View allAll Photos Tagged Refining
Fore shot displaying forges, bridge, and armor structure.
Name: S.S. Bessemer
Registration Number: KCC-1894 (Kolter Construction Contract Number 1,894)
Affiliation: Kolter Mining, Refining, and Fuel.
Class Name: Bessemer class
Type: Deep Space Mining Operations Flagship
Commissioned: Circa late 2500’s, post recent major conflict
Specifications:
Length: 1,844 meters (184.4 studs, 58.1 inches, 4.83 feet, 147.5 cm model)
Width: 503 meters (50.3 studs, 15.8 inches, 40.2 cm model)
Height: 484 meters, 398 meters without dorsal comms array, (48.4 studs, 15.2 inches, 38.7 cm model)
Crew: 2,950 standard complement + capacity for crew families, as well as smaller guest quarters for up to 2,000 additional personnel to be moved to/from mining operations.
Armament: 1 super-heavy coaxial particle beam cannon, (primarily for asteroid mining, but also more than capable of defensive action,) 4 dual-mounted heavy particle cannon turrets, 8 dual-mounted medium particle cannon turrets, 2 coaxial fore medium particle cannons, 80 quad-mounted 80mm anti-fighter flak railgun turrets.
Defensive systems:
Hull: Super-heavy steel alloy hull with carbon nanotube/buckypaper composite layers as spall lining.
Armor plating: steel, titanium alloy, tungsten, ceramic, and carbon nanotube composite armor layers against asteroids/other space debris, kinetic weapons, kinetic spalling, particle, laser, and plasma fire. Thick composite armor provides excellent survivability, but with very high mass. Some battleships are less armored than this ship.
Bulkheads: Extensive titanium bulkhead support network.
Structural integrity field: High power system designed for significant cargo mass placing stress on the frame, or to withstand asteroid impacts to the hull.
Shielding: Internally housed high power adaptive particle field repulsing shielding system capable of surviving significant punishment. Some older battleships have less robust shielding.
Powerplant: 1 primary matter-antimatter reactor with extensive fuel reserves, 2 secondary fusion reactors with extensive fuel reserves. Multiple massive power capacitors. Extensive heatinks.
Propulsion: 1 massive primary fusion engine for sub-lightspeed travel, 1 internal FTL core capable of moderate FTL speed, long range travel, and 32 large reaction control thrusters for slow but dependable below light speed maneuvering.
Computer systems: Single supercomputer core with onboard Virtual Intelligence system.
Comms and Sensors: Local and FTL comms arrays. Radar, LIDAR, infrared, multi-spectral, and additional other local area sensors systems, along with extensive FTL sensors.
Additional Systems: High power artificial singularity for both artificial gravity generation and inertial dampening, allowing for 1G gravity even when hauling an entire cargo hold full of heavy-metal. 6 massive blast furnaces for refining metal ore, an enormous central cargo hold system, 4 fuel refining tanks, 4 massive fuel storage tanks, and an internal rail system for moving ore and personnel.
Embarked Craft: 2 Thunderbird class super-heavy cargo/personnel shuttles, 2 Hurricane class heavy cargo/personnel shuttles, 20 heavy mining drones, 24 medium mining drones, 2 gunships of variable class, 2 heavy fighter/bombers of variable class, potential for multiple additional light shuttles and fighters.
Background: After seeing both the devastation to outlying areas of space caused by the recent Great War, and the corruption within the Federal Defense Navy (working title) Admiralty, Captain David Courtland retired honorably from military service and went to helm his family’s generations old mining company, Kolter Mining, Refining, and Fuel; one of the largest mining companies in United Earth Federation space. (Working title.)
He wanted to take the company, already a reputable and successful business, in a new direction. That direction was the disputed, war-torn, no-man’s-waste-land of space known as The Divide, (working title) situated between the major powers of the galaxy. Life in The Divide was desperate, with little hope for the many people stranded in the ruins, poverty, and crime infested land. None of the major powers could intervene without starting another territorial war, and as such, pirates, gangs, and unscrupulous mega-corporations ruled supreme.
Courtland wanted to make a difference to this sorrowful place, and with trillions of credits and a Fortunes 1,000 company at his control, he had the means to at least begin; although even he lacked the ability to single-handedly remedy the myriad of woes The Divide faced.
David’s plan was simple, to move significant mining operations to The Divide, thus:
1: Creating new, safe, well-paying, good jobs for both an area and an industry that seldom offered such things.
2: Allowing for the placement of company security forces to deter pirate activity around major settlements.
3: Providing tax-free revenue to fund new schools, hospitals, food, water, shetler, and other charitable activities in The Divide.
But to do it, he required a new kind of mining vessel, as well as additional security forces. Thus he contacted Nelson Heavy Industries, who in turn partnered with AxonTech Interstellar Systems for some components, to place an order for a line of custom massive deep space mining operation flagships with enhanced combat capabilities and capable of operating in the remotest reaches of space for months or even years at a time. And so the Bessemer class was born.
The Bessemer class is unlike any mining vessel ever produced before it. Certainly significantly larger mining ships existed, but these were typically little more than unarmed, slow moving things with small engines; closer to a semi-mobile starbase than a combination frontier battleship/mining vessel. But Courtland required something unique. Something that could move faster, survive more punishment, and something that had teeth; not a fragile, barely moving thing that would only sit in safe areas of space. Courtland needed a mighty sheepdog in a world of sheep and wolves.
Bessemer class vessels are 1,844 meters long, and possess more armor, firepower, and shielding than many pre Great War battleship designs. Almost any pirate or local gang would be terrified of the sight of over a mile of steel and particle cannons; clad in Kolter white, green, and yellow.
But the Bessemer, and others of her class, are not merely warships masquerading as civilian craft. They are heavy mining machines that live up to their name; a steel producing process that revolutionized the industry of Earth some seven hundred years earlier. The Bessemer and her sister ships are capable of blasting metal-rich asteroids to bits with their coaxial mining particle beam cannon, and then having swarms of automated mining drones devour any valuable deposits within before unloading the materials into the Bessemer’s ore hold for the internal rail system to run any raw ore through her six corvette sized forges, and then having the refined metal shunted to her cavernous lower hold, while any waste material from the refining process is vented directly into space.
Ships of this class are outfitted with a sizable hangar, advanced sensor suite, extensive internal cargo bays, and large cargo pod clamps that allow it to act in the capacity of miner, defensive ship, operations command center, and even freighter and personnel carrier should usual shipping to outlying mining sites be disrupted.
But capable as they are, these are not the spartan mining vessels with unlivable working conditions that some shady companies have been known to operate. These space-faring cities of steel feature robust safety systems, spacious and comfortable crew quarters, multiple restaurants, multiple mess-halls, multiple shops for clothing, food, electronics, and other items, an arcade, multiple gyms with weights, various weight and cardio machines, martial arts areas, gymnastics equipment, along with a walking track, a small bowling alley, an olympic sized swimming pool, a multi-sport stadium, a greenhouse, hydroponics bays, a small stage/concert area, several computer labs, a library, a small movie theater, crew lounges and break areas, a salon/spa, a bar/club, chapels, classroom/daycare areas, office areas, as well as repair stations, enough dry and frozen storage to keep everyone fed for extended missions, advanced workshops, astrotography, laboratories, guest bunk-rooms, and a starbase grade medical center.
Not everyone is happy about Kolter Mining’s efforts, however. While Courtland founded the Kolter Foundation to aid those in need, he also lobbied for what came to be known as the Kolter Bill to be passed. Mining employees out in the colonies loved the added protections this afforded them. But the executives of Kolter’s rival mining companies operating out of Earth’s colony worlds quickly found themselves facing laws that favored the profits of Kolter and their already developed safety systems and excellent treatment of employees. What’s more, the Federal Defense Navy Admiralty have been continually frustrated that rather than helping to line their pockets as part of the military industrial complex, Courtland has been working tirelessly to reveal their corruption and hidden support of crime in outlying areas of space.
What’s more, there are even rumors that Courtland is now working with, and possibly even helping to fund, a mercenary vigilante unit out in The Divide known as the Phoenix Command Group, founded by Jonathan Scarlett, another former Federal Defense Navy Captain who ran afoul of the Admiralty.
The wealthy and corrupt among the Admiralty, military industrial complex, crime syndicates, and corrupt businesses running shady operations out in The Divide are deeply troubled by these rumors. But those who are now citizens of no nation, and who have known nothing but hopelessness and need for years, have a slight spark of hope rising like a Phoenix.
