Another sugesstion for Modelers

[jjrakman]

Here's another obscure piece of Galactican history someone could bring into the digital world. The Viper Launch Station. Admittedly a bit of a cheesy toy, but with some alterations, and removal of the handles on the bottom, it could make a neat sort of orbital launch platform.

http://www.lurexlounge.com/bsg/jpg/launch.jpg

[3eighty]

Not a bad idea..I can't beleive this is not already around someplace..

[Stevew]

JJ
We could put a whole lot more than 2 in here
http://www.colonialfleets.com/stevew/BSG/aldeberan.jpg
:)

[Jakob J]

Good idea to start off with, thanks for throwing it out there. Lot of potential.

[jjrakman]

JJ
We could put a whole lot more than 2 in here
http://www.colonialfleets.com/stevew/BSG/aldeberan.jpg
:)

Well that's pretty cool, how many Vipers can it shoot out?

I alsi still think it would be neat if someone modeled the toy though. You could place one in orbit around an existing space station or an asteroid instalation, and it would be fairly cheap. Plus I think it would be a cool nod to the fans to see it in the background of some fan film.

[Stevew]

Don't know JJ I guess it would depend on the scale I would make it.
It would be expensive to use
http://www.padtinc.com/rm/sls/default.htm
but all my models are broken down in parts via Solidworks, it some one had access to an SLS machine you could make parts and from that molds for production parts. Very expensive
S :)

[nunweilr]

It's a good reference to begin a project.

[Griffworks]

I remember that toy! Friend of mine had one. I had two of the Revell Cylon Raider kits and we used to play Vipers vs Raiders as those Vipers appeared to be relatively close to-scale w/the Raiders. At least, to my eye at the time.

[Smallworld]

I think it woyuld have to be bigger, maybe take six or eight Vipers. I may get around to modelling something like this someday. Thanks for showing the pic.

[Ramses]

okay.. not done by a long shot.. but this is it so far. im adding launch tubes on the bottom hull, I figure eight vipers, plus eight heavy cannons, and two missile bays.

http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/KevinSinclair/Launch.jpg

[Ramses]

heres the progress so far.. I suck at texturing but its gonna have to do. LOL suggestions and comments welcome. thanks




http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/KevinSinclair/LAUNCH2copy.jpg

[Punisher454]

I totally agree with your estimation of eight vipers. For the colonies to build something like this it would have to be able to carry at least 8 to 12 vipers and a few shuttles.
Something like 500 - 800 feet in length sounds appropriate to me. This design really has very little internal space.

[gmd3d]

interesting approach. and it is hard to judge scale of it.. (hard to get right in cgi) stick in a port hole or 3 to help scaling

[Punisher454]

The overall shape reminds me a little bit of the "Draconia".

[Ramses]

Im still debating having the superstructure around the launch deck. it isnt there on the toy. plus the toy shows drive pods on the rear. which ive kept. but debating on removing those as well, to give it more of a orbital station look.

as far as the scale.. im still debating on it. LOL I think it should be large enough for weapons, power plants and drives to maintain its orbit. plus life support, crew quarters and cargo holds for supplys. spare fighters, parts and such.

they never got into details that I remember on the show. but Im assuming theres four to six fighters per squadron.. im using a working number of four. so figure the base holds double that in fighters plus at least one squadron in Replacement fighters. no more than eight on patrol at any given time.

with one squadron standing by on the hot pad ready to launch on alert.

so as you can see im still trying to get the scale in line LOL

[gmd3d]

ah the joys of cgi .. I always have problems getting the scale right

[Limerickcot]

I had a go at this myself some time back. In my case I was doing it for the RDM series and, after feedback, we developed it through a series. I like your take on this as well. Better than my skills at modelling.

The one thing that we agreed on though was that it was a through-deck arrangement.

Today I'd do it slightly differently but this is what I got:

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u299/Limerickcot/bsg/Mentor%20Class/th_MentorSeries.gif (http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u299/Limerickcot/bsg/Mentor%20Class/?action=view&current=MentorSeries.gif)

[gmd3d]

these look great .. your texturing is better than my weak efforts

[Ramses]

thanks... Sorry ive been really busy lately. still messing around with the design when I get the chance. My texturing disability is slowly getting better. LOL

I think my problem was trying to stick as close as I could with the toys design. so Ive been messing around with ideas on how to change it around and still keep the basic looks.

originally I had designed it along the lines of System defense ship. using that idea I figured it wouldnt be configured to hold large amounts of cargo since it could be resupplied directly from the planet(s) it was helping defend. I couldnt see a design like that as an orbital defense station.

as an orbital defense station it could be half the size of the Galactica and hold two times the fighters.

lately though LOL. Ive been toying with the idea thats its more like a light carrier with limited FTL range to support fleet actions in the colonies. the whole cheap to build high firepower support keep out of range of the enemy kind of carrier. the colonies could build ten or twelve of them for the cost of one Galactica.

