Litvyak's profiles

[Litvyak]

So a bit of a teaser of a work in progress... figuring out how to do terrain the way maps do, cuz I want to do a BCAA road map of Utari Mosir, figured the smallest uninhabited island would be a good place to try my hand... this is Broughton Island (aka ostrov Broutona/остров Броутона aka Buroton-tō/武魯頓島), northernmost island of Utari Mosir. Got all the ridge lines in, and doing the shading on the east side of Mount Broughton, side by side with the RW topo map... I think I'm on the right track?

I'll tell you right now, though, this is going to be a decidedly long term project!

[apophenia]

... I'll tell you right now, though, this is going to be a decidedly long term project!

It does look like great fun, though! And, when you're done, few others (at least, in our neck of the woods) will know those islands the way you do 

[Litvyak]

So I've got the small and easy map done - the three uninhabited islands, Broughton Island, Chirpoy, and Lesser Chirpoy. I rather like how the mountains turned out, especially Chirpoy - I think I did a decent job of representing the topography there, but I'm sure they'll get even better as I go along doing the other islands... slowly.



I used the AAA road maps that I became all too familiar with on summer family road trips all around the States as a kid/teen on navigator duty for my dad as an inspiration/guide... wanted to give the feel of a map you'd pull out of the glovebox when stopped at a layby or a roadside service centre for a coffee and sandwich. I'd appreciate any feedback on ways to improve it, that I can incorporate into the next maps when I tackle them!

Edit to add: forgot to mention - the scale is 53 pixels to a statute mile, so each pixel is appx 100 feet.

[Litvyak]

Well a happy realisation, having finally found a bit of AAA map online that shows a mountainous area, I don't actually need to draw the mountain topography for the road maps... this simplifies things a lot. So I went ahead and reworked the previous map to give a more AAA design feel to it, too...

[Frank3k]

You can also "borrow"or copy the style from Google maps. They have a terrain display option that does both elevation and shading.

[Litvyak]

So here's one a bit more interesting - the island of Shikotan. The roads almost all follow existing roads and tracks marked on the 1950s-era topo maps I used as a basis to draw this, the settlements are all in location where settlements existed; names are from the original Ainu names that were Japanicised. Names of mountains and other geographical features are either Ainu names, or if the Japanese name wasn't of Ainu origin - then a (loose) translation from the Japanese.



I also reworked the legend... and now that I'm posting this, I see I need to fix the northern part of the highway, between Notoro and East Shakotan... which I did, and uploaded the new version to my wiki, but seems that the board doesn't want to remove the old one from its cache and is still showing that instead of the new one. Suffice to say between Notoro and Shakotan, outside of city limits Hwy 89 is a divided highway.

[apophenia]

Impressive work! So much detail when a glance at Google Maps' version of Shikotan shows not a single settlement (not even Malokurilsk) or road.

I note that oligarch/ex-KGB/IT guy Eugene Kaspersky called the island "Shikotan – the Kuril New Zealand" in his blog. I kind of like that. In your universe, BC gets a mini-NZ of its very own 

[perttime]

Google Satellite view does show roads and industrial looking towns. I only spotted one marked helipad but there could be another.

[Litvyak]

Impressive work! So much detail when a glance at Google Maps' version of Shikotan shows not a single settlement (not even Malokurilsk) or road.

Thanks - it's a huge help having the old US military topos to work with, these are from 1954 and it cites on it being based off the 1915 Imperial Land Survey maps and 1922 and 1924 USHO charts - looking at satellite views there's precious little trace visible of most of it. It wouldn't be too difficult to figure out where to put settlements, but having the roads and trails marked is a huge help over having to "survey" new routes on maps...

I note that oligarch/ex-KGB/IT guy Eugene Kaspersky called the island "Shikotan – the Kuril New Zealand" in his blog. I kind of like that. In your universe, BC gets a mini-NZ of its very own 

Yeah, my initial thoughs had been that UM is kinda a low-population backwater, well on the whole I've changed that having realised it's more than just a foot in the door of Asia, it's a whole leg... and Shikotan in specific, I figured being so immediately adjacent to Japan would mean a lot of Japanese going to UM under the NSA rules would probably have gone for there. Also it has a history of agriculture, and... yeah. I think the only reason the Kurils are as deserted as they are is because the Soviets took them. So with this new approach Urup is still the relative backwater, Shikotan is the most densely populated, both have around 17,000 but Shikotan is 300/sqmi and Urup is 31.9/sq mi - and 12k of Urup's 17k are in the south in the city of Urup.

What's really interesting is that the northernmost point of Urup is further south than Race Rocks, and yet even Shikotan gets winter sea ice - I suspect those winter-season flights from Shana to Saipan get plenty of passengers looking for some sun!

Google Satellite view does show roads and industrial looking towns. I only spotted one marked helipad but there could be another.

Yeah there are two settlements on Shikotan as it is, Malokurilsk (Shakotan) the bigger one in the north, and Krabozavodskoye (Anama) the smaller one... I wonder if there was more before the big quake of 1994, that did destroy a fair bit on the island, if I've understood things right only one of the fish plants were reopened, two were basically destroyed.

[perttime]

Looks as if some roads just end between the hills where I cannot see any signs of activity.

[Litvyak]

Welp, my year in Ghana is at an end, I'm flying out tonight, and after I finished packing I finished this map of Urup... last one for a while, as August promises to be stupidly busy...