Ok, this is a quick render based on some discussion in the thread about the USS Vigilant model I just completed. Turns out there's these things called mini-torps in the Star Trek world, smaller versions of photon torpedos that can pack a nuclear sized punch if need be. They may be a way for a lazy script to write itself out of a corner, but we thought they might be of some use in a well rounded Starfleet.
Continuing in the tradition of eschewing uberships for more niche-type vessels, I give you my idea of what a minitorp style missile boat might look like.
This is just a rough model I knocked up in 15 minutes after an hour sketching ideas and chewing pencils, but it gives you a fair picture of what I might end up making. It's small, because it can be. No need for a large ship for something that might not see a lot of use and would be a target anyway. The engines at the rear, deflector underneath, and warp nacelles masked behind the body. The dark strips on the nose are covering targetting sensors, and the 2 launcher arrays are the boxes on the sides above the bussards.
I reckon you could easily fit 8 to 10 minitorp launchers in each, giving a salvo size of up to 20 at a time and with enough storage space for 5 reloads, making 100 weapons in all. Modern radar and fire control systems in aircraft can track dozens of targets, select the nearest threats and launch almost simultaneously at 6 or more with almost no input from the pilot. I reckon by the time this baby is flying it could easily track and launch at 20 fighters or small craft at a time, or perhaps fire several at a number of capital ships. Firing options could vary, you might launch 2 torps at each small target or a whole salvo to spread impact across a large area of shielding on a capital ship. It might also be feasible to use one of these for orbital bombardment, since it holds pretty much the equivelant firepower as a nuclear missile sub does today. We might also use it as a minefield layer, firing either mines or passive listening torpedos that activate when an enemy ship passes close enough. Likewise it might be a great minesweeping tool, or even as a shotgun to be used against suspected cloaked vessels, filling the sky with explosives.
So there you have it, a 2 man operated, 20 metre long weapon of mass destruction. Not very PC I know, but it would be a very handy thing to have sitting in the hangar bay. Comments and outright flames expected...
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
Not Found The requested URL /posts/missileboatortho.jpg was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request. Apache/1.3.26 Server at www.axeman3d.com Port 80
Ooops.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
F5.
Anyway, I like the design, but I'm thinking you could nix the nacelles and have it be a carrier-based short-range craft instead so as to offset its massive tactical superiority over other fighters (which would otherwise pretty much be relegated to the scrapheap by this thing). That's my only peeve, though.
[ December 29, 2004, 07:44 AM: Message edited by: Cartman ]
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
I dont see it relegating other fighters to the scrapheap, although we haven't really seen that many fighters anyway. You can bet that if the military today had an equivelant, they'd build it and not worry about other countries moaning at how unfair it might be in a fight.
This thing would undoubtedly be slower and less manoueverable due to the load it's carrying anyway, and once it's out of ammo it's not much use to anyone. While it's firing though it would certainly spoil someones day. From the way these things bounce off shields in the series I suspect that ships could afford a hit or two, but not a lot in succession. Perhaps that would balance out the power factor, not that anyone says it really has to be handicapped in any way.
This thing might be a real good reason to have some fighters around, to keep nasties like this from getting to your main fleet for a start, be it by destroying them with phasers or causing them to expend all their ammo first.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Oh, and it should pack a phaser for good measure, like all jets still have cannons. B)
Edit: I meant the Federation's own fighters that would be obsolete, actually. After all, why build a Peregrine (or whatever) when you can have a missile boat with ten times the warhead loadout?
Posted by Irishman (Member # 1188) on :
Dude, it's an awesome design, but it doesn't look Starfleet to me. It more looks like a very expensive civilian warp ship, like the Lamborghini Countache of its day.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
The design looks too curvy and smooth, like a SmartCar. Where's that angled steel-plate "Vigilant class" pragmatism that worked so well before?
I concur about the phasers, even the Danubes had phasers strong enough to destroy a Dominion attack ship with a well-laid shot.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Nice start, now here's the enevitable list of design suggestions.
First off it's a little pot bellied, even for a Torpedo Boat/Corvette (?) so the first thing I'd do would be to move the whole belly up a bit and cut into the underside of the nose so you don't squash the dish. Speaking of the dish, it might give a little more character if you put one of those red pieces. Also the structure of the belly itself could do with a more gentle taper on the sides, which will give the side view a more natural flow.
Secondly I'd make the impulse engines a little more chunky looking and give them their own housings that just out the back, then cut away a bit of the hull between them a little so they look a little less stunted.
Next I'd sort out the window so it looks a little more Starfleet-ish, with the notched sides and slight taper.
Finally I'd stick a bunch of large plate like pieces on the canopy to make it look a little more armored, split the window in two with a center piece, add in umbilicus/hardpoint strip like wot u get on dur big ships and round it all off with a dorsal hatch.
Like so.
