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Terran Trade Authority video

limawip2.png
 
Only that they copied his art style is all.

Not sure that was the case... I think it was just the 'in thing' at the time in the UK in the 80s.
Lovely 'bright coloured ships.. 'inspired' not copied.
If you compare them all there's quite a few differences.
 
Not sure that was the case... I think it was just the 'in thing' at the time in the UK in the 80s.
Lovely 'bright coloured ships.. 'inspired' not copied.
If you compare them all there's quite a few differences.

Foss was early '70s. Your art doesn't have the brick bump maps, or the specularity, or shading. Just the bright colors.
 
Anyway....

Cowley's followup series with a different publisher, titled Galactic Encounters, was written under the "Steven Caldwell" pseudonym. Like the TTA books, this took "leftover" SF cover art and applied a loose narrative.

The Galactic Encounters series was advertised in the pages of JTAS, issue #5 pp 29!
 
Here here! That video is awesome. I was calling out "Partisan!" "Hornet!" "Connestoga!" while the ships were flying around. Can't wait for T5 so I can "make" a Hornet. I am guessing those two particle accelerators out front of the Hornet would be called "barbettes" in T5, yes?
 
I've got the lot plus the Galactic Encounters books.. I think I have two copies of SC and GSB... Spacewrecks was the best!
Peter Elson was my favourite (he missed being the 1st book)
http://www.peterelson.co.uk/

Actually got the Spacecraft book in about 1978..
I can see all those bright colours are not everyones cup of tea, but hey why not, beats dull dull grey ships with lot of greebles... seem the whole thing went out of favour late eighties and we ended up with grey ships...

I did get involved in a Kickstarter project for a TTA RPG.. alas it failed the funding, but it may still happen.

Well less thread hi-jacking, I'm off to design some pretty coloured ships...:)


fachion.png
 
The video game "Homeworld" was clearly inspired by these kind of designs. They did their best with the low poly count they had for the models at the time, but I always thought the ship designs were pretty nice.
 
The video game "Homeworld" was clearly inspired by these kind of designs.

Indeed it's true and there is a Group Captain Elson you meet...a defecting Taidan..
It's believed the name comes from Peter Elson, his work features in all the TTA books except the 1st one. (that big Red Ship earlier on I posted is based on one of his.)

His stuff is very much like the HW ships..
 
I think in the manual or the readme file that comes with Homeworld they state that they were inspired by the TTA books, and specifically Peter Elson's work.

Great books for younger readers. Very inspirational artwork.
 
The ship from 2:18 to 2:30 in the video reminds me of the 400t Subsidized Merchant at the stern - mixed with a bit of the 400t Patrol Cruiser on the 'wings' :)

That's an Alphan Starblade I believe!

I remember borrowing one of these books from the school library, rushing home and trying to build the ships with my lego. Huge inspiration.
 
Bump. I just love this vid and the music.

When I saw it for the first time I was truly blown away. I grew up reading those books, spending countless hours flipping through the pages, then staring up at the ceiling or out at the night sky, wondering in amazement.

Truly great stuff.
 
I've been in contact with Adrian from time to time and I asked him the same question about the music... which is odd as it is totally different to anything I like ;O)

You know my addiction to the TTA Universe...

He's started another video
http://vimeo.com/50264257

Foss never had anything to do with the TTA books, just he was doing his stuff like Peter Eslon, Burns, Haye, McKie, Layzell etc at the same time... just so you know. ;O)

My favorite pic is the red carrier from "Great Space Battles". And Mann put it in this video. The red hull and ultra sky blue really make for a great picture, and beautiful rendering.

Big ship universe; the TTA "Colonial III" is the epitome of the Cowley-verse big ship.
 
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Holy-OMG! I bought those books as a boy after Star Wars hit the theatres. I read them cover to cover and enjoyed the art work taken from various sci-fi novels, and put into a story book form.


As did I ... Space Wrecks lent many hours of fantasy.


There was a kickstarter

Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD (40th Anniversary Reprint)
 
Personal favorite TTA books: Spaceships and Spacewrecks. Both exude a sense of facing the unknown.

One thing I am trying to place in my various sci-fi game universes is a habitable planet on an eccentric orbit with ceramic buildings, like one of the 'lost colony' descriptions.
 
Anyone ever converted any or all of these beauties for a Traveller Fleet?
Wasn't there an attempt to make an official Traveller conversion of the Terran Trade Authority setting, but it never happened for some reason?

IIRC it would've been one of those 3rd party settings made under the MgT 1e rules or something.

EDIT: Now I'm pissed. We could've gotten a Cepheus Engine conversion if this kickstarter had funded it!
 
Wasn't there an attempt to make an official Traveller conversion of the Terran Trade Authority setting, but it never happened for some reason?

IIRC it would've been one of those 3rd party settings made under the MgT 1e rules or something.

EDIT: Now I'm pissed. We could've gotten a Cepheus Engine conversion if this kickstarter had funded it!

It was mentioned either earlier up in this thread, or on another parallel TTA thread here in the Lone Star section … I came across it the other day when I did a search, but lost the link.
 
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