I started working on a new ship, based on the current Essex class. I was proceeding along the lines that this might be the Elco Class, which fits more in line with its backstory, that it was built around the same time as the Essex, which explains why they share so many common features...compared to the other versions of the Elco which shared no common features with the Essex, aside from weapons.
This shot is from within the observation lounge on top of the ship.
Most of the UN ships will have at least one observation lounge like this, where the crew can gather to actually see some space. An Observation Lounge is the only place aboard ship with actual glass windows. Other rooms, like crew quarters use a micro-thin OLED display attached to a bulkhead to simulate the appearance of having a window looking out into space.
This version of the Elco is approximately 578 meters in length, that's from the tip of the main sensor mast all the way back to her tail. The Essex is 1033 meters in length. I wanted to keep the Essex under a 1000 meters, so I may remove the large forward sensor mast, particularly since the Elco now has an identical mast, and the Essex has the ring which is loaded with sensors. Doing so would bring it down to about 840 meters.
And here's a full shot of the Essex with the new ring.
I'm still not sure about the ring however. I didn't realize until earlier today that it pretty much makes the docking arms useless, to say nothing of trying to fit the entire ship inside any sort of enclosed dry-dock. So I might lose the ring entirely, unless an alternative can be found. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to entertain them.
Here's an alternate version of the Essex, minus the ring and a bit more the middle section, with the ringed version for comparison. They're to scale, but the alternate version is closer to the camera which is why they appear roughly the same length.
One alternative may be to decrease the diameter of the ring. I'm not sure yet if that will work, but it's a possibility.
Time for something different. I know this isn't a 3d WIP, but I didn't want to start a brand new thread just for a few images, plus it's directly related to New Haven, so why not keep it all in one place.
This is the AR-558 assault rifle, the not so standard weapon in use by the united nations. This is the version represents the stock version and the accessories available for it. The slightly shorter AR-559 Carbine, is the more common variant used by infantry, while this version tends to be carried by officers in the field. This version does however serve as the basis for the Squad Advanced Marksmen Rifle as well as the upgraded AR-560 Squad Automatic Weapon.
I've still got some more work to do on this before it's done, but I wanted to share a WIP with you all before it was done.
we like the projects... very different from those few times we created spaceships in sketchup... (most of them were so horrible we would never dream of publishing them)
your learning curve definetly was steeper than ours... but we've taken it slowly intentionally... (we're somewhere in our 7th year of sketchuping)
we rather like the blocky yet sloped designs you used... Oh, and the story around the ships is very engaging and creative...
no problem... cant not show respect for well-made stuff like this obviously is... Just curious though, what do you think of this thing we worked on in sketchup recently?
its not similar to yours, though it too has fairly high detail level...
We might after our current project try adapting some of the design style you used into a ship of our own design, just to see if we can get one that works well...
It's the Round Corners Plugin, I got from Sketchucation. http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=20485&hilit=plugin
You need to be a member over there in order to download it, though it's worth joining in order to have access to the wealth of plugins and advice from other people also using Sketchup.
Here's something new I've been working on, an Infantry Fighting Vehicle. I still haven't started on the tracks. I'm also working on a new Mine Plow and armor kit similar to the Titan's. I've also include two half views so you can see the internal arrangement. All the crew and passengers will ride in the main body with the turret being a self contained weapon system, so no one sits inside the turret. I probably need to increase the size of the forward compartment where the driver and second crew member sits. The third crew position is the gunner station, from which all the weapons on the turret can be operated.
The IFV is 3.34 m wide (inducing the armor skirts), 5.65 m long (not including the plow), and 2.67m tall (not including the antennas). I worked very hard to keep the dimensions down so that the IFV would be able allow travel on most roads...used American Interstate lane width of 3.66 meters as the maximum width. This is also sort of why I haven't posted anything on the Titan in a while. When I started on the IFV and was focusing on the width, I realized the Titan was too wide. So I plan on going back and slimming her down so that like the IFV, the Titan can travel on most any one lane roads.
I also have a new APC in the works to make up for the fact the IFV can only carry four passengers. The APC can accommodate ten passengers and I should have something to show soon.
