3DASF Heavy Ships WIP Thread (Spiral War)

Knight26

I decided to break this out into its own thread away from the Splicer Corps fighters. This thread will follow the ASF Corps and its heavy ships, bombers, dropships, and transports.

I am starting off with the on the Ferine Heavy Dropship. In standard practice the Ferine carries troops in the central hull, and the outrigger pods carry vehicles, though all three can carry troops or vehicles. The central fuselage can and does rise up to allow the troops off.

I am looking at going one of two directions:

The original WIP had two wings on each that folded down connecting the main fuselage to outrigger pods, with a narrow 2ft x 2ft tunnel allowing access between the three hulls. The biggest problem I see with this is the size of the tunnel, it is small and with the exception of children or smaller races everyone would have to crawl in the tunnel(s). This would be even harder if geared up.

The new idea is a single wing that split into three pieces, the central piece would have the access tunnel, 4ft in diameter, and the two other pieces would have lift engines should the de-grav generators fail. The larger tunnel should allow even a fully geared up 6' tall individual to make a crouch run between hulls, if the angle doesn't require use of the ladder.

The engine configuration is still up for debate, if I go with the second design version I will likely drop the main fuselage engines in favor of wing engines, to be added, then I will also add a rear ramp to the main fuselage. I may also completely revamp the whole main fuselage depending in which wing configuration I end up going with. The Dropship will be heavily armed.

So which version do you folks this is the better way to go?

colbmista

ur links are invalid attachments

Knight26

Try now I reattached them, lost one shot by accident will readd when I get home.

colbmista

i like the 3rd

Knight26

Right now I am leaning towards the single thick wing that splits. So here is a picture of how it looks inflight (top), and when landed with the main fuselage raised (bottom).

Knight26

update on the Ferine. I've stripped the original engines, will design new ones, burying sets in the wings, and more in the out-rigger pods, maybe some in the central fuselage too, I haven't decided yet. I've also re contoured the back end of the primary fuselage, and am working on the cockpit area now, but ACAD is being a pain today.

spacefighter

nicely done.

Knight26

Ok, cut in the wing engines and recontoured the nose, here a few shots.





I will work on fixing up the outriggers, and folding outer wings next, and adding armament.

Knight26

Update on the outriggers and new wings. I will put in the engines next, then the weapons.

spacefighter

Knight26 wrote: »

Update on the outriggers and new wings. I will put in the engines next, then the weapons.

nice work, but if you are still using that 3 rotating sections form of changing the pod's height perhaps return to the other method, i think it looks better. i noticed a large number of small spheres in some kind of bay along the side of one of the engine pods, are they landing gear or something? also the flaps at the front of the engine pods, do they fold up to fill up the intake for use when there are debris in the area or something similar? i am assuming that the two large pods are the engines.

Knight26

Perhaps I didn't make it clear before.

1) I am going with the segmented wing concept. Lift engines are embedded in each segment, with smaller ones in the middle segment. The middle segment also has the transfer tunnel that allows personnel to transfer between the central hull and the outrigger pods. This system is far stronger than the other version which would have a harder time carrying the load in either position. Also the transfer tunnel, as explained before, would be prohibitively small.

2) This is a trimaranish design, all three hulls are capable, and do carry troops, cargo or vehicles as the mission dictates. Those "flaps," are the cargo doors/embarcation ramps, though the design will change. Another ramp/lift platform will go on the cental fuselage too, as well as smaller crew doors up front. I will be adding more engines to the outrigger pods, which will act as the main engines for forward flight.

3) Yes those balls are the landing gear, good catch, each one is independantly steerable, allowing pretty nice manuverability on the ground. The central fuselage will also sport a smaller set for "normal" landings.

bbzwbbzw

I'm digging this one Knight. The rotating sections are a nice take on V/TOL.

Knight26

@bbzwbbzw
Thanks, ASF ships have a great deal of redundancy, so even though they have anti-grav lifters the lift engines are there to supplement or supplant them.

Small update on the engines.

colbmista

love this design despise the cockpit area

Knight26

Well the design is still pretty fluid at this point, what is your problem with the cockpit? I am not 100% on it either, might slide it forward to give it some better downward visibility, but don't want it totally underslung, or is it the gullet? I have plans for the gullet, so it needs to stay.

colbmista

just doesnt suit the rest of the design

BradMick

Great work Knight! The cockpit looks to...fighterish to me. I like the visibility it provides, but I feel like maybe the cockpit should look more C17-ish or really I guess just traditional. The sense of scale is kind of broken to me because it's a common design element carried over from the fighters. That's my take on it anyway. Looks great overall though, she's a big beastie!

Knight26

The cockpit is actually cribbed from an old bomber design of mine. I think what I was trying to do was give the pilots a good field of view, but unfortunately that didn't work out right. Perhaps if I move the cockpit further forward and down perhaps even sliding it under the nose. What I don't want to do is have straight in line with the cargo bay, it needs to be raised, even just a bit, like on the C-17/C-5, but I agree it needs more downward visibility.

Knight26

Here is the new cockpit, I may have to nickname this the flying war turtle based on how it looks. Thoughts?


And a quick cockpit view:

Will work on the landing gear next and carving out the main bay.

spacefighter

to be honest i think i preferred the old cockpit, the new one does not look right from the outside and rather spoils the design.

colbmista

really i thought it was an improvement the old cockpit didnt fit the disign at all this one is much better

Knight26

It give is a lot better natural visibility too and allows easier integration with other features I want to incorporate. Though I think I will cut some ceiling viewports as well, still toying with it.

BradMick

Looks great to me! The visibility is awesome!

bbzwbbzw

I think the new cockpit looks great and is a big improvement over the old one. Gives the whole ship a different feel.

Knight26

Thanks for the compliments guys, I will post some more updates later this week.
My current build plan is as follows:
New landing gear pods, keeping the ball landing gear.
Hollow out the central bay and add in the door/lift platform.
Add Weapons: thinking 3x dorsal medium turrets, and 6x ventral anti-personnal turrets at the doors.
Detail in additional hatches, crew and drop hatches.
Detail up the interior and exterior.

Knight26

Finally had a chance to get some progress in.

Updated landing gear and pods

Cockpit upper windows

Quick cockpit interior

Main Bay cutout and rear doors

Dorsal Turrets in place

Outrigger anti-personnel turrets mounted above ramp

Main Bay anti-personnel turret, may mount more