See finished gallery - going with Chi-class for designation:

Moderator: Beowulf
Tank or IFV? That turret looks distinctly Bradley/Warrior-esque.Eternal_Freedom wrote:Repulsortank? With some extra armour, or an ablative shields or some sort perhaps?
You're probably correct, in retrospect. I think I may have been searching for parallels and compared it to some of the more cramped hatch arrangements (for instance, the M103 with its turret rotated and the bustle over the driver's hatch). If not a crew hatch, I'll be curious to see what might go there, that would not compromise the hull.Eternal_Freedom wrote:I doubt that's a crew hatch, if only because the frontal armour strikes me as an incredibly dumb place to put a weak point like a hatch.
For what it is worth, my own count is:fractalsponge1 wrote:
I added the forward Venator-style center spine, which is not on the reference, but I wanted a place to stick a superfiring centerline gun battery. It's not entirely true to the reference or to the Venator (for the tower), chalk it up to indecision or laziness as you will
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SWTC suggests swallowtail (there's actually no strong indication from the broadside-on reference), and I took the simpler interpretation of the hull form as indicative of some function, rather than a modified ship. The Venator tower (hilarious really, since Dark Empire was well before anything like a Venator appeared), suggested carrier function. In addition, I was thinking the Venator tower might actually be a standard KDY design feature for ships that need to concentrate C&C for many different types of operations (ship handling, comscan, ground and aerospace wing coordination) in the smallest possible armored volume. (i.e. without extensive terrace sprawl or a big standard hex module); useful in ships built for speed.
So, I started with the notion that it's a swallowtail/chevron. One thing that means is that it's a big but flat ship. The form allows good agility by providing lots of off-axis thrust, and brings the engines aft and out of the way. The wide hull needed for the chevron shape and the out of the way engines means more area for large fighter bays.
All that makes this either a generalist heavy destroyer to back up bayless fleet specialist ships/lead colonial forces or ECR's idea of a pursuit ship (could be both, really).
Hangar placement isn't final yet, but probably two big bays to either side of the ventral spine, lateral launch hangars. Minimal ground contingent for the size, maybe just the standard legion, but backed by a 4-6 wing fighter group.
The thin hull makes reactor placement tricky, so lots of medium sized minor reactors and several main modules (actually 3 Venator main reactor modules + minor reactors) rather than one monolithic central reactor. Sum them all up and it works out to ~2x ISD by power generation. I am following the results of discussion from here: http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... &p=3133896 with regards to armament. Currently the plan is to have 5 quad 32/40-teraton barbettes on either dorsal trench brim, 6 down the centerline, and another 4-6 spread around the ventral hull. This is backed by 4x2 70-teraton Venator twins on the center spine, and probably some more ventrally. There will be 4-6 ISDI-caliber heavy ion twin turrets spread around the dorsal hull and ventral centerline as well.