Modular Starship Kit
acharyapolina
Posts: 726
So currently I am creating a Modular Starship Kit. You will be able to build all kinds of different starship types. Here are 6 different starships I built out of the kit so far, but there are many more combinations that could be tryed out. I guess you could say your imagination is your only limit.
Included are 28 objects in the Kit.
5 body types
3 cockpits
3 tail objects
3 wing sets
3 gun types
3 engine types
a set of animated landing gear
plus a standard square sphere and cylinder as filler objects, designed to be more sci fi ish.
The kit curently only comes with 1 texture set. a grey metal look, but I am planning on creating another product to go along with the kit that will expand on the textures for the starship pack giving an extra 6 textures for each object, allowing you to design some great looking styles, like yellow metal wings with red engines or other combinations.
Any comments or critiques are most welcome.
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Comments
what about matching interious?
No interious in this set. only starship creation.
Here are 2 scenes I created with the starships created by this Kit.
This kit looks pretty good. I'd vote for some rockets/missile pods, antennae, and some curved wing shapes.
Good ideas. I'll add them to the kit. They will make it look so much bettter.
Very nice indeed. That looks like it'll be a must-have, for me at least.
The look reminds me slightly of the rather good-looking starship that Porsche designed, based on the lines of their Taycan vehicle. I like the slightly brighter texturing of the Porsche spaceship: one obvious add-on that you or a collaborator might offer to go with the set would be a set of alternative texture maps.
The set also makes me think of Davorama's Flight Vehicle Construction Set, a product which used to be available way back in the early days. The FVCS was a great idea, but it started to look a bit outdated quite quickly, so it's great to see something that fills the same niche but has a modern look.
When you add missile pods/gun turrets/etc, please make sure that they're optional (so that you can leave the gun turrets out of your build without leaving a gaping hole in the hull). It's a personal thing, but I sometimes find that having gun turrets everywhere detracts from the appearance of a spaceship. For example, I ended up not buying some excellent models -- Kibarreto's Pocket Star and Iron Star, and DAZ's ATVE Firemoth -- because the gun turrets looked 'wrong' to me. Obviously, this is a totally personal judgment -- I'm sure other people bought the same models precisely because they thought the gun turrets looked cool as hell -- but it would be nice to have the choice.
It might be nice if you included some wings with a slightly narrower profile. I think my brain has been conditioned by long exposure to "Star Wars", where their spaceships are obviously not really aerodynamic, but they manage to suggest that they might be by giving them wings that have the same kind of cross-section as you might find on a modern aircraft. In your examples, the wing cross-sections are very much thicker, and my brain goes "Yeah, that won't fly." Again, this is obviously a subjective and rather irrational judgement,but if your wings could be a little thinner -- or could be morphed to different thicknesses -- that would be a very welcome change.
I'd also be interested to see more components that could be used to build craft that look like they're not intended for atmospheric work. I'd love to be able to build something that looked like the Rocinante (aka Tachi) from "The Expanse". Again, I think that might come down to making sure that the wings are optional, and providing more hull segments. It might also mean adding components that are very definitely not streamlined -- open sections composed mostly of struts or meshes. The Eagle from "Space 1999" has some nice struts; the 'spine' section of the spaceship from "Event Horizon" is also something I'd like to see in a kit. External fuel-tanks or cargo-modules would also be nice to have.
Hi bytescapes. thanks for your great input. love your ideas and will see about implamenting some of them. All the guns are seperate objects in my kit so you can decide to have them or not. and you can also place them anywhere you like.
I'm also going to include more objects for creating other types of looks, like you specified in your writup.
Oh yea and i'll do some other wing types as well. :)
Agree with the others here so far: this does look good. Also some good suggestions for items to add (like the antenna arrays, for example).
Perhaps you could also consider these ideas: 1) a wedge-shaped starship body; 2) scaffolding-like parts; 3) "connectors" that can connect multiple body parts (although maybe the basic shapes can already be used for that); 4) domes; 5) rings; 6) solar panel arrays. Just some thoughts. ;-)
Here are some links to images as reference examples....
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eGq7IKQfhW4/WVWlAKujWQI/AAAAAAAAZsE/tyhmTYBubmo4wpUT2Qbj0p9HczmqcPeMACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-06-30%2Bat%2B10.15.57%2BAM.png
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c02e591f-fb39-41a3-9303-54bbfbf18568/d7rbxa8-edb9c91a-315c-4f41-88ed-e74e226a62d4.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2MwMmU1OTFmLWZiMzktNDFhMy05MzAzLTU0YmJmYmYxODU2OFwvZDdyYnhhOC1lZGI5YzkxYS0zMTVjLTRmNDEtODhlZC1lNzRlMjI2YTYyZDQuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.O9a0kkn1d1WIIW5Pt6EnAhvJYfXbkCoRHsE27qo3JnY
https://i.imgur.com/5Ywrc6L.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9c/56/7c/9c567cf3c943d6274a47f116beca5f25.jpg
Tim
Wonderful that someone's making this! I mentioned to Kibarreto that they should make a modular spaceship kit, but that was years ago.
