Something big

[fractalsponge1]

No plans for colors yet. Most of the stuff I make is unambiguously Imperial timeline-wse, though I suppose an ISD with red stripes might be pretty amusing. Customs corvette, maybe, depending on how long Rendilli's been selling the things.

As for the turrets, those on my Executor mesh are the size as the ISDII's, which are about the same as the octuples on the Bellator. I was working off the offhand possibility at SWTC that they might be the same type of turret as an ISDII. If I had it to do over again, I might have come up with a few more turret types like I did for the battlecruiser/fast battleship. I *was* pleased at how the scaling worked out; I built the mesh to be 19km before the retconn . Could really use a new mesh, but I don't think my hardware's up for that right now.

[NecronLord]

No plans for colors yet. Most of the stuff I make is unambiguously Imperial timeline-wse, though I suppose an ISD with red stripes might be pretty amusing.

Well, both ISD and Tector were coming into service in the late clone wars. I actually have a lil die cast ISD on my desk, that I painted red stripes on as I did a fanfic way back when with a revolutionary group adopting Republican colours, and wanted to see how it'd look.

[Justicar]

Exceptional work! That goes for everything you've posted here. Seeing your stuff is actually the reason I joined here. Do you take requests/commissions?

[fractalsponge1]

^As for custom things, generally not, but depends on what it is; I tend to jump around between a few active projects. If it's particularly interesting I might give a shot.

And now, something that probably will never be finished: a proper Star Dreadnought. Not even really going to start detailing this till I get a new machine, so consider it a sketch.

~15km long, combat oriented, a Bellator writ *very* large.







That's the standard Bellator tower module on it, and in the last shot the four little bumps on the hull surface are the twin 720s from the Bellator.

[Captain Seafort]

That is one big ship. Twenty-seven engines eh? I assume it's got a slight better acceleration than Executor?

I'm really looking forward to the detailed version of this if you get the time to do it.

[Raesene]

When do you plan to buy a new computer ?

That ship could probably cause a system to surrender by just activating rangefinders...

[fusion]

When do you plan to buy a new computer ?

That ship could probably cause a system to surrender by just activating rangefinders...

Either that or he is planning to spend a very very long time at the computer...


In other words, I wonder why the dreadnoughts of star wars do not have bigger guns... I mean, the heavy 720s look more like machine guns on a battleship, if you are catching what I am saying... A ship that large should have turrets that are at least three hundred meters (if scaling from ISD), preferable a klick long (if scaling from a modern battleship)... But what ever, it's a small rant...

Anyways I would love to see you finish that huge ship (my wish was granted )

P.S. You probably would need a Core i7 to finish that thing, but it will be expensive.

P.S.S. The reactor bulb looks a little bit funny... It seems to stick out a bit too much.

[Justicar]

I make resin model kits and I'm looking to commission another artist to do a mesh. I'm looking to do a Dagger (Star Battleship?) at ~9.6km. Physical model would be ~46cm (18in) long. Level of detail would be significantly less than than the stuff you're currently doing. There would be some similar design elements to what you've shown, but it would definitely be different. I don't want to say too much here because I don't want to hijack your thread further. PM?

[fractalsponge1]

Actually, thinking a dual proc nehalem xeon machine for my next upgrade. Would do it soon, but $1800 is a bit much to justify right now.

The bulb is based on a full sphere 800-m radius reactor. Based on my playing around with secondary reactors and volume scaling from the ISD, I reckon this ship would be putting out firepower in the 400-500 ISD range. Open question if that's really justifiable, but this is the Empire we're talking about, and at least it's much more efficient about it than an Executor matching 120x ISDs. I'm thinking it's probably overkill - I mean would you really need all that many Executor-killers? (though, I suppose that'd be useful for strategic formations to have when Moffs have an SSD as flagship...) Will have very little in the way of hangars, maybe double the Bellator layout on the ventral side. Some mild cityscape cortex on the top of the center spine, but mostly armor, with some interstitial terrace (which just happen to be a large area at this scale, all the same)

As for really enormous guns, considering there are tactical superlasers and planetary massive defense installations it's not inconceivable, but it's probably too much of a maintenance nightmare to turret mount really large guns on most ships. That and the recoil bracing you'd need, and the need to engage many targets. Ends up being more efficient to spread the firepower across smaller guns. Probably like Hitler wanting to arm the H-class battleships with 80-cm siege guns; you could do it, but it's much better to spread out the resources differently.



Comparable volume to an SSD, but more compact, with more armor.




Battery group of 15x twin 720s.




I'll probably keep plugging away once in a while at parts of this, and then mothball it when it gets too large and concentrate on other things until I upgrade my machine.

@Justicar: I don't really have any experience with prototyping meshes, but feel free to PM me with more details if you like.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Actually, why not a few large monolithic guns instead of several small guns? I would imagine the Imperials could fabricate a large gun if they wanted to, albeit with some drawbacks.

[fractalsponge1]

As for really enormous guns, considering there are tactical superlasers and planetary massive defense installations it's not inconceivable, but it's probably too much of a maintenance nightmare to turret mount really large guns on most ships. That and the recoil bracing you'd need, and the need to engage many targets. Ends up being more efficient to spread the firepower across smaller guns. Probably like Hitler wanting to arm the H-class battleships with 80-cm siege guns; you could do it, but it's much better to spread out the resources differently.

