Something big

[Abacus]

Definitely coming along nicely. I like the port side armored doors.

[fractalsponge1]

Some armored doors for the dorsal hangar trench, and all work to date:

[Eternal_Freedom]

Now that I like.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Armored doors?

You mean a Rebel fighter can't fly blindly in, firing rockets into the belly of the ship, blowing the whole thing to pieces?
What madness is this???


In all seriousness, I love the idea and the concept. It isn't exactly the most pretty of ships, but then again it is not supposed to be. Form follows function, and in this case, it is designed to function by cramming as much cargo as possible into it's hull. I love it.
One suggestion, I know it is obviously meant to have heavy escorts, but I MIGHT recommend at least a few medium guns placed on it's sides.

[fractalsponge1]

Engines starting to take shape.



I'm leaving primary armament for last. Expect ~ Venator firepower distributed around the hull.

[fractalsponge1]

[Abacus]

Beautiful engines. Doesn't leave much room for maneuverability in their positioning, but then this thing isn't meant to be participating actively in space combat.

[fractalsponge1]

Landing gear layout:

[fractalsponge1]

Here are more details to the area, with the legs mid-deployment.

[fractalsponge1]

Gear detail and integration:

[fractalsponge1]

Getting there on ventral side:

[InsaneTD]

I'm curious about how you do the armour pattern, do you have a template or something you just apply to the surface or do you actually spend the time to do it?

[fractalsponge1]

It's a set pattern, but lots of custom work for each area.

Spine about done. Debarkation hatch in the middle. Armament comes next I think.

[fractalsponge1]

Ventral side almost done, except for the bow area.

Main armament beginning to be fitted. Right now it has 176 of the same guns as an Accalamtor (200GT medium turbolasers in quad mounts). For bombardment, it'll have 3-4 of the very large single barrel guns in ball turrets ventral side (720 teraton) - you can see two on the flanks and there'll be one or two more at the ventral prow. These will be largely capacitor fed, so won't be able to sustain the same fire rate as the same weapons on something like a Bellator. I'm debating whether or not to give it a few Venator main guns dorsally for self-defense. Without them, in space, the ship is pretty dangerous against frigates, but doesn't really cut it vs destroyers, unless one of the superheavies hit, and then anything short of an Imperator is likely to be crippled.

[Lord Revan]

btw any idea what that built up area at the front lower structure is suppose to be as for me it just seems a weak spot for ground forces to shoot at.

also personally I would have made that into a big ramp for rapid disembark but that's just me.

[fractalsponge1]

Pretty much done:

[Raesene]

Oh wow - that's quite a skyline on the ventral bow. I like it.

Habe you already chosen a name for the class? I suggest Castrum- class and name them after castles. That way there's another imperial navy having an Akagi on ist fleet list.

[Darth Tanner]

Does the main debarking hatch contain a ramp/elevator? Otherwise its use of shuttles to deploy everything would make me wonder why dedicate so much space to landing gear when you could use that space to house significantly more supplies/troops/shuttles.

[23 November 1939]

Long-time lurker. Actually ended up here after discovering the Bellator. Gorgeous work. Even more of a "flying city" than the KDY designs often seem to be. The scale is... incredible, and perfectly in keeping with a military doctrine that stresses the visual display of power.

[fractalsponge1]

New ventral hatch.

Does the main debarking hatch contain a ramp/elevator? Otherwise its use of shuttles to deploy everything would make me wonder why dedicate so much space to landing gear when you could use that space to house significantly more supplies/troops/shuttles.

I'm not planning to model the interior, but the ventral hatch will have such a mechanism, probably a large elevator. After thinking about it more, I added a second ventral hatch further aft on the centerline as well (see update).

Deployment from ship directly vs shuttle/dropship is an interesting question. Given that civilian taxis are effortlessly agile at skyscraper height from TPM, I think it unlikely that repulsorlift AFVs have a maneuver envelope of much less than several kilometers. Certainly "surface" vehicles would not have the complication or power involved in a ground-to-orbit lift system of something like a starship or shuttle, but they should be effectively aircraft at relatively low altitude. I think the main limitation is maneuverability. Given that, once the assault ship is in atmosphere, the repulsorlift vehicles should be able to mass sortie from the bays themselves.

