OT: Sword of Retribution Battleship

[sojourner]

"To the Confederation General Assembly, this is Fleet Admiral Richard Formes. For too long we in the military and your civilian constituents have watched and waited while you debated and argued even as our worlds fell to the Sixers. It has become clear that you would continue your infighting even as Terra itself was conquered and human life in the galaxy was wiped out. Therefore as of this moment, with the agreement of the rest of the fleet, I am declaring martial law and suspending the Assembly. The time for debate is over. We must fight the Sixers or humanity dies."

With those words Richard Formes achieved 3 things on that day 125 years ago. He brought about the end of the Terran Confederation, the start of the Terran Empire, and saved humanity from extinction.


Hehe, a little friday night diversion. I haven't been in a drawing mood for a couple months so I went looking on the net for inspiration.

You see a lot of the "long and lean" type of ships festooned with big guns and big engines, so I thought I would do one of my own. This is unfinished, but I felt like presenting it. Still needs turrets and lots of little detail but the broad design is down. Yes, that's the barrel of a big ole' gun at the front. I haven't done the math on how big the ship is, but I intend it to be big. In these 2 images a human would be pretty much a speck. Anyway, it was a fun diversion from TV for the night.

 

[publiusr]

Great front 3/4 view. Maybe some recesses above the circular protrusions along the side?

 

[sojourner]

Maybe some recesses above the circular protrusions along the side?

Not sure what you mean? There already are recesses above the protrusions. The recesses run almost half the length of the ship.

 

[publiusr]

Above the lateral line--alcoves, hanger decks

 

[TheLoneRedshirt]

Overall, I think this works very well. The front end reminds me a bit of a great, white whale, but that's not really a bad thing. I like the flowing lines and the honking big gun - it's definitely a ship meant to dole out serious fire-power. The engine cluster has a very slight BSG vibe, but that works - the transition is quite smooth and fits the overall design.

I'm interested in how you develop this. Very nice work!

 

[Admiral2]

Now that's what I call a warship! Nice job so far.

 

[largo]

the answer to the question, "can an M-8 Avenger assault rifle be monstrously scaled up and outfitted with stardrives?" appears to be "hell yeah"

 

[Lord_Schtupp]

That is very cool looking. With the large "Spinal-mount" primary weapon its reminiscent of a Traveller capitol ship. I'll take 3 for my fleet please...

 

[sojourner]

Little more work done. Started playing with components for additional ships as well. The one in the front is going to be a Troop transport/ground assault ship. The tiny one is.. well, smaller. A corvette? scout ship? fast attack craft? to get closer to nailing down the scale, that small ship is still big enough to have a full-on shuttle bay. Ships in this setting are BIG.

 

[TheLoneRedshirt]

I'm liking the added detail and the other ships providing a sense of scale. Outside of the center-line big gun, what other armaments / defensive measures does the Sword of Retribution employ?

 

[sojourner]

Most of the turrets are mostly point defenses. The main offensive punch besides the "big gun" will be missile launchers, yet to be added.

 

[TheLoneRedshirt]

That makes sense. I hope you'll also continue to develop the corvette/patrol ship and that cruiser/frigate. Heck, I'd love to see your take on all the classes of ships for the Terran Empire!

As to the battleship, what is it - about 1.5 km long?

 

[sojourner]

I haven't gotten it down yet. I usually don't settle on a scale until I add the bridge or shuttle bays to a ship.

 

[Albertese]

...

As to the battleship, what is it - about 1.5 km long?

Pleeeeaaaase don"t make it a mile long!

I think smaller ships are way more compelling and much more believable. And I hate ships that huge because their kewl. It's one of the things that turns me off a bit when it comes to Star Wars.

But, don't let me rain on the party, do your own thing. After all, big ships are kewl...

--Alex

 

[sojourner]

Yep, you're too late. As I said in the OP, this ship is BIG. It's a battleship after all. The fun part is coming up with all the smaller ships that make up the rest of the fleet.

And for me, doing a big ship is a nice change. I've worked on lots of small ships.

 

[Albertese]

well crap.

Oh well, It's your party, you can cry if you want to.

Actually I look forward to seeing this develop. Are you using Sketchup? (forgive me for not reading if you had answered this up-thread.. it's been a long day...)

--Alex

 

[largo]

there's nothing wrong with kewl, d00d

 

[sojourner]

Are you using Sketchup?

yep.

missile silos/launchers.