Golf Ball class Scout
- Thread starter PVernon
- Start date
Plankowner
SOC-13
I like it!
Nice to seem someone thinking "outside the wedge".
Nice to seem someone thinking "outside the wedge".
I've done some ships in SketchUp, and I find that the predominance of the needle/wedge configuration is a problem - with High Guard battleships especially. It's the easiest may to defend against meson guns, and is fully streamlined to boot. (For ships not likely to be the target of meson fire, flattened sphere seems to be the winner.)
--Devin
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Forgot to post this last night:
Finally!!! Someone is making ships like Andre Norton described in her Time Traders series...
The Time Traders (1958)
Galactic Derelict (1959)
The Defiant Agents (1962)
Key Out of Time (1963)
Firehand (1994) (with P.M. Griffin)
Echoes in time (1999) (with Sherwood Smith)
Atlantis Endgame (2002) (with Sherwood Smith)
Finally!!! Someone is making ships like Andre Norton described in her Time Traders series...
The Time Traders (1958)
Galactic Derelict (1959)
The Defiant Agents (1962)
Key Out of Time (1963)
Firehand (1994) (with P.M. Griffin)
Echoes in time (1999) (with Sherwood Smith)
Atlantis Endgame (2002) (with Sherwood Smith)
I always liked the baldies... cool ships, uniforms, weapons. Classic sci fi, along with her Solar Queen series a staple of my youth... and an interesting idea for a Traveller adventure arc starting on good old 21st century Earth.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
This is the cover of the edition my mother read to me and my older brother around 1970 (I was 7-8 at the time):
This is a 60's Ace edition.
Here is the original paperback cover:
This is a 60's Ace edition.
Here is the original paperback cover:
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Mine was the 60's ACE edition too. Nice cover. My Time Traders was the older edition though (courtesy of a used bookstore). I bought Galactic Derelict first, then went back to Time Traders and picked up the later books as they were published / republished (I'd have to check the books to know which). I've been tempted to read the recent additions, but I doubt they'll read as well as the older books... or at least as well as I remember them 
I spot you 4 years, I was 12 when I picked up the ACE reprint. Good books, and more time to read them.
I spot you 4 years, I was 12 when I picked up the ACE reprint. Good books, and more time to read them.
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RockyMountainNavy
SOC-12
How do you load/unload?
I admit I am a real collector of deck plans...just can't get enough! Many thanks for posting you idea here.
My question is how do you use the cargo bays? The bays are above the ground; almost too far to be useful. Do you envision using ramps or lifts or cranes? IMHO, Scouts ships should be self-sufficient so is there equipment needed?
For instance, a modern-day US Navy Mk 41 Vertical Launch System has 42 compartments, but only loads 41 missiles since the 42nd is filled with a crane that is used to assist reloading. In the case of your Golfball Scout, maybe there is a crane needed along the overhead of the cargo bay that can swing out to lift/lower items.
I admit I am a real collector of deck plans...just can't get enough! Many thanks for posting you idea here.
My question is how do you use the cargo bays? The bays are above the ground; almost too far to be useful. Do you envision using ramps or lifts or cranes? IMHO, Scouts ships should be self-sufficient so is there equipment needed?
For instance, a modern-day US Navy Mk 41 Vertical Launch System has 42 compartments, but only loads 41 missiles since the 42nd is filled with a crane that is used to assist reloading. In the case of your Golfball Scout, maybe there is a crane needed along the overhead of the cargo bay that can swing out to lift/lower items.
I have to agree with casquilho: what are the stats for the different models?
IIRC all the starships in H. Beam Piper's books were spherical. They had to be to enter hyperspace. System ships could be cylidrical, etc.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
I would have a rail section that swings out and locks into the end of one fixed to the ceiling. A powered winch then moves along the rail to carry cargo slung underneath and to raise/lower it to/from the ground/hatch.
