The ship.

Im currently building the ship in 3ds Max and it started me thinking about how it will be positioned in the water/on the ice and decided I couldnt carry on modelling the ship until I know exactly how much will be visible.

So I have started painting a scene that I will help me positiong the ship and figure out how to model it more efficiently. 

I keep painting the ship into the water but think I need to take a step back and think more about the compositiong of the painting, I wont get a good idea of the ship's resting place with just a side view of the scene.
I have been sketching some ideas but think i need to just look at more ice. I'm obviously not familiar with arctic environments and dont know where to start. Im going to watch frozen planet sketch at the same time :)

Quick Update:

First of all I have read my brief back and realise the tri limit is far too low. I will have to discuss changing this with Heather on Thursday.
Second of all everytime I have been stuck on a set task I have just sat around pondering them, this of course has been a massive waste of time, so, I have made the asset list for the Wardroom and cabins so when I do get stuck can just start modelling.

1st floor

I have extended the plan to fit in what I considered to be the most interesting rooms on the ship.

The I have been building one room at a time and then running through the whole level to get a players feel for it. They have changed some decisions as a result and this is my final plan for thus floor.

Although I dont think there will be time go add the kitchen area, I have built the room because I would like the character to look through the door window and see a flooded room.

Scaling

The room now feels like the right size when i run around as the character but to make sure i am going to make a quick model of the table and chairs and the bunkbeds for the rooms, and see if it still works.

So I made the table, chairs and bunkbeds and scaled them to the block I made in UDK to resemble the height of a character. The level was totally the wrong size and shape and Im so glad I took the time to do so and I feel I have already avoided the biggest mistake I made with the Rooftop which was the scale of the level.

Plan for the Wardroom.

Planning the build.

So it has come to my attention that a lot of the walls on the ship will be curved, and that it will be difficult to construct them from BSP's.

 I have found one tutorial on how to make a curved BSP that I can use for the curved deck, but it will not be possible to use this technique for the overall shape of the ship.
The main dining room inside to ship is a simple rectangle shape so my plan is to build that in UDK and add the outside structure of the ship as a static mesh and scale it around the room. I will then use the shape of the mesh to build the deck from BSP's and fit it to the mesh.
I have chosen which end of I will model and which will appear to be frozen under the ice.










 This end is more interesting and includes the main wheel and mast. I think these are the defining features of a ship and it would be a shame to miss them out.

 This is the room I will be whiteboxing first and then scaling the rest of the ship around.