IRL info: This digital SHIP was made in Bricklink’s Studio software from September 11th to September 30th, 2021. I did not originally plan to participate in SHIPtember, but I couldn’t resist. It is 184 studs (58.1 inches) long, 50 studs wide, and 48 studs high. It is comprised of 23,470 pieces, which I believe makes it my highest piece-count SHIP to date, and means that the model itself has a mass of 973.502 ounces, or 60.843 pounds, or 27.597 kilograms, which most likely makes it my heaviest SHIP as well as my most piece intensive. (I really need to learn to build a little more hollow.) Note that it uses all real pieces/colors that are available for sale on Bricklink. (Albeit at a price that makes attempting to build it in physical bricks highly impractical.) It is 100% connected, and should be at least somewhat stable in real life. I would want to reinforce the fore-end with more Technic, and switch out the longest Lego Technic axle holding the engine for an aftermarket stainless steel version. I cannot guarantee that various sections built out from the main SNOT and Technic frame would be totally stable without slight redesign of a few bits. It would also require a hefty display stand of some kind.
The current pictures are WIP to show the completed status of the build itself. Better renders done by importing the Studio build into Mecabricks, replacing any pieces that fail to load or change position, and then exporting to Blender for higher quality rendering, and finally hopefully doing some cool backgrounds with GIMP, will hopefully follow before whatever October picture deadline is decided on. Please do not use these early pictures in the poster if time remains, as I hope to provide better ones. Thank you for reading this lengthy description. Have a cookie.
If this ship had a theme song, this magnificent piece by Clamavi De Profundis would be it: youtu.be/Xm96Cqu4Ils
Ventral view.
Name: S.S. Bessemer
Registration Number: KCC-1894 (Kolter Construction Contract Number 1,894)
Affiliation: Kolter Mining, Refining, and Fuel.
Class Name: Bessemer class
Type: Deep Space Mining Operations Flagship
Commissioned: Circa late 2500’s, post recent major conflict
Specifications:
Length: 1,844 meters (184.4 studs, 58.1 inches, 4.83 feet, 147.5 cm model)
Width: 503 meters (50.3 studs, 15.8 inches, 40.2 cm model)
Height: 484 meters, 398 meters without dorsal comms array, (48.4 studs, 15.2 inches, 38.7 cm model)
Crew: 2,950 standard complement + capacity for crew families, as well as smaller guest quarters for up to 2,000 additional personnel to be moved to/from mining operations.
Armament: 1 super-heavy coaxial particle beam cannon, (primarily for asteroid mining, but also more than capable of defensive action,) 4 dual-mounted heavy particle cannon turrets, 8 dual-mounted medium particle cannon turrets, 2 coaxial fore medium particle cannons, 80 quad-mounted 80mm anti-fighter flak railgun turrets.
Defensive systems:
Hull: Super-heavy steel alloy hull with carbon nanotube/buckypaper composite layers as spall lining.
Armor plating: steel, titanium alloy, tungsten, ceramic, and carbon nanotube composite armor layers against asteroids/other space debris, kinetic weapons, kinetic spalling, particle, laser, and plasma fire. Thick composite armor provides excellent survivability, but with very high mass. Some battleships are less armored than this ship.
Bulkheads: Extensive titanium bulkhead support network.
Structural integrity field: High power system designed for significant cargo mass placing stress on the frame, or to withstand asteroid impacts to the hull.
Shielding: Internally housed high power adaptive particle field repulsing shielding system capable of surviving significant punishment. Some older battleships have less robust shielding.
Powerplant: 1 primary matter-antimatter reactor with extensive fuel reserves, 2 secondary fusion reactors with extensive fuel reserves. Multiple massive power capacitors. Extensive heatinks.
Propulsion: 1 massive primary fusion engine for sub-lightspeed travel, 1 internal FTL core capable of moderate FTL speed, long range travel, and 32 large reaction control thrusters for slow but dependable below light speed maneuvering.
Computer systems: Single supercomputer core with onboard Virtual Intelligence system.
Comms and Sensors: Local and FTL comms arrays. Radar, LIDAR, infrared, multi-spectral, and additional other local area sensors systems, along with extensive FTL sensors.
Additional Systems: High power artificial singularity for both artificial gravity generation and inertial dampening, allowing for 1G gravity even when hauling an entire cargo hold full of heavy-metal. 6 massive blast furnaces for refining metal ore, an enormous central cargo hold system, 4 fuel refining tanks, 4 massive fuel storage tanks, and an internal rail system for moving ore and personnel.
Embarked Craft: 2 Thunderbird class super-heavy cargo/personnel shuttles, 2 Hurricane class heavy cargo/personnel shuttles, 20 heavy mining drones, 24 medium mining drones, 2 gunships of variable class, 2 heavy fighter/bombers of variable class, potential for multiple additional light shuttles and fighters.
Background: After seeing both the devastation to outlying areas of space caused by the recent Great War, and the corruption within the Federal Defense Navy (working title) Admiralty, Captain David Courtland retired honorably from military service and went to helm his family’s generations old mining company, Kolter Mining, Refining, and Fuel; one of the largest mining companies in United Earth Federation space. (Working title.)
He wanted to take the company, already a reputable and successful business, in a new direction. That direction was the disputed, war-torn, no-man’s-waste-land of space known as The Divide, (working title) situated between the major powers of the galaxy. Life in The Divide was desperate, with little hope for the many people stranded in the ruins, poverty, and crime infested land. None of the major powers could intervene without starting another territorial war, and as such, pirates, gangs, and unscrupulous mega-corporations ruled supreme.
Courtland wanted to make a difference to this sorrowful place, and with trillions of credits and a Fortunes 1,000 company at his control, he had the means to at least begin; although even he lacked the ability to single-handedly remedy the myriad of woes The Divide faced.
David’s plan was simple, to move significant mining operations to The Divide, thus:
1: Creating new, safe, well-paying, good jobs for both an area and an industry that seldom offered such things.
2: Allowing for the placement of company security forces to deter pirate activity around major settlements.
3: Providing tax-free revenue to fund new schools, hospitals, food, water, shetler, and other charitable activities in The Divide.
But to do it, he required a new kind of mining vessel, as well as additional security forces. Thus he contacted Nelson Heavy Industries, who in turn partnered with AxonTech Interstellar Systems for some components, to place an order for a line of custom massive deep space mining operation flagships with enhanced combat capabilities and capable of operating in the remotest reaches of space for months or even years at a time. And so the Bessemer class was born.
The Bessemer class is unlike any mining vessel ever produced before it. Certainly significantly larger mining ships existed, but these were typically little more than unarmed, slow moving things with small engines; closer to a semi-mobile starbase than a combination frontier battleship/mining vessel. But Courtland required something unique. Something that could move faster, survive more punishment, and something that had teeth; not a fragile, barely moving thing that would only sit in safe areas of space. Courtland needed a mighty sheepdog in a world of sheep and wolves.
Bessemer class vessels are 1,844 meters long, and possess more armor, firepower, and shielding than many pre Great War battleship designs. Almost any pirate or local gang would be terrified of the sight of over a mile of steel and particle cannons; clad in Kolter white, green, and yellow.
But the Bessemer, and others of her class, are not merely warships masquerading as civilian craft. They are heavy mining machines that live up to their name; a steel producing process that revolutionized the industry of Earth some seven hundred years earlier. The Bessemer and her sister ships are capable of blasting metal-rich asteroids to bits with their coaxial mining particle beam cannon, and then having swarms of automated mining drones devour any valuable deposits within before unloading the materials into the Bessemer’s ore hold for the internal rail system to run any raw ore through her six corvette sized forges, and then having the refined metal shunted to her cavernous lower hold, while any waste material from the refining process is vented directly into space.
Ships of this class are outfitted with a sizable hangar, advanced sensor suite, extensive internal cargo bays, and large cargo pod clamps that allow it to act in the capacity of miner, defensive ship, operations command center, and even freighter and personnel carrier should usual shipping to outlying mining sites be disrupted.
But capable as they are, these are not the spartan mining vessels with unlivable working conditions that some shady companies have been known to operate. These space-faring cities of steel feature robust safety systems, spacious and comfortable crew quarters, multiple restaurants, multiple mess-halls, multiple shops for clothing, food, electronics, and other items, an arcade, multiple gyms with weights, various weight and cardio machines, martial arts areas, gymnastics equipment, along with a walking track, a small bowling alley, an olympic sized swimming pool, a multi-sport stadium, a greenhouse, hydroponics bays, a small stage/concert area, several computer labs, a library, a small movie theater, crew lounges and break areas, a salon/spa, a bar/club, chapels, classroom/daycare areas, office areas, as well as repair stations, enough dry and frozen storage to keep everyone fed for extended missions, advanced workshops, astrotography, laboratories, guest bunk-rooms, and a starbase grade medical center.
