The Alternative Postwar Royal Navy

[Hood]

Messers Portsmouth Bill, Hood, Novice and Bombhead would like to introduce "The" RN AU.
As the "Grey Funnel Line Faction" for the last five months we have turned our attentions to a complete 1946 onwards AU of the Royal Navy. Some of the ships we will post in this thread will be fancies of our imaginations, some will be real never-weres and others will be concepts that have been floated over the years but never built that we have fleshed out ourselves. At all times we have strived for complete accuracy and complete realism. Thoughts have been laid down as to force structures and the whole fleet and economics (although of course as in all AUs some economic optimism is needed).
It was Portsmouth Bill who laid the genesis of this project, wanting to do either an RAN or RN AU. I had similar ideas of an RN AU and we decided to collaborate and bring in the talents of the rest of the Grey Line Faction. This is perhaps the first multi-artist AU in SB, all four of us have had eqaul input and equal effort in our areas of interest, and as an experiment I think it has worked very well.
Every ship you'll see has been the product of a four-person refinement stage and often ships had competing designs which we've chosen from. Maybe someday we'll share the never-weres of this never-were world! By no means is the work on this AU complete, we've still got far to go but we think now is the time to share our work and wind the clocks back to the heady days of the early postwar period.

To set the scene; Britain has emerged from seven year's of war victorious. The nation is bankrupt but looking towards rebuilding the economy. A Labour government is newly elected and Britain still has a vast Empire spanning the globe. The RN has worldwide commitments but soon the strength of the Navy shrinks as manpower is released to industry again and numerous surplus ships are laid up. The building plans of the mid-1940s are drastically cut back. The RN faces no threat nor realistic rival, however its soon becomes clear that Stalin's USSR will be the future threat. The RN faces a changed world, the power of the Atomic bomb is evident, the fast submarine could well be a future threat to Britain's ocean lifelines, guided weapons will be the weapons of the future for both defence and offence. Not only will the Navy have to change but the ships as well.

[acelanceloet]

FINALLY! I can't wait to see the designs

[Thiel]

*Grabs popcorns*
This is going to be interesting.

[Vossiej]

Sounds very promising! I am looking forward to this.

[Mitchell van Os]

Lol, i tried to do something similar in mid 2010. But was to much for a single guy.

I will enjoy it!

GL!

[Gollevainen]

Well I was begining to wonder when this great AU idea pops out to public. Eagerly waiting to see the ships.

[rifleman]

Great idea for a thread.

[odysseus1980]

I also plan to do AU RN,I have already a template with ships in my computer, but may use some ships from here, I am very curious to see...

[BrockPaine]

I likewise have been waiting to see this one show up, considering the number of high-quality artists engaged in it...

[ALVAMA]

Finaly!! Cannot wait!