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Starship Artwork

Andrew Boulton: I like the old Dragon class SDB as well but this new design with outboard thrusters makes more sense for a high agility craft plus it has enough aerodynamic form for atmospheric pursuit.

I'd imagine that the Imperial sunburst might still be shown on the hull of system naval craft in addition to the local insignia. Sort of like how a modern police cruiser displays the county/city emblem as well as a US flag.
 
Andrew Boulton: I guess it's a trade off between manueverability and target profile. The new SDB is very flat and has a very slim profile when viewed edge on. It does present a larger profile when viewed from above or obliquely as shown in the image above.

I guess as long as the SDB is charging head on at the enemy or high tailing it away from them, they'll be safe. ;)
 
But is this boat 400dt?
It looks to have only one primary weapon mount, maybe another ventral mount we can't see, either way I never thought of it as a 400Dt boat. One look at it and I thought "yeah that's a great looking fast 100DT interceptor boat" I don't have T20 so maybe it is 400DT but to me it doesn't look it. Andrew's point is still valid, and yet strangely pointless though, because if it were built under TNE FF&S construction they'd both (400Dt & 100Dt) be considered "small" targets. Any difference under other rules???

Incase you missed it Ted there was praise for your artwork in there
 
Ted - your renders are awesome!


What rendering program are you using?
 
Hi all, I agree, huge fan of Bryan Gibson's and Ted Lindsey's contributions to the beautification of Traveller, as well as many others.

As to the SDB I also thought it was a small SDB, based on the size of the turret and such. I pegged it at maybe 50T (Imperial Standard Heavy Fighter) or possibly up to 100T, but it looks about half the size of the T20 Scout so...

As for my own concept of how to call it, both the Dragon and this would seem to fit in the "Close Structure" modified hull so any defense bonuses for config will be the same. You always present your smallest profile to the enemy (if you can) and that's what the combat is based on.

I actually feel this SDB is a variable configuration close structure airframe hull. I posted a quick and dirty sketch/doctoring of Ted's work showing the wings swept back into space attack position. Apologies in advance for butchering your work guys :D The only place I have to upload it offhand is the Traveller_T20 Yahoo Group Photo album (group pictures). So you'll have to sign in there to see it I'm afraid. Unless Ted feels like doing a proper version of it ;)

The wings would be deployed as pictured by Bryan and Ted for atmospheric attack to gain the full 6g agility 6 there. The thrusters mounted on the ends of the wings would also rotate to maintain axial thrust in both configurations.

Anyway that was my idea when I first saw Bryan's sketch way back.
 
as I see it a variety of designs are valid...frankly, under the rules, configuration is irrelevant.

Shane made a set of stats for this craft, it is stupidly fast and agile, so thats also a big asset.( perhaps he might post them here, or allow me to do so! they rock)

Frankly, the theory of "if it's different, its not effective " I don't follow. Take fighter aircraft, there are literally hundreds of variants and designs, from different nations and even the same country yet they have only one real function at base that they share: to shoot one another down.

The SDB is a fine example of that. I feel the theory of only one valid design is awfully Vilani, and being terran, like a tad more variety!
 
Malenfant: I use Rhino for modeling and either 3ds max 5 or Cinema 4D for rendering. The SDB was my first attempt at Traveller CGI using Cinema 4D. The materials capabilities of Cinema 4D are different enough from 3ds max that I'm having to adjust some of my techniques to get the same "hard sci-fi" look that you might have seen with the "new" Scout and other images I've done previously with 3ds max.

- Ted
 
I like the cel-rendered effects. I've got Lightwave sitting on my PC, but I haven't got round to doing anything fancy with it yet (I guess if I spent less time tinkering with worldbuilding rules I'd have more time to tinker with LW
).

Good work though!
 
Thanks guys! Looks like I'll be subscribing to JTAS

Is Scouts and Assasins on this site as well?
And all the designs so far are sweet.
 
Good to see you back doing Traveller stuff, Ted.
I love that design and the model is up to your usual standard! Nice one.

All this discussion about the SDB's design is interesting but does it have any effect in-game?
I once had someone criticise my Florian scout design for having external engines as they were too easy a target. But as it's for Classic Traveller and CT doesn't take such things into account, I really didn't see what the problem was.

Crow
 
I seem to recall that part of the rationale behind the angular Dragon was that it had a rather high armour value, and large slabs of armour couldn't be made into complex curves and flowing lines, as that compromised the integrity of the armour. The same reason was given for the slab sided Rampart Missile Boat in Arrival Vengance.

G.
 
OT sort of,

There are a bunch of people here who I think would like the 3d work of this artist even though he does not do space ships indeed he only does WW1.

t_j26_otfcov


The address of the page that comes from is

Mark W. Millers 3d renderings

Make sure that you look at the structual views towards the bottom of the page.
 
Since there were several mentions of the original Dragon class SDB, I dusted off an old model I created for one of the GURPS Traveller books and created textures to match the blue scheme I tried on a previous post.

This is my interpretation of the Dragon class. It has a longer, more tapered snout than traditional illustrations but still retains the angular, slab armor look.

dragon-sdb-01.jpg


Does anyone have reference pics of the Dragon class? I've misplaced mine and I'd like to add the missile batteries to this model.

Suggestions and comments are welcome.

- Ted
 
Originally posted by tlindsey:
Since there were several mentions of the original Dragon class SDB, I dusted off an old model I created for one of the GURPS Traveller books and created textures to match the blue scheme I tried on a previous post.

This is my interpretation of the Dragon class. It has a longer, more tapered snout than traditional illustrations but still retains the angular, slab armor look.

- Ted
Click to expand...
Very nice! It fits in well with a few Full Thrust
minis I own......Even has the right paint job lol.
I think yours was first by the way... ;)
 
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