Not everyone is happy about Kolter Mining’s efforts, however. While Courtland founded the Kolter Foundation to aid those in need, he also lobbied for what came to be known as the Kolter Bill to be passed. Mining employees out in the colonies loved the added protections this afforded them. But the executives of Kolter’s rival mining companies operating out of Earth’s colony worlds quickly found themselves facing laws that favored the profits of Kolter and their already developed safety systems and excellent treatment of employees. What’s more, the Federal Defense Navy Admiralty have been continually frustrated that rather than helping to line their pockets as part of the military industrial complex, Courtland has been working tirelessly to reveal their corruption and hidden support of crime in outlying areas of space.
What’s more, there are even rumors that Courtland is now working with, and possibly even helping to fund, a mercenary vigilante unit out in The Divide known as the Phoenix Command Group, founded by Jonathan Scarlett, another former Federal Defense Navy Captain who ran afoul of the Admiralty.
The wealthy and corrupt among the Admiralty, military industrial complex, crime syndicates, and corrupt businesses running shady operations out in The Divide are deeply troubled by these rumors. But those who are now citizens of no nation, and who have known nothing but hopelessness and need for years, have a slight spark of hope rising like a Phoenix.
IRL info: This digital SHIP was made in Bricklink’s Studio software from September 11th to September 30th, 2021. I did not originally plan to participate in SHIPtember, but I couldn’t resist. It is 184 studs (58.1 inches) long, 50 studs wide, and 48 studs high. It is comprised of 23,470 pieces, which I believe makes it my highest piece-count SHIP to date, and means that the model itself has a mass of 973.502 ounces, or 60.843 pounds, or 27.597 kilograms, which most likely makes it my heaviest SHIP as well as my most piece intensive. (I really need to learn to build a little more hollow.) Note that it uses all real pieces/colors that are available for sale on Bricklink. (Albeit at a price that makes attempting to build it in physical bricks highly impractical.) It is 100% connected, and should be at least somewhat stable in real life. I would want to reinforce the fore-end with more Technic, and switch out the longest Lego Technic axle holding the engine for an aftermarket stainless steel version. I cannot guarantee that various sections built out from the main SNOT and Technic frame would be totally stable without slight redesign of a few bits. It would also require a hefty display stand of some kind.
The current pictures are WIP to show the completed status of the build itself. Better renders done by importing the Studio build into Mecabricks, replacing any pieces that fail to load or change position, and then exporting to Blender for higher quality rendering, and finally hopefully doing some cool backgrounds with GIMP, will hopefully follow before whatever October picture deadline is decided on. Please do not use these early pictures in the poster if time remains, as I hope to provide better ones. Thank you for reading this lengthy description. Have a cookie.
If this ship had a theme song, this magnificent piece by Clamavi De Profundis would be it: youtu.be/Xm96Cqu4Ils
Port side view.
Name: S.S. Bessemer
Registration Number: KCC-1894 (Kolter Construction Contract Number 1,894)
Affiliation: Kolter Mining, Refining, and Fuel.
Class Name: Bessemer class
Type: Deep Space Mining Operations Flagship
Commissioned: Circa late 2500’s, post recent major conflict
Specifications:
Length: 1,844 meters (184.4 studs, 58.1 inches, 4.83 feet, 147.5 cm model)
Width: 503 meters (50.3 studs, 15.8 inches, 40.2 cm model)
Height: 484 meters, 398 meters without dorsal comms array, (48.4 studs, 15.2 inches, 38.7 cm model)
Crew: 2,950 standard complement + capacity for crew families, as well as smaller guest quarters for up to 2,000 additional personnel to be moved to/from mining operations.
Armament: 1 super-heavy coaxial particle beam cannon, (primarily for asteroid mining, but also more than capable of defensive action,) 4 dual-mounted heavy particle cannon turrets, 8 dual-mounted medium particle cannon turrets, 2 coaxial fore medium particle cannons, 80 quad-mounted 80mm anti-fighter flak railgun turrets.
Defensive systems:
Hull: Super-heavy steel alloy hull with carbon nanotube/buckypaper composite layers as spall lining.
Armor plating: steel, titanium alloy, tungsten, ceramic, and carbon nanotube composite armor layers against asteroids/other space debris, kinetic weapons, kinetic spalling, particle, laser, and plasma fire. Thick composite armor provides excellent survivability, but with very high mass. Some battleships are less armored than this ship.
Bulkheads: Extensive titanium bulkhead support network.
Structural integrity field: High power system designed for significant cargo mass placing stress on the frame, or to withstand asteroid impacts to the hull.
Shielding: Internally housed high power adaptive particle field repulsing shielding system capable of surviving significant punishment. Some older battleships have less robust shielding.
Powerplant: 1 primary matter-antimatter reactor with extensive fuel reserves, 2 secondary fusion reactors with extensive fuel reserves. Multiple massive power capacitors. Extensive heatinks.
Propulsion: 1 massive primary fusion engine for sub-lightspeed travel, 1 internal FTL core capable of moderate FTL speed, long range travel, and 32 large reaction control thrusters for slow but dependable below light speed maneuvering.
Computer systems: Single supercomputer core with onboard Virtual Intelligence system.
Comms and Sensors: Local and FTL comms arrays. Radar, LIDAR, infrared, multi-spectral, and additional other local area sensors systems, along with extensive FTL sensors.
Additional Systems: High power artificial singularity for both artificial gravity generation and inertial dampening, allowing for 1G gravity even when hauling an entire cargo hold full of heavy-metal. 6 massive blast furnaces for refining metal ore, an enormous central cargo hold system, 4 fuel refining tanks, 4 massive fuel storage tanks, and an internal rail system for moving ore and personnel.
Embarked Craft: 2 Thunderbird class super-heavy cargo/personnel shuttles, 2 Hurricane class heavy cargo/personnel shuttles, 20 heavy mining drones, 24 medium mining drones, 2 gunships of variable class, 2 heavy fighter/bombers of variable class, potential for multiple additional light shuttles and fighters.
Background: After seeing both the devastation to outlying areas of space caused by the recent Great War, and the corruption within the Federal Defense Navy (working title) Admiralty, Captain David Courtland retired honorably from military service and went to helm his family’s generations old mining company, Kolter Mining, Refining, and Fuel; one of the largest mining companies in United Earth Federation space. (Working title.)
He wanted to take the company, already a reputable and successful business, in a new direction. That direction was the disputed, war-torn, no-man’s-waste-land of space known as The Divide, (working title) situated between the major powers of the galaxy. Life in The Divide was desperate, with little hope for the many people stranded in the ruins, poverty, and crime infested land. None of the major powers could intervene without starting another territorial war, and as such, pirates, gangs, and unscrupulous mega-corporations ruled supreme.
Courtland wanted to make a difference to this sorrowful place, and with trillions of credits and a Fortunes 1,000 company at his control, he had the means to at least begin; although even he lacked the ability to single-handedly remedy the myriad of woes The Divide faced.
David’s plan was simple, to move significant mining operations to The Divide, thus:
1: Creating new, safe, well-paying, good jobs for both an area and an industry that seldom offered such things.
2: Allowing for the placement of company security forces to deter pirate activity around major settlements.
3: Providing tax-free revenue to fund new schools, hospitals, food, water, shetler, and other charitable activities in The Divide.
But to do it, he required a new kind of mining vessel, as well as additional security forces. Thus he contacted Nelson Heavy Industries, who in turn partnered with AxonTech Interstellar Systems for some components, to place an order for a line of custom massive deep space mining operation flagships with enhanced combat capabilities and capable of operating in the remotest reaches of space for months or even years at a time. And so the Bessemer class was born.
The Bessemer class is unlike any mining vessel ever produced before it. Certainly significantly larger mining ships existed, but these were typically little more than unarmed, slow moving things with small engines; closer to a semi-mobile starbase than a combination frontier battleship/mining vessel. But Courtland required something unique. Something that could move faster, survive more punishment, and something that had teeth; not a fragile, barely moving thing that would only sit in safe areas of space. Courtland needed a mighty sheepdog in a world of sheep and wolves.
Bessemer class vessels are 1,844 meters long, and possess more armor, firepower, and shielding than many pre Great War battleship designs. Almost any pirate or local gang would be terrified of the sight of over a mile of steel and particle cannons; clad in Kolter white, green, and yellow.
