Drop Ship (now with added pew pew)

[Brandlin]

Shoulders on the front engine mounts prevent them from exhausting directly into the rear engine intakes.
Have also remodelled the engines so they are castable and included the turbine fan detail.

[pocoloco]

Looking good 

[YPU]

Nice.

[Inso]

Sorry about the terrible picture (five minutes on paint ), but have you thought about extending the front extensions a bit forward/rearwards... a bit like this?:



The front extensions on yours look good because the step the front engines out but they could use a bit more support (I think). I have put the red lines in as a second option for the front of the forward engine supports.

Just a thought (and sorry again for the terrible picture ).

[Brandlin]

Thank you YPU and piccolo.

Sorry about the terrible picture (five minutes on paint ), but have you thought about extending the front extensions a bit forward/rearwards... a bit like this?:

The front extensions on yours look good because the step the front engines out but they could use a bit more support (I think). I have put the red lines in as a second option for the front of the forward engine supports.

Just a thought (and sorry again for the terrible picture ).

Hi Inso, thanks for the input.

First thing I thought when I saw your pic was "wow, that looks like a Gorn destroyer from Star Fleet Battles."

At the moment the shoulders are just a 15mm filler piece to shove the engines out wards. They are rectangular at the hull end and and circular at the engine end. I don't really want to make them intrude on the other surfaces of the hull for simplicity of the build. However your pic does make we want to fiddle with bringing the engines forwards a little. I think I will probably make the bulking out piece asymmetric front to back and maybe a little wider.

(Note that the overall dimensions of this model are dictated by the cabinets I need to store and display them in, and I'm close to the limits already!)

[Brandlin]

The dimensions of this dropship were set by the size of the original Listerine bottle used to form the prototype resin cast. I continued using those dimensions when I started to draw up this CAD version for laser cutting. Partly because I am teaching myself the CAD system.

In the meantime I have changed my mind regarding the likely payload for the dropship and want to be able to include almost all my Old Crow 25mm vehicles.

So you see that somewhat large block of 'pine' in the following picture? Well, that's a block with the maximum dimensions of the vehicles I now want to be able to transport. Its the Payload Block.

I think you might see the problem.

Oops.



It's a little on the large side when you slide the block into the payload location...



Compare the maximum dimensions to the relatively small rear door...



So I have some work to do.

Bear in mind I still need to be able to get a full length ramp in under the existing floor, which in itself will mean that I have a few mm less headroom than shown here.

I sketched up a simple block shape to stretch the hull around the Payload Block and I dislike it. It makes the whole ship look far to 'dumpy', the main hull becomes almost cylindrical.

So, I am doing to play around with a few options.

• Redraw the payload block so it more accurately resembles the models the ship will carry. (for example the tallest vehicle is the Gladius Medium Tank. This tank is much taller in the middle than it is at the edges, so the Cuboid Block isn't a great representation of the sapce actually taken up by the tank.
• Deepening the main hull around 10mm. This might mean retaining the same width and length or enlarging them in proportion.
• Lowering the rear hinge a few mm
• Reducing the rear chamfer on the hull shape so that the rear Door Matches the Mid section ribs. Currently the front and back chamfers on the hull are 10mm from the hull bulges, and the mid section is only 5mm.

I MAY press ahead with this current version and get it made, as this could handle some of the vehicles such as the Goanna and Gecko scout cars and trucks (unlaiden). This could be a command/light version of the drop ship. A further 'Heavy' variant  could then have an enlarged hull with the same cockpit, landing gear, engines and tailfins making the whole thing modular.

Decisions, decisions.

[Brandlin]

And a slightly more accurate block model of the Gladius Tank.

:-(

[Elbows]

Time to get drastic:

[YPU]

I'm just throwing this out there, the idea hasn't entirely formed in my mind. But thunderbird 2 came to my mind. A belly hatch might make the payload delivery move feasible. Also rather then up I think down would be the way to expand. Maybe a "pregnant" version of the ship. Something that looks even more heavy, you mentioned you wanted a brick after all.

[Brandlin]

Time to get drastic:

Pffft Boeing rubbish ;-)
The last commercial aircraft i worked on...

The airbus Beluga - used for flying aircraft components for airbus around Europe. It still flies over my house several times a week.

I'm just throwing this out there, the idea hasn't entirely formed in my mind. But thunderbird 2 came to my mind. A belly hatch might make the payload delivery move feasible. Also rather then up I think down would be the way to expand. Maybe a "pregnant" version of the ship. Something that looks even more heavy, you mentioned you wanted a brick after all.

