Viminal Class Gunship 2

More greebles need to be added, I think...

Dan

Viminal Gunship

Working on a name for this class of gunship.  Keeping with the tradition I started with naming the Thrassi ships after the seven hills of Rome, I'm probably aiming for a name like the Viminal class gunship.

This ship is very Thrassi in its design mantra.  The Thrassi Republic (or, TR) has always been strapped for cash, so it decided to invest in a million little ships like this one over having a few large ones.  The Thrass also have the most planets to patrol, so having a multitude of small ships was smarter for them.  I imagine they built a lot of these Viminal gunships, probably numbering into the tens of thousands of them, to patrol backwater systems and provide escort for larger ships, such as the Aventine destroyer and Palatine cruiser.

These gunships were basically just lightly armored, yet extremely fast and deadly heavy sluggers, meant to carry as much fire power as possible right into the enemy's face.  While the TR never designed multi-person ships to be expendable, this ship probably had the highest casualty rate in any of the skirmishes the Navy had with pirate factions or with the Trisst Empire.

As the years wore on, however, these ships were probably retired from naval service and sold off to the private sector for either scrap or to be used as patrol boats for major corporations or personal ships for private citizens.  Really, the only ships that remained in use for any length of time in the TR were the Palatine cruisers, and even then, only five of the original twenty built were in active service after thirty years.

They probably kept building new Viminal gunships over time, however, to replace the older ones.

The upside to building ships for the same fleet is that you can reuse certain greebles and detail geometry in the new chassis.  This is a huge time-saver, as evidenced by the fact that this ship's exterior is nearly done already, despite me just starting a couple of days ago.  As the greeble library expands, and my familiarity with the hull plating technique gets better, I'm glad to see that the time to build these ships is decreasing precipitously. 

Dan

Adamant and Bellicose

In an extremely rare image, two of the deadly and iconic Thrassi Palatine class starships are seen together. The fact that only twenty of these extremely powerful, white-hulled behemoths were ever built makes these meetings very rare, and images of them together even rarer. But the subjects of this picture make it even more special. Here, sister cruisers Adamant (SSC – 019; top) and Bellicose (SSC – 005; bottom), meet for the last time for refueling in orbit of Koranna IV, their birthplace. 

Adamant, about to go on to become arguably the most famous of the Palatine class cruisers, is here still the newest of her class, having just completed her first six-month maiden voyage. 

Bellicose, the only Palatine class cruiser to be destroyed in combat, is seen here approaching the end of her meteoric life with heart-rending rapidity—a streak across a tiny instant of time, nonetheless brighter still than most around her.

The time stamp on this image is dated 6/15/2,000 M.E. If this stamp is correct, as scholars agree it is, it would make this image the last known existing photograph of Bellicose before her tragic and violent annihilation (with the loss of all hands) just five days later in the disastrously ill-conceived Operation: Hammerstop.

This image, freighted with emotion, shows one vessel on the dawn of a new lifetime of exploration and defense of the Thrassi Republic, and the other in the twilight of her career just before her untimely demise. Both are poised expectantly to make illustrious names for themselves—one, by her glorious, service-oriented life; the other, by her unspeakably horrific death.
 

And so, as the Thrass say in their ancient traditional blessing, the meaning of which has been lost to time: Quinna-tonka, ahd tunka balantta.
 

Ahd, Quinna-tonka, Bellicose, and Adamant.

 

  

Adamant 8/30/13

Hull plating done.

Then I decided to take out the top two engines and put in a hangar bay with an open door guarded by a forcefield and a couple of mean-looking lateral turrets.

Still have to add some more details to the hangar.  Perhaps some crates, hoses and wall details will be in order, as well as pillars.  Everyone likes pillars. :)

Dan

Adamant 8/27/13

8/27/13

Dan

Adamant 8/21/13

8/21/13

Dan

Adamant 8/19/13

Dan

Adamant 8/13/13

Still going.

Point defense lasers around the sensitive areas of the ship.

Torpedo launchers.

Dan

Adamant 8/6/13

Adamant as of 8/6/13.

Got some work done on her, finally.



Dan

Adamant 7/30/13

Work as of 7/30/13

Dan

Adamant Redesign

Well, not being pleased with the old Adamant, nor with Adamant II, or Adamant III, we're onto Adamant IV.  She's almost a kilometer long, now, but her lines are more pleasing and she's quite unique in her design, now, hopefully.  I like the flow of the lines, now.  She's less bulbous and more sleek.  Concave curves galore!

SSD, Day 14

Inspiration coming from Ansel Hsiao's incredible "murder wedges".  He's an expert in Star Destroyer design and detailing.

Nearing Completion on Adamant

 

To be honest, I don't know what I'll do after Adamant is done!

Hope you're all doing great.

Dan

Adamant Turntable in Cycles

Well, another boring turntable. =D  This time it's of Adamant.  Rendered in Cycles, now, she's looking a fair bit prettier than she did in Blender Internal! =)

Hopefully you all like it.

Turret Beam Test

So I made a blast beam turret for the Adamant. This is a test to show off the aiming and firing. It's very quickly put together, so it's not supposed to be professional, and there are currently no real details on the turret, but this gives you an idea, hopefully. =)

The laser beam itself is a simple 8 quads arrayed in radial fashion and given a stretch-to constraint, which is tied to a target empty which the turret also is constrained to.

The beam is given an emission material in Cycles and a beam texture with an alpha map to give it fall-off and then it's rendered. Voila, a laser beam cannon! =D

Hope you're all doing awesome!

Dan

SSC Adamant Details

SSC Adamant is still in production.  I just took a hiatus from her for a bit.  Now she's getting the love and attention she deserves once more! So I've started working on the interior, and adding working turrets!

The turret's parts are parented to empties, which all track via pivot points to a target empty.

The two empties on the barrels are used to control the barrels' recoil when the cannons fire. Two empties for four barrels. The cannons fire in pairs, so there's only a need for two empties instead of four.

All of these empties have constraints added to them which either prevent the empties from rotating on a certain axis or restrict them from rotating too much. The turret currently turns 360 degrees on its main axis, with the gun placement able to pivot 40 degrees on the x axis. All of this uses local transforms, and all the empties are ultimately parented to the base of the turret, which, in turn, is dropped anywhere on the ship I please. Quite a useful set-up, if I may say so, myself. =D

An AO render from Cycles.

I've also been working a little on modifying an old interior I made for another ship and making it for the Adamant instead. I figure since she's a naval vessel, she would be maintained to a very high standard. I assume Captain Lostra is also very meticulous about the upkeep of his ship as well, which would explain why the interior is quite immaculate. =)

All rendered in Cycles, obviously not with perfect results, but I prefer a bit of grain to my images as it gives a sense of organic film instead of perfect digital artificiality. =D

Hope you're all doing great!

Dan