Jayru (JSnaith's) 3D Trek
- Thread starter JSnaith
- Start date
I know it’s a big project, and you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
“Boys from the Dwarf”
“Boys from the Dwarf”
Sorry to hear that. Hope you feel better soon.
Look forward to future updates!
Look forward to future updates!
Thank you, had a light day and reworked the Liberator to be more proportionally correct to the main studio model (although that may change when the remastered episodes hit). Anyway -
Closer IMOO. Reworking the mesh was "light" work for me. Retexturing it, was a *(%~#@> nightmare. Must remember to keep notes!
More soon, likely tomorrow.
All System ships are oriented the same way - the glowing sphere is the engine, and it's at the back of the ship
The three hull parts attached by the pylons are neutron blasters - powerful weapons that could take out most ships with a single shot.
The System Attack Ships were smaller and faster but less powerful weapons-wise. They were described as having medium-range powered neutron blasters. Two of them crippled the Liberator and allowed the ship to be recaptured by The System. Naturally, the Liberator escaped (eventually, after destroying one of her sister ships).
It kind of looks like a Daedalus class… except backwards. And with 3 pylons instead of two
No worries, the first time I saw the ship (as a toy) I couldn't figure it out either until I saw the show.
And with massive big guns...
I was thinking Masao's Wasp class.
Ok, it's time for a discussion about scale and size when it comes to the Liberator *sigh*
This article uses screen evidence and a little bit of maths.
I'd like you all to meet Bob. Bob is a 3D man who doesn't do anything much but helps me appreciate the scale of whatever I build in 3D. Bob looks nothing like me, but happens to be the same height as me 167cm -
As I say, Bob doesn't do much except for standing next to things, so here he is standing next to the hatch on the London -
The hatch is 2m high, which seems to fit what was seen on screen when the actors were next to it. Based on that, the scale of the hatch to the rest of the ship etc based on the blueprints for the London, we can work out that the ship is 54.7m long. This is the same length as Horizon's Technical Manual. (although I'm using metric, not British Imperial).
Why is this important?
Because we are going to work out the scale of something larger...
The Liberator, London and Bob all together -
Here, the Liberator has been scaled to be 780 meters long, this is based on the following -
This is not far off the length of the London as compared with the Liberator in this image -
BUT, if we are going to fit rooms like the Flight Deck, Teleport, crew quarters et all into the frame of the Liberator, we are going to have to allow for the hull to be large enough to accommodate them. Therefore a length of 780-800 meters works. A larger size of 1000m would work but require the London to be larger.
It should also be noted, these are by no means the only reference points we have for scale.
In "Time Squad" the Liberator took a pod on board using a hexagonal scoop-like thing. In a few episodes one of the shooting models was seen to have this built into the ship, and so therefore I have included it in my model -
Again, as stated this is seen on screen in a few episodes in the location. But only ever used once. Nicely, we can work out the size of the "pod" rescued, because the cast walked around outside and inside it. By using 3DS MAX to measure things, I can fit a ship no more than 6.5m wide in that scoop. I shall have a hunt and see what I can find out about that pod/ship, but based on screen evidence, the scoop is wide enough.
Secondly, we have the Horizon Technical Manual, which shows a single deck cutaway locating the Flight Deck, Teleport and other seen on-screen rooms in the centre main hull. Measured in British Imperial, it is 190 feet (57.91 meters) at its widest point, which allows us to work out the size of the main central hull, and thus the rest of the ship. This bit of information was critical, as the internal built sets for the series give us a nice frame of evidence.
So, based on screen evidence, the deck plans, and some common sense, I state that the Liberator is around 800 meters long, from the forward boom to the end of the aft sphere. If you want an exact figure, based on the proportions of the ship I get a figure of 803 meters.
Whilst most people are not going to care, I have been contacted by a few people stating I am talking out of my backside on the question of scale. “Fleet Yards” have a hardcore fan base and they don’t like seeing them corrected. But they didn’t do their homework, and they got their facts wrong.
This debunks the following pages/videos -
https://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/Essa...rs, then 570 pixels represents 175-220 meters.
Comments, thoughts and the like welcome. If you don’t agree with my working out, that’s fine – but present your argument with facts we can look at, not “just because (you) say so.”
This article uses screen evidence and a little bit of maths.
I'd like you all to meet Bob. Bob is a 3D man who doesn't do anything much but helps me appreciate the scale of whatever I build in 3D. Bob looks nothing like me, but happens to be the same height as me 167cm -
As I say, Bob doesn't do much except for standing next to things, so here he is standing next to the hatch on the London -
The hatch is 2m high, which seems to fit what was seen on screen when the actors were next to it. Based on that, the scale of the hatch to the rest of the ship etc based on the blueprints for the London, we can work out that the ship is 54.7m long. This is the same length as Horizon's Technical Manual. (although I'm using metric, not British Imperial).
Why is this important?
Because we are going to work out the scale of something larger...
