nose art over in the European theater, but it took me a while to find nose art in the Pacific.

Simply put, they did exist. In fact, there were a lot more of them than we’d realize. They went from something simple – such as this one here, “Barbie” is the name of the pilot’s wife…

To this particular P-38 in the Philippines in 1945…

“If it moves, salute it. If it doesn’t, paint it.”

I don’t know how true this is, but it’s what I’ve heard some of the older folks in the other side of the family say. It certainly seemed to be the case. For instance, this one’s from a fighter.

Of course you have stuff like the iconic “Shark Mouth” – here’s a commemoration P-40 that’s pretty colorful.

Then as bombers started showing up, the designs become increasingly more elaborate.

YOU EVER THINK ABOUT PUTTING YOUR GIRLS ON A PLANE? SURE HOPE YOU WOULD. MAKE THE LITTLE FAIRY MEN DRAW EM ON BOMBERS. BIG ONES. I SEE MITCHELLS ALREADY

Er… Well, yes and no. We actually did have something rather entertaining in mind. For instance, I’m sure you recognize this dashing gentleman here.

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

[Mail Call] 9/18/2017 – Sune’s Fireside Chat

by Sune 2017年9月19日

Hi everyone. This is Sune. Morgane is overworked again. As such I will answer the questions that have come up that mostly fall under my specialty.

If Japanese shipgirls aren’t kami do they see themselves as kami?

Most do not. One does but she should not be taken seriously.

Where are the other Japanese shipgirls?

Pacific’s focus is on American shipgirls and their friends. Japanese shipgirls only appear when they make sense in Pacific’s overall storyline or have important roles to play.

I am too lazy to retype all of that.

Thank you for your comments.

The main volume Pacific character design process moves roughly in chronological order. We are somewhere around Midway and Santa Cruz right now. The contributions you mention by the British Pacific Fleet occurs in 1944. This is well after America established naval dominance through systematic attrition, superior shipbuilding, capable development of novel naval battle tactics, and an overall strategic vision that we lacked.

Personally I have no impression whatsoever of Royal Navy capabilities. In Japan among naval enthusiasts they are famous for suffering crippling defeats at the hands of the Imperial Navy in 1941 and 1942. In fact from my own (Japanese) sources it is understood that the British only joined in the Pacific War for fear that America would free up their former territories and colonies. In any case a general sentiment in Japan is that we lost (or in the words of our prime minister “the war ended”) to America and not the Allies.

If the contributions of the British are very significant then unfortunately I do not know about it. We are happy to learn more about it but the matters of the Royal Navy rarely come up within team discussions. Without knowing anything about the Royal Navy we obviously cannot create shipgirls that would be a good and faithful depiction of the actual history.

Furthermore. There is no one on the Pacific team who works on the Royal Navy. Not since our British person retired years ago. Without someone to advocate for British characters it is unfortunate but inevitable that they get pushed back further and further on the illustration schedule.

By the way Morgane is an anglophile who loves many things that are British. She has a degree in Arthurian and Celtic legends. She is also very knowledgeable in the roles that were played by the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain and the European theater. However Morgane is busy working on everything else. As such the British shipgirls that she has created are relegated to background status and once again do not get drawn.

The reason why the Soviet characters get drawn first is that there are people who are actively working on them. Furthermore given Pacific’s world building the USSR remains a dominant power. Without anyone working on the resurgent British Empire it is natural that foreign shipgirl art tend to prioritize those that the team are interested in.

We are very sorry.

——-

And now actual content.

I want to do a Fireside Chat too. Should I title it that?

Despite my reputation for being the one who provides fanservice I also provide significant cultural elements into all of our shipgirl designs. For the Japanese shipgirls that come into Pacific I want to make their “Japanese-ness” explicit. In other words rather than drawing from contemporary Japanese culture such as the high school uniform or the school swimsuit I draw almost all of my inspiration from traditional and ancient Japanese culture.

There are certain character attributes that are immediately recognizable by those familiar with the references. As such my Japanese shipgirl designs draw liberally from all sources. For instance below.

The armor pattern of this particular shipgirl is not simply that of the approximate shape to what her turret mounts would be. Given her namesake’s region I thought it prudent to provide Sima with reference images of an iconic individual from said region. As such you can see that specific armor pattern weaved into her clothing design.

A great deal of the Japanese shipgirl’s personality comes out of a composite of their histories, crew, historical performance and the like. However much like how American shipgirls in Pacific exemplifies certain aspects of America the Japanese shipgirls do so as well. For example because of its association with Japanese faith and primitive religion Pacific’s Kumano is a reserved and calm individual. She is not very similar to her KanColle counterpart in that regard who makes funny howling cat noises during attack. In the example above the shipgirl is heavily associated with winter due to the magnificence of the wintery frost that appears every year.

