Hi gang, this is a little appeal for some creative design and thinking from you lot, something I'm sadly lacking in at the moment. In order to further my own little schemes I need some kind of landing area or hangar that I can use for animations and still photos, somewhere for me to show off any small to medium sized ships that I have or may make in the future. I've pestered my usual contacts but they're a bit indisposed so I thought I'd throw it open and see what comes my way from the forum, creative bunch that you are.
I'm thinking a small base with an external pad area or two, possibly elevated or in the side of a cliff or hill, as it makes faking ground stuff and backgrounds SO much easier. Everyone makes models of ships but they never look completely realistic unless we see them against a backdrop we can recognise or relate to, and no one seems to make or distibute such things for free. We can change that, any mesh I make will be available to the board for their own nefarious modelling needs, and if it's not too Trek-like it can be used for other types of ship too. Hell, i can even render it as a backdrop for the guys who make physical models, they can composite the ship into the scene in photoshop.
So there's the challenge, a small base or elevated landing area that'll be home to small to mid sized ships. The final design gets made into a 3D model and the board gets the model or renders of it for their own use. That OK?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I was actually just getting started on this when you posted.
Sadly due to certain computer problems this is about as far as I've been able to get.
Just a very basic layout as you can see. In the top right hand corner is the control tower (say 6 or 7 stories high?) with all of it's antennae, beacons and other control tower paraphernalia. Intersecting the tower is a small building, not sure what it's for exactly, just that it's squat (only 1 stories), shaped funny and connects the tower to the habitat building which is that hexagon in the top left (3 or 4 stories).
At the bottom is obviously the lading pad & garage structure complete with shuttle & Archie. The landing pad itself is suspended above ground level and it equal with the top floor of the garage building which itself is about equal with that of the habitat building, to which it is connected by a suspended walkway.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I don't get the level of the landing pad, how can it be level with the roof of the garage building and be of any use? The rest I kinda understand, but not that last bit at all.
To be honest I'm looking for something slightly larger, for instance your IAV-106 would never fit onto this thing, the pad and hangar are just too small for stuff runabout sized or even slightly larger. Same goes for your Deneva design, it's meant to land at facilities but wouldn't have a hope here. Maybe a split level thing, a large base pad that the whole shebang sits on, with one or two smaller pads hanging off the sides or elevated somewhere, perhaps on a roof of one of the larger structures.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
It was late and my language probably wasn't as clear as it should have been. The landing pad is level with the top floor of the hanger structure like so.
[====]______ [====]/ [====]
The top level would be just like a normal garage, usually for routine maintenance (refuel, wash) and parking. A lift would take shuttles and/or workpods to the middle level which is a proper workshop which is where the big hammers and welding torches come out and the ground level might be a second shop, or parts storage. Maybe a sub-level below ground for the building's generator.
I know it's a little small but this is only supposed to be the corner piece of a much larger structure. I'm designing it to be easily reconfigured so you can use this small corner piece as a small standalone outpost or make it a part of a larger installation that I'll design just as soon as I can convince PSP not to crash on me again.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
This is roughly what I had in mind. [note: scale is very approximate]
There should be more outbuildings, storage sheds and the like but this is basically it.
The two large landing areas will have a structure of their own, probably surrounded by a wall of some description with gaps here and there to allow ground level access. I'm also thinging of having a terminal building that has an extendable docking tube that can connect with one of the Deneva's airlocks.
Posted by Fleet-Admiral Michael T. Colorge (Member # 144) on :
Nice... but I remember someone making a smaller landing area for a Nova Class here. Is that also you Reverend?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
In the end though, you'd probably just want to land your ship out on some nondescript, but dry and hard, land. There wouldn't be much need to pave and maintain a landing area if most ships can handle regular land without much problem... Voyager did it all the time, and the BoP managed a landing on Vulcan without one. The only real need for a paved or artificial surface would be to faciliate ground vehicles getting around for maintenance and resupply. With antigrav shuttles and ground vehicles (like when Voyager set down on that planet to open up her nacelles in the seventh season), this is not a problem.
I'd envision a simple open area nearby for larger ships to land as necessary, which would be maintained as bare rock, compacted dry soil/lakebed, or even simple grassland. Ground vehicles would keep it flat, and fill in the holes from landing feet. Furthermore, having a large central area doesn't make much sense, given the unpredictably size of visiting UFP or alien ships. Lot simpler than making a whole surface, no?
As a case in point, the backup shuttle landing facility at White Sands is just a big dry lakebed of packed gypsum, which is maintained to the point that the shuttle can land on it if the Kennedy facility is unsuitable. And those big deserts where they abandon old jet liners aren't that much less...
Mark
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I have no problem with a large flat area being rock or some other hard surface, but I don't see grassland as an ideal work area. Anything that doesn't float is going to sink in at some point, and something like Voyager or the Deneva design would tip on it's nose in an instant.
The idea isn't that this is a spaceport for all types of vessels, this is a small outpost on a planet somewhere purely for federation vessels, a repair and resupply base for some nearby facility perhaps. It might be part of some mining operation or another Corp of Engineers project that needs shuttles and supply ships bringing in parts and people from outlying areas.
Posted by cable078 (Member # 1099) on :
Axeman 3D I was wondering if you could please help me design a movie era fighter that looks a little like the viper fighter from Battlestar?
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I'll have a go at a little design if you like, but more info would be needed. Let me know what ideas you have for it, how it's armed, it's size and looks, etc. I could just stick TMP era decals on a Viper but that'd be a bit tacky.
Posted by cable078 (Member # 1099) on :
Axeman 3D could you please email me at [email protected] so i can give u the details? thnxs
