I've been meaning to get to these for a while, but finally just now sat down and tried to knock them out. I think they turned out somewhat decent for the first go.
And an update for the map. Still need to do some work on a few of the coasts, add in cities, and pinpoint a few places for significant battles, but it's coming along. I'm thinking that I probably won't break each continent down into countries, but rather just go with major cities as the main points of location.
Working on an Airlock-Umbilical connect Hub for the Essex class. The Hub features a standard UN airlock crew passage way, and three power/fuel transfer connection points. Inspired by the Airlock on Rich-M's UNSC Frigate
There seems to be a problem though with how the door will open, specifically where they go once they are retracted. So I'll probably have to make a few changes.
Thanks. The ship that airlock is attached to, is roughly 625 meters long, probably a bit more with the forward sensors attached which were absent from the model when I measured it.
Taking a break from the Essex to work on some new 2d updates.
I've started work on the side view of the Cayuga. It's still pretty basic at this point.
A WIP showing off the Adaptive Suspension on the Bushmaster, which allows the vehicle to traverse a variety of terrains, by altering ride height on the fly. The system works in tandem with the vehicles drive system, allowing the operate to shift the ride height as needed with the push of a button.
This pic also shows the removable 'camper' that covers the back end, sort of similar to how there are different back ends for the Humvee. The left version shows the regular pick-up minus the camper top, while the right pic shows the angled camper top. There's also another enclosed version of the camper that's not angled and allows for more internal cargo room, however because of it's dimensions, it decreases the effective field of fire of the ROWS platform.
There's also a version of the pick up that features a reinforced bed so that it can support a larger mounted gun. This serves the role of light escort.
There's also a an unarmored light transport version of the standard vehicle, which basically just strips off the doors and much of the armor. It also removes the ROWS platform from the roof and the ROWS station from inside, and replaces them with a man operated light machine gun, or grenade launcher. This version is rarely used in combat and is relegated to base duty in low threat level AO's.
New version of the Little Bird, which rather then giving it some complicated tilt-jet engine setup, is just a straight up helicopter. It still carries over the same basic concept though of being a small remotely piloted transport/gunship.
And here's a comparison pic to show all three to scale, so you can get a sense of how large the Cayuga is. It's actually bigger then I thought it would be.
We look forward to seeing the next development of the Essex, just as you probably look forward to seeing what we've made in project Austsniea.
The project is not changed enough from its source to deserve a thread here yet.
Most of the work on the Essex class now has to do with simply trying to add more detail to the various components. The design itself is primarily done, however there might be a few slight changes for the third ship of the class, the UNV - Shangri-La. The Essex and the Ticonderoga are practically identical because they were built almost at the same time, however a number of events transpired during the conflict which caused some major delays in the construction of the Shangri-La, and when construction finally resumed, it was decided that the ship needed a few upgrades.
So I have some changes in mind for the Shangri-La that are slowly taking shape, but I won't be showing it's upgraded form for some time because it doesn't appear until later in the series. On the other hand, some designs that won't appear until later have already been shown, such as the Slava Landing Craft which doesn't enter service in the conflict until about the same time as the Shangri-La.
I've done some more work on the Essex, changing a few things here and there. I rebuilt the storage tanks and built all new thrusters that now have vectoring thrust to help the ship maneuver more efficiently. Reverse thrust and braking is handled by a separate set of thrusters located on the main engines that bleed exhaust off the engines and reroute it forward. I'll get a render of that shortly.
The rest of the changes don't need much explanation, except for the large 'dishes' submerged within the hull. Those are either telecommunication arrays or some sort of LIDAR array.
The Essex was designed to serve as the command and control ship of an Expeditionary Strike Group, so aside from its own arsenal of weapons (64 Viper Missiles, each carrying twelve independently targetable nuclear powered x-ray lasers), it has to see and track everything on the battlefield and be able to relay that information not only between ships, but down to units on a planets surface.
Render of the engine section, with the new vectored reverse thrust nozzles.
These changes make the Austsniea look even less like the Essex. It is good to see them divert even more from each other, though your additional parts are of much higher detail than ours as of yet.
