How to draw ship superstructures
Sept 30, 2019 12:40:04 GMT -6
williammiller, bshaftoe, and 25 more like this
Post by jwsmith26 on Sept 30, 2019 12:40:04 GMT -6
The process that is required to draw a ship superstructure can be rather intimidating but it doesn't have to be. It helps if you have a plan for how to proceed. Here is a brief description of the process I use to create the superstructure drawings for a battleship and a carrier. Carriers and battleships are quite different and I use very different processes to draw them. (And I somehow managed to "Like" my own message - I guess someone needs to. :-)
Before I describe the process I use to draw superstructures let me mention a few critical features of the superstructure editor. (I am assuming a basic understanding of how the editor works.)
Two keys
There are two important keys that I use repeatedly while drawing a superstructure - The "S" key and the "D" key.
The "D" key is pretty straightforward - pressing "D" will delete the last drawn point and its associated line. It's a simple but incredibly useful tool.
The "S" key has more functionality. When you press the "S" key, a point will be placed centered under the mouse pointer that is either 90 degrees from the last point or 45 degrees from the last point. This allows you to easily draw right angles and consistent 45 degree angles.
There is one other important function associated with the "S" key - it will allow you to draw on the right side of the centerline while in mirror mode. To do this simply move your cursor to the right side and press "S". The limitation here is that these lines will always be drawn at 90 or 45 degrees from the last point. However, if the next point to be placed is back on the left side then those angle restrictions will not apply. Any points and lines drawn on the right side with the "S" key will be mirrored to the left side.
In addition, the "S" key can be used to draw exactly along the center line. This is very useful when drawing flight deck elevators, it allows you to draw a single line to connect the elevators on a flight deck. With the "S" key you can place a point on X:107 and draw a line along the center line. Without it the closet you can get to center is X:106, which will then be mirrored at X:108, resulting in a double line along the center line. That can be a useful visual at times but I generally prefer to use a single center line.
X:Y coordinates
This brings us to the X:Y display. This little widget shows the current coordinates of the mouse if it is located inside the drawing panel. This display is critical if you are trying to keep various bits of your drawing lined up. Knowing that the center line of your ship will always rest on X:107 allows you to track point locations as you draw them and then match those points exactly on the other side of the ship. This is quite useful when you are drawing an asymmetrical superstructure piece such as a flight deck that still needs to be symmetrical in some locations.
Unfortunately, the fact that the centerline is at 107 makes some mental math required, which is an irritation. For instance, I place a bend in my flight deck at point X:63, Y:120 (on the left side of center). I want to duplicate that bend on the right side but I am using the asymmetric drawing mode. To get the correct location on the right side I have to subtract 63 from 107 and then add the difference to 107. (The Y coordinate will stay the same.) Now, that is hardly calculus we're looking at, but personally, I am hard-pressed to easily and quickly do that set of subtractions and additions in my head. (It would be extremely useful to have the display do the math for you. Just show the corresponding location for a mirrored point directly under the original point.)
---=== Drawing a Battleship superstructure ===---
First steps
Before I begin to draw a battleship superstructure I make sure the ship design is locked down. All guns, torpedo tubes and catapults must be in place. Next I place the smoke stacks. When the design is completed I build the superstructure drawing around this equipment and the smoke stacks.
The power of layering
It's all about layering. You want to give the impression that each section is taller the the layer below. To do this you take advantage of the way the layers work. Higher numbered layers overlap and obscure lower numbered layers. The best way to fool the eye into thinking that one deck is higher than another is to overlap the two decks. In the attached image, you can see this at work in the way the deck supporting the superimposed turret overlaps the front deck that was drawn in layer 1. It is even more apparent when the conning tower's "wings" project out beyond "lower" decks.
The two decks
When I draw battleships, layers St1 and St2 are always the front deck and the rear deck, drawn individually so that I have plenty of points to refine the shape of the entire hull. I examine blueprints of historical ships to find a hull shape that I can emulate. The hull can be nicely drawn with one layer but you have to give up the different colored accent that the default hull provides. The result is a visual design that is completely monochrome. I am reluctant to do that so I spend one of the available layers to draw a rear deck, which allows me to retain that second color in the image.
