Greetings!
Welcome to Scifi-Meshes.com! Click one of these buttons to join in on the fun.
Quick Links
3DLady Mac - Night's Dawn Trilogy
agelshaxe331
Posts: 0Member
Hello guys. I have some spare time these days and have decided to give-a-go at modelling something other than buildings.
I read the first volume of Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy recently. Pretty good stuff. Now I'm trying to model the Lady Macbeth, a spherical merchant ship that plays a big part in the book.
Just started, and it's still very rough. Kind of improvising as I go along.
I did do one or two sketches to show what I'm trying to achieve : a kind of rough, patchy look.
For now I've focused on getting the scale just about right, and one of the thrusters.
I also attempted a "Maser Cannon", but I'm not very happy about it at all (too small and flimsy looking, also those panels look funky). In the book, they are supposed to be camouflaged as communication arrays.
Hope to post updates soon!
(cover of the Reality Dysfunction for reference)
I read the first volume of Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy recently. Pretty good stuff. Now I'm trying to model the Lady Macbeth, a spherical merchant ship that plays a big part in the book.
Just started, and it's still very rough. Kind of improvising as I go along.
I did do one or two sketches to show what I'm trying to achieve : a kind of rough, patchy look.
For now I've focused on getting the scale just about right, and one of the thrusters.
I also attempted a "Maser Cannon", but I'm not very happy about it at all (too small and flimsy looking, also those panels look funky). In the book, they are supposed to be camouflaged as communication arrays.
Hope to post updates soon!
(cover of the Reality Dysfunction for reference)
Post edited by agelshaxe on
Tagged:
Additional credits
- Icons from Font-Awesome
- Additional icons by Mickael Bonfill
- Banner background from Toptal Subtle Patterns
© Scifi-Meshes.com 2001-2024
Posts
Nice start!
@Stormcloud : didn't remember that detail, thanks ! Will definitely help with the design of the various bits and pieces that stick out : telescopic arms and stuff. Gave another go at the maser cannon, though it still doesn't look fully retractable quite yet.
Also playing around with different detailing for the hull. Flying by the seat of my pants so-to-speak, we'll see if it gets me anywhere.
Peter F Hamilton Macbeth
There was a website ( now defunct) that went in to detail on the ships, combat wasps, radiators, mazors etc. still some pics out there just google the lady macbeth...
basics is it is a round sphere, that everything is retractable or covered by doors.. becasue the wormhole paterning nodes needed a perfect sphere to work.. and true. .anything extended was cutt off by the jump
loved this book series.. and happy that you are doing this!!
And his other books are just as good.. Well worth the read!
ADAMIST CLIPPER-CLASS FRIGATES (of which Lady Macbeth is one):
After the development team on New Kong discovered the miracle of instantaneous translation in 2115, the need for reliable, standardized intergalactic transport was paramount. The testbed prototype was never intended for handling the various demands of interstellar commerce and colonization. Sixteen years later, the spherical design of the Confederation frigate ushered in the massive colonization explosion with its proven, reliable track record.
When Govcentral began the Great Dispersal, the frigate played an integral part in taking colonists to their new homes on the terracompatible planets discovered between 2131 and 2205. Although the colonization effort was later assumed by bulk transports, the frigate has maintained a vital in Adamist transportation and military fleets.
The Clipper-class frigate’s utilitarian design reflects the limitations imposed by Adamist Zero Temporal Transit physics: the ZTT event horizon is perfectly spherical, so the fuselage is round and smooth. Patterning nodes, crucial to Adamist starflight, are mounted within the fuselage. The number of nodes a ship carries determines accurate jumps. If a significant number are damaged, jumps become extremely hazardous if not outright impossible.
Approximately 55m (180 ft) in diameter, the ship is designed to rest within a docking cradle while in spaceport. Piston-like latches engage sockets around the hull. Starships can also dock in space with each other, engaging hold-down latches used when landing at a space station or habitat. These latches are located on the aft hull. Each ship deploys its latches, which slip into locks on the opposite ship. Umbilical gantries, deployed from the ship’s equatorial ring plug into the spaceport’s coolant and environmental circuits while the cradle descends into the docking bay.
The ship is accessible through a circular hatch that opens onto the cylindrical airlock chamber located at the top of the life support section. There are three circular cargo doors on the forward hemisphere. Dull red thrust tubes fed by silver-foil cloaked cryogenic tanks extend from the stern to permit adequate maneuvering while conforming to the necessary silhouette. The fusion tubes are surrounded by a hexagonal stress structure. Although antimatter is outlawed in Confederation space, some trader captains have installed AM drive units on their ships as well as combat wasp racks.
A retractable x-ray cannon is used to vaporize space debris. Combat sensor clusters are powerful enough to track anything larger than a snowflake within 100km (62 mi.) of the fuselage. These metallic black spheroids, inset with circular gold-mirror lenses, are also retractable into jump recesses. Thermo-dump panels, common temperature-control devices extended after a jump to rid the ship of excess heat from the fusion generators, form a ruff collar around the equator. The ship’s communications gear, thermo-dump panels and receiver meshes are extended through hull ports while the ship is operating in real space. A captain who fails to retract his specialized equipment before initiating a jump will find the extension booms neatly sheared by the event horizon, leaving his ship blind and in danger of catastrophic overheating. The ship is effectively stranded since optical and electronic scanners are needed to realign the ship after each jump. This makes Adamist starships less flexible than Edenist bitek starships. The hull plates protect the ship’s delicate systems from direct exposure to space. For easy access during maintenance and repair, they are detachable from the outside with seam rivets and load pins. Green reactive indicator tabs on the inside of the hexagonal plates measure radiation and vacuum ablation; chemical rocket nozzles ring the ship’s equator, luminous yellow fountains that move the ship.
