[crizza]

One thing I'd suggest to try to see if you can make it look more Vasudan is to make the rounded area on the top of the back to have a sharp edge instead of a rounded surface.  This is just something to try, which worked when I visualized it, but may not work when you actually do it.

So, edged like the Hatshepsut?

[Cyborg17]

It's hard to explain.  In the pic, above where he has the engine, there's an edge or what seems like an edge.  What I said was to try also having an edge or abrupt curve on the the other side of the same top to see how it would look.  It's all guesswork until you see how it looks though, so it probably will make it look worse.  But it'll look less like a complex geometric shape.

[MarkN]

An updated view

I think I would like to thicken all of the overhanging armour sections, but am unsure by how mutch. The flare above the neck was originally supposed to look like the flare below the neck of the Hatshepsut but I cannot get that right and so have filled that are in until I can work out how to use it.

[Nyctaeus]

Reminds me the AC Malia. Not a bad model, but I think it fits better to Ancients than to Vasudans.

[MatthTheGeek]

I like where this is going. Looks much more Zodish than the first version.

[Firstdragon34]

This is going to be interesting when it comes out, I can feel it!   

[MarkN]

Now with detail on the upper hull.


I think that there are only a few other things I want to do
1) pipes from the side sections to the spinal mount
2) A bridge structure. All Vasudan ships seem to have these.
3) Turrets

[Cyborg17]

It's starting to come into its own.

Take it or leave it:

It seems like there's a lot going on in the model, and it makes it seem like parts of the cruiser have been tacked on.  For instance, the bump on the top of the rear seems like it was glued on top since it doesn't have a natural progression to the rest.  I would experiment more with what you can do with that.  /Maybe/ a slightly elevated section would do better to seem more natural.  I'm not sure I would have added it in the first place.

Also, the structure that goes down the middle now seems different than the rest of the ship.  While the rear is of one style, the sides and the middle are seemingly from another style.  I would try reducing the dip on the side areas.  I would also reduce the average height of the middle piece.  Lower it all a little bit, but move the inclining angle that leads to the hump forward so that there is a small declining angle at the beginning of the middle section.  This will add visual agreement between the angle of the middle section, and the angle of the details you just made.

And don't forget to put a good number of turrets on the nose.  This can be an excellent attack cruiser!

You definitely don't have to take any of this advice, you can use any strategy you want to finish your model. I'm just telling you what I see. 

Btw, what's the poly count so far?

[MarkN]

Looking back at it, I see what you mean about the rear section. Would it look better if the area below the section at the rear had more solid sides?
With the side sections, I am thinking that they should stay at that size, but instead of flaring up to where they meet the rear hull, they should come out of the centre of the connections at the size they are further forward.

As for turrets, my concept was to concentrate the firepower in a spinal mount, and then only defensive turrets. Probably along the lines of
2xAAA turrets: one on top of the crest in the middle (this needs a spine up the rear of the crest to support it. the other in the middle at the bottom.
3x flak guns: one each side on top at the rear, with the third on the bottom between the engines.
3x standard turrets, one on top of the head section, an the other two underneath the side flaring section.



On another issue. A lot of detailing for vasudan ships is based around gaps in the armour and overlapping armour plates. Does anyone know how to make Blender show these better?

[Cyborg17]

Looking back at it, I see what you mean about the rear section. Would it look better if the area below the section at the rear had more solid sides?

Maybe.  Try it.  Experimentation is your friend. (and the ability to revert changes)

With the side sections, I am thinking that they should stay at that size, but instead of flaring up to where they meet the rear hull, they should come out of the centre of the connections at the size they are further forward.

  Again, just try it, and see what it looks like.

As for turrets, my concept was to concentrate the firepower in a spinal mount, and then only defensive turrets. Probably along the lines of
2xAAA turrets: one on top of the crest in the middle (this needs a spine up the rear of the crest to support it. the other in the middle at the bottom.
3x flak guns: one each side on top at the rear, with the third on the bottom between the engines.
3x standard turrets, one on top of the head section, an the other two underneath the side flaring section.

That's not a lot of firepower.  I would either add a few more flak guns, like on the Aeolus, or give it about 3 more standard turrets.  As it is now, most other cruisers would beat this one, even before beam turrets.  But don't worry as much about number of turrets because that can actually be edited in PCS2 without having to reconvert the whole file.

On another issue. A lot of detailing for vasudan ships is based around gaps in the armour and overlapping armour plates. Does anyone know how to make Blender show these better?

Not a clue!  X-D  You might be able to show it more while texturing it, though.

[Firstdragon34]

Two things I want to say:

1. I just got Blender and I will get to that stage eventually!

2. Make sure the bottom has enough turrets to hold its own!

3. Okay, I lied, three things. Your model, you don't have to listen to me! 

[Black Wolf]

I'll admit, I don't like this one as much as I like your fighter, but it's come a long way since that first picture. I'm not so opposed to the "tacked on" look that a few (only a few) parts have, as this will give you natural seams to make the texturing more interesting. This shouldn't be undervalued - I have one vasudan model sitting half textured on my HDD right now which suffers badly from lack of logical places to change from typical vasudan scales, so don't get rid of too many seams.

I'm still not cray about the head shape, if I'm honest, but I do like the engine detailing, and the "ribbed" look that the front part of the rear section has - with a good UV map and texture job, this could be very cool.

As for armament, that total you have planned seems OK ithe ship is small, say, 150 odd meters long. Much bigger and you get into Mentu territory which is which is... well, woefully underarmed really - 16 turrets yes, but 10 of them are pretty useless. In any case, bigger Vasudann ship with more turrets - for a less turreted ship to have a tactical niche it needs to be smaller and quicker I would suspect.

Question though - are you a modeller only, or will you be UVing and texturing your work as well? That's the area that hangs up a lot of promising models around here, unfortunately.

[MarkN]

I don't know anything about UV mapping, but I will try to do it and the texturing myself.

While I was thinking of a smaller ship, I am not sure that such a ship would fit in FS2 balance, as too little armour and it is extremely vulnerable to heavy fighters (even when really fast for a vessel of it's size), while too much armour and it feels out of place. I may end up making the model and texture slightly ambiguous about size, and the release both.

For division of textures, I have raised all of the areas that should be covered with scales, so that it looks like they are overlaid on the outside of the hull instead of being part of it. This seems to be a typical approach taken by Vasudan capital ships. The Sobek takes this a stage further, with the three arms at the rear having shield shapes at their base that do not follow the underlying geometry.

The biggest problem I am seeing at the moment is that the head is too large compared with the rest of the ship. It it almost exactly the same size as the crest immediately behind it, and much much bigger than the rear hull. Unfortunately this is a major limitation in my artistic abilities, in that different parts of objects usually end up being completely different scales.

[MarkN]

I have been messing around with the proportions a bit.The middle section is now much shorter, weapons on the crest can now fire forwards and the font is much narrower.

[crizza]

The head is now really zodish, like it

[MatthTheGeek]

This is shaping, really, good. Definitely going the right direction.

[NeonShivan]

<Unable to find some sort of awesome picture relevant to saying THATS AWESOME>

Looking good

[Droid803]

oh noes, a symmetry seam!
*(plz weld )

Looks interesting. Definitely unique.

[MarkN]

I've been greebling the bottom, but I really don't know what to do with the top

Anyway, a pic:

[MatthTheGeek]

The top looks quite fine already. The turrets themselves will probably be enough additional greebling IMHO.