So, here's the new details on the forward section, as well as the rest of the primary hull. As you can see, I've left out a lot of the smaller components from this render. I'll try to get more of it together in the next render.
Note, this pic is big.
The vertical missile tubes located on top of the ship are still there, though they are unrendered in the last image. However if memory serves, there were smaller angled missile tubes on the version of the Essex that I sent you. Those missile tubes are no longer present on the Essex and the Ticonderoga, however the third ship in the class, the Shangri-La, will have them.
I tried rendering the entire ship with all components visible but Kerkyethea wouldn't have anything to do with it. I got an error message saying there were either errors with the model or not enough resources available to render the model. So I guess, it's another round of trying to clean things up even more.
If it had worked though, it'd look something like this.
Now that message is familiar... We too get it often when trying to render the model.
The smaller angled tubes were the ones we referred to. You had yet to add the vertical ones on the model you gave us. only a single angled was there, but we added a number of others and modified it a bit.
Now that message is familiar... We too get it often when trying to render the model.
The smaller angled tubes were the ones we referred to. You had yet to add the vertical ones on the model you gave us. only a single angled was there, but we added a number of others and modified it a bit.
A WIP of the UN's standard set of rank insignia pins. Not sure yet how this will extend to shoulder boards and sleeves.
Also, this.
Started working on the updated version of the Alliance Guardsmen - Standard Infantry Rifle. I plan on carrying over some details from the previous version ([link]) while making a number of improvements and borrowing a few details from various real world weapons.
This is the full length rifle variant. There will likely be a cut down carbine version as well.
The Guardsmen SIR is a bit more advanced then it's UN counterpart, operating as a semi-automatic low yield rail gun as compared the the AR-558 gas operated rifle. The gun is slow to fire and operators are trained to fire precision single shots, as opposed to raid sustained bursts. While the weapon is much more powerful then the UN standard rifle, it is vastly less powerful then other railguns currently in operation and performs poorly against moderately armored vehicles.
Additional improvements have been made to UN body armor to combat the effects of the weapons lethality, however these improvements have met with limited effects.
This is another example the Alliance possessing superior combat technology over the United Nations. The UN has had limited success with miniaturizing rail gun technology for use in hand held weapons. The one rifle to be fielded, measures over a meter in length and is difficult to use, carry, and maintain. This 'Long Rifle" sees only limited use as an anti-material weapon in some UNMC sniper teams.
I've put the finishing touches on the UN rifle and carbine. The design id finalized and I'm happy with the colors for now. Both sport a full operational load out.
There might be a few final details to tweak and the scope could use a bit more detailing and colorization, but it can wait.
Two main variants remain, a sniper and SAW. Still need to finish the shotgun attachment and a few other accessories.
Posts
I've been meaning to get to these for a while, but finally just now sat down and tried to knock them out. I think they turned out somewhat decent for the first go.
And an update for the map. Still need to do some work on a few of the coasts, add in cities, and pinpoint a few places for significant battles, but it's coming along. I'm thinking that I probably won't break each continent down into countries, but rather just go with major cities as the main points of location.
There seems to be a problem though with how the door will open, specifically where they go once they are retracted. So I'll probably have to make a few changes.
I've started work on the side view of the Cayuga. It's still pretty basic at this point.
A WIP showing off the Adaptive Suspension on the Bushmaster, which allows the vehicle to traverse a variety of terrains, by altering ride height on the fly. The system works in tandem with the vehicles drive system, allowing the operate to shift the ride height as needed with the push of a button.
This pic also shows the removable 'camper' that covers the back end, sort of similar to how there are different back ends for the Humvee. The left version shows the regular pick-up minus the camper top, while the right pic shows the angled camper top. There's also another enclosed version of the camper that's not angled and allows for more internal cargo room, however because of it's dimensions, it decreases the effective field of fire of the ROWS platform.
There's also a version of the pick up that features a reinforced bed so that it can support a larger mounted gun. This serves the role of light escort.
