Starship Project Update 11

The project is moving forward quite well. But not the ship so much because it still doesn’t have maneuvering thrusters.  This time around I worked on finishing the Bridge and also completely modeled the interior of the detachable Helm.

For the Bridge I first designed and modeled a 4 man computer console station which would be used for tactical and communication purposes.

I then moved on creating seating for all of the computer consoles. The seats borrowed parts from previous Google SketchUp 3D Challenge entries I created (See Concept Vehicle and Library entries). I used the seat cushion, seat back and armrest brackets of Concept Vehicle and the seat pedestal from the Library chair. This was a big shortcut that saved a lot of time. I simplified the armrest pads by removing the arch.  These seats will be used all throughout the vessel with only simple modifications based on their purpose.

I created some simple view screens similar to Earth bound LCD TV’s for the top of the main viewport. They also have been placed on the back of the turbolift shafts.

The last thing I added to the Bridge is a desk for the commanding officer in the ready room. The desk has dual computer consoles giving access to reports and logs as well as the comm. system.

Now on to the detachable Helm interior…

I failed to make pictures of everything I did on the Helm at first but prior to creating the Helm controls I added some walls to delineate the cockpit. This also created two equipment/storage rooms on either side of the cockpit. For the Helm controls I simply modified the computer console input panels to create a station for both pilot and copilot or smuggler and Wookiee depending on who is in possession of the ship. I created a platform to raise up the cockpit for an easier look out the viewport.

The next job was to create an entrance for the Helm when it is detached and used as a landing craft. I settled on a simple lift gate design that will reveal the door.

I then went on to create the walls for the rest of the Helm. In doing so I repeated the use of the wall computer consoles used below in the Bridge.  I used one on each side of the craft and left openings for seating and beds for rotating Helm crew. I put in the back wall with the rear bulkhead door.

Cubbyholes were then modeled for the additional seating and beds. And of course I then modeled the seating and beds.

I added wall boxes To the back to wall just to add some interest.

I then added seats for the cockpit and gave them headrests. In addition to the seats I added some control boxes flanking both sides of the helm controls. And finally I added the tactical and communication station to the back of helm craft and a desk in front of the elevator behind the cockpit.

What’s next? Weapon systems, communications array, maneuvering thrusters and the rest of the internal fixtures.   I will probably also add minor details for the hull.

See the gallery below or here to see what was added this update:

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Starship Project Update 10

This is just a small update. I somehow missed a few changes to the cargo doors and never created pictures of the changes. To give the doors a little more depth I added a little detail to their faces. Also, since the last update. I created a hatch for the elevator that will seal shut before the Helm can be detached from the main hull. There are 2 of these hatches total; one on the main hull and one on the bottom of the helm section. That’s it.

See the gallery below or here to see what was added this update:

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Starship Project Update 9

Note: From here on out the Control Module will now be known as the Bridge and the Bridge/Landing Craft will be known as the Helm.

Yet another big update on the Starship Project. This time most of the work has been done on the interior and more specifically the Bridge.

But first I designed the outer door/cargo lift for the cargo section. It is a simple design reminiscent of the design of the lift gate found on the back of an Earth bound small delivery truck. Yes, it is not so sophisticated but it gets the job done.

Back to the Bridge… I modeled some curved panels to bridge the gap between the side panels and the bezel of the main viewport. I then created the ceiling (again nothing special).

The next part I didn’t document with many pictures because it was just repetitive. I modeled the walls of the lower section of the Bridge creating the walls of the captains ready room (or office) in the fore section and another small room between the captain’s ready room and the entry room.  The cutouts of the floor of the upper section were changed to have a consistent overhang over the walls the floor is supported by.

To facilitate personnel to go from the lower to upper section of the Bridge I designed two small lifts on the back wall of the Bridge. The ladders in the cargo room will be replaced with these when I get around to it.

The next thing I did was model the main holoprojector in style of one seen in one of the Star Wars movies. I couldn’t help myself, I had to also add a holographic image of Chewbacca.

I then went to work modeling the computer terminals for the lower section of the Bridge. They are designed to be used to control the weapon systems, communications and in an emergency they can assume helm control. They kind of look half way between a console on the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and one on the Death Star.