The Liberator, London and Bob all together -
Here, the Liberator has been scaled to be 780 meters long, this is based on the following -
This is not far off the length of the London as compared with the Liberator in this image -
BUT, if we are going to fit rooms like the Flight Deck, Teleport, crew quarters et all into the frame of the Liberator, we are going to have to allow for the hull to be large enough to accommodate them. Therefore a length of 780-800 meters works. A larger size of 1000m would work but require the London to be larger.
It should also be noted, these are by no means the only reference points we have for scale.
In "Time Squad" the Liberator took a pod on board using a hexagonal scoop-like thing. In a few episodes one of the shooting models was seen to have this built into the ship, and so therefore I have included it in my model -
Again, as stated this is seen on screen in a few episodes in the location. But only ever used once. Nicely, we can work out the size of the "pod" rescued, because the cast walked around outside and inside it. By using 3DS MAX to measure things, I can fit a ship no more than 6.5m wide in that scoop. I shall have a hunt and see what I can find out about that pod/ship, but based on screen evidence, the scoop is wide enough.
Secondly, we have the Horizon Technical Manual, which shows a single deck cutaway locating the Flight Deck, Teleport and other seen on-screen rooms in the centre main hull. Measured in British Imperial, it is 190 feet (57.91 meters) at its widest point, which allows us to work out the size of the main central hull, and thus the rest of the ship. This bit of information was critical, as the internal built sets for the series give us a nice frame of evidence.
So, based on screen evidence, the deck plans, and some common sense, I state that the Liberator is around 800 meters long, from the forward boom to the end of the aft sphere. If you want an exact figure, based on the proportions of the ship I get a figure of 803 meters.
Whilst most people are not going to care, I have been contacted by a few people stating I am talking out of my backside on the question of scale. “Fleet Yards” have a hardcore fan base and they don’t like seeing them corrected. But they didn’t do their homework, and they got their facts wrong.
This debunks the following pages/videos -
https://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/Essa...rs, then 570 pixels represents 175-220 meters.
Comments, thoughts and the like welcome. If you don’t agree with my working out, that’s fine – but present your argument with facts we can look at, not “just because (you) say so.”
It inspired the Drazi ships from Babylon 5All System ships are oriented the same way - the glowing sphere is the engine, and it's at the back of the ship
Sun-Hawk
The Sun-Hawk is a type of medium warship[1] used as an A-Class battle cruiser[2] by Drazi Military. The pak'ma'ra are also using Sun-Hawk class ships as transports.[3] The Drazi Freehold uses these ships for various purposes ranging from assault missions through escort missions to patrolling...
babylon5.fandom.com
Liberator adapted for gaming
I have often wondered if Sontaran ships were influenced by Vostok—Sputnik 3 looks very like. Dalek.
The forward end of the (Blake’s 7) federation ships looks like a VA capsule
VA spacecraft - Wikipedia
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A few Blake's 7 ships ended up in Babylon 5 - the shuttle from the episode "Orbit" became the standard EA space shuttle in the show for instance. There were several people who worked on both shows. The Excalibur from Crusades was also inspired by the Liberator.It inspired the Drazi ships from Babylon 5
Sun-Hawk
The Sun-Hawk is a type of medium warship[1] used as an A-Class battle cruiser[2] by Drazi Military. The pak'ma'ra are also using Sun-Hawk class ships as transports.[3] The Drazi Freehold uses these ships for various purposes ranging from assault missions through escort missions to patrolling...
Liberator adapted for gaming
I have often wondered if Sontaran ships were influenced by Vostok—Sputnik 3 looks very like. Dalek.
The forward end of the (Blake’s 7) federation ships looks like a VA capsule
VA spacecraft - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
The gaming video? Blast from the past!
I created the B7 Ship Pack for Bridge Commander :-) JSnaith, Jayru, Madhatch are some of my online handles.
Nice to see it is still doing the rounds all these years later. Those models were some of the first I ever built, in fact the Liberator is the very first ship I built in 3D, before I moved on to Star Trek, and the Ingram. Getting the sound effects for the ship pack was fun, but some of the people who worked on the show were happy to help.
Roger Murray-Leach, who designed the Liberator, was very inspired by Middle Eastern Design and shapes. I have a copy of his original drawings for the ship, at the time it wasn't possible to stick to his plans exactly, so things were a bit more basic. These days... Well, in the day and age of CGI it's a little easier. Although I note that the remastered episodes use practical model effects, all of the models were 3D printed and hand-finished. So CAD played a role in those new effects. I can say that the new Liberator model for the remastered effects looks amazing, and uses more of the original design.
Sorry for the long silence. Have been working on a private 3D project, which is pretty much coming near to its end. So I thought I would turn the clock back to July when I said I might work on an "Ultimate Excelsior" - bring together several elements from different takes on her (Ingram, Ent-B, Excelsior-NX);
The study model is currently 560 meters on the nose and has 25 decks (I know, I know, but those decks help line up the windows).
More on this later.
The study model is currently 560 meters on the nose and has 25 decks (I know, I know, but those decks help line up the windows).