Recharge time/rate of fire, structural complexity, possibly damage resistance, over-concentration of armament, recoil, reliability, cost efficiency...

That it can be and is done is obvious, considering the huge planetary defense guns from the essential guide books, but that's on a planet, with a ton of space available. Still quite possibly of limited use against a rapidly maneuvering target. The biggest turbolaser that we've seen on a ship, to my knowledge, are the siege guns on Munificents and Recusants.

[Justicar]

In addition to the negatives Fractalsponge is pointing out, there are a few more. Turrets require an awful lot of power to move, and an awful lot to stop. The Jesse Ventura's man-portable mini-gun from Predator was only impractical because of the power requirements (weight, weight distribution, heat dissipation). The gun itself actually exists. Scaled up, it becomes a nightmare.

The larger it gets, the more difficult it gets to manufacture. The copper wires might be do-able, but I can imagine they might not be able to made thick enough to prevent burning from the current passing through them while still being flexible enough to be wrapped in coils. What about focal lenses? I have a hard time imagining a 300m lens, when the Sovereign's tactical superlaser lens is ~50m (as measured in a mesh).

The cost of a lot of these things is exponential, not linear, and there very much is a financial ceiling (if not a Physics one).

@Fractalsponge, PM inbound

[fusion]

The reason why I dislike the reactor bulb is that it sticks out too much, after all, the ship's height is much more than the reactor's height... either: a) push the bulb further in b) remove it all together c) make it wider and flatter

Look at the Bellator in the comparison photo then at the new ship. Notice how the ratio of bellator's bulb's width vs. the amount they stick out is much, much more...

Also I like the thickness of the new ship, it looks like it means business. Personally I think that the new ship has much more volume compared to the Executor perhaps double the volume.

P.S. do you have a comparison photo of the ships head on?

P.P.S. when are you going to spend the $1800? the new system probably is going to be 3x-4x of your old system rendering wise...

So happy rendering when you get the new system (and envy)

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Assuming the entire reactor bulb is a sphere, which I'm not sure is the case but is what I'd always thought, the newest ship's reactor is actually fairly close to what it would be if it was centered. The Bellator's bulbs are actually either oblate or only partial spheres centered well above the midline.



Increasing the diameter of the newest ship's reactor by about 1/6th while keeping its bottom stationary would center it and bring the top to just under the long flat tier below the main ridge, if it is a sphere.

[Captain Seafort]

Assuming the entire reactor bulb is a sphere, which I'm not sure is the case but is what I'd always thought, the newest ship's reactor is actually fairly close to what it would be if it was centered. The Bellator's bulbs are actually either oblate or only partial spheres centered well above the midline.

FS1 described the Bellator's reactor(s) as cylinders with rounded ends

here

.

[fusion]

The bulb is based on a full sphere 800-m radius reactor. Based on my playing around with secondary reactors and volume scaling from the ISD, I reckon this ship would be putting out firepower in the 400-500 ISD range. Open question if that's really justifiable, but this is the Empire we're talking about, and at least it's much more efficient about it than an Executor matching 120x ISDs. I'm thinking it's probably overkill - I mean would you really need all that many Executor-killers? (though, I suppose that'd be useful for strategic formations to have when Moffs have an SSD as flagship...) Will have very little in the way of hangars, maybe double the Bellator layout on the ventral side. Some mild cityscape cortex on the top of the center spine, but mostly armor, with some interstitial terrace (which just happen to be a large area at this scale, all the same)

While it is not suppose to be efficient, it should still be much more powerful compared to executor because it is supposed to be a dreadnought/battleship compared to a mothership/commandship. So I say that you should keep the higher figure and flatten the bulb to make it look better. Just say that the ship is 500x an isd and make the reactor bulb larger by explaining it away by saying that it is not designed to be efficient but rather reliable

[fractalsponge1]

Ugh, bad cold, but can still model a bit...

[fractalsponge1]

Ugh, still sick, more terrace, more plating, more turrets:





It's getting hard to make WIPs cover enough of the new stuff in each shot...ship's just too big.

[Questor]

Are you going to use any of the Super-Heavy twins from the Bellator?

[fractalsponge1]

Some of those turrets are the superheavy twins.

[Questor]

Some of those turrets are the superheavy twins.

Oh well, of course, if you count the ones that I didn't notice...

[fractalsponge1]

AH, the world finally starts to clear up a bit...

[fusion]

AH, the world finally starts to clear up a bit...

That is good, very good indeed...
Anyways are you planing to place any ion cannon on the ship?

I am amazed at how much the ship is starting to look like it can actually fight...

[NecronLord]

Have you considered mailing this monstrosity to Dr Saxon and asking if it fits what he imagines a Mandator-class to look like?

[barricade]

Have you considered extra 'greebles' coming off the sphere, due its much larger size, just to break up its profile? No offense, as I love the design, but the full-body angle WIP shot you have makes it look like it has a pot-belly. Possibly a cruciform layout or a tri-foil? *shrugs*