This is a Firehawk class heavy attack cruiser. It's the next generation upgrade from my original Sparrow and Sparrowhawk designs. It's also from the book I am working on. The ship is close to 5 miles long, and has a crew of over 100,000 including dependent families and civilian personnel. She is powerful enough to easily destroy an entire solar system. She's meant to fight ships many times her own size, and win. She is also a living ship. Instead of conventional computers, she has a crystalline control entity, which controls all of the ships autonomic functions like life support maintenance etc. It also works with the crew to manage the other critical functions. The crystal is an artificial life form, but it is truly sentient and truly intelligent. The crystals tend to think of the crews as their kids. lol You can read the rest when I get the first book done. Baen is interested in the book series, but I don't know. I am thinking of self publishing the books online initially.
And Dom. If by Raptor Pod, you mean the forward section at the very front of the ship; That's called the command hull and is the primary control complex for all ships systems. It also houses military crew's quarters and the Crystals memory and C&C functions. And yes, in an emergency, it can detach and operate interdependently of the aft "Engineering hull" if that section is damaged beyond repair in battle.
She also carries 600 Fighters of various types, and other shuttles and auxiliary craft.
The long neck structure connecting the command and engineering hulls is called the Fly Tube. It is called that because most of the crew of the ship are on 2 Avian species and can fly. So a large open tube is the fastest way for them to get around the ship. It also serves an a fully self contained ecosystem with fields of grass, plants, trees and even a small river. This helps with Life Support and the gardens provide quite a good amount of fresh vegetables. In the center of the flytube, about half way down, there is a largish building you can't see in this image. It's called the resource center and serves as a rec hall, social meeting place and school for the ship's children.
As you can tell, I have been developing the book for quite some time. lol
Rich
I managed to get all of the putty off of the F86F, so I just reglued the wings. With any luck, I should be able to finish it this week sometime. I tried a trick I remembered from High School science class. I kept continually freezing and then fast warming the Sabre, and eventually the putty became so brittle, that it actually flaked off without any need for further sanding. I hope I got the Dihedral right on the wings when I re-glued them...
Bockscar
Sparrowhyperion
I needed a break from styrene so I spent some time working on one of my 3D projects. What do you think of this WIP? It's by no means a final render, but it gives an idea of the design.
VERY COOL Rich!
Sums up so many cool designs I always liked.
Uhhhh......need a new movie to go with that......
I'll post some golden oldies I have...
I sure hope the raptor pod can fly independently.......
Well done man.
It reminds me of 'SONICA'.
In the Hangar: 1/48 Hobby Boss F/A-18D RAAF Hornet,
On the Tarmac: F4U-1D RNZAF Corsair 1/48 Scale.