[BFG] - Designing new ship types - 3d printing madness

[Malika]

Look what arrived at my doorstep...





First of all, apologies for the bad quality photos. I'm not that great a photographer, and I should perhaps have the models primed/painted to do them true just since this see-through stuff makes the lighting very annoying.

I must say that the quality of the FUD print isn't as bad as I expected! I really thought it was going to be a lot worse. However, this doesn't mean that it's suitable for casting, there are still visible print lines and there are some tiny inaccuracies in the prints here and there (which weren't on the model).

Looking at the model I'm quite happy how it turned out, some of the smallest details on the ship are around 0.15mm and even they are pretty visible. I wonder how they would look lie with a layer of paint...

[Malika]

Been playing a bit with SketchUp's colours...



For some reason I imagine the Legion's basic colour scheme to be grey, the blue is just a very...well, trendy futuristic colour I guess!

I'm imagining the basic game/battles to be some form of internal strife, it's the Legion fighting itself. The Legion originally started off as the Roman Empire, but eventually becoming the British Empire. I would imagine this strife, or at least the main campaign/storyline for the space ship game to be along the lines of either a colonial war or a war between equalized powers.

The colonial war would be very much like the wars of independence throughout the Americas. The colonies didn't really seek independence because they wanted everybody to live in freedom (Haiti probably being the big exception), their resistance has been very economic/political in nature, especially in Latin America, meaning they wanted to get more power and profit, not longer interested in sending it off to the distant throne in the old continent. In case of the Legion these would be more 'distant' colonies (subsidiary worlds) that seen great autonomy, forming their own alliances. Of course the Legion as whole isn't so happy about this idea and starts sending in their fleet to teach these secessionists a lesson.

The war between 'equal powers' would be akin to two colonial powers fighting amongst themselves for domination. Kinda like the British versus the French I guess. Perhaps some sort of 'small Psidemic' occurred, leaving vast parts of the Legion empire separated, it basically cut the empire in two factions, both believing themselves to be the true Legion. They try to establish new colonies and outdo the other one. It could also be more of a Cold War scenario in which both these factions try to fight a proxy war, akin to the Soviets and Americans. But then with elements of the French/British wars (got to love naval war).

All very possible scenarios of course. I would imagine that symbolically these factions be white (pearl) and black (obsidian), each a different aspect of the Legion, together being Legion grey. Oh well...food for thought!

[horizon]

Those ships do look suitable for a cool paintjob. How big are they?

[Malika]

The cruiser stands at almost 130mm long, quite big, but it's only 32mm wide and 19mm high (including the turrets), so that kinda compensates I guess.

The escorts are about 37mm long, 13mm wide and 8mm high.

[Malika]

I started with a little experiment:


Let me know what you think.

I'm also planning on making the 'gaps' between the blocks of the ship (between prow and launch bays, between launch bays and engine, etc) a bit deeper, thereby also lessening the singular block feel.

[Islacrusez]

Even submarines have conning towers

[Malika]

I'm not totally sold on it yet. I wanted it to have a subtle fin, kinda like I did for the escorts. Need to ponder a bit more about it...

[Islacrusez]

A more fin-like shape would probably... well actually, you've not shown us what shape this thing is, is it a wide blocky thingy or a fin thingy?

A fin with a small bridge atop it would be the way I'd go I think, in-keeping with your intents.

[Malika]

Here some other views of the ship:



The Distortion Engine will still need a lot of work, new detailing to be added, some of the old stuff having to be removed. That part also offers a nice possibility to create a 'gap' into the ship, thereby breaking the block shape when looking at it from the top or bottom.

The idea of a bridge is something I really don't want to see on these ships personally. I find the idea of a clear bridge on this scale rather odd, is the captain going to stare into deep space with a telescope? Also, wouldn't the bridge just be a big 'hit me' sign basically?

[Malika]

Been tweaking the design some more, oh and quickly added some colours for this little picture:


Man...I need to learn some proper Photoshop/Illustrator/whatever...

[Islacrusez]

There are some gains to being able to physically look at your ship. For example, it might be reassuring that it is still there. Are you also intending to have autopilot do everything for you, or try and keep a formation of these things going by cameras and transponder readings alone? Sometimes it's useful to be able to look at what you want to be seeing.

As for being a big "hit me" sign... Personally I'd hit the massive weapon batteries first; after all, they're the ones shooting at you. I do not believe for one moment that the guns will fall silent the moment the comms to the bridge get cut for whatever reason. The gunners would revert to emergency protocol, just as had happened to the defensive guns during the USS Forrestal fire. And while all current ships have an obvious bridge, isn't that just as much of an invitation? What you'll notice is that modern warships will function in combat without their bridge, usually from the redundant command centre, somewhere near the middle of the ship behind several layers of armour, and rated for chemical and biological warfare (probably nuclear too).

So yes, no matter how big you make your ship, you're probably still going to have an obvious bridge somewhere on the damn thing. Much like the current freighters, you're probably not going to be able to see small things directly adjacent to you, but you're still going to be able to see things vaguely in your weight class, especially at a standard safe distance. Your bridge will be visible and exposed, but it will not be critical to the ship's combat functions.

On the other hand, it's your ship and your world, do what you want with it. However if you're asking for opinion, mine is above and I assure you I will be watching any "realism" justification carefully

[Malika]

Decided to give the ship some more firepower...



I'm not fully happy with them yet, they can't really turn or anything, and on some parts (especially on the carrier module) they seem rather forced, as if somebody had too many guns lying around and decided to glue them on his ship. Might remove them, or replace them for small turrets (like the side turrets of my escorts) to make them look more subtle...

There are some gains to being able to physically look at your ship. For example, it might be reassuring that it is still there. Are you also intending to have autopilot do everything for you, or try and keep a formation of these things going by cameras and transponder readings alone? Sometimes it's useful to be able to look at what you want to be seeing.

True, but I really wonder how effective that would be if your enemies are cloaked (be it because of their shield or the dark color of their ships) and are also thousands upon thousands of kilometers away.

It makes me think that perhaps normal aquatic ships aren't the best comparison for this sort of thing. Perhaps it would be more fitting to look at submarines?

[Islacrusez]

It makes me think that perhaps normal aquatic ships aren't the best comparison for this sort of thing. Perhaps it would be more fitting to look at submarines?

Ironically their primary attack is conducted visually, and they still have a conning tower

As I said earlier, it's not necessarily your enemy you need to look at; sometimes you need to look at the very ship you're standing on, or the ship right next to you, or the dock/asteroid/moon/station you're trying to dock with.

[Malika]

You mean through periscopes? If I recall correctly modern submarines only use those thing occasionally, mainly relying on sensors and GPS. In the darkness of space, like deep underneath the sea, visibility is rather limited, especially if you want to look a couple of kilometers away.

[Malika]

In the meantime I've started to remove the broadside weapons I've added yesterday and am replacing them for smaller turrets:


I checked it on printability and it should be all fine, which is great since I'm really digging the smaller turrets, they also make the bigger turrets look huge, which in effect makes the ship look bigger as well!

After that it's some more detailing, especially the gap parts between the components and see if I could perhaps beef up the torpedo prow. In the meantime the turret component will receive a serious overhaul, with the turrets being based on the prow cannons of the escort.