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

[Malika]

I know what you mean. I was fiddling with them earlier today and it ended up really bad (understatement). So I'm gonna stop with that and start making some variant bits, new weapons and such. I dislike the front weapons as well (those cannons don't make sense), I think I might go for the design you made when you were trying to scratchbuild my design.

[Blindhorizon]

Your magma cannon, but like triple sided would look but unique.

[Malika]

Hmm, I was thinking of a mix betweenthe Magma Cannon from the Doomhammer, the Ion Cannon frigate from Homeworld and the Tau Ion Cannon. Lets see how that'll go...

[marell le fou]

In terme of looking massive, heavy and destructive, the Magma canon of the Doomhammer is impressive.

[Gun_wun]

I agree those prow guns look weedy............  They need something short, fat and mean.

[Malika]

Being worked on! Expect an update on those next week.

In the meantime, got any ideas for fighter/bomber/support ordnance craft? I imagine their role to be to take out enemy ordnance, torpedoes and turrets, but also types to repair damaged systems of allied ships, others to function as some sort of shield, and yet other ones to penetrate enemy shields and providing that gap for friendly torpedoes/energy weapons to penetrate. So any ideas on their aesthetics would be very welcome, if you got pics for inspiration that would be great as well!


Cheers!

[Malika]

By the way, just wanted to give you a quick picture of what is possible with the current components...



The bigger engine as suggested will be made, but will be another component, basically a variant on the engine I've got now. The current engine is for standard cruisers, the larger engine (which will be a redesign of the one I've got now, but a lot beefier) will be for heavy cruisers. Reason I'm going for this route is that simply resizing the engine component makes it look odd compared to the rest of the ship.

Besides that there will be some turret variants, prow weapons, and some new components (so you have more options than the launch bay component). It would allow you to really create your own ship designs, only limited by your imagination and ability to balance it (unless you use a way larger base, and pin it to that base on multiple spots).

[Malika]

New version of the turret variant is slowly getting there. For the more perceptive ones of you, do you recognize the turrets?

[Malika]

The amazing Icesword (check out 'Miniatures of the North') has painted up a copy of one of my escorts, check it out!

[marell le fou]

Nice to see it in reality.Are those streaks due to casting with the 3D printer ?

[Malika]

Yeah, it's the printer. A shame really, since this is also Shapeways' most detailed material. It means that for an 'official model version' I'd need to have it printed elsewhere, which will be rather pricy (I'd guess around $100 for a single model), after which I'd need to have it cast. But...it has totally motivated me again to work on the ships. Improve the designs here and there so that they can be cast more easily and such.

The cruiser sized ships will get some extensive re-working in the coming days/weeks.

I'm totally motivated again!

[marell le fou]

Really ? I have seen Shapeway 6mm figs printed with best resolution "frozen i don't know what detail" if i remember well, and they where just perfect.

You have the solution to soflty pass a cutter blade in order to scrub a little the surface everywhere. Not to do if you have several to produce but for st one, it could be not that complicated.

[Malika]

One major problem I'm kinda running into with this ship is its castability due to the side guns. Might have to rethink the design a bit.

The launch bays in the middle of the hull (both left and right sides) look a bit odd, will probably remove them and try to make the middle of the ship a bit thinner. That way the front and back of the vessel will be a bit more accentuated.

I also noticed that the details in the front guns have more or less disappeared. Will have to enlarge them a bit.

@Marell le Fou: You mean Frosted Ultra Detail? Yup, same material! Maybe a slightly thicker layer of paint was used to hide the print lines? As for using some sort of cutting device on the ship: it's too risky, especially when some details are 0.15mm, so that's something I'd like to kinda avoid. They just need to be done with a higher res printer and then cast.

[Jimmy Zimms]

There's a difference between printing an infantry figure and something with large flat surfaces where it stands out. You'll need to take a very super fine sandpaper and smooth out those print lines, I know.

[Malika]

I tweaked the design a bit, mainly to improve castability: