Scrapping My Battlestar Galactica project ????

[Merlin]

I had to make some changes in the detail. I cut back on some of the detail on the top part of the Landing Bays and replaced it with sort of an antenna / radar looking things that use less memory + "I always drink coffee when I watch radar ! " So I needed more radar ..

Also .. I attached some close up images showing some of the weaponry, guns / missile launchers / torpedo launchers and lot's of launch tubes for Vipers and other smaller attack craft!

[Matador]

Looks sweet. Love where you placed the cannons.

"they've gone to plad!"

[Merlin]

Progress update, I've added some plating and worked on some detail for the Landing Bay Arms.

[Matador]

wow man... That looks good. I love the hull plating. I struggle with that so much. I never know how to cut or create those cool angles in the plating. Maybe it's because I am over thinking it.

Anyhew, great work!

[martok2112]

WOW! I am really liking the look of this Galactica! Well done, and keep it up!

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Matador

I love the hull plating. I struggle with that so much. I never know how to cut or create those cool angles in the plating. Maybe it's because I am over thinking it.

Doing the plating is pretty simple, I'm wondering, how are you going about doing it ?

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Merlin

Doing the plating is pretty simple, I'm wondering, how are you going about doing it ?

Well, in lightwave... I select the polygon/golygons that I want to use... Copy them to a new layer and then start slicing and dicing... I then bevel them...

That's about it.

I guess I just don't know when to use angles to make the cut, or just make them straight.

Do you have any tips or suggestions?

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Matador

Well, in lightwave... I select the polygon/golygons that I want to use... Copy them to a new layer and then start slicing and dicing... I then bevel them...:

One way is to select a polygon, put it on a new layer, then create another layer, make some shapes, boxes, rectangles , take some of those shapes and select a point , use rounder and keep it at one point, and add like a 45 degree to a corner .. then go back to the original polygon layer and just cut through the polygon, then bevel the polygon a short distance creating a small gap between the shapes, while keeping it flat ! Then just extrude the new shapes to a depth that works for your model ... And you now have plates !!!

[maudib]

It's great to see original battlestars being modelled! I really like this type. Keep up the good work!

[Merlin]

Been plugging away on this,

[David Kerin]

I'm not always big into Galactica redesigns, but I really like this! It holds that look of the original that I love, yet gives a different, maybe more aggressive style. A nice alternate universe Galactica.

Cool Cool Cool!

[Senmut]

An earlier version, perhaps. Over her 500-yahren of service, the old girl has doubtless undergone many a refit.

[Punisher454]

to me it looks like an earlier model. Reminds me of looking at US aircraft carriers. when you look at something like a kittyhawk type carrier, then a nimitz class and even the newer types , they retain the same basic configuration, but the details change.

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by David Kerin

It holds that look of the original that I love, yet gives a different, maybe more aggressive style.

Thanks Dave, It's a re-take on the original, your comment on being a more aggressive style, is right on, or it's something I've been hoping to achieve, anyway.

What Peter wrote was right on too, it's how I approached this "it's like a step from the original Enterprise to the one in the motion picture.".

I wanted to make it feel like the GALACTICA from the original series, but be a bit different. My goals: Sleeker and Faster looking, More ominous and imposing. I wanted it to feel like a warship that's built for a fight.



The Design, it's much more than a ship that carries Vipers. I thought of a strategy on how it fights, It works by creating a kill box, flying around at light speed deploying Vipers and other Craft , in a radius around the Battlestar .. extending it's range .. The Vipers sort of drive the Cylons into a position where the Battlestar Blasts them .. I'll use the quote from THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, "The hounds to the hunters" .. There is more to this and other strategies .. but that's the basic one.


It will also have another capability that I've yet to add.. It's already loaded with Missile launchers, Those are the rectangular tubes seen on top at the mid section, plus it has lots of Big Guns and Torpedo launchers which can be seen, on the side of the ship between the front two landing legs.


The part I have yet to add, are Missiles Tubes, that are like todays ICBM's only much more powerful, they are for destroying fixed targets, including entire planet surfaces .. They launch 3 or 4 of the missiles at different points around a planet and detonate at the same time , destroying the planet surface...


So the Idea is, and there is a method to my madness, it's part of the story I have in my head, (This is the backstory/ history) The Battlestars are these SUPER WARSHIPS that evolved over time, that are made to do everything. In my story the Colonies are all independent, and at times have fought against each other. To prevent one Colony from dominating another, a treaty was made limiting One Battlestar to each Colony. So although there are other types of warships The Battlestars are the top dogs .. And Because Each Colony can only have one and because of the extreme cost and time to build them, they have evolved into ships that are all encompassing! They are truly SUPER WARSHIPS ...


The number on the Galactica the #2 , Is because it's the 2nd fleet , made up of a Battlestar, Battlecruisers, and Various other ships .. Each Colony's Fleet is given a number or designation from the order that each Colony was settled, in my story, Caprica was the 2nd Colony settled and so it's fleet is designated the 2nd fleet.

In the original series the Pegasus was supposedly destroyed, along with the rest of the 5th fleet, trying to save Molokai.

So in my story I wanted to explain why the Pegasus was the 5th fleet. So I came up with this to explain it. The Pegasus is from the 5th Colony settled and intern the 5th Fleet.



The Colonial fleet is, The Combined Fleet, of all the Colonies .. Although the Colonies have fought amongst themselves, they are allied! If any outside force at all, challenges any of the 12 Colonies, All the Colonies respond.

In My story The Cylons have been more of nuisance, not much is known about them, but over the years there threat has been growing. causing the Colonies to rethink the idea of limiting themselves to one Battlestar each. Some new ones are under construction, but it becomes to late: as the Cylon's emerge and eventually attack the Colonies.