But the Bessemer, and others of her class, are not merely warships masquerading as civilian craft. They are heavy mining machines that live up to their name; a steel producing process that revolutionized the industry of Earth some seven hundred years earlier. The Bessemer and her sister ships are capable of blasting metal-rich asteroids to bits with their coaxial mining particle beam cannon, and then having swarms of automated mining drones devour any valuable deposits within before unloading the materials into the Bessemer’s ore hold for the internal rail system to run any raw ore through her six corvette sized forges, and then having the refined metal shunted to her cavernous lower hold, while any waste material from the refining process is vented directly into space.
Ships of this class are outfitted with a sizable hangar, advanced sensor suite, extensive internal cargo bays, and large cargo pod clamps that allow it to act in the capacity of miner, defensive ship, operations command center, and even freighter and personnel carrier should usual shipping to outlying mining sites be disrupted.
But capable as they are, these are not the spartan mining vessels with unlivable working conditions that some shady companies have been known to operate. These space-faring cities of steel feature robust safety systems, spacious and comfortable crew quarters, multiple restaurants, multiple mess-halls, multiple shops for clothing, food, electronics, and other items, an arcade, multiple gyms with weights, various weight and cardio machines, martial arts areas, gymnastics equipment, along with a walking track, a small bowling alley, an olympic sized swimming pool, a multi-sport stadium, a greenhouse, hydroponics bays, a small stage/concert area, several computer labs, a library, a small movie theater, crew lounges and break areas, a salon/spa, a bar/club, chapels, classroom/daycare areas, office areas, as well as repair stations, enough dry and frozen storage to keep everyone fed for extended missions, advanced workshops, astrotography, laboratories, guest bunk-rooms, and a starbase grade medical center.
Not everyone is happy about Kolter Mining’s efforts, however. While Courtland founded the Kolter Foundation to aid those in need, he also lobbied for what came to be known as the Kolter Bill to be passed. Mining employees out in the colonies loved the added protections this afforded them. But the executives of Kolter’s rival mining companies operating out of Earth’s colony worlds quickly found themselves facing laws that favored the profits of Kolter and their already developed safety systems and excellent treatment of employees. What’s more, the Federal Defense Navy Admiralty have been continually frustrated that rather than helping to line their pockets as part of the military industrial complex, Courtland has been working tirelessly to reveal their corruption and hidden support of crime in outlying areas of space.
What’s more, there are even rumors that Courtland is now working with, and possibly even helping to fund, a mercenary vigilante unit out in The Divide known as the Phoenix Command Group, founded by Jonathan Scarlett, another former Federal Defense Navy Captain who ran afoul of the Admiralty.
The wealthy and corrupt among the Admiralty, military industrial complex, crime syndicates, and corrupt businesses running shady operations out in The Divide are deeply troubled by these rumors. But those who are now citizens of no nation, and who have known nothing but hopelessness and need for years, have a slight spark of hope rising like a Phoenix.
IRL info: This digital SHIP was made in Bricklink’s Studio software from September 11th to September 30th, 2021. I did not originally plan to participate in SHIPtember, but I couldn’t resist. It is 184 studs (58.1 inches) long, 50 studs wide, and 48 studs high. It is comprised of 23,470 pieces, which I believe makes it my highest piece-count SHIP to date, and means that the model itself has a mass of 973.502 ounces, or 60.843 pounds, or 27.597 kilograms, which most likely makes it my heaviest SHIP as well as my most piece intensive. (I really need to learn to build a little more hollow.) Note that it uses all real pieces/colors that are available for sale on Bricklink. (Albeit at a price that makes attempting to build it in physical bricks highly impractical.) It is 100% connected, and should be at least somewhat stable in real life. I would want to reinforce the fore-end with more Technic, and switch out the longest Lego Technic axle holding the engine for an aftermarket stainless steel version. I cannot guarantee that various sections built out from the main SNOT and Technic frame would be totally stable without slight redesign of a few bits. It would also require a hefty display stand of some kind.
The current pictures are WIP to show the completed status of the build itself. Better renders done by importing the Studio build into Mecabricks, replacing any pieces that fail to load or change position, and then exporting to Blender for higher quality rendering, and finally hopefully doing some cool backgrounds with GIMP, will hopefully follow before whatever October picture deadline is decided on. Please do not use these early pictures in the poster if time remains, as I hope to provide better ones. Thank you for reading this lengthy description. Have a cookie.
If this ship had a theme song, this magnificent piece by Clamavi De Profundis would be it: youtu.be/Xm96Cqu4Ils
The American Sugar Refining Company opened the Baltimore Domino Sugar plant in 1922. The refinery was constructed in an ideal location for the industry, on a deep water port. Sugar cane, which is grown in the tropics and subtropics, is transported to the refinery by large cargo ships. On average, 42 vessels a year deliver raw sugar to the refinery from all over the world. A few times a month, a giant tanker ship docks at the Domino plant. Unloading the raw sugar from the ship, at 10 million pounds per day, usually takes about a week.
The sugar travels by a conveyor belt, swarming with feasting bees, to a massive hangar that can hold up to 100 million pounds of sugar in piles over 60-feet high.
The raw sugar then travels by conveyor belt through a byzantine array of filtration devices and methods–affination, centrifuges, carbonation, charification, vacuum boilers, granulators–up and down the eight stories of the plant, before being stored in silos to await packaging.
Domino’s packaging warehouse looks nothing like the rest of the refinery. High tech machinery spits out more than 350 billion single-serving sugar packets per year. The conveyer belt moves so fast that you need a strobe light to see the packets fly by.
Sugar packets are just one of the 40 different final products–retail and bulk–that the factory produces. FitzGibbon said that the move to an array of value-added products is crucial to remaining profitable.
The refinery in Baltimore produces not just granulated, powdered, and brown sugars, but also flavored sugars, pharmaceutical grade sugars, and other specialty products in a variety of packagings.
Another advantage of the Baltimore refinery is its proximity to major highways like Interstate 95 and Interstate 83. On average, about 33,000 trucks transport products from the facility each year. Trains aid in the transportation of Domino Sugar to national soft drink and food companies across the country.
The “Domino Sugars” blood orange neon sign measures 120-feet by 70-feet, and was installed in 1951 on the roof of the refinery.
For once we had sunshine on pinhole day and I had a new very low tripod to play with as well so a low viewpoint for showing off the DOF was easy.
I must find some time to refine the hole size I'm still short of some sharpness but the colours are lovely straight out of the M9.
The pinhole was a exchange of gear with TomA, so this is a "letter to Tom"
ME 1508 1515 and 1537 are also inside the workshop having been returned from Sweden in October for renovation before any use on freight work
refining the script. this is a more mellow rendering technique (see: www.flickr.com/photos/giveaphuk/13232466514/ ) acheived by double processing, for shadows & highlights.
Before visiting the refinery I used the Photographer's Ephemeris to see where the nearly full moon would rise in relation to the refinery. It was difficult to predict access and view points. I tried to get a little closer to this stack to bring the moon closer to the top, but there was a fence in the way. Or I could have arrived earlier, but I didn't. A wonderful aspect of exploration is the feeling of just not knowing what you will encounter.
Photo exploration with Bob and Ben.
200 mm on Canon XSi = 320 mm equivalent.
1/400 at f/3.5
I used a fast exposure in order to preserve the detail in the distortion of the moon.
NOVITEC ROSSO refines the Ferrari 488 Spider with carbon, forged wheels, tuning rated at 568 kW / 772 hp and a top speed of 342 km/h
Haute couture and high performance: NOVITEC ROSSO now also offers an exclusive refinement program for the Ferrari 488 Spider. A sporty designer outfit from naked...
The following is an account of Lake Hart published in 1947 -
Although for long it has been deserted, Lake Hart, on the lonely mulga plains, has Australia's Prize Salt Deposit.
Standing beside the transcontinental railway, 137 miles [219 kilometres] from Port Augusta, is a 7,000 tons dump of the best quality salt in Australia. Behind it, stretching far northwards, is Lake Hart, the place from which the salt was taken.
In 1931 this was the scene of a thriving industry. Today, it is forgotten in its isolation amid the mulga plains of the north-west. Lake Hart's importance as a salt deposit first became manifest in 1918 when surveyors investigated its entire area. They estimated the yield as three million tons, and defined the lake's area as 61 square miles.
Following these observations, the Sydney firm which owned the deposit - the Commonwealth Salt Refining Company - began preliminary operations with a few men.
Small quantities of salt were harvested and bagged for testing purposes. At this stage no refining plant had been installed, and the salt was sent to Adelaide for refining. The finished product proved so successful that the CSRC immediately launched large-scale operations. They installed a refining plant, and employed more than 50 men. The employees camped at the site and depended for their stores on the Commonwealth Railway's weekly food train.