Thanks for the suggestions YPU.
I'm considering everything at the moment.

I had originally intended to put a belly hatch in which would allow belly deployment in flight. But how do you recover the vehicle? you still need to land and drive it back in. Also the problem with a belly load is oyu end up having to have very long landing gear to allow the belly doors to open so its not solving a whole lot of a problem.

As to the pregnant look. it easier to go up because the 'floor' of the cargo bay needs to be above the curvature. If i lower the floor i lose the curve - which may be a possibility, but it also interferes with the landing gear.

Needs several more coats of looking at. But thank you for your suggestions I do appreciate them because it makes me think about other solutions and challenges some of my preconceived ideas.

[Mad Mecha Guy]

Why not increase height of body, keeping the same bottle shape just thicker, with the engines at the top.  Doing this would give the shuttle a bigger door , with a longer ramp & so solve concern of too steep a ramp.

Regards

MMG.

[Elbows]

If you went with a belly hatch - nothing saying you couldn't retrieve a vehicle with cables...basically hover over it, have ground crew attach cables and hoist it back into the ship, then close the doors.  Not fast or fancy though.  And it doesn't have to interfere with landing gear at that point (as the doors shouldn't be open when landed).  I think with the goal you're aiming for the shape of the ship simply isn't very suitable.

Look at all the real life cargo planes and none of them are very curvy.  The loading decks are always as square/tall/wide as possible.

The other possible solution is to simply make the entire model 1.2x bigger or something - just expand every design part so that the bay becomes suitable.   

[YPU]

Needs several more coats of looking at. But thank you for your suggestions I do appreciate them because it makes me think about other solutions and challenges some of my preconceived ideas.

Sure, if a good round of feedback leaves you more sure of your own idea that's rather splendid. 

PS, I spotted your topic on looking for a 3D printer but can't find it now, if your still looking take a gander at 3d hubs. Alternatively wait a month or 2 and I should have mine up and running. 

[Brandlin]

Why not increase height of body, keeping the same bottle shape just thicker, with the engines at the top.  Doing this would give the shuttle a bigger door , with a longer ramp & so solve concern of too steep a ramp.

Regards

MMG.

Thank you MMG

That's certainly a possibility. I've been playing with the dimensions and they do make the whole thing look like the fat kid that got picked last for sports at school though.  :-(

If you went with a belly hatch - nothing saying you couldn't retrieve a vehicle with cables...basically hover over it, have ground crew attach cables and hoist it back into the ship, then close the doors.  Not fast or fancy though.  And it doesn't have to interfere with landing gear at that point (as the doors shouldn't be open when landed).  I think with the goal you're aiming for the shape of the ship simply isn't very suitable.

Look at all the real life cargo planes and none of them are very curvy.  The loading decks are always as square/tall/wide as possible.

The other possible solution is to simply make the entire model 1.2x bigger or something - just expand every design part so that the bay becomes suitable.   

Hi Elbow, thanks for the comments.
I am committed to a rear ramp rather than a belly hatch for a few reasons. Mostly this is a wargaming model and if it doesn't land to deploy, then it's not going to spend any time on the table top. Secondly deploying a payload from a belly door is a simple case of jettisoning it. Recovery however would be far more problematic and hovering in VTOL with the bulk of an orbital ship whilst you try and attach pick up cables in the engine wash is going to be both expensive in fuel and fraught with unessary danger.

Yes, I know my 'bottle shape' isn't the most ideal but i like it so I want to try and preserve it. Real life cargo planes are VERY curvy. because they are aerodynamic. I know this isn't but the world is full of odd shaped hulls and pods and such like.

I WILL find a suitable solution - I like the problem solving. But right now i'm considering lots of options as well as suggestions here. One of those is just to scale the whole thing up to keep proportion. Thats actually harder than it sounds because the thickness of the material i have made the skeleton out of wont likely change so all the notches and joins wont scale either...

[Brandlin]

Sure, if a good round of feedback leaves you more sure of your own idea that's rather splendid. 

PS, I spotted your topic on looking for a 3D printer but can't find it now, if your still looking take a gander at 3d hubs. Alternatively wait a month or 2 and I should have mine up and running. 

Thanks YPU. I appreciate people who make comments. They're not always what I want to do, so I don't want people put off.

I'll check out 3d hubs. Never heard of it. I've had a couple of other offers too.