My story begins with the news of the Pegasus and the 5th fleet being, presumably destroyed.





On another note: A few have commented about My Battlestar being an Earlier Model . My timeframe is based on a retelling of the original series, not the 2003 re-make. Some elements of the 2003 series might become integrated, but for the most part it's based on the original series.

[Merlin]

I was playing around with some scene Ideas .. The renderings suck .. but it was fun playing around.

[Merlin]

I tried animating my Battlestar, It's my first attempt to animate anything, Still have a lot to figure out, but it's a small start.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tQO...layer_embedded

[gmd3d]

I think it good for a first animation..

how long to render..

and I know the music. but cannot remember from where ?

[David Kerin]

I still really like your design on the Battlestar. Such a nice mix of the film version, with McQuarrie influences. Love the arms at the end of the landing bay... remember that in pre-production paintings of McQuarrie and just wondered how they would be used. Looks awesome!

[Merlin]

Taranis, It took about 30 minutes to render, The first try took 5 Days, and half way through, ran out of memory ... Changed the camera !

The music is Vangelis, from the movie The Bounty.

Dave, the McQuarrie Arms, as you noted, are from the pre-production drawings, I've tried to put in some McQuarrie look into the model, He was such a great Artist! My favorite in fact !

As far as a use, I have no idea what his thinking was for the use, it just looked so cool, I had to add it ?

For me, It's for, when other large ships, re-supply, as an example, dock with the Galactica. To avoid a potential collision or hard docking, the arms, which can also rotate, grab on to the docking ship when it's close, lock on and then gently guide it into place. ( it's the only thing I could think of, that might make some sense ? )

Last thing, Both of you, I've followed your works, you both do outstanding work, consider me a fan ! : )

[maudib]

I really like this design. Nice to see variations of BSG universe capital ships. The 12 colonies of man had unique cultures, so each would produce ship designs reflecting that uniqueness. Makes sense. I am eyeing your design!

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Merlin

Taranis, It took about 30 minutes to render, The first try took 5 Days, and half way through, ran out of memory ... Changed the camera !

The music is Vangelis, from the movie The Bounty.

Dave, the McQuarrie Arms, as you noted, are from the pre-production drawings, I've tried to put in some McQuarrie look into the model, He was such a great Artist! My favorite in fact !

As far as a use, I have no idea what his thinking was for the use, it just looked so cool, I had to add it ?

For me, It's for, when other large ships, re-supply, as an example, dock with the Galactica. To avoid a potential collision or hard docking, the arms, which can also rotate, grab on to the docking ship when it's close, lock on and then gently guide it into place. ( it's the only thing I could think of, that might make some sense ? )

Last thing, Both of you, I've followed your works, you both do outstanding work, consider me a fan ! : )

The music is Vangelis, from the movie The Bounty.

Slaps head.. of course,. I have the cd.. thanks boy is my face red..

Thanks for the compliment..
I am astounded at the level of detail your putting into your model.

what I also like is giving your own spin on the design approach

[Merlin]

I added some Guns to the side of the landing bay and worked on some detailing inside the landing bay.

Opinions needed !!! Should I keep the Landing Bay side guns ?

[martok2112]

I like the landing bay guns, as they certainly seem tactically sound, but, it seems that they cut down the approach width for Vipers and especially shuttles.

I have guns on my battlestar landing bays, but they're mounted just above the entrances.

[Matador]

Nice... Your ship looks hard core!

[mikala]

Having the guns just below the bay doors perhaps?
Looks like the approach is a bit like threading a needle with them there.

[David Kerin]

The guns are a good idea for stopping Raiders on ramming missions. Like the antenna along the thrusters too. Reminds me a bit of the Cygnus from The Black Hole.

I agree that the bay entrance looks a bit tough to do... I'd be a nervous pilot approaching that.

[maudib]

Your landing bay entrances remind me of the B5 Universe Earth Alliance capital ship designs. The Omega Class destroyer is my favorite.

[Merlin]

I posted some pretty crappy renders, with two vipers to show the scale.


Those rear type of Main batteries are for blasting bigger ships and smaller batteries will go after smaller ships including Raiders .

The Scale of this ship is big, so there would be even more guns there, that would actually defend against Raiders and Missiles, but for this Model, it wouldn't make sense to put them in there, you wouldn't see them.


The thing about Battlestar Galactica, it always comes down to scale. what is the size ? Or, how big is it ? I approach it from the launch tubes and the distance a Viper travels down a launch tube, to me the length of the launch tube + the hanger, a Battlestar would be huge .. really huge, So that's the approach I took .. in fact the vipers I used for scale are even a bit large ..


The other thing too! On my previous post, I'm debating if I should keep the Guns on the side of the landing bay, those along with the Arm thing, are based on Ralph McQuarrie's landing bay painting ?

[Merlin]

Originally Posted by Matador

Nice... Your ship looks hard core!

Thank you, I'm hoping to make it a monster !!!

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Merlin

I approach it from the launch tubes and the distance a Viper travels down a launch tube, to me the length of the launch tube + the hanger, a Battlestar would be huge

Your ship is a monster!

Yeah, that has always been a big stickler to me as well. The Launch tubes. I have gone back and fourth about that myself... I sort of tinkered with the idea of the Vipers being loaded into the launch tubes backwards, then elevator lower to launch tubes, then launch forward.
I think they did something similar in the "Blood and Chrome" series.
I've attached a diagram so you can see what I'm talking about. This was just one of my ideas.

I've modeled everything based on the scale of my Vipers. Your ship is much much bigger than mine...