I wanted to keep the passenger number low, because I didn't want to combine the APC and IFV into a single vehicle, as well as keeping the overall vehicle smaller. Secondly, the IFV is intended to operate primarily as a fire support unit and will often carry smaller two-four person anti-armor missile or mortar squads; while accompanying tanks or more lightly armored troop transports like the APC I'm working on or the Bushmaster transport, a humvee like vehicle.
As for the engine, there's room I think in the space between the forward crew section and outer hull, for the main electric motors, which are assisted by several smaller motors in the side space between interior compartment and the out hull.
This is actually a fairly spacious vehicle, compared to it's modern counterparts. The Bradley and Warrior IFV's are only bigger by roughly less then a meter in length and both carry up to seven passengers. So just imagine the passenger section being only slightly larger, maybe the width of one of those seats, and then try picturing seven fully loaded troops crammed in there. Suddenly, individual seating for just four (rather then just some plain benches) look's pretty good. Because really, if you're going to be riding into battle, you should really do it comfortably. lol
As for the engine, as I said in my previous post, there is room for the electric motor in the forward hull between the crew cabin and the exterior hull. Some type of power cells would likely be located in the space between the crew/passenger section and the roof. Additionally, there is room between the sides of the exterior hull and the sides of crew/passenger section, which could contain various mechanical components.
In this quick render, I've built a simple block showing where the engine would be located.
A new pass on one of the many vtol concepts to be seen throughout the series. A futuristic tilt rotor concept that will likely be featured in the background of New Haven as an older design still in use...pressed back into service to help overcome combat losses.
Yes. The engine is the black block in the image. And as someone on another forum pointed out, there are cars (as well as bikes I think) now with electric motors in the wheels themselves, so perhaps something like that could be done hear, not only to share the work load from the main engine, but also as a sort of redundancy. You take out one wheel/engine and as long as the tracks are still intact, you should be able to keep going, or at least have enough movement to remove yourself from the battlefield without having to slow down the rest of your unit.
As for the crew compartment, yeah I did increase it's size a bit, so while it's still snug, there should be some more leg room.
I thought I had posted it already, but looking back I guess not;
I started tweaking the rifle and ended up with a much shorter version that I liked, so I decided to go ahead and make it the Carbine. There are some changes in the Carbine version that I plan to carry over back to the standard rifle, such as the changes to the receiver and and the magwell. The handguard for the standard rifle will be a cross between the new and older version, keeping most of the length of the old one, but looking more like the new one.
AR-559 Carbine
Here's a comparison showing the difference in length between the previous version of the rifle and the new Carbine.
There's still something that doesn't work quite right with the lower receiver and the magwell though. It just doesn't look right yet So I'll have to take another stab at it. Which reminds me, I need to start work on the various knives I have planned.
Thanks.
Those aren't habitats, but rather dedicated sensor and communication modules, though the Essex can be refitted during peace time to accommodate a variety of science lab modules as well. While communication and sensor modules are largely unmanned, the rotating core provides the science labs with a bit more gravity then the rest of the ship, but it's still rather light.
Since the spinning modules provide no gravity to the rest of the ship, light artificial gravity is achieved through the use of variable artificial gravity deck plating, though it can't yet produce earth standard gravity. So you're not entirely weightless and need to be strapped into a seat or tethered to the deck in most cases.
Additionally, the crew use a form of nano-velcro lined boots to adhere to velcro paths running throughout the corridors of the ship. With some training, the velcro boots allow the crew to walk and jog through most of the ship without flying off the deck, while providing much needed exercise to combat the effects of long term near weightlessness.
The Essex was designed as the command and control ship for the proposed UN Expeditionary Strike Group. So in addition to holding it's own in a long range stand off engagement, the Essex needed the communication and information gathering/analysis capabilities to coordinate the movement and combat operations of an entire strike group.
Basically, I'm trying to find a sort of middle ground between hard science of what we know is possible now and simply writing everything off as the common advanced technology that other sci-fi series take for granted like artificial gravity or faster than light travel. I'm striving for a certain amount of realism not only in the story itself, but in the series universe itself.
Thanks. It's still needs some work, but it's closer now to where I'd like the design to end up, then it's ever been. So I guess that's making progress.
The three main ships of the UN Expeditionary Strike Group, the Kirov, Essex, and Elco classes. There are other ships, but these are the three newest most advanced ships in service during the story.
The Kirov class still needs a lot of work to bring it closer in line to the Essex and the Elco, but the general shape and layout will likely remain the same.