Joining the drawn decks to the default deck
With thee two deck sections you must make sure that your drawn-in deck edges precisely meet the default deck. This needs to be drawn to the pixel or it looks wrong. In the image above, if you closely examine the first (left hand ) drawing, you can see that the rear deck is done correctly, while I was off by a pixel (too wide) with the forward deck. This delicacy makes it hard to reuse this drawing if you increase the displacement in the next version. (BTW, I draw carriers completely differently. There I first draw layer 4 or 5 as the flight deck and then draw _under_ that layer with layers 1-3 to show the various under-deck gun platforms.)
Drawing the first elevated deck
The next layer (St3) typically defines the elevated decks on which the superfiring main turrets reside. In the case of the Wittelsbach I also used it to imply the forward and rear elevated decks for 8 of the secondary guns. The remaining 4 secondaries are located on the lowest deck implied by the default dark gray hull. You can see why I define my gun layout before I start drawing - I draw the decks to support the guns.
Draw a foundation
The next layer (St4) is generally a filler to imply core structures on which the tallest parts of the ship can reside. In this case it provides a base for the conning tower, adding yet another layer to imply height and then continues back to add some visual complexity to the area supporting the rear superfiring turret.
The conning tower
I generally reserve the "highest" layers for the conning tower and to create a virtual housing around the stacks. In this case I put wings on the conning tower and then used the same layer to define a structure to support the smoke stacks. Finally I used my last layer to imply the very highest portion of the conning tower. (In a CV I use these layers to draw in the elevators and conning tower.)
The power of the hull shape
In the image below you can see how the entire look of the ship can be changed by modifications to the two deck layers. In this image the original drawing of the BB Wittelsbach is on the left. All of the other drawings are identical except that I changed the shape of the two deck layers - no other structures have been altered. You can see that you can create very different looks very quickly simply by changing the outline of the hull.
---=== Drawing an aircraft carrier superstructure ===---
The Basic Process
First decisions
When considering a carrier superstructure I start the same as with a battleship, by designing the carrier first so that I know where the visible guns are located and the size of the hull. It's also nice to know where flight deck catapults will be placed, if installed, so they don't overlap any drawn-in flight deck elevators. Even if I can't yet install these devices I'll sometimes temporarily add them so I can see where they will fall eventually.
Carrier smoke stacks
In carriers the smoke stacks are not as central to the design as they are with surface ships. A smoke stack may not even be used at all if I decide to draw stacks that have a down-turned side outlet as was common on the Japanese carriers. Even if they are visible, the position of the stacks can often be altered right up to the end of the drawing, so in carriers, I often wait until some of the layers are drawn before I add smoke stacks.
Deciding on the type conning tower
When drawing a carrier one of the first decisions I have to make is the type of conning tower that will be used. Flat deck carriers generally had their conning towers installed below the level of the flight deck, which may or may not have been easily visible from a top down view. Most carriers had conning towers that sat on top of the flight deck. The decision of which type your carrier will have should be made prior to drawing the first layer because it will determine the layer that the flight deck uses.
Drawing the first layer - the flight deck
Unlike when drawing a battleship, with carriers the first layer I draw is the flight deck. I do this because everything else is drawn in relation to the flight deck layer. The specific layer I use to draw the flight deck is determined by the type of conning tower the carrier will have. If I am drawing a flat deck carrier I will start with layer 5, giving me 1 layer above the flight deck to draw in the elevators and 4 layers below the flight deck. If I am planning to add a conning tower that sits above the flight deck I will draw the flight deck on layer 4. This gives me two layers above the flight deck - one for the elevators and one for the conning tower.
Add the elevators and conning tower
The next layer to draw is not critical. At this point you can immediately draw in the layers below the flight deck, but I usually like to add the elevators and then add the conning tower before drawing the lower levels so that I can arrange those lower layers in relation to the conning tower, in particular.