P.S. I suggest the name Ocelot. Bird names are too predictable.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Sorry, couldn't resist. Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
Ocelot? Ocelot? All I think of when I hear that is Monty Pythons Life of Brian and the scene in the circus arena...
"Get yer otters noses, badgers intestines, ocelots spleen, get them while there hot..."
The ship is not a final model, nor indeed the basis for the final model at all and was just a quick 3D sketch to get the idea down on paper, as it were. It looks like an inflatable ship with no detail because that's all I wanted to do at this early stage. My actual idea for the finished look would be more like the Y-Wing from Star Wars mixed with a little Starfleet and a bit of my USS Vigilant pragmatism. Some interesting ideas for the look though, and of course it has to have phasers, even if they dont pack the punch of the torpedos. Does it say how powerful they are, because I work out a half kilo of matter and half kilo of antimatter to be something like 45,000 gigajoules of energy released, which is a pretty loud bang in anyones book?
Posted by Wes (Member # 212) on :
420 Posted by MarianLH (Member # 1102) on :
Jeez, turn your talents to the 23rd century and I'll marry you.
Wait--can you cook?
Marian
Posted by Captain39 (Member # 1001) on :
Since this appears to be a Trek version of PT boats a few suggestions for naming the class:
Elco, Higgins, or Huckins.All manufactered PT boats during WWII. Just a thought.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
420?
23rd Century? You mean the biege box/cylinder stuff? It's already well populated with kitbashes of the TOS Enterprise, they have no place for me there.
Weren't Higgens boats actually landing craft?
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
OK, nothing much happening at work today so I got this second version done. This is rapidly turning into the Star Trek version of the Y-Wing fighter, a heavy fighter with more missiles and guns than most, but not perhaps as fast or agile as the smaller ones.
I've made some of the changes suggested by punters in posts and drawings, and also made the missile pods an attachment so that other systems can be stuck on instead, or even left off so that it can be used as a courier or liason craft if need be. It's also not as overtly military with them left off, so a bit more politically correct than the first try. COmments, suggestions, diagrams, etc all welcome.
Posted by aneurysm (Member # 906) on :
Looks too much like a Y-Wing front end.
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
Very nice indeed, and kudos to the Adaptable Mission Platform idea. I assume the torp pods are the long boxes on the shoulders of the shuttle in your pic?
You could make the pods slightly larger and longer and still retain an aesthetic side/front silhouette, IMO. They look small. I made a test-pic with 13 pixels higher and 15 pixels longer sideview pod. This may be a bit much, but it's just for indication. This would also make the front view look more "meaning business"-y.
Mission Package Idea #1: Pulse phaser gun pods. Many different gun pods are available to attack choppers and lean fighter planes like Harrier and such today. Use the same boxes as in your prototype but with two knobs in the middle of those black square covers and you have a light gunship for strafing missions. Not as powerful as the 360 ones of the Excelsior, but with the same concept.
You could do something nice with the nosetip. A grille (Y-wing style), or just some dark, nonreflecting "whaleskin" texture covering 2/5ths' of the distance from tip to beginning of canopy. Like it was dipped in chocolate.
There's something about the nacelles. I like them generally, though the blue zebra-pattern emerging in dorsal/ventral views should be fixed. But it feels like the ship would scrape the nacelles into the ground when it lifts off. I know it wouldn't do it in real life, it would levitate a few meters before tilting, but it feels like it. If the front end of the nacelle protruded slightly longer through the pylon hole, and the rear nacelle part was slightly shorter? Just a thought. Also, the emerging red hubs of the nacelles look like two clitorii.
Maybe a grey centerline dividing the hub in two halves, like on the Sovereign? Same as the nose, you've got room to play.
Also good maybe: Phaser strips on the fuselage�s outer edge.
Posted by Axeman 3D (Member # 1050) on :
The nacelles suck, no doubt about it. I make no bones about being crap at designing nacelles and this bares it out. I have a new set in mind, oness which will protrude through the forward section and replace the huge glowing clitoris with a somewhat more normal bassard endcap.
I tried making the shoulder launch boxes larger, but in order to do it I also have to make them narrower in section as they dont fit width-wise if I make theem as large as I'd like. Maybe some jiggery-pokery can make them fit better at a greater volume, we'll see.
As for it looking like a Y-Wing front end, that was the point. I have tried giving it a dark nose which would simulate some sort of radome or sensor protective cover, but I need to work on how I'm going to detail this thing overall so that it doesn't look out of place, too like a Y Wing or too like the front of an aircraft from the mid 20th century.
Posted by Captain39 (Member # 1001) on :
Yes, the the landing craft used in WWII were called Higgins boats because he designed them but his company also manufactured a number of PT boats as well. ELCO was by far the largest manufacturer though, and Huckins made a very limited amount.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
From the way these things bounce off shields in the series I suspect that ships could afford a hit or two, but not a lot in succession. Perhaps that would balance out the power factor, not that anyone says it really has to be handicapped in any way.
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
