liam887

One of my favourite artists growing up was Chris Foss, such a big inspiration and the countless scifi book covers I created. A few years ago I picked up HARDWARE: The definitive works of Chris Foss and decided to take something a bit challenging out to have a go as one of my weekend projects.

The SAAB Heimdallr has been the mainstay of the Swedish Orbital Deterrence mission since 1988. The squadrons rotate on deployment providing a constant overwatch on potential Soviet ICBM’s.

The crew of two, a Commander and Weapons System Officer enjoy quite a large space, larger than the Apollo capsules decades before. They are able to stay in orbit for up to 10 days but this can be extended if needed.

Powered by a combined cycle precooled jet engine and closed cycle rocket engine (SABRE) running on an air and Liquid Oxygen/Hydrogen mix. They are able to achieve SSTO and land conventionally at the end of the tour, on an improvised runway if needed.

The spacecraft contains a miniaturized reactor supplying electricity to a high output laser, its offensive means to counter enemy missiles in the boost and mid course stages. A radiator array is deployed in orbit to provide cooling for these systems.
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Well this is the last in my series from the past week on the SAAB I was designing. What was originally a 24 hour challenge went a bit further... I have put almost three days into it now. Made in Blender and rendered in Cycles. Not affiliated with SAAB or Volvo, just some fun hobby work.

Its not supposed to be mechanically or scientifically accurate in any way, but I have generally tried to keep the science grounded at least with exisiting or in development technologies. I chose the Norse spelling instead of Swedish for Heimdallr too.

The idea of the design was based on a sketch from Dipo Muh. I’ve also included some cross section images that inspired me from my personal library (The Warplane book series from Orbis publishing).

I picked up Big Medium Small's Astronova characters as soon as they came out but have been too busy in work to dive in. I finally had a chance last week and have eagerly been puttiing this scene together from some recycled Orbiter parts I had from an unused project ever since. Ive had some great input from other designers on how to work with the mist pass in Blender to create some better depth.

This has been my first project in Blender 4.0 and I am really loving the render speeds, a full 4k scene in less that 10 mins, including lighting, volumetrics, and compositing.

For this weeks fun project, I thought I would start with some animation. It has been really fun to work with Rasmus Poulsen and BIG MEDIUM SMALL's latest modelshop kit https://www.bigmediumsmall.com/modelshop-greebles which ive used to assemble about 50% of these ships, the majority of the exteriors at least. Engine effects from Rui Huang.