An example of this is preserved in art as you can see above. With this theme her personality writes itself. Someone who is outwardly cold but like the joys of winter is warm inside. This aspect symbolizes the part of Japan in which she is named after and it superimposes over any “ship” part that is her.

Afterwards it is my honorable duty to make the shipgirls sexy. I have never understood the prudishness that some of our western readers exhibit.

Seriously. They are shipgirls. GIRLS. DO I NEED TO SAY ANYTHING ELSE.

ALSO I’M BORED NOW.

SEE YOU NEXT TIME.

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific ,

Silent Service: Principles of Submarine Design (1)

by Morgane 2017年9月17日

Tautog here. I’ve been reading the comments and the mail and I’ve just realized that we haven’t talked about the very basics behind submarine design yet!

(Also, I’m a little tired of people arguing over which submarines are the best. The answer is of course the AMERICAN one, but you can make a good argument for many other countries’ creations, too!)

We’ve talked about the necessity of maintaining buoyancy before. However, I think it’d be good to just list off some general constraints that submarine designers are working under. So, in order, we’re going to be talking about the pressure hull, the materials of construction, the conning tower and periscope, and the powerplant. I’m also going to use the American ones during WW2 as an example – if you’re interested in the submarines of the other countries, I can grab one of our other girls to answer instead!

Since this is somewhat long, today we’re just going to talk about the hull of the submarine itself.

Okay. So. Pressure hull. This is the submarine itself. If you think about it, the submarine is literally just a giant metal floating box that needs to sink on demand, right? The pressure hull is the “wrapper” around all the machinery that goes into a submarine. Generally speaking, submarines are volume critical and not weight critical. This is because the submarine is completely enclosed, so any attempts to save weight will not necessarily result in smaller displacement, because the volume of the materials don’t change.

What this means is that weight saving measures can then translate into thicker pressure hulls. A thicker hull means that you can dive deeper. While it’s tempting to think that it would be good to make a submarine with a super-thick hull, eventually you hit a point where most of the weight comes from the hull itself. We call this being “weight critical.”

(If you have very heavy batteries or machinery, it might cause the same thing. Remember! You want to distribute the weight in a generally even way.)

This is not good, because it means special precautions must be carried out to make sure your submarine don’t sink like a rock. This issue is typically solved in modern submarines via a combination of very light but sturdy materials or careful placement of their inner machinery. Pre-WW2 US steel, by the way, was rated at a dive depth of about 250 feet. Today submarines obviously go a lot deeper than that!

Speaking of the hull, the shape of the submarine matters, too. In theory, a completely spherical object would be the best at resisting pressure. You actually see this principle at work in deep sea science exploration probes. However, a spherical submarine wouldn’t have very efficient use of space. As such, most submarines are in those long cylinders that you are familiar with today.

The important thing about cylinders isn’t that they’re cylinders, though, but rather, just what sort of a shape it is in. Generally, the designer have to keep in mind the overall surface to volume ratio, since higher surface area naturally causes more drag, which makes the submarine less agile. However, longer submarines could also fit in more powerful machinery. So in cases like the modern day Los Angeles class submarines, it actually worked out to be positive overall.

Anyways. Generally, there are three types of submarine hulls during WW2 times.

  • Single hull: All of the tankage (the ballast tank; what controls the buoyancy of the submarine) is found in one single “shell.” It’s easier to build this type of submarine, and it has the least amount of surface area, so it is stealthy and fast. The downside is that with the tankage being inside the sub, you have a lot less space to fit in machinery. The US started out building single hull submarines, then went away from it quickly enough. It isn’t until modern day nuclear subs that we see the single hull submarine come back again.
  • Double hulls: It’s as the name suggests. A floodable second hull encases the pressure hull, and reserve buoyancy is provided in the tanks located between the pressure hull and the case. The advantage here was that the submarines were bigger, they ran more efficiently on the surface (because of their larger freeboard, which improved seaworthiness), and they generally have greater range (owning again, to their greater size). Some think that the extra layer of “armor” makes it tougher against the lightweight submarine-killing torpedoes, but others don’t think so. In either case, the downside was that the double hull was technically challenging to build, and it dove very, very slowly. While it was pretty commonly used by many European countries around WW1 and inter-war eras (including the Surcouf, teehee), today only the Soviets (Russians) really stick to the double hull design.
  • Then we have the compromise, or what is called the saddle tank design. Here, you have tanks mounted externally on a single hull submarine. This allows for much better compartmentalization and habitability since you’re carrying all that water outside, and the extra tanks actually allowed for a measure of stability due to the greater contact area between the submarine and the water. The downside? It had significant underwater drag, and it dove somewhat slowly as well.

So, yeah. I’ll probably go over some notable submarine examples in the next piece. In any case, I feel like it’s just something people should know about. Submarines are pretty neat, after all!

See ya next time.