Salt was harvested by day and refined continuously by shift workers.
Harvesting methods then were slow and cumbersome compared with present day methods. Sweepers first swept the water forward to the elevated catchment pens, each of which was 300 ft long by 150 ft wide.
When the salt had been deposited on the floor, the water was allowed to flow back into the lake, leaving the salt banked in and around the pens. The salt was then swept up and loaded into carrying carts, which were towed to the nearby refining plant.
Driving power for the plant was supplied by a gas producer engine. At first a Crossley type of 35 hp was used, but as production accelerated, a large Hornsby engine of 50 hp was added. These two engines may still be seen among the skeleton plant which remains at the lake.
The first phase of the salt's refining began when it entered the crushers. For Lake Hart salt, this was a very thorough process, due to the crude product's unusual hardness.
From the crushers it was carried into the washing troughs. Here it was scoured free of all foreign matter and, after a series of swillings was passed into the dehydrator.
When this machine had evaporated all water from the now whitened grain, the salt entered its final process - the drying oven.
This machine dried out all moisture and at the same time killed any remaining germ life, before discharging the finished product.
Such refineries were, of course, greatly inferior to present day establishments, such as those on Yorke Peninsula. Here, the sea water itself passes through several evaporation condensers before the salt is extricated for a complicated refining. But with Lake Hart's pure quality salt extensive refining was not necessary.
Few facilities existed to enable workers to negotiate the obstacles of outback industrial settlement. One employee crossed the lake in a flat-bottomed boat to ascertain the salt content on the opposite shore. He sailed across, but had to row 15 miles on the return trip. Today, people of the north-west give him the honour of being Lake Hart's conqueror.
Extreme difficulty was experienced from the late summer downpours which are prevalent in this area. During these storms the lake often became flooded, rendering harvesting impossible. However, the company had prepared for such emergencies. Huge reserve dumps had been heaped in readiness, and refining was not hampered.
For several years Lake Hart yielded 9,000 tons annually. Most of the salt was shipped to Sydney, where it was distributed for edible and industrial uses.
Commercial users throughout Australia were elated with the quality. Housewives discovered that, in actual saltiness, the Lake Hart product was twice as strong as any other.
The biggest asset that the salt had was its freedom from gypsum. This was, and still is, a very rare credential. All other main Australian sources are handicapped by gypsum content, which not only reduces quality, but enforces excessive work and cost during the refining process.
In 1921 the company amalgamated with the Australian Salt Company. The firm experienced great difficulties in obtaining water for refining purposes, its only supplies coming from occasional supply trains. Further, the isolated position created problems in the delivery of the refined product. These difficulties were the chief reasons for the cessation of harvesting in 1931.
Yorke Peninsula refineries were supplying more than enough salt for the State's use, and, although the quality was greatly inferior to that of Lake Hart, it was considered unpayable to continue work on the lake. To Australia, its closing meant a decrease in the quality of salt in use: but the quantity remains plentiful.
Salt is in enormous surplus, not only in Australia, but throughout the world. Our own refinery at Price on Yorke Peninsula, for instance, can supply enough salt in six months to last South Australia for five years.
Ever since closing the Lake Hart plant, the Australian Salt Company has employed a caretaker on the premises. The present caretaker has held his lonely job for seven years. His duties are simple. He records the rise and fall of the lake, and is responsible for the maintenance of the depleted plant.
Much of the plant was removed soon after the work ceased, but the catchment pens, crushers and engines remain in readiness for a reopening of the industry.
Last year it was intended to restart the enterprise, but fate ruled otherwise. Heavy rain swelled the lake to such an extent that plans had to be temporarily abandoned.
There is little opportunity for anyone to see Lake Hart. Train tourists can, but as both the East and West bound expresses pass this locality during the night, few see what is Australia's prize salt deposit.
Ref: Advertiser (Adelaide) 6-9-1947 Article by W J Watkins
A drilling bit sits atop the gates on the road into the old Humble Gas Plant in the Tomball Oil Field, Tomball Texas The gate is now on Humble Road. Oil and gas production was an important part of Tomball's history.
From 1907 to 1933 Tomball was a shipping point on the railroad with most of the people primarily involved in farming and ranching activities. The coming of the railroad in 1906 was followed by a post office in 1908. The town acquired its first school in 1908 . In 1913, electric lights and telephone service became widely available in the little town. By 1914 Tomball had a population of 350, a bank, a blacksmith, several stores, six hotels, and two cotton gins. Charles F. Hoffman was an early settler who operated the first general store, and J. J. Trichel was postmaster.
Then In 1933 Tomball changed forever in just a day. On May 27, drillers struck oil west of town on the property of J. F. W. Kob. Almost overnight Tomball became a oil boom-town. In 1935, the original contract negotiated between Tomball and the Humble Oil and Refining Company (later Exxon ) gave free water and natural gas to Tomball residents for ninety years in exchange for drilling rights within the city limits. On July 6, 1933, Tomball, popularly known as "Oil Town U.S.A.," was incorporated with a population of 665. With the discovery of oil, however, this figure tripled. Soon there were twenty-five to thirty oil and gas companies producing within a five-mile radius of Tomball. Humble built a "camp" in Tomball which included housing, recreation facilities and other facilities for its workers. Tomball became famous as a city with free gas and water but no municipal cemetery. The hydrocarbon reservoirs played out and Exxon sold their interest in the late 1980s. There is still a little production from the field and the gas plant is still operational, however most of the field has now been abandoned.
Information for this caption from;.
Handbook of Texas Online, Mike Dennis and Lessie Upchurch, "Tomball, TX," accessed March 05, 2017,
This beet root sugar refining factory in Vierverlaten is now 112 years old and still going strong. Another refinery near the city of Groningen was closed this year. When operational at the end of each year, the plumes of steam can be seen from miles around. With a westerly wind, the sweet (and to some nauseating) smell of the factory permeates the city in the background.
Historic 365-foot-high smelter smokestack near Salida, Colorado.
(BTW, the sky was really there, only enhanced with HDR.)
The following information is from the Colorado Historical Society:
Harvesting Historical Riches
Power Station Rehab Recharges Interest in Salida’s Past
Originally published in Colorado History NOW, March 2005
The town of Salida calls itself the “Heart of the Rockies” for good reason. Surrounded by fourteen-thousand-foot peaks, it draws visitors from the region’s extremities, infuses their souls with natural beauty, and pumps them back home along the major arterial roads, fortified and happy. Recreational activities—including whitewater rafting and fishing on the Arkansas River, hiking or climbing in the Collegiate Peaks, and skiing or snowboarding at Monarch—attract most of the people, but cultural events and the historic district pull their fair share as well. In fact, folks with their fingers on the local pulse know that Salida’s economic health owes as much to its arts scene and historical buildings as it does to postcard-perfect vistas.
It is ironic that Salida—a place known for its crisp, clean air and proximity to alpine wilderness—should focus its attention on the preservation of its industrial buildings and structures. And yet, the town’s fondness for saving architectural eyesores reflects not only an astute preservation ethic, but also an awareness of the need to save all of the significant reminders of our past and not just cute or aesthetically pleasing landmarks. Two historic resources in particular, the Salida Smelter Smokestack and the Salida Steam Plant, exemplify the town’s all-encompassing preservation program.
The extended battle to save the 365-foot-high smokestack may have paved the way for the steam plant’s more recent rehabilitation. Situated on the Denver & Rio Grande Western line and along the Arkansas River between upstream mining districts and down-river manufacturing centers like Cañon City and Pueblo, Salida was a perfect place to run a smelting operation. The railroad and river also attracted farmers and ranchers who wanted to capitalize on the valley’s unique climate. Sheltered by mountain ranges on three sides, Salida enjoys relatively mild weather in comparison to other high-country towns. Of course, the industrial and agricultural interests were bound to clash.
The Ohio and Colorado Smelting and Refining Company built the oversized chimney in response to complaints by local farmers and ranchers who claimed that cyanide-laden fumes emanating from shorter smokestacks harmed crops and animals. After a while, one local rancher got tired of lodging complaints and just submitted a bill every time one of his cows died. The company reimbursed him so handsomely that he “considered killing all of his animals on a regular basis.”
Bad jokes aside, both the smelting company and the local population understood that the air pollution represented a serious threat to public health. Anticipating lawsuits, the company decided to build a smokestack that would be so high that it would effectively remove the toxic effluvium from local airspace.
