A parade of spaceships...

[Warped9]

USS Triumphant wrote:

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You're assuming here that such a ship wouldn't have a warp field and deflector array to spread the interstellar medium before it came in contact with the ship.

Well if it's in a warp field then it probably wouldn't need such a deflector system while in warp since the ship would effectively be not in normal space. But I was referring to a starship somewhat more likely within (conjectural) reach as we currently understand physics as opposed to something purely speculative. Presently a fast relativistic ship is just as speculative as a FTL ship other than the relativistic ship is easier to wrap your head around in terms of what we currently know.

[Warped9]

Now here's something amusing. If you do a Google search of images for "Spaceship Friede" you get some of the images I've posted in this thread.

This happened before when doing my TOS shuttlecraft schematics and 3D model.


More to the point I'll have to check the dvd for reference. Fantastic Plastic offers a kit of the Friede and on their build they depict it with a red band around the fuseluge just below the stage separation. Firstly I want to see if such a band is actually there given it's not indicated on the drawings in the Spaceship Handbook. If a band is there then I'm guessing that someone at Fantastic Plastic is assuming the band should be red. Or it could be just a quick and simple way to add colour to an otherwise plain expanse of silver on a simple shape. The Spaceship Handbook simply states the main colour is silver with half of the upper section painted black. Fantastic Plastic also went with amber tinted windows which, again, might be pure conjecture on their part.

[Warped9]

Here are some screen caps from the film. At the top we have two nice images of the Friede's internal arrangement, more particularly the upper crew levels. From that one could get some decent idea of how things go together. This is bolstered by the next two images showing a cutaway mockup of the ship. The next image (third down on the left) shows us some underside detail---not much, but it gives me a better idea of how the nozzles fit with the bottom of the vehicle. The image next to it shows us the ship on its gantry. At first it looks like there's a band around the craft, but it's actually a collar supporting the ship for it to be lowed into launching position. The bottom pic on the left shows the ship being moved over the water tank where the film says the ship is too light to support its own weight so it is placed in water for launch. The last image shows the ship in flight after launch and I can't make out any band around the fuselage.



Unfortunately there are no other clear shots of the ship elsewhere in the film. later in the film we see the fullsize mockup of the upper section after it has landed and thats not where the colour band is supposed to be anyway. Earlier in the film we saw the miniature mockup being studied before launch and it also showed no colour band.

So from this I can only deduce that the red colour band added to the Fantastic Plastic kit was someone's personal touch to add colour.

[Warped9]

Here are some elevations.



I'm thinking that doing even a rudimentary interior is pointless for this since you can't really see anything for the shots I want to do and interior lighting won't really show or do much either. It's a shame there are no markings or colour lines on the ship because that would add a little something to a rather bare design. Hmm, maybe I could stray from original just a little... After all I did opt to show the delineations between stages by simply making them ever so slightly different tones of the same colour.

[Warped9]

I'm not done with the Friede yet, but here is a peak at what I'll be working on next. This isn't as thought through (in terms of realism) as the Friede, but it is pure pulp/serial sic-fi and the most recognizable image of a spacecraft in the 1930s.



It was first seen in a 1930's sic-fi musical(?) called Just Imagine. Apparently the f/x were first-rate for the time, but for some dumbass reason the film was promoted as a musical rather than as science fiction. It essentially flopped partly because it was released not long after the stock market crash in 1929. The full-size mock-up ship would survive, though, and go on to feature in several B-films and serials, but it would become most well known as Zarkov's Rocket Ship in the Flash Gordon serials.

[Warped9]

Warped9 wrote:

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It's a shame there are no markings or colour lines on the ship because that would add a little something to a rather bare design. Hmm, maybe I could stray from original just a little...

Giving this some further thought I am considering adding a little colour to this design even if it's not authentic. I can add a band of colour around the second stage and I can add a name scripted onto the third (upper) stage since that's the one that goes all the way to the Moon and back.

So I'm asking opinions on three options: 1 (top), 2 (middle) or 3 (bottom).

[Albertese]

Bottom. Definitely. Gots that old timey German look, which I'm sure they woulda gone with had they thought to mark the ship...

--Alex

[Warped9]

Albertese wrote:

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Bottom. Definitely. Gots that old timey German look, which I'm sure they woulda gone with had they thought to mark the ship...

--Alex

I was thinking much the same (as soon as I came across it) even though I haven't made up my mind yet.

It is odd that they didn't think of any kind of markings, not even a number registry or anything. Yet there are a number of oddities in this film. The crew don't enter the ship by any platform, but rather they have to climb in by rope ladder. The crew take-off in a prone position (much like modern astronauts), but the controls are not easily accessible---they have to roll over sideways and reach for the control levers. Not at all easy to do under crushing high-g acceleration (which they depict in the film).

The ship has very advanced ideas and forethought (for the time) mixed with some genuine lack of forethought.

[Warped9]

Playing with some imaging.

[Warped9]

Friede enroute and hard landing.








The truth is the Friede hard landed and sustained such damage that it never actually returned to Earth. The ship is still somewhere on the Moon waiting to be found.

[Albertese]

Hmm... from that footprint in the lower right corner, I'm assuming that this stage of the Friede is about 30 inches or so high?

--Alex

[Warped9]

Albertese wrote:

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Hmm... from that footprint in the lower right corner, I'm assuming that this stage of the Friede is about 30 inches or so high?

--Alex

Damn. I missed that.

[Potemkin_Prod]

Not much evidence of what I'd call "hard landed" either. Nice work though!

[Redfern]

Maybe a case of "contents may have settled during shipment"?

Mercy, Warped9, you've become a real terror with Sketch-Up!

Sincerely,

Bill

[Potemkin_Prod]

I was thinking of a long gouged out area with the capsule not facing up.