Mini-project: Orbital Elements Modular Container (Round Two!)

 The mini-project continues. I'm reasonably happy with the progress. The idea that this would be a super-quality build has fallen aside. I'm having a horrendous time with Fluent. It may be a bug, a scene corruption, or my keyboard or mouse has been sticking. I managed to get what I needed, though.

Understated Pod

I wanted the container pod to avoid excessive sculpting and boolean cuts, which are too easy to make but hard to justify. This is actually two of the units I built stuck together to get the dimensions close to the stand-in module.

Nonetheless, the hinge system needed to be rebuilt to better match the new form.

Longer and with a bigger cage

Interesting story here. The pivot is in the wrong direction. I hadn't noticed when I first blocked it out, but under spin, the roof would become the floor. Not ideal, but not a show-stopper. The fix might be as easy as having the pods pivot forward instead of towards the rear. Then, the pod's deck floor would be on the outer side.

Progress made:

• Command module with a first round of details, including windows.
  
• Two containers are attached directly to the hull. These don't spin and are probably used for stores. They mate with the hull via an airlock block at the rear. This is the bit that caused me so much woe.
• Note that the structural ring has a bunch of boolean cuts to show that it is a structural frame and doesn't contain any bits.

Tomorrow: Finish the primary build steps. Clean up. Some materials, some lamps. Then...Drum Roll... I will bone and rig the hinge machinery to animate the modules folding down. I watched a tutorial, and it looks complicated but this is me laughing at my comfort zone as I side down the rockface.