The resulting construction, a brick behemoth that outreaches Denver’s Daniels and Fisher Tower by thirty-five feet, only operated for twenty-nine months. The Ohio and Colorado Smelting and Refining Company went out of business in 1920 and subsequent owners of its property sold the operation for scrap. But vocal preservationists fought to save the tower as a monument to the Salida area’s industrial past.
The Colorado Historical Society announced the smokestack’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places in January 1976. Coinciding with Colorado’s centennial anniversary, the announcement came at a time of increasing respect for the state’s heritage. Four years later, Salida celebrated its own centennial and the local newspaper jumped on the preservation bandwagon by calling on citizens to revitalize their downtown by preserving buildings with historic significance.
Salida’s early commitment to historic preservation paid off. When a nonprofit arts organization decided to rehabilitate the town’s electrical generating plant as a theatre and conference center, local businesses, the chamber of commerce, wilderness groups, and schools lined up in support. Between 1993 and 2003, the State Historical Fund awarded the City of Salida and the Steam Plant Board of Directors $264,000 in four separate grants. The latest grant enabled the Board to rehabilitate the Steam Plant’s “Pigeon Room,” a large space once used for boilers, furnaces, and coal storage. Speaking for the city in 2002, Ron Stowell said that “The completed project will enhance the city’s whole cultural and economic outlook.”
It has. The long-abandoned Pigeon Room now serves up to 250 guests at a time, while the rest of the building continues to be used as a community theatre. Once an outmoded eyesore, the Steam Plant generates energy of a different sort by recharging the town’s interest in the arts and the beauty of historic places. And if you visit, don’t be surprised if you see a little grime on the walls. Be assured that it was left there intentionally as an authentic reminder of Salida’s industrial past.
BY BEN FOGELBERG, Editor
The following is an account of Lake Hart published in 1947 -
Although for long it has been deserted, Lake Hart, on the lonely mulga plains, has Australia's Prize Salt Deposit.
Standing beside the transcontinental railway, 137 miles [219 kilometres] from Port Augusta, is a 7,000 tons dump of the best quality salt in Australia. Behind it, stretching far northwards, is Lake Hart, the place from which the salt was taken.
In 1931 this was the scene of a thriving industry. Today, it is forgotten in its isolation amid the mulga plains of the north-west. Lake Hart's importance as a salt deposit first became manifest in 1918 when surveyors investigated its entire area. They estimated the yield as three million tons, and defined the lake's area as 61 square miles.
Following these observations, the Sydney firm which owned the deposit - the Commonwealth Salt Refining Company - began preliminary operations with a few men.
Small quantities of salt were harvested and bagged for testing purposes. At this stage no refining plant had been installed, and the salt was sent to Adelaide for refining. The finished product proved so successful that the CSRC immediately launched large-scale operations. They installed a refining plant, and employed more than 50 men. The employees camped at the site and depended for their stores on the Commonwealth Railway's weekly food train.
Salt was harvested by day and refined continuously by shift workers.
Harvesting methods then were slow and cumbersome compared with present day methods. Sweepers first swept the water forward to the elevated catchment pens, each of which was 300 ft long by 150 ft wide.
When the salt had been deposited on the floor, the water was allowed to flow back into the lake, leaving the salt banked in and around the pens. The salt was then swept up and loaded into carrying carts, which were towed to the nearby refining plant.
Driving power for the plant was supplied by a gas producer engine. At first a Crossley type of 35 hp was used, but as production accelerated, a large Hornsby engine of 50 hp was added. These two engines may still be seen among the skeleton plant which remains at the lake.
The first phase of the salt's refining began when it entered the crushers. For Lake Hart salt, this was a very thorough process, due to the crude product's unusual hardness.
From the crushers it was carried into the washing troughs. Here it was scoured free of all foreign matter and, after a series of swillings was passed into the dehydrator.
When this machine had evaporated all water from the now whitened grain, the salt entered its final process - the drying oven.
This machine dried out all moisture and at the same time killed any remaining germ life, before discharging the finished product.
Such refineries were, of course, greatly inferior to present day establishments, such as those on Yorke Peninsula. Here, the sea water itself passes through several evaporation condensers before the salt is extricated for a complicated refining. But with Lake Hart's pure quality salt extensive refining was not necessary.
Few facilities existed to enable workers to negotiate the obstacles of outback industrial settlement. One employee crossed the lake in a flat-bottomed boat to ascertain the salt content on the opposite shore. He sailed across, but had to row 15 miles on the return trip. Today, people of the north-west give him the honour of being Lake Hart's conqueror.
Extreme difficulty was experienced from the late summer downpours which are prevalent in this area. During these storms the lake often became flooded, rendering harvesting impossible. However, the company had prepared for such emergencies. Huge reserve dumps had been heaped in readiness, and refining was not hampered.
For several years Lake Hart yielded 9,000 tons annually. Most of the salt was shipped to Sydney, where it was distributed for edible and industrial uses.
Commercial users throughout Australia were elated with the quality. Housewives discovered that, in actual saltiness, the Lake Hart product was twice as strong as any other.
The biggest asset that the salt had was its freedom from gypsum. This was, and still is, a very rare credential. All other main Australian sources are handicapped by gypsum content, which not only reduces quality, but enforces excessive work and cost during the refining process.
In 1921 the company amalgamated with the Australian Salt Company. The firm experienced great difficulties in obtaining water for refining purposes, its only supplies coming from occasional supply trains. Further, the isolated position created problems in the delivery of the refined product. These difficulties were the chief reasons for the cessation of harvesting in 1931.
Yorke Peninsula refineries were supplying more than enough salt for the State's use, and, although the quality was greatly inferior to that of Lake Hart, it was considered unpayable to continue work on the lake. To Australia, its closing meant a decrease in the quality of salt in use: but the quantity remains plentiful.
Salt is in enormous surplus, not only in Australia, but throughout the world. Our own refinery at Price on Yorke Peninsula, for instance, can supply enough salt in six months to last South Australia for five years.
Ever since closing the Lake Hart plant, the Australian Salt Company has employed a caretaker on the premises. The present caretaker has held his lonely job for seven years. His duties are simple. He records the rise and fall of the lake, and is responsible for the maintenance of the depleted plant.
Much of the plant was removed soon after the work ceased, but the catchment pens, crushers and engines remain in readiness for a reopening of the industry.
Last year it was intended to restart the enterprise, but fate ruled otherwise. Heavy rain swelled the lake to such an extent that plans had to be temporarily abandoned.
There is little opportunity for anyone to see Lake Hart. Train tourists can, but as both the East and West bound expresses pass this locality during the night, few see what is Australia's prize salt deposit.
Ref: Advertiser (Adelaide) 6-9-1947 Article by W J Watkins
So I made this TIE Fighter from modifying the body of Darth Vader's Tie Advance (75150) & the wings of the First Order Special Forces (75 into what you see now. I believe I have done satisfactory work translating the ball shape into LEGO with brick elements, and, refining the design of the wing with less studs and pieces whilst maintaining the sturdy structure, as well a strong connection to the body.
Many thanks for taking the time to look, and I appreciate any comments you have!
Catania
The Evo 3 (by DR Motor) is a rebadged JAC Refine S2, which was sold in some European markets with electric drivetrain as the JAC iEV7s or eS2.
Refine your vision !
Photography Service 📷
___
Photo by @refinephoto.id
Product : @jts_id
Model : @handrikonaftali
Australasian Sugar Refining Company complex 1891, 1899 at conversion to apartments in the 1980s.
Designers: Hyndman and Bates.
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`The site of the factory was included in Section 2B [of the original Port Melbourne survey], which was surveyed into four allotments early in the history of Sandridge. By November 1860 three of these had been purchased by A. Ross, joining William Jones, S.G. Henty and P. Lalor as owners of the section (2)..
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In February 1890, the Melbourne Tram and Omnibus Company Limited, had stables, offices, land and an omnibus repository on the section.(3) [Most of the present buildings on the site date from 1891, when the Australasian Sugar Refining Company established a refinery.(4)] On the MMBW detail plan dated 1894, the section is labelled 'sugar works' and the configuration of buildings approximately conforms with the present layout. [The refinery was closed in 1894 following its purchase by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company as part of a move to strengthen its monopoly.].
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[In 1899, Robert Harper and Company Pty Ltd converted the buildings to a starch factory, and various brick additions were constructed to designs by Hyndman and Bates, architects.(5)] When the sewerage was connected in 1899, a plan was drawn by the architects and this closely resembles the 1894 MMBW detail plan configuration. (6) .
