Beam Progress and More!

Even More Beans

Work has been continuing on placement of beams, moving fore-aft and down to F Deck. F Deck had a bit of fun in it in the form of the area of deck under the 1st Class baths that was dropped 18 inches to allow for extra ceiling height.

For the time-being, beams will continue, though progress will slow towards the fore-aft ends due to the more complex angles involved for brackets. On F Deck, there are also variations in beam height and thickness, as well as flange width. Openings have also still not been cut for things like casings and stairs.

As more structure is added, we also start to recognize more and more interior spaces slowly coming together. For example, this area from the 3rd Class Dining Saloon:

This saloon is one of those "bare steel" areas we talk about when discussing the structural model. Pretty much the only steelwork not visible in this room is the deck plating (due to the Litosilo laid over it), and even that plating may still visible from the deck below (assuming no insulation over the boiler rooms and coal bunkers).

Scroll the above image gallery to see all of the new structure images and more!

Ship Blockout

Freddy, meanwhile, is making progress on his own simplified research model. Lately, he's been working out the details of the forepeak area of the bow, an area that still has a few mysteries to to a lack of plans. Thankfully, bulkhead plans still show a good deal for this area.

Bit by Bit

A the more general modeling front, our small (but hopefully growing, once we get some things sorted out) modeler team is chipping away at various objects throughout the ship. These are mostly hero objects so far, meaning they require a high attention to detail, or they're artifact-based objects (requiring the same), or commonly-used objects and fittings.

One of our modelers, Jordan, recreated one of the wheel pedestals in great detail:

Another, Sehba, is working on a shelf bracket that's used throughout the ship:

Donald, another talented modeler of ours, is finalizing a small but cool object he's had on the backburner for a while - one of the crystal pieces used in dining services:

Apparently it can even be 3D-printed! (No, we're not planning on selling it or anything like it. We're not ready to dip our toes into that sort of thing again.)

Another of our newer modelers is working on some new lifeboat details:

On a related front, we also have our usual research people continuing to assemble material for the rest of our team. For example one of our (if not possibly THE) most talented team members, Gio (you see his work a lot), has been creating sketches of objects to be used later by modelers. In one example, he sketched an electric heater:

Another of our researchers loves to create 3D "scans" of physical objects using photos and videos. Here, he's created a 3D representation of several artifacts for reference:

Just One More Thing...

In a previous post, we discussed the state of Project 401, how we may look into doing a phased release if things look like they'll take much longer, and how we'd prefer not to push out something unfinished or horribly unoptimized.

One thing we didn't touch on was THG itself. Obviously if Project 401 is taking this long, you can imagine THG's timeline. It's not just a matter of engine work, as it is for 401, but modeling. The amount of work that still needs to go into the modeling side is huge. As a result, we're still unsure when the first THG "release" could be. However, there is something we've been discussing, something which may go against our "unfinished/unoptimized" rule.

As the structural model progresses more and more, many of you have probably wondered if it would be possible to explore it. Well, what if you could?

We still need to work out some specifics, like how much to include in the scene, whether or not to have the gantry, if it should just be on some kind of flat plane, etc. But letting you folks explore this work sooner rather than later is exactly what we want to do!

The catch is it would likely just be for Patrons, as it's beyond time we deliver on our promise of giving those of you supporting us access to what you've been supporting. Project 401 has taken longer than expected, THG will be even longer, but this we could do practically now.

This would not be THG proper, it would not really be a demo, but rather a simple barebones... thing. An extremely unpolished and unoptimized experience, with none of the extra work that tends to take so long. This would allow Derek and our limited engine team to focus on finishing 401 and our general modeling team to focus on modeling for THG. When THG proper is ready, that can start having releases.

The image of the structure/gantry above in an empty yard is just one example of how this could look. Is this something you folks would be interested in? Let us know!