Medical Frigate: Endgame

 I've pretty much completed the modelling. That isn't to say that I won't redo a few elements. An airlock door, here. A few more banks of lamps and lights. Maybe even a ship name embossed on the hull, when I think of the name.

Guns, guns, guns. Tiny ones, just for point defence.

Dropship bay at the bottom. Docking bay at the mid-point.

That hulking mid-section makes me think of a snail lugging its shell.

UV mapping. I won't go wild on the surface treatment. It fits best into the Aliens style by using high contrast and stark treatment. The colour palette is subdued and bleak, although different from Sulaco's battleship grey with a blue cast.

Medical Frigate: Yet more details

 I was planning to complete the modelling by the end of today. Not quite, but not too much left to do. I'm reasonably happy with the progress. The command section (front bit) looks much more like the Sulaco than originally planned. It's referential but not slavishly copied.

Engine Port details and Lower Hospital block section still to do.

There might be a few elements that I redo. The forward/rear airlock door for certain.

I'll definitely have the modelling finished tomorrow. It will then be deck plans, all the way down.

Medical Frigate: more details

 

Medical Frigate: basics

 After a couple more iterations, I found my feet. I'm still pushing too quickly into areas of fine detail, but I completed a block build first.

A block build!

Into the fine details

Floundering a bit

 Some projects run smoothly. Some don't. Some projects should be abandoned quickly, but are not.

I don't know where this project sits on the spectrum. I'm keen to do it. It's a tiny bit different -- a ship that exists (unofficially for copyright reasons) in the Alien universe. A medical frigate that looks like it belongs as a variant of the USMC Sulaco.

It's not coming to me because I've made quick starts without a lot of detailed planning. I've pushed into level-2 and level-3 details before getting the big pieces right. Age-old modelling problems for me.

Earlier design

Updated design

I liked the idea of an E.M. shroud, a radar shield for stealthy operation. It didn't feel like it sat well in the Aliens universe. The Sulaco has a tower projection that does the same job.

Making stuff out of simple forms but going into the details before the blocks are complex enough.

First effort. I realised the shield plates are not circular on the outer surface. See above from an approach that is closer to the Sulaco.

Tigress: 70% Complete

 I got a bit burnt out drawing some greeble displacement maps. Yesterday was one of those rare days when I had to force myself to stop and take breaks. It's great not to suffer a rapid loss of enthusiasm because I begin to recognise growing flaws in a build.

Not that there aren't flaws here.

U.V. victory

I broke the outer hull into separate meshes and fixed the meshes that contained horrifying boolean artefacts. I could then apply a UV map to each part, which is much easier than trying to apply a single map to a complex form. 

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong with Zen UV. It doesn't do its magic in a single generative step. Instead,  I created a base UV, then used Zen UV to select and "extract" specified areas, resulting in good and usable maps. Finally!

Greeble displacement map for the forward section

Material Testing

Lighting and render test -- Type A Free Trader shown to scale

Tigress D3

 Some more progress on the Dreadnaught

Lighting Test

Meson Gun "Pacman Mouth" details.

You might notice that the tile displacement is only on the top and bottom of the sphere. This is not clever design, it's purely down to be overlooking the UV management of the complicated section of the hull. This sphere mesh is a horrible mess because It's floating Boolean cutouts. In the next episode, I will "Do what must be done" and clean this all up ready to UV the "floaters" as separate meshes.

Hangers and engines

Tigress: Day 2

 This is a bit mad. I should have been fixing and completing the Free Trader but instead I take on the biggest warship in the Traveller game. This half-a-million-ton monster warship suddenly looks piddly, contrasting with the Star Wars-style miles-long mega-ships. I calculated that the main sphere of the Tigress is about 200m in diameter. Roughly the length of the Starship Enterprise or the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. 

Mid details - from ahead

Mid details - from aft

Tigress

 This is a off-the-cuff Traveller ship project. I know! I know! The previous two Traveller ship projects remain incomplete. Bill me for my flightiness.

The Tigress-class Dreadnaught is the half-a-million-ton monster warship of the Traveller game. I've never fielded one in my games because they're the sharp end of the Imperium's defensive line, while most Traveller players find themselves in the galactic hinterlands during play.

Yesterday's explorative build. Not quite lining up

Random flow to the rescue!

More alien landscape

 I love creating landscape scenes in Blender. I especially love creating scenes of alien worlds.

Starting point - ridged terrain using World Creator 3 and True-Terrain 5

Geo-Scatter "crystal grass"

All my low-poly alien plants FTW

True-Sky for alien atmosphere

Copely Station

 Sometimes, I'll be sketching, and I produce something that makes me instantly want to start building. Sometimes it's a really simple idea.

Copley Station! A small space station that has six hamster cage-style spin habitats. Some complex engineering is required, in the form of anti-torque counter-spinners that would nullify the drift that occurs from stuff moving around in them.

I'll tinker a while longer, but it's mostly done. I'll then create some deck plans!

Mcquarrie Truck - rough scene

First bash at a full landscape scene

Truck near completion

Still considering a roof block sitting on top

McQuarrie Truck Progress

 
I don't think I've gone overboard on the details just yet. There's some tidy-up and improvement required here and there.

Real windows. Next, I need to provide the cabin details.

Ramp machinery needs a bit of work. More ladder mechanisms and a big box on the end wall.

Some more work on the nose stuff. Lamps and sensors.