Finally, draw the gun galleries below the flight deck
After these first topmost layers are completed I will add all of the "stuff" that lives below the flight deck. This consists of various gun galleries at different levels that provide placement locations for visible main guns or secondaries and smaller galleries for implied AA guns or other equipment. I'll usually also add some details such as radio antennas and platforms for the air control officer.
Drawing techniques for carriers
The above is the basic process I follow. Here are some additional tips about drawing specific layers on a carrier.
The flight deck
When drawing the flight deck it is certainly easiest to draw using mirroring. Twelve points provides plenty of detail to add the needed notches and curves that can accurately describe a carrier flight deck. I find it helpful to view some top down images or blueprints of historical carriers before drawing my flight deck.
I usually equip my carriers with 8 symmetrical wing turrets. This presents a visual problem for the flight deck. In RTW2, these guns are always drawn on top of the flight deck, which really only works if you are designing an American style carrier in which the main guns were arranged in superfiring positions along the starboard side of the flight deck. Every other nation generally placed the main guns on sponsons below the level of the flight deck. These ships often featured cutouts in the flight deck opposite the main guns to allow them to more easily fire up over the deck. So, I design my carriers with flight deck cutouts to give the impression that these guns are actually located on a deck or sponson below the level of the flight deck.
Drawing a flight deck using asymmetry is substantially more difficult because you will need to manually mirror some points, a tedious process at best. In reality there were very few carriers that had symmetrical fight decks, but I find the manual mirroring process so painful that at this point I have just given up and make my carrier decks symmetrical. When drawing angled deck carriers, I find it easiest to use one layer to draw the forward section using mirroring and then devote a separate layer for the angled section of the deck using asymmetry.
If I am drawing an early carrier I will often visually imply more than one flight deck. This can be rather easily done by stealing one of the gun gallery layers that are normally placed under the flight deck to use for drawing the lower flight deck. In the image below you can also see the results of ignoring the main guns - they end up strangely placed atop the flight deck. You can also see that there are three implied flight decks.
My personal preference is to use two points to draw a center line that will connect to the aft elevator. I do this because there are insufficient points to draw 3 elevators and also draw a center line back to connect to the aft end of the flight deck. It's purely to make the elevator outlines look more complete in my eyes.
Elevator issues
I generally draw in the outlines of the flight deck elevators. I prefer to see these anchored to the edge of the flight deck with a center line (which historically was often a visual feature of the flight deck). If you want a single line to connect your elevators you will need to place your mouse at X:107 and press the "S" key to start the line at the edge of the flight deck. Pull the line down to where you want to start your first elevator and keeping the mouse on X:107 press the "S" key to place the point. Now draw the elevator. Every angle you will use to draw the elevators is a right angle, so you can continue to use the "S" key when placing every point that defines the center line and the shape of the elevators. You will have to use it each time you place a point a X:107 to draw the center line.
If you want to draw 3 elevators onto the flight deck you will not have sufficient points to draw a center line back to the stern of the ship. To my eye that hanging elevator looks wrong. So I try to keep two points free when drawing the flight deck to draw a center line to attach to the aft elevator. This is not a problem if your carrier will have just two elevators.
When I draw early converted CVs, or any CVL, I visually equip them with just two elevators. That leaves enough points to get a bit fancy with the elevator shapes. If I only draw two elevators I'll often give the elevators a "T" shape to make the deck more interesting. Below is a little converted CVL that displays a T-shaped elevator and a downdraft exhaust.
Picture 1690
The conning tower
I have found that adding a bunch of details to the conning tower is counter productive. The tiny details are out of scale with the rest of the ship and it looks cluttered, especially when seen in a zoomed out view that. To my eye it has worked best to use a relatively simple shape to represent the tower and to encase the smoke stack if one is used.
It's tempting to add details because you have to use asymmetry to draw the tower, leaving you with a huge number of points to work with. You don't want to waste all that wealth of points and you don't have to. Sometimes I'll use those leftover points to draw Japanese style downdraft smoke stacks. These were often complicated organic shapes and are fun to draw. You can also use those points to add some gun galleries or antennas, taking care that you don't encroach on the flight deck, which will be on a lower layer.
