posted
A little while ago someone posted this link over on TrekBBS, which the man himself said was built for a Pilot pitch that he and two others put together that, needless to say never made it to our screens (see the thread here for details.)
Anyway, the design struck me as looking very Federation/Starfleet, in a utilitarian way that I find very appealing so I'm adapting (stealing) the design to be the Federation Hopper that's been mentioned occasionally.
In the long run I plan on adapting it to two scales. A half scale hopper, the kind that was used by Starfleet to transport platoons of tactical forces over short distances (like on Ajilon Prime) among other non-military functions and a full scale hopper which is closer to the original design's purpose as a mobile surface science and exploration platform. The kind I imagine is used by Federation colonists to further explore their new world once the transports and Starships have gotten the main colony established and then moved on.
So far I'm just roughing our the major hull components, trying to get everything in roughly the right proportion.
Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
posted
...Looks like something from Voltron 'And I'll Smoke a Bong, Err, Form the Head!'...
Really, don't know what to do with it (but i'm not a good judge of Misl. Star Fleet utility vessels. It seems ok but maybe a pic-in-action would help me vision it (I had the same problems with the VF-25 Messiah from MF before i saw the Deculture episode in Decemeber. once i saw the fighter in action, i spent several days flogging myself for being so weak...)
posted
Just think of it as an LCAC without the rubber skirt mixed with a giant Snowcat type of thing. Don't expect it to do any barrel rolls or have an exciting music video made about it's exploits as it'd probably move and function more like a Chinook than anything else.
posted
Not exactly. A landing craft just goes from a mother ship to a beach head and back. This is more like a CH-47 Chinook or C-130 Hercules (with shades of the AC-130 Spectre) in terms of it's battlefield role or if you like a bigger and more powerful UH-60 Blackhawk. In a nutshell, once dropped from orbit it can operate independently of the mothership's support and would be mostly used to move assets (personnel and equipment) to wherever they need to be, while giving limited fire support.
In it's (much more common) civilian role it's more like a mobile command and exploration vehicle. Mostly used by established colonies to make long (trans-continental) survey missions on largely unexplored worlds or to simply act as a versatile support vehicle.
The BIG version is effectively a mobile base of operations. One of them (along with a bunch of auxiliary craft) can be dropped on an uncolonised world after a starship has done an initial survey and a crew of about 20-40 people would spend a year or five doing a detailed exploration right a cross the planet ahead of full colonisation.
posted
Yeah, don't worry about that, it'll be appropriate to what we know of Federation equipment. I'll probably replace that ray like craft with an Phoenix/AWACs type sensor pod, though I think the larger version will still have a landing platform on the aft section, for skimmers and shuttles.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Really, don't know what to do with it (but i'm not a good judge of Misl. Star Fleet utility vessels. It seems ok but maybe a pic-in-action would help me vision it (I had the same problems with the VF-25 Messiah from MF before i saw the Deculture episode in Decemeber. once i saw the fighter in action, i spent several days flogging myself for being so weak...)![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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