Sunday, October 9, 2016

Deck Plan - Hammer Class 100 ton Merchant

I've got a sketchbook filled with deck plan sketches, mostly small stuff - 100 to 200 tons, merchant ships, scouts and couriers, a few small military ships. As time allows, I'd like to clean them up and post them here.

Hammer Class 100 ton Merchant
Using a custom 100-ton hull, the Hammer Class Merchant is a commercial vessel used for small cargo shipping and trading purposes. It mounts jump drive-A, maneuver drive-A, and power plant-A, giving a performance of jump-2 and 2G acceleration. Fuel tankage for 40 tons supports the power plant and one jump-2. Adjacent to the bridge is a computer Model 1bis. There are three staterooms and no low berths. The ship has one hardpoint and one ton allocated to fire control. Installed on the hardpoint is a pop-out double turret, which mounts two beam lasers. There is one ship's vehicle: an enclosed 4 man air/raft. Cargo capacity is 15 tons. The ship is streamlined.

The merchant ship requires a crew of three: pilot/navigator, engineer, medic/gunner. With it's relatively large cargo bay adjacent to the main airlock, the Hammer Class is easily converted to other uses. Popular conversions include the Hammer-Hunter variant used by bounty hunters and the Ore Hammer variant used by belters.






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For a higher resolution PDF, click this link: (Traveller Starship Deckplan Hammer Class Merchant). The deckplan was created to be printed out on 24"x36". Scale is 1" = 5'-0" so it can be used with 25mm miniatures. Enjoy!
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Friday, October 7, 2016

Z is for Zhodani Courier

"Finished Not Perfect" - Jake Parker

It was a weird coincidence that the night before I started the A-Z Blog Challenge I came across Jake Parker's video on YouTube. He had just posted it that day. "Finished Not Perfect" became a sort of mantra to me over the last month. My initial idea of spending 1 to 3 hours a day was pretty much blown out of the water from the start. Some items posted were already created so they didn't take much time. Other items I had to research extensively before I even started working on them. Some of the ships with 3D model and deck plans have 15 to 20 hours in them. I think I can safely say I've worked past my initial frustration of only creating one post in August. Lots of new ideas were generated along the way. This isn't the end, but I'll be taking a more realistic pace after this.

So here's last entry for the A-Z challenge - my take on the Zhodani Courier. For reference I looked at both the classic Traveller Alien Module 4 - Zhodani and  GURPs' deck plans from their Aliens Races 1 - Zhodani and Vargr. I don't understand why the GURPs deck plan shows the maneuver drives so big or why there isn't a power plant or computer called out.

The engineering areas are completely reworked and I modified several other parts of the GURPs deck plan to make it more to my liking and to get it to conform with the CT book 2 rules. I also replaced the GURPs #$@&%*! hex grid with a proper square grid as nature intended.




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For a higher resolution PDF, click this link: (Traveller Starship Deckplan Zhodani Courier). The deckplan was created to be printed out on 30"x42". Scale is 1" = 5'-0" so it can be used with 25mm miniatures. Enjoy!
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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Y is for Yacht

"Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued". - Socrates

Here's my second take on a yacht for Traveller: the Prosperity Class 200 ton Yacht. Although the Destiny Class Yacht was fairly well received, there was much I didn't like.

Statistically this ship is fairly similar to the Destiny - 200 tons, Jump 2, and 4 G acceleration. There is a much clearer delineation between crew and passenger spaces. No crew member except the steward and maybe the captain need to mingle with the passengers. The passenger lounge is roomy and takes advantage of the views from the bow of the ship. When landed, two transparisteel panels at the front of the ship can be opened up to an extendable outside covered deck to create an even larger socializing space.

The dorsal turret is now a low profile missile rack - purely an aesthetic decision - and contains twelve small but high-yield missiles. The ventral turret contains a double beam laser.

The ship uses large wings to assist in atmospheric flight and they fold up during landing to minimize the ship's footprint. The rear half of the ship rests on the ground during landings and the front is supported by landing gear.

Thanks to everyone at Citizens of the Imperium for their input on the previous design. I'm hoping this ship is more worthy of the nobles and megacorp executives in your game.






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For a higher resolution PDF, click this link: (Traveller Starship Prosperity Class Yacht Deck Plan). The deckplan was created to be printed out on 30"x42". Scale is 1" = 5'-0" so it can be used with 25mm miniatures. Enjoy!
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Sunday, October 2, 2016

X is for X-Boat Station

"Excitement was plentiful during my two years' service as a Pony Express rider." - Buffalo Bill

Description from the Traveller Wiki:
At each system served by the xboat network, an express boat station is maintained to handle the message traffic and to manage incoming and outgoing xboats. Usually located near the edge of a star system, the station picks up messages beamed to it by incoming xboats and relays the data to the local world for delivery. Messages destined for worlds farther down the line are transmitted to a waiting xboat which then jumps for the next world in the network. The xboat station contains receiving and retransmission equipment; refueling and support facilities for the local staff and waiting crew are also provided. The xboat station maintains a local office on the system's major world for the acceptance of xboat messages, as well as to handle delivery of the messages to addresses on the world.

Station Layout
This 400 ton station was designed to support four xboats simultaneously, although most systems will not require this level of accommodation. The bridge handles standard ship functions as well as the transfer of data from xboat to the main system. The top of the station contains a wide variety of communication and transmission equipment.

There are two habitation decks, one for the station crew and administration, the other for xboat crews.  Staterooms and other accessory rooms encircle a large, open communal space housing the main galley, dining, and recreation space. The standard station contains a flexible space which can be reconfigured based on the demands of the local system. It may be used for cargo, training, gunners stations, or miscellaneous storage.

The lower half of the station contains a large fuel tank with capacity to run the station and refuel four xboats. A 50 ton modular cutter outfitted for fuel storage makes fuel runs to the local gas giant where available.  The station shown is unarmed, but has two hardpoints for future turrets, should they be deemed necessary.
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EDIT 10-21-2018
Prior to this edit the X-boat station was incorrectly shown as 200 tons, when it is in fact 400 tons. The image here and the PDF in the link have been updated.
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The xboat model is a slightly modified version of the one created by Cyberia23 at the SketchUp warehouse.
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For a higher resolution PDF, click this link: (Traveller X-Boat Station Deck Plan). The deckplan was created to be printed out on 30"x42". Scale is 1" = 5'-0" so it can be used with 25mm miniatures. Enjoy!
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 Not really the source of inspiration - just for fun. ;)