Flexible configurations are possible within the characteristic fuselage. However, standard layout consists of four separate life-support capsules (silvered spheres) grouped in a pyramid at the ship’s heart. Each capsule is 12m (39 ft) in diameter. Three high-thrust solid rocket motors were clustered around the base of the life capsules, used when the capsule functions as a lifeboat. Capsule A houses the bridge, which takes up half of the upper middle deck. Consoles and acceleration couches accommodate six crewmembers. The couches in the bridge and lounges have built-in zero-tau fields to protect passengers and crew from high-G maneuvers. When the ship is coasting, the acceleration couches tilt down from horizontal, transforming into oversized armchairs. Since neural nanonics interface with the flight computer from anywhere in the ship, the bridge is more of a management office. Control screens AV projectors provide specialist systems displays to back up datavised information. Capsules B, C, and D (the lower spheres), are split into four decks apiece. The middle levels follow a basic layout of cabins, a lounge, galley and sanitary facilities. The remaining decks house storage compartments, maintenance shops, equipment bays and airlock chambers for the spaceplane and MSV hangar. The spaceplane is extended out of the hangar on a circular docking ring clamped around its nose.
Most frigates are licensed to carry up to 30 active passengers or 80 in stasis if cabin bunks are replace with zero-tau pods.
Under ordinary combat conditions, the companionways linking a frigate’s four life-support capsules are sealed tight; capsule B contains a maintenance engineering deck, reached through a ceiling hatch; combat wasps cannot operate too deep into the ionosphere due to pressure considerations; when in space dock, a datalink umbilical can be connected to give the dock access to the onboard computer; hyperspace, when directly view from outside the ship, appears as an out-of-focus swirling gray fog.
THE LADY MACBETH:
Capt. Joshua Calvert; starship; like most Adamist starships, she has a spherical fuselage; there are four separate life-support capsules in the "Lady Mac," 12m (39ft) spheres grouped in a pyramid shape at the ship's heart. Capsules B, C and D, the lower spheres, were split into four decks apiece, with the two middle levels following a basic layout of cabins, a lounge, galley and bathroom. The other decks were variously storage compartments, maintenance shops, equipment bays and airlock chambers for the spaceplane and MSV hangar. Capsule A houses the bridge, taking up half of the upper middle deck, with consoles and acceleration couches for all six crewmembers. Because neural nanonics could interface with the flight computer from anywhere in the ship, it was more of a management office, with control screens and AV projectors providing specialist systems displays to back up datavised information; equipped with wide broad-spectrum multi-element receiver meshes mounted on ancillary booms to complement the main communications dish; triple fusion drive; has access hatch in bridge deck; sickbay in capsule C; airlock tube located in capsule B; when spaceplane hangar is empty, her mass distribution is off-center; gold-chrome-lensed combat sensors are smaller and bulbous compared to the standard sensor clusters, they replace the standard clusters when the ship is in combat mode; main communications disk is recessed and can swing about for use; she is armed with eight masers
Each capsule has a main lounge. The lower lounge in capsule B has its own bio-isolation circuit to accommodate xenoc atmospheric requirements.
When fitted for flight to Mastrit-PJ, Lady Mac massed just over 5,000 tonnes.
A simple dull-grey sphere 57m (187 ft) in diameter; four separate life support capsules; cylindrical hangar for space plane, smaller one for MSV and five main cargo holds; main lounge in capsule A ; main airlock, protected by fuselage shield, can telescope out for docking ; passenger lounge in capsule C.
Haven't had much time to advance on the Lady Mac recently... Spent a little while this evening adding a few details, some blast doors... Hoping to have a little more time in the coming days to take some bigger steps forward :argh:
I also want to give a go at the combat wasps and the space-plane, eventually... First things first though : the Lady needs attention.
mac_Top.jpgmac_Left.jpgmac_Back.jpgmac_Perspective.jpgguin_Perspective.jpg
Your LadyMac looks great, are you planning to build other things like Tranquilitiy or so?
In Germany each book of the trilogy was divided into two parts. Each part was then published as one book. So the German version had six books altogether.
Sure did! Can you tell how much the tech was thought out? But don't get bogged in the details. I provided them to help spur the creative impulse. I think you're ideas are looking great!
As far as the accuracy, I'm sure that anything you do for yourself is fine, but I would point out that the physics of the ZTT system (as outlined by Hamilton) requires that the exterior of the ship be as spherical as possible. As I read it, the event horizon of the jump system forms a few millimeters from the main hull. That would require that any devices that retract into the hull are recessed. If I were you, I would make all of the exterior parts recessed behind the main hull sphere. Don't take this as a negative critique: I love what you've done so far. In fact, a couple of years ago I sent an email to Hamilton requesting permission to make a 3D movie out of the trilogy. His lawyer sent me one back saying (paraphrasing) "hell no" and I stopped what I was doing. But I like that folks are beginning to branch out and pick it up. Maybe it's time to dust off the voidhawk project I've been working on . . .