Limerickcot Love the designs of the ones you did. pretty good work.

[Limerickcot]

Limerickcot Love the designs of the ones you did. pretty good work.

Thanks. I like this one though. Far more TOS than I did.

I worked on the design as an orbital defence station - with minimal speed compared to normal fleet vessels. As they found these lacking (they were turned over to pilot training instead) they rebuilt others with larger engines, more hanger space and better quarters.

[Ramses]

I need opinions. to many greebles or not enough. and hopefully the shuttle and escort vipers give it some scale LOL


http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/KevinSinclair/Untitled-1.jpg

[Limerickcot]

Hi Ramsese. Thats nice and, I think, about right. This is a much smaller vessel after all. Is there any chance of posting a link to a bigger pic though to get more of the detail?

I'd say that, based on the scale of your Vipers, this thing is roughly the size of a flight-pod and could hold a lot more than just sixteen (if I understand your notes above).

[gmd3d]

why not add some Hull plates that may help with the scale. I think there is enough greebles. good work

[Ramses]

I think I may re do the thing, making it longer so I can add six launch tubes to each side. I liked the idea of it being the size of a launch bay on the Galactica. which would put it at almost 2000 ft. long. about half of it would be devoted to drives, life support, machine shops, fighter and shuttle fuel supply, parts, weapons and crew quarters.

but till then this is what Ive got. the colonial battle rider Amun 35 light CVn. hope you like it.

http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/KevinSinclair/Amun1.jpg

[gmd3d]

Looks great and thankfully original.. top marks mate

[Limerickcot]

Agreed. A great job and as Tarannis says, wonderfully original.

I can see this going down well.

[Ramses]

okay yes Ive been bored LOL. this one will probably stay as a work in progress. so far Im callin it the Horus Mid size combar carrier. essentially the size of the Galactica's landing bay.with only 50 figthers. and various weapons systems.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/KevinSinclair/HorusCVC.jpg

I need to really do some good textures for this. but thats the one of the things I dont do well yet. that and lighting rigs. and... well you get the point.

[ernie90125]

Do any of these exist in animated form ?

[gmd3d]

sweet .

[Ramses]

Thanks taranis

Ernie.. thats what im working on now. but this will be my first attempt to animate so it might take some time LOL. just something simple like the Horus moving into position as Vipers launch or fly CAP.

ill let you know how things progress.

[jjrakman]

Wow. That looks really great. Would love to see a really good angle of the landing/launching pads with some Vipers coming in/off of it.

[jjrakman]

I keep looking at that one over the orange planet, it almost looks like a McQuarrie painting for cripes sake.

[jjrakman]

This reminds me, someone a while back tackled the Stellar Probe:

http://www.colonialfleets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12959

All that's left is the Scarab!

http://www.colonialfleets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12200&highlight=stellar+Probe

[Ramses]

Ive already got something along the lines of the Slugger. I Write alot and lately have been turning some of the ideas into CGI. LOL

its hard to model anything for TOS BSG since it was only on for a short time. no telling what they might have come up with over time. but, I noticed that with the exception of the viper, the military gear is blocky with lots of grebils.


Ive actually been toying with the idea of a Assualt shuttle, an armored vehicle based on the Landram, and a few escort ships basically frigates and destroyers.

ultimately I want to get good enough to do a Fan flick and a game mod. though Im really shooting for the fan flick LOL.

[Ramses]

okay here it is the Dagon Long range Multi mission configurable scout. AKA the stellar probe LOL it slices it dices it even detects cylon Base stars at four parsec's.

but wait thats not all for just 199,00 Credits you also get a torpedo assualt pod, and a Acme Hetlaser module.

http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/KevinSinclair/Timberrattler.jpg

[drwatson55]

I like the look of that long range scout. Is that going to be in conjunction with the stations and carriers?

[Ramses]

I think they would be deployed by both fleet elements and Stations.

the hull of the Recon ship would be covered in Metamaterials which absorb radtion across the EM band, both for protection and stealth capablity's. allow the Dagon to Enter areas normaly prohibited and do deep scans.

the larger drives are give it longer ranges and faster speeds than the Standard Viper or shuttle. and with the modular capability it can be fitted for limited combat missions as well.

just a few ideas bouncing around in my head at anyrate LOL. :colonial:

[drwatson55]

Excellent, I always like it when people at least think of the engineering of designs. Makes them much more realistic.