Challenge #9 - liam887 - Mining Ship (Cylinder)

[liam887]

Well I thought if give this a go, ill have to see if I can finish it on time but I think ill be able to. Well my primitive was a cylinder and my fist idea was a space habitat, but then i remembered a book I had when I was younger. I cant remember what it was called but when I get back from Uni at the weekend ill look for it in the loft. Basically the ship it described in one of its short stories was a long tube with grinding teeth spinning teeth. (If any of you saw James and the giant peach when you where younger, that big shark with the spinning teeth you will get the idea.)
Ive just started using lightwave but iIthought id stick to my guns and model it in sketchup. As i cant compete with other peoples renders I am going to make a basic 3D model and then make a 2D illustration with my graphics tablet for my final presentation.

My ship basically ingests asteroid pieces and extracts the raw elements in its bowels. Ive started on the front of the ship and the 'mouth'. As well as the first section of spinning sharp things! of which there will be many.

[liam887]

here is a little sketch, now that I look at it more it could be some sort of fish harvester for distant watery planets lol. Anyway the reddish deposits around the mouth are not blood but merely residual dust from mining. I dont know weather to have a large furnace at the back of the mouth or more grinding teeth? any ideas anyone?

[chrono]

Depends on how deeply you want show the entrance.

[fluxfire]

Thats frigin cool..... yeah give it some kind of controll arms or tractorbeams of some kind so it can pull in close rocks and then some place to store the pulverised rock for processing oh and maybe some thrusters :D (yes rambling :runs: )

Still a fun idea though........

[liam887]

i made some arms but it didnt look right ill have to work on it. Im making vents all down the cylinder ejecting fire, sort of like exhausts. The whole ship is like a big long worm eating everything in its path. After ive done some more work ill show a view inside its mouth.

[fluxfire]

Hum i suppose it will have to show off its thrusters and engines as it is a moving mining facility......

[liam887]

It is and ill add them eventually. Because the rotating crushing mechanism needs to be so powerful im going to have giant rocket motors that rotate to turn it around. I might configure them so they move the ship and rotate the barrel at the same time

[liam887]

the storage areas and grabbing arms and some other details need doing as well as the cowling that goes over the refinery section but here is what I have so fa

[fluxfire]

Interesting but i would suggest that you have the crushing section rotate separately from the conversion section as that wouldn't need to be rotating..... and perhaps having the rockets on adjustable mounts would be apropreate?

[liam887]

they will be i just havent modeled all that yet. The rockets rotate the internal features not the outside of the ship. Im still making the scaffold that it attaches to

[fluxfire]

Ahh ok well then i can't wait to see it.

[liam887]

well haven't had much time to do some work but last day if uni today!!!! so did some work tonight as im not going out>>
Ive decided to change the idea to a less futuristic concept. Ive got rid of the hull plating and decided to go with the scaffold approach. Ive still got a lot of things to fix and add. I dont know weather i should add a rotating habitat ring and im still stuck on the method the asteroids are guided towards the mouth? Tractor beam is still to advanced for the era of my ship, big grabbing arms look stupid, ive already tried a few combinations! maybe small remote ships guide them in, like a small tug that attaches itself to the asteroid and used small thrusters to direct it in? any ideas would be useful. Anyway here are some pics. I started trying out some painting ideas as you can see in one of the pics, i want it to have a rusty looking industrial look, I didnt get very far as I soent most of the time making some brushes to add the effects.
I know the painted scene looks a bit dark and the solar panels are rather red, but the scene I hope to insert it a very vivid space scene. Hopefully it will be a dusty asteroid field, with lots of reds and bright colors. If anyone has played homeworld it will be that type of starscape!

[fluxfire]

Interesting reconfiguration... I think it fits more with the overall design.

[liam887]

yeah thanks! I thought i had better downgrade the tech level to make it more 'realistic'! Im glad you like it better this way, I think im going to add a big NASA logo and maybe make it more closer to our currrent timeline than it is now, maybe 100 years future. Mining the Sol asteroid belt around the Sun perhaps?

[Ozylot]

Excellent work! This is looking very promising!

[liam887]

thanks that means a lot when im trying to make sketchup hold up against other programs lol! Well there is still a lot to go and then ive still got to paint it so we will see!

[Sphynx]

Information regarding Challenge #10 (http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/challenge-wips/54880-sensei-challenge-10-primitives-motion.html) has now been released.

[liam887]

the mesh is pretty much complete just practicing different colors for my final pic. Here are some styles tell me what you think. The one with the asteroids is far complete needs a lot more work but you get the general idea of what the scene will look like.

[liam887]

I think im going to concentrate more on the model not the background after having the info for challenge 10

[fluxfire]

HAHAHHAAH i like the out come of this version so far..... looks more with modern times, and ability to build.

[liam887]

Well ive been in Paris over Christmas and New Year so havent done a single thing for weeks, luckily I had finished the model already so I can spend a while painting it with my tablet as ive found the pen for it at last! So ill just have to see if I can get this finished in time?

[Tinukedaya]

Only thing that buggers me on this one are the "teeths". Those look too thin. It's almost just like simple triangle faces. I would add more depth to them.