Remember the Cant!

[Cheesy Wotsit]

After taking a few months off from model design and builds I have spent the last week or so throwing together a model in Blender for the Pure and Clean Ice Hauler Canterbury.


I can for see a few issues with this model.


Firstly the main hull of the ship is hollow. This precludes the typical internal support structure that would be par of the course for most models. Iam thinking a rib like structure as shown to the right of the first image. Made from thicker card. It works with the sectional build design of the main hull with each of these sections made from standard build stock then attached to each of the 'ribs' which themselves will be made of a much thicker card stock.


Second issue is the engines. The back end of the model has a lot of rigged structures. Each engine is held to the engineering hull by four supports



Three the engineering section itself is quite slim and only attached at single point to the main hull with no additional outrigging to help support it. The entire engineering section with engines is almost as long as the main hull so the point where it joins the main hull is a real potential for sagging.


I have encountered issues two and three with my Truman and Scirocco builds so Iam thinking of using similar solutions that worked on these models. The first issue is going to take a bit of trial and error to see what works.

[dhanners]

Off to a great start. Will watch with interest.

In some of my various builds, I’ve incorporated balsa strips to add strength and rigidity. For example, when I build a Hyperion-class cruiser from “Babylon 5,” there’s a balsa strip that runs the length of the ship, through the thin part of the spine. Otherwise, the weight on either side of the ship’s mid-section would cause the forward and rear halves to droop.

I suck at drawing on my iPad but the balsa strip basically runs the length of what’s outlined in red:

[Cheesy Wotsit]

Those are some cool models there and Balsa strips or wooden skewers might be a viable solution for adding strength to the rear engine section.



The big factor that I had to work out is whether or not I could come up with a viable way of building the hollow main ice storage section of the vessel while also managing to retain some level of strength that would allow the rest of the model parts to be assembled on it AND able to hold it's strength enough that it could be put on a stand.


As the model is still at Blender design phase I opted to do a test build on a couple of sections to see if it was possible and if it would have any structural strength.


A quick test build later showed that the sections are pretty tough once they are joined together a quick industry standard Art of The Expanse book test later showed that the primary hull should be more than strong enough to support the models own weight while maintaining the hollow internal design.

[skyman00]

CW,
Another material that comes to mind is Foam Core.

[Cheesy Wotsit]

Been busy beavering away on this project between the events of every day life. Thought I would share a small update on progress so far.


Iam still at the mocking stage on the build trying to get position and sizing correct along with the structure and design needed to make the final model look as close to the ship as possible. The model build so far is at pre detail and tidy up stage while I get all the bit together.


The main hull the bit that stores the asteroids is 100% hollow and will have small models of asteroids to fill the inside. It is rigid and more than able to hold it's own body weight despite the entire interior being hollow. I am not 100% with the structual design of the inside. I had to reduce the 'shelves from 2 to 1 and the way they attached inside has changed to a more simplified design. A version two will take this in to account and remove some of the support strcture designed to hold the shelves in place to give more storage space inside and to tidy up the overall interior apperance but once it's filled with the small 'asteroids' most of the rougher 'expermimental changes will be hidden from view.


I've opted to build the model in two distinct parts. The main hull and the engineering section. With them being joined together once I have the key detail parts ready. These key detail parts are a bit hit and miss in sizing and will require some tweaking this is due mainly to amount of spacer and card I am using in the model which is throwing a little bit of a tolerance issue in to the final parts once built some clever additional grebel will held hide the spaces on this build and tweaks will be made to any version 2 to compensate for this.


The engines and engineering hull are entirely made form paper / card, all of them are self supporting with no obvious flex, the engines in the picture aren't even glued in place a bit of clever angle locking of layer card parts on the interior of the engineering section and the engine themselves means a bit of clever manipulation to get the engines in place essentially locks them in place.

[dhanners]

Looks very nice!

[Cheesy Wotsit]

Many months and a good few redesigns later.


Final build is made entirely from card / paper, apart from the antennas and asteroid grabbers, they are made from toothpicks.



Managed to come up with a design that allowed the entire interior apart from the last two hull section to be hollow. The engines and engineering section are suspended using original design concepts from the in show model with no additional stand to support or hold them.


This was by far and away one of the toughest builds I've tried purely from the concept of making it hollow and not opting to add additional stands or support for the engines and for the most part the final model is pretty solid. If you removed the cowls from the engines the structure that supports them is solid enough that the model can be supported stood upright on them

[whulsey]

That looks really good.

[dhanners]

Looks very nice! Excellent work….

[skyman00]

Beautiful work and design, CW.