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The buildings .. form the major part of the original factory complex on the site, one of the largest nineteenth century industrial sites in Victoria. The complex as a whole is significant for its large size and range of building types. The dramatic massing and height of the 9 Beach Street buildings gives them additional importance as local landmarks as viewed both from the surrounding streets and the sea..
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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS.
The former Australasian Sugar Refining Company and Robert Harper starch factory complex can be compared with a number of other large nineteenth century industrial complexes in Melbourne. These include the former Yorkshire Brewery, Wellington Street, Collingwood (from 1876), the former Victoria Brewery, Victoria Parade, East Melbourne (established 1854), the former Kimpton's Flour Mill, Elizabeth Street, Kensington, the Thomas Brunt flour mill and Brockhoff and T.B. Guest biscuit factories complex, Laurens and Munster Streets, North Melbourne (from 1888-9) and the Joshua Bros (now CSR) sugar refinery, Whitehall Street, Yarraville (established 1873). All of these are representative of the development in Victoria of the manufacture of foodstuffs and related raw materials. Of these, the CSR refinery is the most directly comparable in terms of original function and the scale and massing of the buildings. Established significantly earlier than the Port Melbourne refinery, the site is larger and more intact..
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In the local context, the only other surviving industrial site of comparable scale is the Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory complex (q.v.). This complex is of state significance, and is considerably earlier, with parts dating from the 1850s. The predominantly two- and three-storey buildings, however, are of a different type to the former refinery and starch factory buildings..
Allom Lovell and Associates 1995 cite Jacobs Lewis Vines. Port Melbourne Conservation Study:.
While naval doctrine has never evolved in a vacuum, the simmering conflict between the first and second Accord Wars provided an ideal opportunity for both the Empire and Accord to refine and test their doctrines in relatively low-risk engagements. The extended time period also allowed for numerous ship classes to be requested, designed, procured, and deployed on both sides, often specifically to counter a new strategy, tactic, or element of naval hardware.
Given the smaller size of the Accord Republican Navy, it was unsurprising that they adopted strategies relying heavily on fast carrier strike packages that could conduct attacks on relatively poorly defended Imperial assets, despite the Accord carriers often being little more than converted freighters. After a time, more and more Imperial picket corvettes and frigates were produced and utilized, massively increasing Accord losses and protecting Imperial interests at a relatively affordable price. At the same time, the constant reconnaissance struggle continued to escalate as well; the standard sensor drone swarms augmented by heavy strike fighters and even modified corvettes, deployed to both protect the sensor drones and also to intercept hostile scouts. The Assault Reconnaissance Corvette was conceived as an attempt by the Accord to solve both of these problems, though the eventual proliferation of Accord heavy fleets saw the Empire adopt its own variants.
The ARN-27 was not the first Assault Reconnaissance Corvette deployed by the Accord, but it was the first designed specifically for the purpose, learning lessons from previous conversions that had not filled the role as well as had been hoped. At the core of its mission brief was to locate the hostile fleet, destroy hostile anti-recon forces, and then destroy hostile picket forces. While the first two tasks could be performed relatively well by most corvettes or frigates, the latter task had proven far more difficult. Generally, any ship large enough to engage a hostile picket frigate was also going to be vulnerable to the capital grade weapons from the fleet that the picket frigate was protecting. Combat experience showed that even a corvette needed to be relatively fast and agile to be immune to capital grade weapons, leaving naval designers with precious few options.
Among the five bids placed on the contract, only Eclipse Industries and Siugniedrev Industrial Works designs made it past initial testing. While the SIW design was in effect a very large stealth bomber, and would go on to see further development in another program, the EI design utilized four mass plasma drivers in a mostly fixed configuration. Even most frigates did not mount weapons of such size, and the extensive cooling arrays and power generation required for the weapons made the ARN-27 more expensive than most other options. However, due to the relatively few hulls required and the economic boom in the Accord at the time, the higher cost was deemed a worthwhile investment.
Initial development, like with any military project, was not without teething issues. During high stress atmospheric maneuvers, the weight of the plasma drivers caused warping in the cooling arrays they were mounted on, leading to further strengthening. The lower sensor arrays were removed to add four light missile tubes for better defense against light craft and missiles when it was determined that the four twin laser turrets were not sufficient. The largest change was to the top of the hull however, where both an external access airlock and an enlarged deployable sensor dish was added. Given the crew capacity of six and the provision of both a cargo hold and full living quarters aboard the vessel for extended recon operations, the inability to dock outside of a hangar bay was deemed unacceptable by operational commanders. Other features, such as the enlarged rear comms array were present from the start, specifically designed to provide a datalink back to the fleet in the face of heavy hostile jamming.
Though undeniably effective against Imperial forces when it was first deployed, the same economic boom that allowed such an expensive and specialized corvette to be developed was also the ultimate reason it was sidelined. The increased military budget of the Accord saw proper battleline ships built and deployed, first battlecruisers to escort the carriers then proper battleships, making the role of punching through pickets far less important than it had been previously. Still, as one of the largest ships to have the commander and pilot be the same person and a combat profile much more akin to a giant heavy fighter than a traditional corvette, it remains a popular posting for certain officers among the Accord.
Manufacturer: Eclipse Industries
Crew: 6 - 1 Pilot/Commander, 1 Weapons Officer, 1 Communications/Sensors Officer, 2 Engineering Officers, 1 Marine.
Length: 89 meters
Maximum Speed: 1185 m/s
FTL Capability: 14335 AU/h
Engines: 4x FierthXP-3000 Ion Drives
Armament: 4x License Built SIW FlameSpike Mass Plasma Drivers, 4x twin GS Gneiss Laser Cannons in turrets, 4x various Accord missile systems depending on mission profile.
Made for my Graviton setting.
Designers Note: I worked on this one off and on for over a year and it is the largest design I have done yet. It was supposed to be something I could afford to build out of physical bricks, but I clearly got carried away.
Sugar refining began in Greenock in 1765. John Walker began a sugar refinery in Greenock in 1850 followed by the prominent local cooper and shipowner Abram Lyle who, with four partners, purchased the Glebe Sugar Refinery in 1865
Commonwealth Oil Refining Company, Inc. (CORCO) was an oil refinery established in the towns of Peñuelas and Guayanilla in Puerto Rico in the middle of the 20th century. The project started as part of Operation Bootstrap with the first unit being constructed in 1954. The company started operations in 1955 and was finally incorporated on May 19, 1963. Corco represented an investment of $25 million and had the capacity to refine 23,500 barrels (3,740 m3) of oil daily. Hugo David Storer Tavarez was one of the men in charge of the CORCO being established in Puerto Rico.
The refinery is located in an 800-acre (3.2 km2) site, and consists of numerous storage tanks and waste treatment units typical of petroleum refineries. CORCO has been inactive since 1982, and now functions as a terminal for the marine transportation and land-based storage of crude oil and petroleum products.
After the refinery ceased operations, an entity called Desarrollo Integral del Sur (South Integral Development) began developing a long-term plan for the reuse of the terrains and properties.
The following is an account of Lake Hart published in 1947 -
Although for long it has been deserted, Lake Hart, on the lonely mulga plains, has Australia's Prize Salt Deposit.
Standing beside the transcontinental railway, 137 miles [219 kilometres] from Port Augusta, is a 7,000 tons dump of the best quality salt in Australia. Behind it, stretching far northwards, is Lake Hart, the place from which the salt was taken.
In 1931 this was the scene of a thriving industry. Today, it is forgotten in its isolation amid the mulga plains of the north-west. Lake Hart's importance as a salt deposit first became manifest in 1918 when surveyors investigated its entire area. They estimated the yield as three million tons, and defined the lake's area as 61 square miles.
Following these observations, the Sydney firm which owned the deposit - the Commonwealth Salt Refining Company - began preliminary operations with a few men.
Small quantities of salt were harvested and bagged for testing purposes. At this stage no refining plant had been installed, and the salt was sent to Adelaide for refining. The finished product proved so successful that the CSRC immediately launched large-scale operations. They installed a refining plant, and employed more than 50 men. The employees camped at the site and depended for their stores on the Commonwealth Railway's weekly food train.
Salt was harvested by day and refined continuously by shift workers.
Harvesting methods then were slow and cumbersome compared with present day methods. Sweepers first swept the water forward to the elevated catchment pens, each of which was 300 ft long by 150 ft wide.
When the salt had been deposited on the floor, the water was allowed to flow back into the lake, leaving the salt banked in and around the pens. The salt was then swept up and loaded into carrying carts, which were towed to the nearby refining plant.
