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

Gunship WIP

Started work on a gunship.

The round spots on the top and bottom are where the gun turrets will go. Probably will have the warp drive winglets fold up and down like on the Palatine class. This ship was designed to be just a fast, powerful slugger with minimal armor. Its speed and atmospheric capabilities are its best defences. Its main armament is six heavy blast ionized particle cannons, the much smaller version of what the Adamant is armed with. It was designed to fly into enemy lines and pick off turrets and exposed hardware.

They were designed and built around the beginning of the 20th century of my universe, however, and as such, their age is now very evident. As such, they were sold off to private contractors and owners beginning around the 80's. Now they're mostly just owned by private merchantmen and mercenaries. To fly this ship in Thrassi space, however, you have to have a license for all those guns. Unfortunately, some of these have found their way into the hands of pirates in the outer systems. They're usually easily destroyed, though, if the Navy sends in a Palatine class cruiser to deal with those pirate scum.

Dan

Adamant Command Deck Two Interiors

Still tinkering with these two rooms.  The third in the set, the conference room, is unchanged from the original, so I decided to not show it.  The bridge itself is still very much a WIP.  I'm struggling with the consoles and really dislike them.

Commercial Work

Well, normally I can't show my commercial work that I've done with the public, as typically I'm under a non-disclosure clause.  But I've received some leeway in this to show that while I'm not updating this site, I'm indeed working.

These shots are from my interior modelling I've done for an independent film called Nem Gate. 

I'm just a modeller on this, so I'm showing my work only (without final materials).

The third model, the large lobby, was a model I received partially built, but I changed it enough that it barely resembles what it used to look like.  The only things that remain from the original model are the pillars, part of the exterior wall and the floating sculpture in the center of the room.

Please bear in mind that all of this is definitely work in progress, as the textures and materials haven't been added in these images.  Also, additional changes to the geometry may be made sometime in the future to some of these models as the director changes his mind or needs some object moved for continuity's sake.

 

 

Additionally, I've got some work being hung in Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.  My work ended up being featured in an exhibit they're putting up about the future of space flight.  The exhibit isn't up, yet, I don't think.  It should be up sometime next year, they tell me.

Always thought an artist had to die before his work was put up in a museum. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make it there to see it in person, but if anyone ever is in Melbourne, please stop by the museum and take a picture of the exhibit for me, if you can.  I'd really appreciate it!

There is also more work than this, but I've spent a lot of time on this post already, so I'll let you all go.  Happy Blending!

Dan

New Project: Battleship

Another starship project.  This one's a biggie.  A battleship.

Starting fleshing out the design in 3D first.

How To Make a Space Scene in Blender

Dan

Adamant Leaving Orbit Comp

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 Engine Test

Test wip animation of the engines.  Not happy with them 100%.  Hopefully it'll get better.

Dan