Drawing ships

[infojunky]

Do you ever sit down and just draw a ship? Then figure out what it's stats are?

 

[Spinward Flow]

I do the reverse.
I build out the stats then use those to determine how the ship ought to be drawn.

 

[Vargr Breath]

I think that's how the Scout Ship started out.

 

[Ulsyus]

Do you ever sit down and just draw a ship? Then figure out what it's stats are?

Not my (terrible) drawings, but other vessels I’ve seen pictures of

 

[Condottiere]

Having seen the results, I've stopped trying a while back.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Do you ever sit down and just draw a ship? Then figure out what it's stats are?

Sure, but then it's an iterative round-trip: drawing, stats, mod. drawing, mod. stats, mod. drawing, etc. If nothing else exterior hatches should work with the stats.


Stats are exact, drawings are fluff that can easily be reskinned.

Example: Two different drawings to the same stats, the Type S:

 

[Grav_Moped]

Not my (terrible) drawings, but other vessels I’ve seen pictures of

And my angle on it is taking drawings that were probably built around one set of deck plans but modified for publication, then trying to work out what they started out as.

 

[Vargr Breath]

In the original LLBs there were no drawings or deck plans so players had to dream up what they thought these ship's drawings and deck plans would look like. I seem to remember making the Scout Ship look more like a 50s/60s idea of a spaceship. And the Free Trader was a saucer. I don't remember doing the other 4 ships listed in 79's book 2. These were trashed when Snapshot came out in 79. I wish I would have kept the drawings and plans but that was a long time ago. Plus, they were really crappy.

 

[Diveguy]

In a similar vein, look at some of the Judge's Guild interpretations of those book 2 ships - VERY different than what we now take as "canon".

 

[infojunky]

I ran across an old notebook, whose margins are full of thumbnails. So got me thinking about the entire process of drawing.

 

[Vargas]

I wish I was that good.

 

[infojunky]

I wish I was that good.

I didn't say I was good... I just said that it is something I did....

 

[Ulsyus]

I ran across an old notebook, whose margins are full of thumbnails. So got me thinking about the entire process of drawing.

That’s a great starting point; there’s got to be some conceptual work done early on. Did you progress any or many I to deckplans, or even just detailed pictures?

 

[Vargas]

Sure, but then it's an iterative round-trip: drawing, stats, mod. drawing, mod. stats, mod. drawing, etc. If nothing else exterior hatches should work with the stats.


Stats are exact, drawings are fluff that can easily be reskinned.

Example: Two different drawings to the same stats, the Type S:
View attachment 3900

View attachment 3901

I enjoy looking back at some of the tech described in CT. It can be outdated but that's not a complaint, just an observation. This is one example, variable wings went away after aerospace tech became good enough to support unstable designs. It also adds less weight and maintenance complications to the platform. I'm old enough that this is an alternate iconic version of the Type S for me.

 

[Terquem]

Today I finished a 2d, Autocad render of the Eagle transporter from Space 1999, redrawn to work around making the module section exactly 30 dT and adding wall thickness to my preferences. I stretched the forward operating compartment, behind the flight control cabin, to incorporate at hatch on each side to allow access without going through the detachable module. It came in at 77 dT and I am calling it an 80dT modular shuttle.

 

[Nightwind1]

Today I finished a 2d, Autocad render of the Eagle transporter from Space 1999, redrawn to work around making the module section exactly 30 dT and adding wall thickness to my preferences. I stretched the forward operating compartment, behind the flight control cabin, to incorporate at hatch on each side to allow access without going through the detachable module. It came in at 77 dT and I am calling it an 80dT modular shuttle.

Pics?

 

[whulorigan]

Today I finished a 2d, Autocad render of the Eagle transporter from Space 1999, redrawn to work around making the module section exactly 30 dT and adding wall thickness to my preferences. I stretched the forward operating compartment, behind the flight control cabin, to incorporate at hatch on each side to allow access without going through the detachable module. It came in at 77 dT and I am calling it an 80dT modular shuttle.

Pics?

Indeed. Let's see it.

 

[BlackBat242]

I have done both. In particular, I used several plastic spaceships that I built" in my teens as the basis for ships.
I mostly just modify existing designs, however.


* I used pieces of other models to create new vessels.

 

[RocketDad]

When drawing for Traveller, I doodle general shapes then then use whatever tonnage I want for the design to get a sense of scale, then start adding details/ deckplans.

 

[Terquem]