The Expanse: MCRN Donnager

[Papierschnitzel]

Originally Posted by GWC

I Don't mean or intend for any hijacking. But I found these interior details of the Rocinante while surfing and not being at all talented....wouldn't these be an interesting build?https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Z5GRDw.

You brought it up! Now you have to build it

[Cheesy Wotsit]

Originally Posted by Papierschnitzel

You brought it up! Now you have to build it

Yup that's the rule. I mentioned The Donnager somewhere once and now I am having to build it



So had the day off today and opted to do a little more on the prototype.


Decided to build the insert for the weapons module which showed that the weapon module cowl was too short. So had to do a quick redesign on that, thank god for blender it took longer to rebuild the second version than it did to modify the design.


Also added the separator between the mid and end modules and aldo added the end module as well as added the weapons cowl and insert to the model.


Long story short, minus the engine nacelles I now have a pretty good idea just how big the model is going to be.


To make it easy, the prototype sitting between an original scale Roci and my 150% version of it.







Have been putting off designing the engine bells and the last little bit of the ships backend. Kinda torn between adding details to the prototype or getting these bits designed next.

[GWC]

Originally Posted by Papierschnitzel

You brought it up! Now you have to build it

Could be waiting for a very long time.....

[Cheesy Wotsit]

Have done a little bit more work on the prototype. Redone the main body to add in the indents at the back of the main body and rail gun. Have also added the four railgun mounts as well as the little bits of side detail.






Needed to get these bits on to check the size and position on the front weapons cowl and so far so good.


Have wanted to move on to starting the engine nacelles sinze these are one of the main features that make The Donnager, The Donnager.... however as I started to export the parts for build it turned out the design is just to fiddly and to complex. So I've spent the last few days redesigning them.






New ones on the left, old on the right. The old design had a number of problems.


1). The main underside part, the bit right at the front had a cut out which gave the final design a lip which while looking nice will prove a real pain to build.
2). Detail parts highlighted with red arrows acted as cowls which again would have proved fiddly to build. The new version are complete shapes build by themselves and then the entire thing is assembled to make one piece.
3). Redesigned the engine bell shape (detail still needs done) and the support parts so that they are the correct size (the originals ended up with all kinds of odd shapes that would never have fitted) and finally got round to designing a part to attach the engine bell to the nacelle.
4). Tweaked scale and looks of some of the parts.


The upshot is I should finally be able to start building the engine nacelles now.

[Revell-Fan]

Very good work! I like the revised design.

[Cheesy Wotsit]

Originally Posted by Revell-Fan

Very good work! I like the revised design.

Thanks man.


Big movement on the model any guesses from the picture?





14 parts in total per nacelle, that's not including the engine bell, which I still have to design but...









First engine nacelle is on and shockingly it all went together without much of a hitch. I'll have to move the small strip at the front to make it fit better but it's starting to look like The Donnager.


Fun bit now is building the other 40 parts for the remaining 3 Nacelles.

[dhanners]

Coming together quite well. Thanks for doing this.

[g0rb]

Wow, great job on this!

[57townsman]

Wow! Looking good and you’re progressing at a good pace too. Looking forward to seeing more!

[Cheesy Wotsit]

A bit more progress folks. Started building the remaining parts for the last three engine nacelles. It's practice as it gives good insight in to how difficult it will be to build certain parts more than a few times, especially trying to build some of the more complex and fiddly parts on a longer build session. The upshot being that the big engine pods, especially the larger second one turns out to be a real pain in the neck to get right. It's kind of fiddly setting the right shape and once built it's a bit prone to being squashed.


So back to the drawing board, first was to build an internal support for the two parts. The front smaller part is show here.





The second was to split the larger part at the back in to two parts. The parts on the right in the image are the old parts with no internal support structure with the larger part turning out to be a real pain in the neck to build. Getting all the folds as well as the bend in and keeping it all together to give a decent finish proved hard and really needed to be sorted. The solution is the three parts on the left. The bigger part split in two separating the U shaped base and the top cone part and then adding internal support parts to both of the cone shaped nacelles.





The up shot is the final build is not only a hell of a lot more sturdy it is also much much easier to build, despite adding 6 more parts to the build list, and much easier to build and get right first time without having to spend loads of time fiddling around getting bits aligned. The finished product just looks cleaner as well.


So here we go.





36, well technically 37 parts for three engine nacelles. I am using the old engine design for two of the engines with the new design, easier build design, on the third one.


These bits will be getting added to the prototype soon and then I guess I am going to have to get round to designing the engine bell and a stand for the model.