3DNo, I Never Finish Anything, But...

Sovereign

Curator-class: Finished for now.

New Project added!

I guess I'll pull a fractal and put all my stuff in one place. I'm not copying him, I swear :P (Unless one can copyright the concept of "huge Star Destroyer").

The latest is revealed at the end of the thread...

Original Post

...this is the closest I've ever been to "finished." And I'm stuck on greebles. I actually did put in plating (as you can see), but it was a &^$%! The greebles in this shot seem too BIG and unvaried. I'm really lost as to what more to do (I have plenty of cylinders and boxes). Of course, the other half of the problem is when your standard is fractalsponge, it's a pretty high bar to jump over.

EDIT: New image containing feedback from this thread added to the first post.

LockeFP

Try reducing the number of turbolaser batteries by 1/2 and changing the elevation and direction on some of them. Not tremendously, but enough so that the end result looks like they were stowed by individuals in various positions of what they think "stowed" means.

Also, remember that the Star Wars universe doesn't use English lettering. The Roman numerals on the bays are out of place.

As for greebles, why not check out TurboSquid. I seem to recall them having a greebles section in there somewhere.

Aresius

The number of weapons right now remember more to a gun-boat. It's way too much for that size.

Also right on the numbers of the bays. Star Wars uses Aurabesh.
Here's a download for that, hope you can use it: http://davidocchino.com/portfolio/typography/aurebesh.html

Sovereign

Grabbed Aurabesh. Interestingly, the numbers in that font are pretty standard. As far as the number of guns go, canonically Star Destroyers are supposed to have 60 turbolasers (dual) and 60 ion cannons (single) plus the heavy side turrets. Where do they go?!? I don't see them on shots of the studio model, fractal's, or anyone else's.

This ship is supposed to be 2500m long, if that helps any. The idea was "more guns than a regular 1600m ISD." Perhaps rescale the guns in addition to removing some of them?

fractalsponge

The lighter armament is generally thought of as "too small to be seen on the model scale." The episode 3 ships generally seem to actually have positions for all the lighter guns (ICS, at least), but no one usually bothers for any of the older ships. You can't find a single obvious turret on the Executor.

I didn't try to add anything on the ISD, but for my own designs I detail down to medium turbolaser, and leave the point defense/really light guns as placeholders.

Since all of those guns on your model look like mediums (i.e. taking almost no power at all for a ship this big), the numbers themselves are fine. They look pretty disordered though. Try grouping them into batteries and organizing them a bit. Right now they're relatively high detail spots on a pretty plain background, so they really stand out. Given that they're scattered about it's pretty distracting.

I'd get rid of the smokestack detail at the prow, but that's just my opinion.

Sovereign

The "smokestacks" are my interpretations of Long-Range Turbolasers. Obviously, if they look like smokestacks then I didn't do them right...

I'll reorganize the turrets. Should I add more heavy guns? The ones at the back by the greebles are supposed to be the most powerful. I'm concerned about the scale, though--are the turrets (medium) too big for the ship? I tried to make them appropriately-sized given the big guns are 50m in diameter.

Aresius

2500m? If I go by the size of the turrets, I'd say it's barely more than 300m! That's what I meant by looking like a gun-boat. They're far too big.

fractalsponge

The mediums are fine. Scale them from the Acclamator's guns if you're worried they're too big.

2500m is about right, aresius, on the assumption that the hex bridge module is the KDY standard. It's a good thing it IS standard, otherwise scaling these things is really hard.

Sovereign

The bridge module was/is intended to be the KDY standard. What is the scale on the Acclamator's guns, anyway?

EDIT: Put the guns in batteries as fractalsponge suggested, ended up with more of both kinds of guns than I started with. 88 quad turbolasers, 56 single ion cannons. Most of the guns are actually on the bottom (which you don't see on "real" Star Destroyers but fractal certainly has lots of guns on the bottom of his ships). This was a fast render without any plating, which is going to need to be redone in light of the changes in the location of guns.

new gun batteries.jpg

LockeFP

Okay, that's a hell of a lot better. Having the turbolasers in groups like that really frees up the space for seeing the details on the hull, which I guess was the real issue with the last few images. About the long-range turbolasers: most likely, if you were going to go with something that large, you would still need it to be individually aimed. Star Destroyers have a horrendous time turning in any specific direction, so those wouldn't be effective unless you're going up against something even larger than this ship, which there aren't many of in the non-Imperial fleets.