Gun galleries
In my carrier designs I will have either 3 or four layers that exist "below" the flight deck. The flight deck will typically be drawn on layer St4 leaving layers 1 through 3 to use for all the junk that projects out from under the flight deck. I'll normally use one layer to represent the decks or sponsons for the main guns unless they have been visually placed on top of the fight deck. I try to think in terms of what I am representing with these levels, so in addition to the main gun sponsons I will add sponsons for medium AA guns and smaller galleries to represent the placements of the light AA guns. I'll add platforms for the LSOs and antennas projecting out from the side of the ship.
Simplifying the galleries
After drawing many dozens of carriers I've simplified the drawing of these platforms into a system that is more symbolic of their look and function than an attempt to create an accurate visual representation. Historically, many of the gun platforms were circular in shape when viewed from above, but trying to replicate a round shape is simply impossible with the limited number of points we have available. I have settled on a trapezoid shape to represent all of the various decks and guns platforms. I have found that it works adequately from a visual standpoint and has the advantage of giving a clean controlled look, while still being economical enough to allow sufficient under deck clutter to be visually convincing. The image below shows shows the simplified gun positions I use as well as a downdraft smoke stack (along the port side) and a conning tower under the flight deck (forward starboard).
Drawing the galleries
Because you are drawing under the flight deck, the only visually important parts of a gallery layer are the sections that project beyond the edge of the flight deck. It can be utter chaos below the flight deck, and usually is in my drawings. Using mirroring allows you to quickly add a limited number of symmetrically place gun platforms, but it looks wrong to mirror antennas and making everything on your ship completely symmetrical just looks wrong on a carrier. It's also much less efficient than using asymmetry. When using asymmetry you can create more gallery shapes by jumping back and forth across your ship as you draw. Asymmetry also allows you to add platforms that are unique, more easily create different length antennas, or perhaps add a unique visual piece to the conning tower.
Here is a picture of the chaos that reigns below the flight deck.
Let your imagination fly
You can see by the example below that even though my carriers tend to have an identifiable style every one is quite different. The main thing is to not be afraid of the process - you can always delete your abominations.
Virus-free. www.avast.com
Before I describe the process I use to draw superstructures let me mention a few critical features of the superstructure editor. (I am assuming a basic understanding of how the editor works.)
Two keys
There are two important keys that I use repeatedly while drawing a superstructure - The "S" key and the "D" key.
The "D" key is pretty straightforward - pressing "D" will delete the last drawn point and its associated line. It's a simple but incredibly useful tool.
The "S" key has more functionality. When you press the "S" key, a point will be placed centered under the mouse pointer that is either 90 degrees from the last point or 45 degrees from the last point. This allows you to easily draw right angles and consistent 45 degree angles.
There is one other important function associated with the "S" key - it will allow you to draw on the right side of the centerline while in mirror mode. To do this simply move your cursor to the right side and press "S". The limitation here is that these lines will always be drawn at 90 or 45 degrees from the last point. However, if the next point to be placed is back on the left side then those angle restrictions will not apply. Any points and lines drawn on the right side with the "S" key will be mirrored to the left side.
In addition, the "S" key can be used to draw exactly along the center line. This is very useful when drawing flight deck elevators, it allows you to draw a single line to connect the elevators on a flight deck. With the "S" key you can place a point on X:107 and draw a line along the center line. Without it the closet you can get to center is X:106, which will then be mirrored at X:108, resulting in a double line along the center line. That can be a useful visual at times but I generally prefer to use a single center line.
X:Y coordinates
This brings us to the X:Y display. This little widget shows the current coordinates of the mouse if it is located inside the drawing panel. This display is critical if you are trying to keep various bits of your drawing lined up. Knowing that the center line of your ship will always rest on X:107 allows you to track point locations as you draw them and then match those points exactly on the other side of the ship. This is quite useful when you are drawing an asymmetrical superstructure piece such as a flight deck that still needs to be symmetrical in some locations.