There's also a an unarmored light transport version of the standard vehicle, which basically just strips off the doors and much of the armor. It also removes the ROWS platform from the roof and the ROWS station from inside, and replaces them with a man operated light machine gun, or grenade launcher. This version is rarely used in combat and is relegated to base duty in low threat level AO's.
New version of the Little Bird, which rather then giving it some complicated tilt-jet engine setup, is just a straight up helicopter. It still carries over the same basic concept though of being a small remotely piloted transport/gunship.
And here's a comparison pic to show all three to scale, so you can get a sense of how large the Cayuga is. It's actually bigger then I thought it would be.
Update for the Little Bird UCAV transport.
Gunship variant:
My first attempt to try and draw the body armor combat suit worn by the Advanced Reconnaissance Operations Service (AROS, pronounced Arrows).
And a new concept for the Slava Landing craft.
The project is not changed enough from its source to deserve a thread here yet.
So I have some changes in mind for the Shangri-La that are slowly taking shape, but I won't be showing it's upgraded form for some time because it doesn't appear until later in the series. On the other hand, some designs that won't appear until later have already been shown, such as the Slava Landing Craft which doesn't enter service in the conflict until about the same time as the Shangri-La.
The rest of the changes don't need much explanation, except for the large 'dishes' submerged within the hull. Those are either telecommunication arrays or some sort of LIDAR array.
The Essex was designed to serve as the command and control ship of an Expeditionary Strike Group, so aside from its own arsenal of weapons (64 Viper Missiles, each carrying twelve independently targetable nuclear powered x-ray lasers), it has to see and track everything on the battlefield and be able to relay that information not only between ships, but down to units on a planets surface.
Render of the engine section, with the new vectored reverse thrust nozzles.
These changes make the Austsniea look even less like the Essex. It is good to see them divert even more from each other, though your additional parts are of much higher detail than ours as of yet.
Your ship tends to have more of the small details than Project Austsniea. We tend to prefer having a more simplistic outer hull.
Note, this pic is big.
Have you completely removed the missile tubes present on older versions of the Essex? or are they unrendered on the current image?
I tried rendering the entire ship with all components visible but Kerkyethea wouldn't have anything to do with it. I got an error message saying there were either errors with the model or not enough resources available to render the model. So I guess, it's another round of trying to clean things up even more.
If it had worked though, it'd look something like this.
The smaller angled tubes were the ones we referred to. You had yet to add the vertical ones on the model you gave us. only a single angled was there, but we added a number of others and modified it a bit.
The smaller angled tubes were the ones we referred to. You had yet to add the vertical ones on the model you gave us. only a single angled was there, but we added a number of others and modified it a bit.
Also, this.
Started working on the updated version of the Alliance Guardsmen - Standard Infantry Rifle. I plan on carrying over some details from the previous version ([link]) while making a number of improvements and borrowing a few details from various real world weapons.
This is the full length rifle variant. There will likely be a cut down carbine version as well.
The Guardsmen SIR is a bit more advanced then it's UN counterpart, operating as a semi-automatic low yield rail gun as compared the the AR-558 gas operated rifle. The gun is slow to fire and operators are trained to fire precision single shots, as opposed to raid sustained bursts. While the weapon is much more powerful then the UN standard rifle, it is vastly less powerful then other railguns currently in operation and performs poorly against moderately armored vehicles.
Additional improvements have been made to UN body armor to combat the effects of the weapons lethality, however these improvements have met with limited effects.
This is another example the Alliance possessing superior combat technology over the United Nations. The UN has had limited success with miniaturizing rail gun technology for use in hand held weapons. The one rifle to be fielded, measures over a meter in length and is difficult to use, carry, and maintain. This 'Long Rifle" sees only limited use as an anti-material weapon in some UNMC sniper teams.
There might be a few final details to tweak and the scope could use a bit more detailing and colorization, but it can wait.
Two main variants remain, a sniper and SAW. Still need to finish the shotgun attachment and a few other accessories.
Great Work
I rebuilt most of the back end and pretty much all of the mid section. it still needs some work, but you get the idea.
Also, this turret.