Sovereign

My interpretation of this article was that the "nose" mounted long-range turbolasers were immobile. This based on the premise that since LRT are stated to have a "significantly longer effective range," so when they are fired the enemy is not in a position to respond. That is, they won't be moving until it's too late. They were also (Anakin Solo, anyway) used to fire on a planet, which isn't exactly a difficult target. They are also supposed to be "far more powerful" so I wanted something that looked excessively large.

Of course, I could be wrong--there isn't much material that deals with long-range turbolasers in the canon sense so if anyone has more information on the subject (or ideas), feel free to bring such information/ideas forward.

Aresius

Nice updates. I like the clusters.

Those frontal superguns are sure a tough thing. Could imagine them to be aimed at capital ships (they don't get away so easily either), stations or planets.

Sovereign

Here's a new shot with the gun batteries and plating, but no hangers/greebles visible (they exist, they're just hidden).
new guns and plating.jpg

Aresius

Plating's a bit too intensive right now. Lessen the extrusion intensity.
Else, I love it.

Aresius

Plating's a bit too intensive right now. Lessen the extrusion intensity.
Else, I love it.

Majestic

Nice Star Design, the design really fits in with the Star Destroyer design lineage.

Sovereign

Plating thinned (don't have the curves and re-obtaining them is a pain so I just moved the plates "inward").
even thinner plates.jpg

Aresius

Looks better alreay.

Sovereign

Have some greebles. Haven't fixed the Roman Numerals yet though.

Attachment not found.
Sorry the attachment doesn't show, I kept getting "token has expired" errors even after loading a fresh tab so I copy-pasted into another browser where that wasn't happening (i.e. not FF4b7)... Note: this odd behavior just started today.

Sovereign

I came up with this quick idea today--even with the long-range turbolasers this ship seems too lightly-armed for a vessel of its size. Hence, the following experimentation. The whole "frontal spine" was inspired by fractal's similar ship-spines with many cannons on them. The turrets (4) are newly-made for this.
bigguns.jpg

jedi44

Really like this ship,well done.

Sovereign

Thanksgiving Day update! (Waiting for food). Decided to fully plate over the front spine-thing. The big hanger is the "assault hanger" (gunships, transports, etc. launch from there). Yes, I know the plating looks...weird...not sure what happened. Needs to be thicker though as it looks like a bad texture right now.thanksgiving update.jpg

oldmangreg

Not so sure about the hanger. I think it should flow with the rest of the ship. Perhaps bring down the front part so it is parallel to the rest of the ship.

Sovereign

Do you mean make the top of the spine parallel or just the part with the hanger in it?

fractalsponge

Try moving the turrets so they are superfiring, rather than having some stuck with most of their forward arcs wooded by other turrets. Also, that first one on the spine looks like it should have an subsurface assembly extending into the hangar, which doesn't make too much sense.

Personally I'm just not a big fan of dorsal forward-facing hangar arrangements, considering they tend to put the weakest point of the ship in full view of the part likely to be exposed most to the enemy (i.e. the ship's own alpha arc). If it does have a dorsal forward-facing hangar, make it so most of the armament can be used while the ship is facing away to manage a clear launch/recovery. Goes largely out the window if the ship is supposed to be a specialist carrier, but this looks like a regular star cruiser that shoots at warships more than ferries fighters.

Sovereign

Thanks for the input, guys.

new concept plate.jpg

1. Removed forewardmost turret.
2. Redid plating to make it thicker..

EDIT: Decided to suck it up and slash through the hull to create a layer for another turret instead of the hanger.

Aresius

I'm not sure about the hangar at all. I mean, doesn't it have a dorsal hangar, like all Imperial ships?

[Deleted User]

I like it, however I question the usefulness of the large turrets. They are in such close proximity and actually make the ship seem small. The modeling is very good, and I like your idea. The turrets on the deck look closer to the scale.
D

Sovereign

Aresius, I actually decided to get rid of the forward hanger entirely, replacing it with another big gun turret. I probably edited my post as you were making yours...

more guns, top redone.jpg

It does not have a hanger on the bottom (only in the trenches). I'll admit, trench-hangers are unusual, but I wanted to break with tradition just a little bit. The game Rebel Assault II implies there are some hangers located in the trench-area of the Executor Star Dreadnaught Terror, so I figured I wasn't completely off-base. Also, here is a fine example of an Imperial ship sans dorsal hanger.

oldmangreg

Not to burst your bubble but games aren't the best way for canon information. Having a hanger in the trenches is not bad idea.

Sovereign

oldmangreg, I think you misread what I was saying. It is precisely because there WERE hangers in RAII that I felt it was justified.