Of course, that's exactly what I had to use aboard CV-61 USS Ranger to move various heavy aircraft pods into & out of our workspace onto one of the aircraft elevators in 1985-87.
Figure a 6 meter (4 squares) wide hatch. A 6-meter length of I-beam is mounted (just inside the hatch) by a pivot at its center, and is stowed parallel to the hatch.
To swing it out, you release the locking pin that extends up from the inside end into a socket in the ceiling, and pivot it until it is at a 90° angle to the hatch. The inside end now lines up with the permanent I-beam network (includes rotating sections, curving sections, etc) that allows access to all parts of the cargo bay. The locking pin is extended into another socket in the ceiling to hold it in place.
The winch is remote-controlled and has powered wheels for one-man operation. Attach the "hook" to a lifting shackle on the top of the crate, and the winch reels in the cable, then moves along the I-beam (there in a plate welded to the end of the I-beam to provide a hard stop so the winch won't run off the end).
Etc.
Nice, easy, and reliable. Just make sure all crates are within the weight limits of the I-beams and winch, and don't park the ship with the hatch over a drop-off from the landing area.
Of course, that's exactly what I had to use aboard CV-61 USS Ranger to move various heavy aircraft pods into & out of our workspace onto one of the aircraft elevators in 1985-87.
Figure a 6 meter (4 squares) wide hatch. A 6-meter length of I-beam is mounted (just inside the hatch) by a pivot at its center, and is stowed parallel to the hatch.
To swing it out, you release the locking pin that extends up from the inside end into a socket in the ceiling, and pivot it until it is at a 90° angle to the hatch. The inside end now lines up with the permanent I-beam network (includes rotating sections, curving sections, etc) that allows access to all parts of the cargo bay. The locking pin is extended into another socket in the ceiling to hold it in place.
The winch is remote-controlled and has powered wheels for one-man operation. Attach the "hook" to a lifting shackle on the top of the crate, and the winch reels in the cable, then moves along the I-beam (there in a plate welded to the end of the I-beam to provide a hard stop so the winch won't run off the end).
Etc.
Nice, easy, and reliable. Just make sure all crates are within the weight limits of the I-beams and winch, and don't park the ship with the hatch over a drop-off from the landing area.
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I admit I am a real collector of deck plans...just can't get enough! Many thanks for posting you idea here.
My question is how do you use the cargo bays? The bays are above the ground; almost too far to be useful. Do you envision using ramps or lifts or cranes? IMHO, Scouts ships should be self-sufficient so is there equipment needed?
For instance, a modern-day US Navy Mk 41 Vertical Launch System has 42 compartments, but only loads 41 missiles since the 42nd is filled with a crane that is used to assist reloading. In the case of your Golfball Scout, maybe there is a crane needed along the overhead of the cargo bay that can swing out to lift/lower items.
Think Traveller.
Gravity cargo lifters that make the cargo weightless. Remote control would work fine. Like Chinook helicopters without all the noise. They wouldn't have to be large - might even be relatively flat plates that you can either load the cargo on or sling the cargo under.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Ahhh, but those are expensive, and hard to get parts for if they fail on some back-water low-tech planet.
Think hardscrabble just-making-ends-meet Free Trader!
Think hardscrabble just-making-ends-meet Free Trader!
I was thinking along both lines, an extendable winch / crane thing or grav fork lifts depending on the world. I don't think that the Golf Ball class merchants would work well on the edge of civilization. They are better at package freight in the Core area. The scouts well they are scouts and don't work well as freighters unless they are free. (Sounds like a scout.)
As for stats they were all done with Andrew's HGS program. I should be able to get them all together and post them.
As for stats they were all done with Andrew's HGS program. I should be able to get them all together and post them.
casquilho
SOC-13
Kyle Aaron
SOC-10
Did you use CC2 for these? I like the beds with teddy bears and stuff like that.
Yes, and there tends to be a cat wandering around as well.
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