StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Just messing around with Sketchup and have been building a dreadnought for a sector wide police force. It is still a work in progress. The idea for it came from a novel that I am trying to build in which in the far future mankind has colonized several galaxies and in that future there are several levels of law enforcement such as:
(Whatever name) Galactic Police
(Whatever name) Oversector Police
(Whatever name) Sector Police
(Whatever name) System Police
(Whatever name) Planetary Police

System and Planetary Police agencies would have their own ships\vehicle designs whereas the police agencies above them would have the same ships the space navy (I haven't thought of a better name yet) uses. In fact in case the SN needs extra ships in a war they could draft the G\O\Se Police agencies into the war.

Anywhoo, enough of my blathering, here is the link to my photobucket account with 14 pics of a Sector Police Dreadnought work in progress. I'm almost done with the major aspects of the ship, but a lot more work will be on detailing it.

1063.75 meters in length, 700 meters in width and 203.49 meters in height. Comments?

Kind of blocky.

Nothing 'kind of' about it, it's blocky.

Detailing this wont hide the fact that this is mainly a couple of elongated cubes. Since you're just learning Sketchup I'd advise you put this one to one side and then go and start afresh. Make another three or four quick models if you have to, since each time you will get more familiar with the tools and less satisfied with your older models when you look back on them. Dont fall into the trap of making a couple of blocks and saying "its an uber-huge spaceship with a stats sheet 5 pages long, it's just that this species makes really basic look ships. It's their style."

You can do better than this. Go try and make the ship you really wanted this to be. You might not be able to get close to the picture in your mind, but you will get closer each time.

Blocky isn't bad. It just needs some contrast I think. Long time ago I was working on a sketchup model,



I've been working with Sketch to make it better, it was a blocky design but I think it works...








Represents two types of hulls I'm working on to build onto for the final ship. Big, blocky, but I think it can work.

I do think Kenny is right though, keep working with the program to get better at making it do what you want it to do.

Blocky is okay, but only if you make it work right. It's good that you have some curves in there, and a few sloped surfaces, but the sharp, 90 degree edges can make something look unfinished if there's too much.

Here's a suggestion to improve detail from the start: What I usually do, is I visualize what I want the ship to look like when it's done, as far as shape goes, and then I make a single plane which resembles a side, top, front, or rear view of the shape of the craft, and start to fill it out from their. It makes adding simple hull shape detail very easy, since you can simply extrude from the plane. The added bonus is that it appears much more solid or in one piece in look, rather than seeming like it was snapped together.

I'd love to do more curves but Sketchup is a royal pain in the ass to do curves. The back of the wings I'll be rounding off and adding some more engine exhaust. The bridge tower is intentionally blocky. The front I'll be redesigning since it is a dreadnought not a carrier (The front was supposed to be a fighter launch bay.). Probably round it out some and add additional massive cannons?

Main purpose of the ship is to besiege heavily fortified bases or fortified planetoids owned by organized crime or to engage large pirate ships, so most of it's weapons is large, very powerful yet the rate of fire is not that great. It is not used against small mobile ships or basically engagements that require a lot of agility and swiftness. So this ship comes in, pounds the living shit out of the criminal hideouts or large pirate cap ships until they surrender or are dust.

Kenny_10_Bellys wrote:Dont fall into the trap of making a couple of blocks and saying "its an uber-huge spaceship with a stats sheet 5 pages long, it's just that this species makes really basic look ships. It's their style."

*ahem*

Making curves may be a bit of a pain in Sketchup, but clearly it can be done and it's something you are going to have to learn to do to make anything other than simple boxes. If I might suggest a technique as well, why not draw a cross section view of your ship at some point, then extrude that out to form that part of the hull. It lets you make quite complex shapes and curved surfaces easily that look very solid.

I'm doing more of a curvy look but it'll take time. I wish Sketchup had buttons for 3D shapes like cylinders (I know they are pretty simple to make), cubes and spheres. Especially spheres.

The info on the ship is just background to justify the ship and it's purpose. It is just fluff in case someone asks "What's it for?"

I'll post newer images of the ship.