Starships

Making Starship models

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

BROADSWORD CLASS MERCENARY CRUISER
The Broadsword class mercenary cruiser is an 880-ton spherical USL hulled starship designed for a wide range of military and quasi-military missions. The mercenary cruiser is built to carry small military (mercenary) units for a variety of different operations of corporate or goverment.

My favorite ship to model!

 

[magmagmag]

BROADSWORD CLASS MERCENARY CRUISER

This is the most common and famous diagram of a mercenary cruiser. We can grasp the overall structure of the ship from this diagram.

This painting was drawn in reference to a work painted by William H. Keith, Jr in 1982. The original work was published in pp.65 at the CT TRAVELLER BOOK.

 

[Commander Truestar]

BROADSWORD CLASS MERCENARY CRUISER

This is the most common and famous diagram of a mercenary cruiser. We can grasp the overall structure of the ship from this diagram.

This painting was drawn in reference to a work painted by William H. Keith, Jr in 1982. The original work was published in pp.65 at the CT TRAVELLER BOOK.

I remain committed to the belief this was based on the Union Class Dropship from Battletech....
But, that's me

 

[whartung]

This painting was drawn in reference to a work painted by William H. Keith, Jr in 1982. The original work was published in pp.65 at the CT TRAVELLER BOOK.

I remain committed to the belief this was based on the Union Class Dropship from Battletech....
But, that's me

From Wikipedia:

BattleTech is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984,

So, there's that bit of trivia as well that may speak to this in someway.

 

[magmagmag]

So, there's that bit of trivia as well that may speak to this in someway.

I cannot understand your conversations.

 

[magmagmag]

But, that's me

I cannot understand this sentence, sorry.
My English is not so good.

 

[kilemall]

I remain committed to the belief this was based on the Union Class Dropship from Battletech....
But, that's me

Seem to recall seeing Foss like ships on novel covers.

 

[infojunky]

I remain committed to the belief this was based on the Union Class Dropship from Battletech....
But, that's me

Or more likely the Union Class Dropship was inspired by the Broadsword..... Remember FASA was just producing Traveller Material when the article in Journal came out...

Heck, I will go ever farther than that Battletech is largely based on Traveller from its genesis.

 

[Dragoner]

Aries 1b from 2001 predates both.

 

[Commander Truestar]

Or more likely the Union Class Dropship was inspired by the Broadsword..... Remember FASA was just producing Traveller Material when the article in Journal came out...

Heck, I will go ever farther than that Battletech is largely based on Traveller from its genesis.

I agree with that 100%

 

[whartung]

I cannot understand your conversations.

I was simply pointing out a bit of information (that the WK image was from '82 and that BattleTech is apparently from '84) that may contradict Truestars belief.

 

[magmagmag]

I was simply pointing out a bit of information (that the WK image was from '82 and that BattleTech is apparently from '84) that may contradict Truestars belief.

Thanks your reply.
And we can find the first William H. Keith, Jr.'s images in the BROADSWORD, JTAS, No.8, "1981".

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Space Viking had similar-looking ships before 2001 even.

 

[Condottiere]

As I recall, early Perry Rhodan had spherical starships.

Really large ones.

 

[Diveguy]

"The Faded Sun: Kutath" by C.J. Cherryh 1980 edition had a very-similar starship on the cover, done by Michael Whelan.

THE FADED SUN: KUTATH*

Published cover illustration for Kutath, Book Three of the Faded Sun trilogy, by C.J. Cherryh (DAW, 1980). Early in his career, Michael Whelan was often paired with established authors. His task wa…

www.michaelwhelan.com

 

[Dragoner]

Starfire did too, this is '81, though the game had them since '79.

Space Viking had them too, this is from 1962:

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Space Viking, by H. Beam Piper.

 

[Spinward Flow]

There is a mildly famous example of a spherical ship that a few people here might recognize that appeared in theaters in 1977.

And then space exploration found it (for real!) in 1980 and has been it has been a meme ever since.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Space Viking had similar-looking ships before 2001 even.

If text descriptions are in play, the titular spaceship of E. E. Smith's Skylark series was spherical. So were some of the ones in his Lensman series (slow battlewagons iIRC, but the various weaponized planets might count too).

 

[kilemall]

Triplanetary game dreadnaught is basically Broadsword shaped-

https://cf.geekdo-images.com/7-tfGjCQ-kuWLpFWyLQZ_Q__imagepage/img/O3JUcOpym_M5IqPHb2sUgrKPfho=/fit-in/900x600/filters:no_upscale():strip_icc()/pic4079897.jpg

 

[Spinward Flow]

Triplanetary game dreadnaught is basically Broadsword shaped

To be fair, if you're going to land a sphere onto a terrestrial surface with some gravity, you basically have to use a "Broadsword shape" of a sphere on 3, 4 or 6 landing legs ... with the 4 legs version being the easiest to understand in silhouette profile. It's just a case of that's the best way to do it if you're doing it at all ... kind of like how most waterborne by buoyancy craft tend to have common shapes (with some variations depending on application).