Nice ships... Plenty of interesting surface features... We will quite possibly use some parts of those ships of yours as inspiration for the details on our Elgr class battleship model...
One question for you...
When you texture your models... Do you use montone or patterned textures?
Nice ships... Plenty of interesting surface features... We will quite possibly use some parts of those ships of yours as inspiration for the details on our Elgr class battleship model...
One question for you...
When you texture your models... Do you use montone or patterned textures?
Not sure but from what I have seen he is just like me and uses general monotone textures. Default texture tools in SU are pretty basic for these types of models, is best to use another piece of software for that, usually one built into a stand alone renderer such as THEA.
Nice updates by the way the one that is least completed is my favourite so far!
Yeah, I'm not even sure exactly how to do textures yet in SU, so for example in this case I just use the Paint Bucket tool to 'color' different sections of the ships and then exported it as a 2d graphic. When I do use Kerkythea to render a model, I just apply various materials to the different colored sections.
That being said, the more I use the 2d graphic export feature with an altered theme and color scheme applied to the model, the more I'm beginning to prefer it over an actual 3d render. It creates a very unique style that sets it apart from other 3d work.
Posts
This shot is from within the observation lounge on top of the ship.
Most of the UN ships will have at least one observation lounge like this, where the crew can gather to actually see some space. An Observation Lounge is the only place aboard ship with actual glass windows. Other rooms, like crew quarters use a micro-thin OLED display attached to a bulkhead to simulate the appearance of having a window looking out into space.
This version of the Elco is approximately 578 meters in length, that's from the tip of the main sensor mast all the way back to her tail. The Essex is 1033 meters in length. I wanted to keep the Essex under a 1000 meters, so I may remove the large forward sensor mast, particularly since the Elco now has an identical mast, and the Essex has the ring which is loaded with sensors. Doing so would bring it down to about 840 meters.
And here's a full shot of the Essex with the new ring.
I'm still not sure about the ring however. I didn't realize until earlier today that it pretty much makes the docking arms useless, to say nothing of trying to fit the entire ship inside any sort of enclosed dry-dock. So I might lose the ring entirely, unless an alternative can be found. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to entertain them.
Here's an alternate version of the Essex, minus the ring and a bit more the middle section, with the ringed version for comparison. They're to scale, but the alternate version is closer to the camera which is why they appear roughly the same length.
One alternative may be to decrease the diameter of the ring. I'm not sure yet if that will work, but it's a possibility.
This is the AR-558 assault rifle, the not so standard weapon in use by the united nations. This is the version represents the stock version and the accessories available for it. The slightly shorter AR-559 Carbine, is the more common variant used by infantry, while this version tends to be carried by officers in the field. This version does however serve as the basis for the Squad Advanced Marksmen Rifle as well as the upgraded AR-560 Squad Automatic Weapon.
I've still got some more work to do on this before it's done, but I wanted to share a WIP with you all before it was done.
your learning curve definetly was steeper than ours... but we've taken it slowly intentionally... (we're somewhere in our 7th year of sketchuping)
we rather like the blocky yet sloped designs you used... Oh, and the story around the ships is very engaging and creative...
its not similar to yours, though it too has fairly high detail level...
We might after our current project try adapting some of the design style you used into a ship of our own design, just to see if we can get one that works well...
what sort of tool / settings do you use to get the rounded feel on the corners of your ships?
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=20485&hilit=plugin
You need to be a member over there in order to download it, though it's worth joining in order to have access to the wealth of plugins and advice from other people also using Sketchup.
A rather practical tool, we'd say...
(the result we got without it on trying to make a ship with similar blockstyle failed without it)
Here's something new I've been working on, an Infantry Fighting Vehicle. I still haven't started on the tracks. I'm also working on a new Mine Plow and armor kit similar to the Titan's. I've also include two half views so you can see the internal arrangement. All the crew and passengers will ride in the main body with the turret being a self contained weapon system, so no one sits inside the turret. I probably need to increase the size of the forward compartment where the driver and second crew member sits. The third crew position is the gunner station, from which all the weapons on the turret can be operated.
