Designing ships [possible BFG scale]

[Islacrusez]

[Malika]

[Islacrusez]

[mangozac]

I really like those escort designs - the protruding side details really reduce the boxiness of the design (something I still feel lets down the larger ship designs). It's hard to comment on the prints - perhaps you could hit them with a thin coat of grey primer? I'm glad you're somewhat pleased with the print quality.

[Malika]

I know what you mean about the cruisers, I've got the same feeling at the moment.

I did a test check on shapeways regarding the printability of the ship, apparenty now it has a lot of parts that are 'too thin' to print (even though I've never changed those bits since the first print when it was just fine...), which means another excuse to edit the model and make it less boxlike.

[Malika]

I started with a little experiment:


Let me know what you think.

I'm also planning on making the 'gaps' between the blocks of the ship (between prow and launch bays, between launch bays and engine, etc) a bit deeper, thereby also lessening the singular block feel.

[mangozac]

Can you post a pic from another angle?

[Malika]

Here some other views of the ship:



The Distortion Engine will still need a lot of work, new detailing to be added, some of the old stuff having to be removed. That part also offers a nice possibility to create a 'gap' into the ship, thereby breaking the block shape when looking at it from the top or bottom.

[Malika]

Been tweaking the design some more, oh and quickly added some colours for this little picture:


Man...I need to learn some proper Photoshop/Illustrator/whatever...

[mangozac]

The protrusions between the void drives are a good addition, but I worked out what I think it needs: some asymmetry. At the moment looking at the ship end on it is symmetrical in all directions: up-down, left-right, diagonally. IMO that needs to be changed to add some more visual interest. Traditionally we are used to and generally like left-right symmetry by up-down symmetry makes it boring. Perhaps add some more protrusions and things on the bottom. Antennae. Domes. Fins. Etc.

[Islacrusez]

Also looking at the two ships in the picture above, not much in the way of visual distinctness between front and rear...

[Malika]

Rear is slightly thinner, and has a different armour pattern. The front contains torpedo launchers, am pondering to also make it more heavily armoured, not sure yet.

Decided to give the ship some more firepower...



I'm not fully happy with them yet, they can't really turn or anything, and on some parts (especially on the carrier module) they seem rather forced, as if somebody had too many guns lying around and decided to glue them on his ship. Might remove them, or replace them for small turrets (like the side turrets of my escorts) to make them look more subtle...

[Malika]

In the meantime I've started to remove the broadside weapons I've added yesterday and am replacing them for smaller turrets:


I checked it on printability and it should be all fine, which is great since I'm really digging the smaller turrets, they also make the bigger turrets look huge, which in effect makes the ship look bigger as well!

After that it's some more detailing, especially the gap parts between the components and see if I could perhaps beef up the torpedo prow. In the meantime the turret component will receive a serious overhaul, with the turrets being based on the prow cannons of the escort.

[mangozac]

The smaller turrets do look good. I have to agree with Islacrusez though: the prow and stern are too similar looking in profile so it's not immediately obvious which is the front. I'd try out some more protruding detail on the stern.

[Malika]

Hmm, seems I went the other way around! Decided to beef up the front of the ship a bit by making the torpedo component slightly bigger:




Still needs some tweaking.