ORION_brick
Various Variants OHP-S
The blue one was the second hard-scifi ship I made (based on this) and the red and orange were offshoots of the base model. Here, only the blue one is right-side up (the airlock is on the dorsal face).
All in all, these are the least-realistic ships of this theme--strap in for some physics:
-They all need vector control and should be able to effectively translate in Euclidean Space. Pretty good there though the only reverseing thrusters are the aft side ones (they gimbal to point forward or off to the sides) and the balance of dorsal and ventral thrusters is a bit off (especially for the blue one if it is tugging).
-The bodies really only need to protect the inards. Here, the inards include the isolated crew space and then the rest of the machinery. I attempted to copy the inflatable outer shell of Paul Pepera but at this scale in Lego I didn't manage too well. Point: I could have a lot more exposed than I do and that would realisticaly remove weight.
-Lastly and most importantly, the more compact the weight distribution, the easier it is to rotate the ship. These ships are like long boards: a lot of surface area where it isn't really needed. It would make more sense to condense the machinery into the center but that would make a weird T-shape (which I'm just realizing could look really cool and I am currently putting that on my to-do list). Compare these to this.
Bottom line, I think too much. They look cool and they're staying.
For those of you that got this far, the arm on Blue is mounted the same as the one on Orange. The ventral equipment rack on Red is mounted in place of the arm. There are finished interiors in all of them with control and operator spaces, a bunch of great windows, storage compartments, and little plant containers. The big arms on Orange have scanning array end effectors. I decided that Red didn't need large thrusters astern because unlike Blue, she wasn't pushing heavy objects, and unlike Orange, she wasn't being carried by an interplanetary ship through open space. Instead, Red stays with the assigned space elevator. Last little info tidbit: These guys easily fit in the assembly bay.
One last detail for you Mecabricks users, the lighting here is HDRI "Studio020" with strength at 3. So far it hasn't faded the white color into grey and it has nice reflections and shadows.
Various Variants OHP-S
The blue one was the second hard-scifi ship I made (based on this) and the red and orange were offshoots of the base model. Here, only the blue one is right-side up (the airlock is on the dorsal face).
All in all, these are the least-realistic ships of this theme--strap in for some physics:
-They all need vector control and should be able to effectively translate in Euclidean Space. Pretty good there though the only reverseing thrusters are the aft side ones (they gimbal to point forward or off to the sides) and the balance of dorsal and ventral thrusters is a bit off (especially for the blue one if it is tugging).
-The bodies really only need to protect the inards. Here, the inards include the isolated crew space and then the rest of the machinery. I attempted to copy the inflatable outer shell of Paul Pepera but at this scale in Lego I didn't manage too well. Point: I could have a lot more exposed than I do and that would realisticaly remove weight.
-Lastly and most importantly, the more compact the weight distribution, the easier it is to rotate the ship. These ships are like long boards: a lot of surface area where it isn't really needed. It would make more sense to condense the machinery into the center but that would make a weird T-shape (which I'm just realizing could look really cool and I am currently putting that on my to-do list). Compare these to this.
Bottom line, I think too much. They look cool and they're staying.
For those of you that got this far, the arm on Blue is mounted the same as the one on Orange. The ventral equipment rack on Red is mounted in place of the arm. There are finished interiors in all of them with control and operator spaces, a bunch of great windows, storage compartments, and little plant containers. The big arms on Orange have scanning array end effectors. I decided that Red didn't need large thrusters astern because unlike Blue, she wasn't pushing heavy objects, and unlike Orange, she wasn't being carried by an interplanetary ship through open space. Instead, Red stays with the assigned space elevator. Last little info tidbit: These guys easily fit in the assembly bay.
One last detail for you Mecabricks users, the lighting here is HDRI "Studio020" with strength at 3. So far it hasn't faded the white color into grey and it has nice reflections and shadows.