Unfortunately, the fact that the centerline is at 107 makes some mental math required, which is an irritation. For instance, I place a bend in my flight deck at point X:63, Y:120 (on the left side of center). I want to duplicate that bend on the right side but I am using the asymmetric drawing mode. To get the correct location on the right side I have to subtract 63 from 107 and then add the difference to 107. (The Y coordinate will stay the same.) Now, that is hardly calculus we're looking at, but personally, I am hard-pressed to easily and quickly do that set of subtractions and additions in my head. (It would be extremely useful to have the display do the math for you. Just show the corresponding location for a mirrored point directly under the original point.)
---=== Drawing a Battleship superstructure ===---
First steps
Before I begin to draw a battleship superstructure I make sure the ship design is locked down. All guns, torpedo tubes and catapults must be in place. Next I place the smoke stacks. When the design is completed I build the superstructure drawing around this equipment and the smoke stacks.
The power of layering
It's all about layering. You want to give the impression that each section is taller the the layer below. To do this you take advantage of the way the layers work. Higher numbered layers overlap and obscure lower numbered layers. The best way to fool the eye into thinking that one deck is higher than another is to overlap the two decks. In the attached image, you can see this at work in the way the deck supporting the superimposed turret overlaps the front deck that was drawn in layer 1. It is even more apparent when the conning tower's "wings" project out beyond "lower" decks.
The two decks
When I draw battleships, layers St1 and St2 are always the front deck and the rear deck, drawn individually so that I have plenty of points to refine the shape of the entire hull. I examine blueprints of historical ships to find a hull shape that I can emulate. The hull can be nicely drawn with one layer but you have to give up the different colored accent that the default hull provides. The result is a visual design that is completely monochrome. I am reluctant to do that so I spend one of the available layers to draw a rear deck, which allows me to retain that second color in the image.
Joining the drawn decks to the default deck
With thee two deck sections you must make sure that your drawn-in deck edges precisely meet the default deck. This needs to be drawn to the pixel or it looks wrong. In the image above, if you closely examine the first (left hand ) drawing, you can see that the rear deck is done correctly, while I was off by a pixel (too wide) with the forward deck. This delicacy makes it hard to reuse this drawing if you increase the displacement in the next version. (BTW, I draw carriers completely differently. There I first draw layer 4 or 5 as the flight deck and then draw _under_ that layer with layers 1-3 to show the various under-deck gun platforms.)
Drawing the first elevated deck
The next layer (St3) typically defines the elevated decks on which the superfiring main turrets reside. In the case of the Wittelsbach I also used it to imply the forward and rear elevated decks for 8 of the secondary guns. The remaining 4 secondaries are located on the lowest deck implied by the default dark gray hull. You can see why I define my gun layout before I start drawing - I draw the decks to support the guns.
Draw a foundation
The next layer (St4) is generally a filler to imply core structures on which the tallest parts of the ship can reside. In this case it provides a base for the conning tower, adding yet another layer to imply height and then continues back to add some visual complexity to the area supporting the rear superfiring turret.
The conning tower
I generally reserve the "highest" layers for the conning tower and to create a virtual housing around the stacks. In this case I put wings on the conning tower and then used the same layer to define a structure to support the smoke stacks. Finally I used my last layer to imply the very highest portion of the conning tower. (In a CV I use these layers to draw in the elevators and conning tower.)
The power of the hull shape
In the image below you can see how the entire look of the ship can be changed by modifications to the two deck layers. In this image the original drawing of the BB Wittelsbach is on the left. All of the other drawings are identical except that I changed the shape of the two deck layers - no other structures have been altered. You can see that you can create very different looks very quickly simply by changing the outline of the hull.
---=== Drawing an aircraft carrier superstructure ===---
The Basic Process
First decisions
When considering a carrier superstructure I start the same as with a battleship, by designing the carrier first so that I know where the visible guns are located and the size of the hull. It's also nice to know where flight deck catapults will be placed, if installed, so they don't overlap any drawn-in flight deck elevators. Even if I can't yet install these devices I'll sometimes temporarily add them so I can see where they will fall eventually.