Driving power for the plant was supplied by a gas producer engine. At first a Crossley type of 35 hp was used, but as production accelerated, a large Hornsby engine of 50 hp was added. These two engines may still be seen among the skeleton plant which remains at the lake.
The first phase of the salt's refining began when it entered the crushers. For Lake Hart salt, this was a very thorough process, due to the crude product's unusual hardness.
From the crushers it was carried into the washing troughs. Here it was scoured free of all foreign matter and, after a series of swillings was passed into the dehydrator.
When this machine had evaporated all water from the now whitened grain, the salt entered its final process - the drying oven.
This machine dried out all moisture and at the same time killed any remaining germ life, before discharging the finished product.
Such refineries were, of course, greatly inferior to present day establishments, such as those on Yorke Peninsula. Here, the sea water itself passes through several evaporation condensers before the salt is extricated for a complicated refining. But with Lake Hart's pure quality salt extensive refining was not necessary.
Few facilities existed to enable workers to negotiate the obstacles of outback industrial settlement. One employee crossed the lake in a flat-bottomed boat to ascertain the salt content on the opposite shore. He sailed across, but had to row 15 miles on the return trip. Today, people of the north-west give him the honour of being Lake Hart's conqueror.
Extreme difficulty was experienced from the late summer downpours which are prevalent in this area. During these storms the lake often became flooded, rendering harvesting impossible. However, the company had prepared for such emergencies. Huge reserve dumps had been heaped in readiness, and refining was not hampered.
For several years Lake Hart yielded 9,000 tons annually. Most of the salt was shipped to Sydney, where it was distributed for edible and industrial uses.
Commercial users throughout Australia were elated with the quality. Housewives discovered that, in actual saltiness, the Lake Hart product was twice as strong as any other.
The biggest asset that the salt had was its freedom from gypsum. This was, and still is, a very rare credential. All other main Australian sources are handicapped by gypsum content, which not only reduces quality, but enforces excessive work and cost during the refining process.
In 1921 the company amalgamated with the Australian Salt Company. The firm experienced great difficulties in obtaining water for refining purposes, its only supplies coming from occasional supply trains. Further, the isolated position created problems in the delivery of the refined product. These difficulties were the chief reasons for the cessation of harvesting in 1931.
Yorke Peninsula refineries were supplying more than enough salt for the State's use, and, although the quality was greatly inferior to that of Lake Hart, it was considered unpayable to continue work on the lake. To Australia, its closing meant a decrease in the quality of salt in use: but the quantity remains plentiful.
Salt is in enormous surplus, not only in Australia, but throughout the world. Our own refinery at Price on Yorke Peninsula, for instance, can supply enough salt in six months to last South Australia for five years.
Ever since closing the Lake Hart plant, the Australian Salt Company has employed a caretaker on the premises. The present caretaker has held his lonely job for seven years. His duties are simple. He records the rise and fall of the lake, and is responsible for the maintenance of the depleted plant.
Much of the plant was removed soon after the work ceased, but the catchment pens, crushers and engines remain in readiness for a reopening of the industry.
Last year it was intended to restart the enterprise, but fate ruled otherwise. Heavy rain swelled the lake to such an extent that plans had to be temporarily abandoned.
There is little opportunity for anyone to see Lake Hart. Train tourists can, but as both the East and West bound expresses pass this locality during the night, few see what is Australia's prize salt deposit.
Ref: Advertiser (Adelaide) 6-9-1947 Article by W J Watkins
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Refining my own technique is proving to be challenging, but it's a start. Thank you, beautiful Teena Silverweb, for being my guinea pig! <3
PS - Reflecting on this pic... I would not have done quite so much with the hair, but as I said... It was an experiment. Teena, I promise to try again as I get better! ;)
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.
Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71, the world's fastest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird's performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War.
This Blackbird accrued about 2,800 hours of flight time during 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its last flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight's conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Designer:
Date:
1964
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)
Materials:
Titanium
Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft; airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys; vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-type material) to reduce radar cross-section; Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines feature large inlet shock cones.
Long Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird's performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a full-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately needed accurate assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, particularly near the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's subsonic U-2 (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an able platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this relatively slow aircraft was already vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the rapid development of surface-to-air missile systems could put U-2 pilots at grave risk. The danger proved reality when a U-2 was shot down by a surface to air missile over the Soviet Union in 1960.
Lockheed's first proposal for a new high speed, high altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a design propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable because of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the design for conventional fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), already flying the Lockheed U-2, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed's clandestine 'Skunk Works' division (headed by the gifted design engineer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson) designed the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.2 and fly well above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these challenging requirements, Lockheed engineers overcame many daunting technical challenges. Flying more than three times the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are enough to melt conventional aluminum airframes. The design team chose to make the jet's external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two conventional, but very powerful, afterburning turbine engines propelled this remarkable aircraft. These power plants had to operate across a huge speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to more than 3,540 kph (2,200 mph). To prevent supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson's team had to design a complex air intake and bypass system for the engines.
Skunk Works engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section design to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to achieve this by carefully shaping the airframe to reflect as little transmitted radar energy (radio waves) as possible, and by application of special paint designed to absorb, rather than reflect, those waves. This treatment became one of the first applications of stealth technology, but it never completely met the design goals.
Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, after he became airborne accidentally during high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed great promise but it needed considerable technical refinement before the CIA could fly the first operational sortie on May 31, 1967 - a surveillance flight over North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as part of the Air Force's 1129th Special Activities Squadron under the "Oxcart" program. While Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Works, however, proposed a "specific mission" version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This system evolved into the USAF's familiar SR-71.
Lockheed built fifteen A-12s, including a special two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s were modified to carry a special reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s were redesignated M-21s. These were designed to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon between the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds high enough to ignite the drone's ramjet motor. Lockheed also built three YF-12As but this type never went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed during testing. Only one survives and is on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of one of the "written off" YF-12As which was later used along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. One SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Including the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The first SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Because of extreme operational costs, military strategists decided that the more capable USAF SR-71s should replace the CIA's A-12s. These were retired in 1968 after only one year of operational missions, mostly over southeast Asia. The Air Force's 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (part of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took over the missions, flying the SR-71 beginning in the spring of 1968.
After the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird-- for the special black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at high altitudes.
Experience gained from the A-12 program convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely required two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This equipment included a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) system that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of advanced, high-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment designed to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was designed to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and high altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 at an altitude more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to wear pressure suits similar to those worn by astronauts. These suits were required to protect the crew in the event of sudden cabin pressure loss while at operating altitudes.
To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird's Pratt & Whitney J-58 engines were designed to operate continuously in afterburner. While this would appear to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird actually achieved its best "gas mileage," in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, during the Mach 3+ cruise. A typical Blackbird reconnaissance flight might require several aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Each time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker's altitude, usually about 6,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. As velocity decreased, so did frictional heat. This cooling effect caused the aircraft's skin panels to shrink considerably, and those covering the fuel tanks contracted so much that fuel leaked, forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the Blackbird. As soon as the tanks were filled, the jet's crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and again climbed to high altitude.
Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, throughout its operational career but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, too. The 9th SRW occasionally deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other locations to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions were flown directly from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe until 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.
When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had already replaced manned aircraft to gather intelligence from sites deep within Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover every geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a vital tool for global intelligence gathering. On many occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 provided information that proved vital in formulating successful U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews provided important intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid conducted by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-based SR-71 crews flew a number of missions over the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened commercial shipping and American escort vessels.
As the performance of space-based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-based air defense networks, the Air Force started to lose enthusiasm for the expensive program and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Despite protests by military leaders, Congress revived the program in 1995. Continued wrangling over operating budgets, however, soon led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the one SR-71B for high-speed research projects and flew these airplanes until 1999.
On March 6, 1990, the service career of one Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This special airplane bore Air Force serial number 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of 3,418 kph (2,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, '972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, more than that of any other crewman.
This particular SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum's Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged more than a dozen '972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-four years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of 2,801.1 hours of flight time.
Wingspan: 55'7"
Length: 107'5"
Height: 18'6"
Weight: 170,000 Lbs
Reference and Further Reading:
Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.
Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.
Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: More Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.
DAD, 11-11-01
A JAC Refine S7 photographed at a JAC dealer in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China.
This Refine S7 is the largest SUV in the JAC range.
Available in 5 or 7 seats version.
Powered by a 1.5 Turbo 174hp gas engine.
Sold for 99.800 to 168.800 RMB (about €12.800-21.600 or US $14.900-25.200).
It was launched in June 2017.
If sales were quite good in 2017 (14.539 units in 7 months), the 1st half-year 2018 wasn't : only 2.938 units.