#21
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The little brother:
Forgotten magnetic anchoring has been solved by several pieces of thin iron wire in intakes and nozzles where they disappeared neatly. Landing gear will be added someday later. Next stop: Beam catcher. According to the story, she is the oldest ship of the complex, so logically has to be built first .
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...to boldly glue what no man has glued before... Any criticism of my work is welcome. |
#22
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This is seriously badass.
Wyvern |
#23
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Paper Kingdom, a paper modelers' convention, is coming soon (Brno, Czech republic, 23rd to 24th February) and our sci-fi gang needs representation even though there is no official Aliens Papercraft Cup anymore. I can't possibly build any of the Robinson ships in time, but the complete shuttle fleet seems possible. Here comes number 4, a flying forklift from the ion refinery:
Originally two parts, now something over 40 if we don't count laminations. Tabless assembly, edges touched up mostly by black markers (no problem thanks to the bold black outlines). Layered surfaces needed some careful planning with just two printed copies at hand. A tiny anchoring magnet from a CD-ROM focusing mechanism is glued inside the hull. I haven't added any landing gear - I suppose the craft would simply land on it manipulator arms, folded down as skids. Estimated technical data: * Power plant: small fusion reactor, cooled by heat radiators in tail fins. * Planetside propulsion: powerful repulsor suite and a V-tail for high-speed stability. Service ceiling of a few metres above ground. * Space propulsion: repulsion thrusters and attitude control gyros. Reaction mass tanks are big enough for several hours of cargo pushing and small orbit corrections, not for surface-to-orbit jumps. Landing from orbit is only possible with aerobraking. Small asteroids can be landed on with space thrusters and repulsors, larger airless bodies are only accessible with the mothership. * Crew: 1. In case of emergency, one passenger can fit in the cabin if the usual load of tools and supplies is tossed out. ---------------- P.S.: I roughly calculated the power requirements of Robinson's photon drive for assumed 0.1 g acceleration. The result: over 100 PW. If I didn't messed up the conversion between electronvolts and joules, it would mean consumption of some hundreds of kilograms of hydrogen per second (losses not included). Ugh. Back to the drawing board, the engines must spit normal material particles as well to reduce the ludicrous power input. It would be optimal to balance the exhaust velocity so that the mass flux exactly matches the amount of fused helium, which could be used as reaction mass. But I'm not going to calculate it any further, all I need to know for the modeling purposes is there will be three big nozzles with very strong lights inside . If you want more rocket science, feel free to dive into the Atomic Rockets web.
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...to boldly glue what no man has glued before... Any criticism of my work is welcome. |
#24
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The weather out there is perfect for sitting at home and modeling . Another plane finished:
This baby was the quickest to build, but probably also the trickiest - making a true 3D model from a 2.5D silhouette is not trivial. 26 parts (from the original one), edges painted with black marker and watercolours, canopy painted with tempera colours and a black drawing pen. Magnetic anchors (two pieces of wire) are placed besides the cockpit: Attraction to a strong neodymium magnet is just strong enough to keep the shuttle on a vertical wall, but without the landing gear it's pretty hard to pull it away. The "real" counterpart: light sightseeing aircraft. * Power plant: fuel cells (a nuclear reactor with all the necessary shielding and cooling wouldn't fit in the tight space behind the cockpit). * Planetside propulsion: two impellors and a landing repulsor set. * Space propulsion: only maneuvering thrusters for short ship-to-ship jumps. * Crew: 1 + onboard AI for passengers without piloting skills.
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...to boldly glue what no man has glued before... Any criticism of my work is welcome. |
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