Carrier smoke stacks
In carriers the smoke stacks are not as central to the design as they are with surface ships. A smoke stack may not even be used at all if I decide to draw stacks that have a down-turned side outlet as was common on the Japanese carriers. Even if they are visible, the position of the stacks can often be altered right up to the end of the drawing, so in carriers, I often wait until some of the layers are drawn before I add smoke stacks.
Deciding on the type conning tower
When drawing a carrier one of the first decisions I have to make is the type of conning tower that will be used. Flat deck carriers generally had their conning towers installed below the level of the flight deck, which may or may not have been easily visible from a top down view. Most carriers had conning towers that sat on top of the flight deck. The decision of which type your carrier will have should be made prior to drawing the first layer because it will determine the layer that the flight deck uses.
Drawing the first layer - the flight deck
Unlike when drawing a battleship, with carriers the first layer I draw is the flight deck. I do this because everything else is drawn in relation to the flight deck layer. The specific layer I use to draw the flight deck is determined by the type of conning tower the carrier will have. If I am drawing a flat deck carrier I will start with layer 5, giving me 1 layer above the flight deck to draw in the elevators and 4 layers below the flight deck. If I am planning to add a conning tower that sits above the flight deck I will draw the flight deck on layer 4. This gives me two layers above the flight deck - one for the elevators and one for the conning tower.
Add the elevators and conning tower
The next layer to draw is not critical. At this point you can immediately draw in the layers below the flight deck, but I usually like to add the elevators and then add the conning tower before drawing the lower levels so that I can arrange those lower layers in relation to the conning tower, in particular.
Finally, draw the gun galleries below the flight deck
After these first topmost layers are completed I will add all of the "stuff" that lives below the flight deck. This consists of various gun galleries at different levels that provide placement locations for visible main guns or secondaries and smaller galleries for implied AA guns or other equipment. I'll usually also add some details such as radio antennas and platforms for the air control officer.
Drawing techniques for carriers
The above is the basic process I follow. Here are some additional tips about drawing specific layers on a carrier.
The flight deck
When drawing the flight deck it is certainly easiest to draw using mirroring. Twelve points provides plenty of detail to add the needed notches and curves that can accurately describe a carrier flight deck. I find it helpful to view some top down images or blueprints of historical carriers before drawing my flight deck.
I usually equip my carriers with 8 symmetrical wing turrets. This presents a visual problem for the flight deck. In RTW2, these guns are always drawn on top of the flight deck, which really only works if you are designing an American style carrier in which the main guns were arranged in superfiring positions along the starboard side of the flight deck. Every other nation generally placed the main guns on sponsons below the level of the flight deck. These ships often featured cutouts in the flight deck opposite the main guns to allow them to more easily fire up over the deck. So, I design my carriers with flight deck cutouts to give the impression that these guns are actually located on a deck or sponson below the level of the flight deck.
Drawing a flight deck using asymmetry is substantially more difficult because you will need to manually mirror some points, a tedious process at best. In reality there were very few carriers that had symmetrical fight decks, but I find the manual mirroring process so painful that at this point I have just given up and make my carrier decks symmetrical. When drawing angled deck carriers, I find it easiest to use one layer to draw the forward section using mirroring and then devote a separate layer for the angled section of the deck using asymmetry.
If I am drawing an early carrier I will often visually imply more than one flight deck. This can be rather easily done by stealing one of the gun gallery layers that are normally placed under the flight deck to use for drawing the lower flight deck. In the image below you can also see the results of ignoring the main guns - they end up strangely placed atop the flight deck. You can also see that there are three implied flight decks.
My personal preference is to use two points to draw a center line that will connect to the aft elevator. I do this because there are insufficient points to draw 3 elevators and also draw a center line back to connect to the aft end of the flight deck. It's purely to make the elevator outlines look more complete in my eyes.
