HMS Escort

[S.W.Ninja]

3Dmax 8 mate and yea wanted the piping to look armoured

[liam887]

nice!, the large recess down the middle of the ship is that going to be a hanger of some sort?, near the fornt between the large guns either side?

[Berkut]

hehe, what happened to your oceanic fighter?

on the subject, good work so far. I don't really like the ribs, the hull without them imo just looks way better and sleeker, plus they make the ship look too BSGish. I always thought in ships like this with the bridge on top it would be an extremely pretty place to take apart for fighters, so maybe put some ciws (btw your ciws look really cool) close to it to protect it?

what is the purpose of the big gap in the front?

[Darkone]

well done!

[Ahkileez]

I'm forced to agree on the ribs. Or indeed if you did keep them, I wouldn't make them so pronounced to avoid an overly BSG feel.

Gorgeous ship though.

[Monkey Boy]

There is always the danger of unintentionally looking too BSG'ish, but if the intention is to show a "proto"-warship from earth's next step out into space, then I think that the ribs fit the likely design ethic - put the bracing and strengthening outside, to maximise internal volume. And as to vulnerability: well our first space warships *are* likely to be pretty pathetically vulnerable - I mean look at our current lines of sea warships - apart from the battleships like the missouri, which are actually from a different era, we appear to have decided that you cannot adequately armour a ship against missiles, so instead we concentrate on making them fast and nimble, a 30mm cannon can lance straight through most modern frigates or cruisers.
I think the design is fitting the intention pretty damn well.

[Armondikov]

I don't pick up a BSG vibe from this though so I think you're suceeding in avoiding it. If you wanted to make it BSG universe but much earlier, then this would be a decent design to start with though. Perhaps a little Wing Commander here and there but nothing drastic.

The side cannons are good, you just need MORE!

[Berkut]

I disagree, modern warships are surprisingly well protected from AS weaponry. Actually I thought so too before, that a missile or a 30mm can tear them to pieces, but recently I watched a documentary, not sure either on discovery or history where Canadian and US navies did a joint training exercise where they were trying to sink a decomissioned Canadian navy destroyer (may have been a frigate, can't remember) from the 70s and it actually took quite a bit. They even hit it with an AS missile and that didn't sink it, eventually they finally got it from like 15th impact of a naval gun, but even then it sank very slowly. 30mm and 20mm barely scratched the paint.

[Monkey Boy]

Originally Posted by Berkut

I disagree, modern warships are surprisingly well protected from AS weaponry. Actually I thought so too before, that a missile or a 30mm can tear them to pieces, but recently I watched a documentary, not sure either on discovery or history where Canadian and US navies did a joint training exercise where they were trying to sink a decomissioned Canadian navy destroyer (may have been a frigate, can't remember) from the 70s and it actually took quite a bit. They even hit it with an AS missile and that didn't sink it, eventually they finally got it from like 15th impact of a naval gun, but even then it sank very slowly. 30mm and 20mm barely scratched the paint.

It may well have taken quite a bit to sink her, but I bet the AS missile didn't just bounce off her armour plated hull - it just didn't do enough to put her below the waterline - but if she had been operational, I bet she would have taken no further part in the battle - hence one asset removed from the tactical situation. You don't have to put a ship on the ocean floor to be the winner.

And remember you are talking about a 70's ship - although missiles were comming to the fore, destroyers etc still had a certain emphasis of gun armorment, so these ships had heavier gauge hulls, I'm talking about ships being built now, light hulls, minimal magnetic and accoustic signatures, and yes an A10 warthog's anti-tank gun can fire right through the hull into the 'guts' - I grant that this would not in itself be enough to sink the vessel, but if you were lucky enough to fit fuel or weapons magazines, you could blow the ship in half.

It is the progression from heavy belt-armour battleships in WWII, to 70's armoured cruisers and frigates of the 70's, to 80's and 90's light Oliver Hazard Perry frigates which have aluminium and kevlar armour only around 'vital' areas, to the latest modern 'stealthy' designs rolling off today, some of which have light carbon fibre structures rather than rolled steel. hits that would perhaps not sink these would still put them out of action. I still hold that the emphasis today is on firstly avoiding detection, then fooling incomming missiles, then intercepting incomming missiles, rather than bracing the ship to take impacts. This, I guess, whas the point I was trying to make before.

WWII ships had heavier armour because they knew they would close to gun range and exchange volleys at each other - that's the way navy battles were fought then, now it's about hitting them before they are able to hit you - you don't want to get hit at all, because it destroys your radar, and comms, or it may simply buckle the hull a little, which may result in your vertical launch system failing, either way it will seriously affect your ability to continue fighting.

[S.W.Ninja]

Thanks for all your comments guys they really do help alot to focus my work, on the argument of the ribbing around the hull. When I first looked at the plain hull before I begun the ribbing I knew that I wanted to keep her as far from Galactica as possible but as this is meant to be the first generation of warships, space Monkey Boy hit the nail on the head.

I feel ribbing outside like that would be the sensible thing to do as the whole ship is only 5 decks high and for the vast majority of the ship except directly below the superstructure she's only 2 decks high.

The recess in the front is intended to be where the docking arm sits, this will be telescopic. I felt a weak spot like this where the bulkhead is at its weakest, with the airlock and all should be positioned between two armoured piers with armour overhanging.

Ill update her later, as for now Ill leave the ribbing as it is but ill deffinatly look into it and comments and suggestions are always welcome good or bad. Thanks