Designing ships [possible BFG scale]

[mangozac]

Looks good. Sorry but I can't help you on the panel line sizing - maybe somebody else can?

The sensor array shouldn't look like optics - in scale they would be stupidly huge lenses! Domes and short antenna masts are the way to go. More like the Landspeeder.

[horizon]

Those panel lines seem just fine to me. The whole prow improved immensly by them.

And for the array I agree with Zac, the landspeeder style.

[Malika]

Yeah, I'm thinking the same when it comes to the array. The Land Raider one doesn't fit too well, especially in this scale. However, I would love to design some satellite arrays or telescope devices in BFG scale, sort of as objectives. I kinda missed the whole civilian tech, but it's understandable it has never really been made. The only thing I've ever seen was .

I notice I'm getting distracted again...

[Malika]

I tweaked the escorts slightly to improve their castability. The big change is that I've rotated the back thrusters. This will enable me to cast the ship as a single piece, rather than separating the back from the front. However, I've also had to remove the vent like elements on the side wings. I will have to see if I can come up with another cool detailing there, or perhaps keep it relatively simple.





I've also added some detailing to the prow, I guess it's some sort of scanner or something. It might make the casting process a bit trickier, so I might try to shrink it a bit. I don't want to be forced to have to cut up this small craft into multiple bits.

[mangozac]

Looking good. The level of detail keeps increasing!

If casting them as a single piece where do you intend to have the gate?

[Malika]

The gate is where the resin/metal/plastic/whatever comes through right? I would assume it would be coming in from the top, connecting to one (or both) of the domes. The mouldline (which hopefully would hardly be visible) would go vertically, meaning that each half of the mould is one of the sides of the ship (left or right).

[mangozac]

Correct

The domes are a terrible gate/vent location. Not only will it be a very small diameter (restricting flow), but it also the vent will make a mess of the dome shapes and thus will be a pain to clean up. The best place would be the prow (with the ship oriented vertically). It's still a pain to clean up but at least it's only curving in one direction.

[horizon]

Or under the ship? It is the least visible on the table top.

[Malika]

The ships are almost there I think...

[Malika]

As you can see I've added some new ships to the mix. The original two escorts have become Corvettes, and now they've got a Frigate (larger ship) and Destroyer (small fella) added to the mix.

I'm toying a bit with the background of this stuff as well. These ships are part of the Navis Mercantilis, in other words the mercantile fleet. Whilst suitable for military service, their primary purpose is to escort transport ships. It also explains why they don't deploy larger military craft such as Cruisers and Battleships.

The Corvettes are the main escort ship, the workhorse of the fleet if you will. Whilst small they can still carry quite the punch. Standardly armed with torpedoes the Corvettes either carry lances or deploy fighter craft.

Frigates tend to function as command ships for the escort fleets, armed with both fighter craft and lances, Frigates can stand on their own when fighting against raiders. Deployed in squadrons they can even hunt larger targets.

Destroyers are the smallest of ships, lightly armed with conventional turrets, they're meant to defend larger targets from large numbers of small escorts and fighter craft. The model still needs some work. A bridge need to be added, and I'm tempted to redesign the turrets.

[mangozac]

You've got a nice range of ships in a cool, unique style here! Good work!

What are your plans with it moving forward?

[Malika]

I have no concrete production plans yet. A fellow in the UK expressed interest in casting and selling the ships, but it's not set in stone yet. At the moment I don't have a budget yet or anything to do test prints, hopefully in the coming months. Around that time I could perhaps also consider my options regarding casting.

As for the ships themselves. In the meantime Ive slightly tweaked the bridges. I should try to start letting go of the Corvettes, they are practically done, so tweaking them more and more won't do that much (unless it's something mindblowing). The Frigate still need a bit of work on the detailing. The Destroyer has undergone some alterations (including a carrier variant), but will still need a bit of work until it's actually done.

After that it's finishing up the big transport ship, tweak its shape a bit and start adding details.

[Malika]

A little teaser of the ships I've got so far...

[Malika]

In the meantime, to give you an idea of scale:



The Transportship is about 100mm long, the Corvette about 42mm and the Destroyer stands at 33mm.

[mangozac]

Looking good. I still feel that the cruiser sized ship is a little on the blocky side, but not unbearably so...