Elevator issues
I generally draw in the outlines of the flight deck elevators. I prefer to see these anchored to the edge of the flight deck with a center line (which historically was often a visual feature of the flight deck). If you want a single line to connect your elevators you will need to place your mouse at X:107 and press the "S" key to start the line at the edge of the flight deck. Pull the line down to where you want to start your first elevator and keeping the mouse on X:107 press the "S" key to place the point. Now draw the elevator. Every angle you will use to draw the elevators is a right angle, so you can continue to use the "S" key when placing every point that defines the center line and the shape of the elevators. You will have to use it each time you place a point a X:107 to draw the center line.
If you want to draw 3 elevators onto the flight deck you will not have sufficient points to draw a center line back to the stern of the ship. To my eye that hanging elevator looks wrong. So I try to keep two points free when drawing the flight deck to draw a center line to attach to the aft elevator. This is not a problem if your carrier will have just two elevators.
When I draw early converted CVs, or any CVL, I visually equip them with just two elevators. That leaves enough points to get a bit fancy with the elevator shapes. If I only draw two elevators I'll often give the elevators a "T" shape to make the deck more interesting. Below is a little converted CVL that displays a T-shaped elevator and a downdraft exhaust.
Picture 1690
The conning tower
I have found that adding a bunch of details to the conning tower is counter productive. The tiny details are out of scale with the rest of the ship and it looks cluttered, especially when seen in a zoomed out view that. To my eye it has worked best to use a relatively simple shape to represent the tower and to encase the smoke stack if one is used.
It's tempting to add details because you have to use asymmetry to draw the tower, leaving you with a huge number of points to work with. You don't want to waste all that wealth of points and you don't have to. Sometimes I'll use those leftover points to draw Japanese style downdraft smoke stacks. These were often complicated organic shapes and are fun to draw. You can also use those points to add some gun galleries or antennas, taking care that you don't encroach on the flight deck, which will be on a lower layer.
Gun galleries
In my carrier designs I will have either 3 or four layers that exist "below" the flight deck. The flight deck will typically be drawn on layer St4 leaving layers 1 through 3 to use for all the junk that projects out from under the flight deck. I'll normally use one layer to represent the decks or sponsons for the main guns unless they have been visually placed on top of the fight deck. I try to think in terms of what I am representing with these levels, so in addition to the main gun sponsons I will add sponsons for medium AA guns and smaller galleries to represent the placements of the light AA guns. I'll add platforms for the LSOs and antennas projecting out from the side of the ship.
Simplifying the galleries
After drawing many dozens of carriers I've simplified the drawing of these platforms into a system that is more symbolic of their look and function than an attempt to create an accurate visual representation. Historically, many of the gun platforms were circular in shape when viewed from above, but trying to replicate a round shape is simply impossible with the limited number of points we have available. I have settled on a trapezoid shape to represent all of the various decks and guns platforms. I have found that it works adequately from a visual standpoint and has the advantage of giving a clean controlled look, while still being economical enough to allow sufficient under deck clutter to be visually convincing. The image below shows shows the simplified gun positions I use as well as a downdraft smoke stack (along the port side) and a conning tower under the flight deck (forward starboard).
Drawing the galleries
Because you are drawing under the flight deck, the only visually important parts of a gallery layer are the sections that project beyond the edge of the flight deck. It can be utter chaos below the flight deck, and usually is in my drawings. Using mirroring allows you to quickly add a limited number of symmetrically place gun platforms, but it looks wrong to mirror antennas and making everything on your ship completely symmetrical just looks wrong on a carrier. It's also much less efficient than using asymmetry. When using asymmetry you can create more gallery shapes by jumping back and forth across your ship as you draw. Asymmetry also allows you to add platforms that are unique, more easily create different length antennas, or perhaps add a unique visual piece to the conning tower.
Here is a picture of the chaos that reigns below the flight deck.
Let your imagination fly
You can see by the example below that even though my carriers tend to have an identifiable style every one is quite different. The main thing is to not be afraid of the process - you can always delete your abominations.
Virus-free. www.avast.com