I'd like to suggest, however, the inclusion of gun turrets and/or ball-shaped spherical mounts for energy weapons (as 'The Last Starfighter' had depicted). Space is a vacuum and doesn't require aerodynamics, which is why I've been mystified why more spaceship designs don't just include weapons which could have a wide firing arc to provide as much coverage as possible. X-Wing-style fixed weapons never made much sense to me for this very reason. Allowing me to create something submarine-like with lots of rotating/elevating turrets on it would be ideal. Look at warships for inspiration for this, as well as the turrets fixed on helicopter gunships, such as the Cobra and Russian Mi-28.
In fact, a set of lots of different turret designs rigged to elevate up/down on an individual mount I could simply place on existing models would be instant purchase. :)
The external likeness of a VLS (Vertical Launch System) 'cell', with opening/closing caps, which could be placed on models, to make it look like they can fire lots of missiles, would also be useful. Warships use these to fire anti-aircraft and cruise missiles vertically, which then fire upwards and correct to horizontal flight to their designated target in any direction. Something like this could be placed on virtually any external surface on a spaceship and make it look realistic.
A selection of different airlock 'sleeves' would also be excellent, because so few spaceship products ever include those.
I always figured there's a tradeoff between long more fixed weapons, which can generate huge power, and ball turrets that exchange that power for range of motion.
The Modular Starship Kit looks interesting, but i would try to move away from Star Wars / Star Trek and use either more realistic designs like the starships in The Expanse or something that is inspired by this: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships
Well, the plus side of a modular approach is the ability to adjust design aesthetic to whatever you prefer.
What should be particularly fun is combining this with other stuff, like greebles and so on.
That tends to be the fictional reason, but it isn't plausible. The same power would be supplied via cables/whatever from the main reactor. It's just an excuse to depict them engaging in a superficial form of World War 2-style 'dogfights'.
In fact, even if the reason would be that only massive 'barrels' would be needed (and if we're talking things like lasers, barrels wouldn't even exist), the eliminaiton of aerodynamic concerns means that same weapon could still be pivoted like an excavator/crane.
Lasers absolutely use something like barrels. There are many designs of lasers, but most use some sort of tube to generate the laser.
Do an image search for 'laser diagram'.
Then you have things like coilguns and rainguns, which need rather conventional-looking barrels. Same is probably true of other particle weapons; a long tube to build up the burst of energy, lined with rows of capacitors or whatever.
In all cases, it's a lot easier to generate more powerful effects in a longer/bigger weapon than in a smallers, maneuverable one.
The best way to make a laser that's maneuverable might be to put essentially a reflector/refractor at the top of a tube that goes into the ship. But at that point you are probably hampered by not making the weapon so powerful it burns out the deflecting bit.
Wow, love your Ideas everyone. and Yes I will include more Rounded weapons that have a very wide range of motion. Like a sphere weapon or something. and I will also include props to create starships like in some of the reference images of Timotheus..
How about some landing gear attachments too? These ships need to land on space stations and docking bays somehow. Perhaps a docking umbilical crane arm, or landing pads?
Also request some docking bay doorways, and cargo hold doors that open and close, and finally some jet stream 'flares' of the engines for cruising, take off, or reverse thrust? So short, medium, and full extension of jet stream from engine firing up, or powering down.
Thanks for listening, will be purchasing this at launch!
Sounds great!
About the Landing gear. I already have one in the list. but will make more. See attached. It is animatable.
Ok so here is a starship built with some of the new content I created. It has more support beams and a ring as well as some Antenna.
So here is a fighter craft with curved wings.
Ok and here is one with some air intake areas.
These are very impressive. The set was already a must-buy for me, but now it's a "don't even think about it just buy it already".
Now that you're making some parts that allow the construction of non-atmospheric ships, you might want to consider adding some solar panels to the set.
And if you want more inspiration, you might like to look at this image of Theseus from blindsight.space.
Yep solar panels will be next. :)
So here is a somewhat simple starship design with much more thinner wings.
And here is another one with solar panels and a satellite dish.
Here is a starship with a Laser gun that can rotate 360 degrees. Also the close up look at both Laser turrets.
I really like all the additions you have done looks great
The new examples, and the new elements, are spectacular. This just gets better and better.
One minor observation: if you look at existing space vehicles (like the International Space Station) that have solar panels, they tend to be mounted on a kind of boom (a long pole) and arranged perpendicular to the hull (although they may be steerable). With the ship in your example, when one set of panels is facing the sun, the other would always be facing away. The only exception would be if the sun were directly 'above' the ship, in which case both panels would get some energy from the sun -- but it would be the smallest amount possible, due to the angle of the panel relative to the sun.
The panels themselves look great, but perhaps they could have a different mount?
By the way, the dish antenna looks excellent. I was going to suggest that you include one in the set ... and it's already there!
Yea the Solar panels will have their own mount that is detachable so you can place them any way you like. :) I think the best thing about this kit will be that it is Madular. Allowing the user to do pretty much anything he likes.
Looks very good.