Shipgirl Character Designs (Original)

Haida's concept/ design (final or not) was done way before Athabaskan's but the design kept changing. A lot of the design is referenced from photos I took when I visited the museum ship many years ago -- taking into detail of her armaments, cannons, ASW mortars etc. While her initial design did not incorporate some of these elements, her future design will (a lot of this was mainly due to my limitations of trying to translate the designs). 

General Notes:
I didn't have anything in particular to note while designing her physical appearance. The main thing really was the hairstyle which came out too generic: pony tail, up-do, curly-perm. In the end, I opted out for waist-long hair with a small clip bun.

Some emblematic icons were used (ship emblem as a badge and mark on the gun case). I'm not sure why I chose it, but on her sleeve is the mark of a 2nd class CPO. A bit simplified, but more detail went to her rigging -- something my design of Athabaskan lacked.

Cosmetic/ Clothing:
While her appearance has stayed the same (long auburn hair, small hair bun clipped), the concept of her attire changed to now include an arm band, and a leg holster. Her uniform is based/ referenced from an RCN uniform.

Armaments:
A lot of it was based off of the hundreds of photos I took of the ship itself, with some 3D model references of her torpedo mounts. The crux of my problem was how to incorporate everything, which is why I took so long to complete her design initially.

A lot of her main armaments are based more on what she had equipped when she was refitted later during 1943-1952. Of course I can't fit everything, so her ship rigging itself just includes the standard Quad Torpedoes and the Squid ASW Mortars.

I opted to design something more unique for the Tribals. She's equipped with Twin 4" HA Guns (which iirc were fired electrically. A Colt 1911 was used as a reference, with the barrels being swapped with the Twin HA guns.