The IFV is 3.34 m wide (inducing the armor skirts), 5.65 m long (not including the plow), and 2.67m tall (not including the antennas). I worked very hard to keep the dimensions down so that the IFV would be able allow travel on most roads...used American Interstate lane width of 3.66 meters as the maximum width. This is also sort of why I haven't posted anything on the Titan in a while. When I started on the IFV and was focusing on the width, I realized the Titan was too wide. So I plan on going back and slimming her down so that like the IFV, the Titan can travel on most any one lane roads.
I also have a new APC in the works to make up for the fact the IFV can only carry four passengers. The APC can accommodate ten passengers and I should have something to show soon.
Only 4 passengers in the back, I would double the size maybe?
I wanted to keep the passenger number low, because I didn't want to combine the APC and IFV into a single vehicle, as well as keeping the overall vehicle smaller. Secondly, the IFV is intended to operate primarily as a fire support unit and will often carry smaller two-four person anti-armor missile or mortar squads; while accompanying tanks or more lightly armored troop transports like the APC I'm working on or the Bushmaster transport, a humvee like vehicle.
As for the engine, there's room I think in the space between the forward crew section and outer hull, for the main electric motors, which are assisted by several smaller motors in the side space between interior compartment and the out hull.
As for the engine, as I said in my previous post, there is room for the electric motor in the forward hull between the crew cabin and the exterior hull. Some type of power cells would likely be located in the space between the crew/passenger section and the roof. Additionally, there is room between the sides of the exterior hull and the sides of crew/passenger section, which could contain various mechanical components.
In this quick render, I've built a simple block showing where the engine would be located.
The main comment we had was on the crampedness of the crew sections, not on the passenger area.
The forward crew seat looks more correct now.
As for the crew compartment, yeah I did increase it's size a bit, so while it's still snug, there should be some more leg room.
I thought I had posted it already, but looking back I guess not;
I started tweaking the rifle and ended up with a much shorter version that I liked, so I decided to go ahead and make it the Carbine. There are some changes in the Carbine version that I plan to carry over back to the standard rifle, such as the changes to the receiver and and the magwell. The handguard for the standard rifle will be a cross between the new and older version, keeping most of the length of the old one, but looking more like the new one.
AR-559 Carbine
Here's a comparison showing the difference in length between the previous version of the rifle and the new Carbine.
There's still something that doesn't work quite right with the lower receiver and the magwell though. It just doesn't look right yet So I'll have to take another stab at it. Which reminds me, I need to start work on the various knives I have planned.
Those aren't habitats, but rather dedicated sensor and communication modules, though the Essex can be refitted during peace time to accommodate a variety of science lab modules as well. While communication and sensor modules are largely unmanned, the rotating core provides the science labs with a bit more gravity then the rest of the ship, but it's still rather light.
Since the spinning modules provide no gravity to the rest of the ship, light artificial gravity is achieved through the use of variable artificial gravity deck plating, though it can't yet produce earth standard gravity. So you're not entirely weightless and need to be strapped into a seat or tethered to the deck in most cases.
Additionally, the crew use a form of nano-velcro lined boots to adhere to velcro paths running throughout the corridors of the ship. With some training, the velcro boots allow the crew to walk and jog through most of the ship without flying off the deck, while providing much needed exercise to combat the effects of long term near weightlessness.
The Essex was designed as the command and control ship for the proposed UN Expeditionary Strike Group. So in addition to holding it's own in a long range stand off engagement, the Essex needed the communication and information gathering/analysis capabilities to coordinate the movement and combat operations of an entire strike group.
Basically, I'm trying to find a sort of middle ground between hard science of what we know is possible now and simply writing everything off as the common advanced technology that other sci-fi series take for granted like artificial gravity or faster than light travel. I'm striving for a certain amount of realism not only in the story itself, but in the series universe itself.
Much larger version:
The Kirov class still needs a lot of work to bring it closer in line to the Essex and the Elco, but the general shape and layout will likely remain the same.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z159/Jimijames_jon/Fleet2a.png
One question for you...
When you texture your models... Do you use montone or patterned textures?
Not sure but from what I have seen he is just like me and uses general monotone textures. Default texture tools in SU are pretty basic for these types of models, is best to use another piece of software for that, usually one built into a stand alone renderer such as THEA.
Nice updates by the way the one that is least completed is my favourite so far!
That being said, the more I use the 2d graphic export feature with an altered theme and color scheme applied to the model, the more I'm beginning to prefer it over an actual 3d render. It creates a very unique style that sets it apart from other 3d work.