Why have dropships at all? Surface artillery. Planetary defenses are going to be protected, first by planetary shielding which needs to be breached locally at least for an assault of course, but also by theater shielding that can resist Star Dreadnought fire, at least past the point of being able to take the planet in any useful state. To do that you need ground-contact vehicles to make a *rapid* breach in the shield perimeter, so walkers and wheeled/tracked vehicles. These elements need dropships that aren't big, relatively easy targets for big ground-based turbolasers and ion cannon. They also need organic dropship transport, because they are not strategically mobile in the way repulsorlift vehicles are.

When you look at available OOBs for non-Clonetrooper/Stormtrooper formations, they are heavily repulsorlift. Stormtroopers seem to be largely equipped with ground-contact vehicles. This is a nice split by the roles hinted at above; Army troops can be released onto a world and maneuver themselves across long distances, while Stormtroopers are dropped near their targets as assault troops, and in that role they need to be able to easily pass through theater shields but don't really need repulsorlift speed. So their craft, and army-manned versions of the same, need dropship complements, whereas the repulsorlift vehicles can self-deploy from the main ship once there's a decent spot to ground, cleared of surface artillery.

Right now from my back-of-envelope OOB, the ship can drop a few of its heavy walkers and all of its AT-ATs and Juggernauts from dropship (assuming an AT-AT barge can fit a Juggernaut, not a given), along with 1 repulsorlift division and 1 airmobile infantry division in the first wave. I think the existing dropships need to edited a bit. The known classes operate in units of AT-ATs, but that doesn't fit other vehicles as well. I think there needs to be the following (in descending size), with the maximum load given:

1) Replacement for Titan-class barge for AT-SPs
2) new dropship type that can take any company sized formation of any repulsorlift or light walker/tracked/wheeled type
3) new dropship type that can take a single A6 Juggernaut or SPHA equivalent or two AT-SE walkers, or two AT-ATs plus smaller vehicles
4) AT-AT barge (Theta-class - this might be only really useful for smaller ships than an Evakmar, since it can't really take larger vehicles like Juggernauts or SPHAs)
5) Sentinel lander/assault transport equivalent for special operations and space habitat operations along with...
6) LAAT-equivalent infantry gunship, takes 2-3 squads, which for airmobile infantry might act like a platoon unit

Types 1 and 2 are corvette-volume equivalents. The ultimate goal would be able to fit enough to land about half of the heavy walkers and SPHA units in one lift.

Long-time lurker. Actually ended up here after discovering the Bellator. Gorgeous work. Even more of a "flying city" than the KDY designs often seem to be. The scale is... incredible, and perfectly in keeping with a military doctrine that stresses the visual display of power.

Thanks!

Oh wow - that's quite a skyline on the ventral bow. I like it.

Habe you already chosen a name for the class? I suggest Castrum- class and name them after castles. That way there's another imperial navy having an Akagi on ist fleet list.

I was intending this to be the Evakmar from the EU.

[darthscott]

Amazing job once again. Love seeing your take on the larger capital ships especially. Wish they would make an in universe book based on your designs, something like the Kuat Drive Yards catalog mentioned in ICS.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Amazing job once again. Love seeing your take on the larger capital ships especially. Wish they would make an in universe book based on your designs, something like the Kuat Drive Yards catalog mentioned in ICS.

Several of his works (including the Bellator and the Assertor IIRC) appeared in "The Essential Guide to Warfare." It's sadly non-canon now, but the artwork was stunning.

[Elheru Aran]

Amazing job once again. Love seeing your take on the larger capital ships especially. Wish they would make an in universe book based on your designs, something like the Kuat Drive Yards catalog mentioned in ICS.

Several of his works (including the Bellator and the Assertor IIRC) appeared in "The Essential Guide to Warfare." It's sadly non-canon now, but the artwork was stunning.

Most of it. Some was just... well. There's an image that was extremely obviously cribbed from one of the LOTR movies, and some of the images of Ssi-Ruuk are very clearly Velociraptor artwork with a few swipes of paint added. Whoever did those should be banned from SF artwork for life. Not Ansel, obviously. Far better taste there.

[fractalsponge1]

The Warfare book was super fun. I'd happily do something like that again

Dropship concept:

Carriage 2x A6 Juggernaut/SPHA, or ~6 AT-AT, or 4 AT-SE (if compact stowage, 8xAT-SE). AT-SP given for scale and to show need for new dropship for that.

All arrangements have room on upper cargo deck (side-opening hatches) for repulsorlift vehicles.

[fractalsponge1]

Some additions. The trunking contains power feeds to repulsorlifts on the bottom of the elevator.