Designing ships [possible BFG scale]

[Malika]

In the meanwhile:





I've been playing a bit with the torpedo tubes, and parts of the prow armor.

[Blindhorizon]

Update.

Something else needs to be added to the front probably some armor plates, but the prow and cannon is pretty much done, just need to fill the cannon.

I plan on using the square turrets i already made for my frigate on this beast also.









Blind-

[mangozac]

Yeah the front is still a bit bare but some more details and it will come up nicely. What about some antenna masts pointing forward? Nice work on the layering of armour plates on the side!

[Blindhorizon]

Antenna's sound good, thinking some extra armor plates as well. I tried to layer to keep the same design concept that he had used on his 3d image, i think it came out well, i would have to spend an incredible ammount of time to get exactly what he had. And i think it's above my skill.

Blind-

[Malika]

So far your interpretation looks pretty cool! I can imagine that some of the details on the original design would be too insane to do, I mean stuff that is 0.1mm...damn...you'd need a microscope for that! :O

[Malika]

Two things I'm toying with for these ships. I've been getting a lot of feedback regarding the eagle head prow, meaning I'm starting to doubt whether to keep the eagle head or not. I kinda like the eagle head, gives it this megalomaniacal feel, but it does limit its use for other factions/games/settings. That in itself shouldn't really matter since this is primarily aimed at SITA/Sciror/etc.

But then I'm thinking, would other factions use the same type of ship? If so, would they perhaps have a different prow instead of the eagle head? What if I'd make it multi-part, enabling players to pick their prow?

Second piece of doubt is scale. At first I was thinking of having a prototype printed which would fit the BFG scale, since the ship would be classified as a cruiser in 40k, it would be around 80mm long. This means that a lot of the details would go lost, meaning I'd either have to remove a lot of the detailing, making it look more like a caricature almost, or go for a larger scale. I am very tempted to have this ship be made in a larger scale, around 200mm to 250mm long. The amount of detailing could then be really crazy.

However, this might bring a few problems:

*Multipart: When doing the ships on this scale, I would assume they'd have to be multipart kits. I guess this could be done by making the turrets, prows and components (blocks of which the ship is built of) separate. I wonder if multiple prow options would then still be fitting when doing it on such a scale... But on such a scale I might even have to make all the tiny components separate, meaning it could end up being a kit consisting of hundreds of tiny bits...

*Scale: When making the ship this big, it will become a very cool display piece, but it might not be that useful in a game of BFG or whatever other space ship game on that scale. That in itself isn't so bad, but I would imagine that a lot of the sales would go to clients who'd wish to use this ship as a proxy for other miniature lines. Should I keep this in mind when designing/producing this ship?

*Costs: I can imagine that producing such a large model will take a lot of resources. Having it 3d printed will cost a lot, meaning I'd really need to hollow out the ship as much as possible. But even then, having it cast afterward would also require a lot of resources.

But there are also some awesome advantages:
*I can go quite crazy on the details, add an extra level to what I've got now.
*The ship would really be an amazing display piece.
*Fighter drones, torpedos and boarding/drop pods would be more in the same scale as the ship. The Star Wars game sort of seems to be doing the same, so it might not be that weird to go down this route...

Your thoughts?

[Malika]

Ok...I have caved in, for now! The eagle prow is gone (once again: for now), and went for something more generic. Now I still need to make the front stand out a bit more. It will need some torpedo tubes and such. I'd prefer to the keep the prow pretty blocky like this, there's something crude and almost hammer-like about it.



I think that for now I'll be going for a more conventional size, meaning that the model will be around 80-90mm long. First of all because it will fit in easier with games like BFG and such, especially since I want this ship to be able to have been around in during the DAoT and Great Crusade. I might make a larger (and more detailed) version of it at a later date, sort of as a collectors' item.

As for this model, I've got a feeling that it's almost done and ready for a few test prints to see what it will look like at this scale.

Next up is a battleship. Since this stuff is originally meant for Sciror, I'll use Philip Sibbering's concept as a basis and sort of create my own interpretation of it:


I guess it will get some exhausts at the back and the front will be used as tordedo/pods launcher. The rectangles around the Distortion Engine (round thing in the middle of the ship) will function as launch bays. Hopefully more on that in the coming weeks...

[mangozac]

I think you've made the right choices.

I'm really glad the eagle head is gone, but can we see some 3/4 shots showing what the prow now looks like? The eagle head just made it look like a parody of itself and would be even more so if you did a large scale version IMO. I like the blocky prow, but it will still need some visual interest on the front. Antenna masts, cannons, shield generator domes, torpedo tubes, etc.

I reckon the 80mm length is optimum. 200-300mm long will make it very expensive to produce and without belonging to a well established system/background it would have an extremely limited target audience. Also, I feel that the overall blocky shape would not lend itself well for a display model because it's somewhat boring to look at. Yes, if you get up close and look at the details it's cool but from any distance it's just a giant block and doesn't pull in the viewer. I hope you don't take offence to that but I'm just giving my honest opinion.

There's no reason you can't still fit impressive details in at 80mm. Resin can reproduce any detail so you're doing to be limited solely by the printer and by how much details get obscured by a couple of layers of primer and paint. I'm not sure what paint thickness is, but I reckon it would be more than you expect (especially with a coat of rattle can primer).

[Malika]

[Islacrusez]

I'm currently working at the 0.2mm scale for "minimum" on the average protrusions. Anything smaller than that is likely to be wasted. Admittedly I've used 0.1mm in places, but generally not critical. Once I go to print, I'll be happy to let you know what has come back intact and what hasn't.

[Malika]

I'm very curious to see your results, especially certain details such as the torpedos you made.

Oi Blind, how is the scratchbuilding going?

[Malika]

On another note, I've been working on the ship again, and decided I really disliked the thrusters, so I removed them. However, this means I need new ones. Does anybody have suggestions? I'm very curious how the Chaos ships have their propulsion, but I haven't been able to find any decent pictures of the backs of those ships. But I also love the way the from Firestorm Armada have their thrusters. Holy Emperor, those guys made some really beautiful ships! I hope to one day reach that quality as well!

[Islacrusez]

I'll trade some detail shots of chaos thrusters (2 types of escort, the cruiser, and battleships) for detail shots of the thrusters you removed. I'll even throw in some advice

[Malika]

Awesome!

Here's a close up on the old thrusters:


Here is a close up on the current 'gap' I've got there:

[Malika]

I reworked the Distortion Engine a bit: