Ganymede-class Battlecruiser

[Ronnke]

Terran Confederation, Ganymede class battlecruiser.

This is still a work in progress, so there is still much to do. I have included an insert with a man standing in one of the three hanger bays to give you a sense of scale. I have not done any volume calculations so I have no idea as to how many dtons it is.

I have also rendered a test firing of the ship's laser turret, you can view that from the following YouTube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jeaa_28I0M

That's all for now, I will post updates as it progresses.

 

[shadowcat20]

Thats good work. I think it might be in the 50 to 100KT range as a rough guess.

 

[far-trader]

Nice lines and good interest bits. I like it!

Be interesting to see what the size comes out at. At a guess a few 10s of Ktons to a couple 100s of Ktons maybe. Those "turrets" on the dorsal hull are bay weapon size I'd say and there's definitely looking like room for a spinal weapon mount if desired.

 

[navanod]

Very nice. The turret animation and lighting are spot on.

 

[Ronnke]

Far-trader's guess was closest at a couple of 100s of ktons. Rough calculations put the ship at 300 ktons. This is far too big for the ships intended purposes, and I am going to have to rescale it a bit.

The ship has a total crew complement of around 600 souls, with around 80 of those being Marines. The hangers of this ship are important as they are required for Marine deployments. There needs to be sufficient room to house a few dropships and some ground support vehicles, so in rescaling it's the hanger that I will be concentrating on.

 

[Swiftbrook]

Far-trader's guess was closest at a couple of 100s of ktons. Rough calculations put the ship at 300 ktons. This is far too big for the ships intended purposes, and I am going to have to rescale it a bit.

The ship has a total crew complement of around 600 souls, with around 80 of those being Marines. The hangers of this ship are important as they are required for Marine deployments. There needs to be sufficient room to house a few dropships and some ground support vehicles, so in rescaling it's the hanger that I will be concentrating on.

Math stuff: If you doubled the size of your figure, you cut your volume by 8 to 37,000 dtons. That might be closer to your range. This might also mean increasing the size of your door

-Swiftbrook

 

[far-trader]

Crew of 600 with 80 Marines and associated gear...

...I'd peg the desired size at around 50Ktons, in CT/HG anyway. Swiftbrook's "math stuff" would work pretty well

For the hanger bays, if the doors won't fit at the sides on your rescaled model maybe they could be ventrally mounted... "drop ships" work for me

 

[Scarecrow]

Nice model, nice design too!

Crow

 

[Ronnke]

I rescaled the ship to a less titanic size which is now inline with the intended displacement. The image in the first post of this thread has been updated reflecting the change. The now less spacious hanger bays still have plenty of room for marine support ships and other light vehicles.

The ship boasts a length of 210m with a total displacement of 28,000 dton.



Lt Anderson, of the Confederation Navy's Jupiter shipyard facility, asserts that all construction has been completed, with the exception of a number of light turrets and a minor grievance with the redesigned hanger bay doors. The turrets were where pulled from construction upon the discovery of faulty particle condensers. Replacement units are scheduled to arrive from Terra within the next 24 hours, at which point the turrets can be installed, and the ship prepared and painted in Navy livery.

The ship to be christened "Alexandria", will join the Nusku battlegroup to strengthen the fleet in that system. The Vilani attack on Procyon four months ago was a clear indicator that the Imperium was no longer interested in peaceful co-existence.

Commander Horshal, at the public announcement of his command of the Alexandria had this to say. "I am truly honored at the opportunity to lead the 600 finest sons and daughters of the Confederation I have ever seen. We are ready to send the message to the Vilani that we will not be intimidated, we will not be threatened, there will be no compromise to our freedoms... Not this time..."

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Ooh, very nice!

 

[Ronnke]

Pretty much done.

I will tweak the lighting and place the ship in an interesting background.

 

[Ronnke]

Since this ship model was created for my movie project, it is ultimately going to be animated. So I rendered a test animation to see how it would look. It's ok, but I'm not 100% happy with it. Not exactly sure just what it needs, but I will experiment with it later as I still have two more ships to model.

Anyway, here is the YouTube link if your interested in taking a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46pr9S67XXc

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Maybe a few more windows or nav lights.

 

[Scarecrow]

I would recommend a lot more surface detail. At the moment they are flat, grey boxes. This doesn't require lots of pointless engineering pieces but some points of interest scattered about (such as vents, viewports, nav lights, fuel points, docking clamps, markings etc etc) would help immensely. Also variations in panneling specular and glossiness will add a lot of subtle interest to the surfaces. It doesn't need to be dirty and grimy. It can be squeaky clean, but vary the shine of the panels very slightly and it'll make a massive improvement.
Take a look at the movie Enterprise in ST 1 and 2 as it leaves dock. It's a good example of what I mean. No pointless over-engineering but it's still visually very striking and interesting because of the subtle details. - edit - I just remembered the opening shot of the new Trek movie is the hull of a Federation ship speeding past. It's another excellent example of a largely featureless hull but still with a heck of a lot going on.
Finally, the engines need to be much more intense, almost blinding. At the moment they're a bit dim.

EDIT - Some notes on the screengrabs below - EDIT



Crow

 

[navanod]

I'd have to agree with Scarecrow. It needs some color, specularity, and gloss (and I admit, I tend to skimp on the specular details in my models as well, something I'm trying to get better at). As it is, it looks like the hull is constructed of giant pieces of a uniform material, which given the size of the ship is not very realistic. It would tend to be built out of smaller panels, and should have some variation.

The lighting is okay, if a bit dark, but more lights (nav lights, windows, etc) would liven it up a bit. All in all, it looks pretty good, but the devil :devil: is in the details, and more detail will help it a lot.

 

[shadowcat20]

Needs GUNS. 28KT with only 3 bay weapons means you have 250 Hard points left. A warship should look like one.

Otherwise very nice.

 

[PFVA63]

Hi

I kind of like it as is. Though I guess experimenting with a few more lights or subtle detail is always an option.

Regards

PF

PS. If you do make changes, hopefully they won't be too exagerated. I've always found some starship drawings and stuff kind of perplexing, when they have too exagerated of a difference in height of the hull plating or too many random bits just thrown on.

 

[Swiftbrook]

Needs GUNS. 28KT with only 3 bay weapons means you have 250 Hard points left. A warship should look like one.

Otherwise very nice.

I kind of agree. Suggestions:

One outside the engine pod.
One on top of the engine pod.
One on the side, empty area above the first A in Alexanderia.
One on the side of the scoop (?) amidship.
One on top of the front pseudo bridge. I assume the bridge, if it has windows is the white line on top, just below the top turret.
And on on top of the flat spot, just left of center.

-Swiftbrook

 

[shadowcat20]

All are good suggestions, but look at fields of fire. Dorsal mounted ones or pairs will work. Also as these are bays maybe vent looking missile racks. If you do not want to break up the lines then pop out turrest where you just show the doors on the design.

 

[Ronnke]

Thanks all for your feedback, it really helps to get external input.

Scarecrow, the suggestions in your screengrabs are great, and I have some ideas for the details which I will work on over the next days.

Shadowcat20, there are currently 6 bay weapons (3 top, 3 bottom). I'm going to add a few light turrets to some of the locations Swiftbrook highlighted, and in the recess behind the bow I'll put a rack of vertical launch tubes.

Swiftbrook, there is no external bridge on this ship, that white line is just a specular reflection of that hull section. The only external windows are the observation deck at the top half of the bow. This section of the ship is currently off limits as IKEA are still unpacking and installing the furniture. The captain doen't want people looking in and seeing the mess in there...well that and I need to tweak the ambient occlusion to not make the area so dark.

I appreciate the feedback.