And finally I created an elevator and elevator shaft to take personnel from the lower level of the Bridge to upper the up to the Helm. To accommodate space to walk around the elevator on the upper level of the Bridge I extended the floor out and added support beams underneath.

See the gallery below or here to see what was added this update:

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Starship Project Update 8

Oh, boy, I have really done a lot since the last update.

First off I had been working on the loading ramp for the command module, but after getting so far into it I decided it was way to long and steep. So I scratched the ramp and removed it from the model. After watching a recent episode of The Clone Wars I was inspired by the landing craft used by Mandalorian leader Duchess Satine. That ship has a platform that lowers down from the bottom of the ship’s hull instead of the never-ending steep ramp.

While I was contemplating the whole ramp issue I moved on to other things. I made a small change to the contouring of the cowling around the bridge/landing craft. No big deal there.

I decided to make the bottom of the hull flat to allow for more room in the command module and so the entry platform didn’t have to lower so far. Making the bottom of the ship flat also allowed me to shift the front landing gear inward so it would no longer interact with the contour of the hull.

For the purposes of later adding gun turrets later on, I rearranged the "Jeffrie’s tubes" so the turrets would be in the middle of the hull plating panels instead of the edges to make it cleaner looking.

I created the engines for the landing craft in the likeness of the engines on the snowspeeders seen in The Empire Strikes Back.

The next big thing I did was starting to create the wall panels inside the command module. For the back wall I tried my best to fit as many standard sized wall panels on to it within the confines of the shape of the shape of the room. This caused there to be a lot of wasted space, so instead I created the wall then redesigned the shape of the room to fit the wall.  After that I made the side wall panels with large openings left for computer terminals/stations to be modeled later on.

After I created the entry platform, as I mentioned before, I modeled the walls surrounding it and added the doorway in to it.

I then made another small change to model by making the standard wall corners by making rounded instead of squared off. I think it looks much better.

With the command module underway I finally got to modeling the main viewport (front window). I won’t bore you with the details in modeling it but instead let the pictures speak for themselves.

And finally I changed the hull accent color to a darker and more vibrant shade of blue. I also "painted" other surfaces this color to change the look of the ship a bit.

See the gallery below or here to see what was added this update:

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Starship Project Update 7

It’s been a while since I wrote an update on my starship project mainly because I have been working on it at a much slower pace. However, since the last update I have added quite a bit.

I modeled the Hyperdrive engines loosely similar to the ones on the Tantive IV Blockade Runner with the exception of being more sleek in appearance and the fore sections being similar to an engine nacelle in the Star Trek Universe TNG era. The engines are supposed to be self contained with their own power separate from the ship and each other. They also can be ejected in the case of catastrophic failure or for tactical reasons yet to be determined. The engineering sections for each of the engines are accessed through the cargo section.

While working on the engines I was also creating the hull plating for the cargo section. Right now it doesn’t look like much as my inspiration for it was rather lackluster but for the time being it integrates with the Hyperdrive engines and serves it’s purpose. I will revisit it later when it come time to model the cargo doors and loading system.

I then started on the landing gear. It took a while to figure out the mechanics of landing gear by studying pictures from Star wars and actual aircraft. I finally came up with feet connected to hydraulic legs that fold up flush with the hull. They turned out way taller than I wanted them to be but now that they done I am going to live with it. When adding them to the front of the ship I had to create pods for them so they would be level with the back ones.

What I am working on now is the boarding ramp for the command section of the ship. It’s going to be somewhat simple albeit a bit long and steep due to the tall landing gear.

See the gallery below or here to see what was added this update:

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Dasher virtual keyboard

object For the last few days I have been trying out some software called Dasher. It’s a virtual keyboard that instead of clicking on the keys you just "steer" towards the letters by pointing the mouse cursor. It is open source so it is free to use. It is available for both PC and Mac. I like it because it works great with my SmartNAV mouse. You can try it out yourself at http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/.

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New Website for DMD Pioneers

I just started working on a new website for DMD Pioneers, the Yahoo! Groups mailing list I belong to and moderate for. It is currently in the early development stages so there is not much to see right now. I am not alone in the over all project as there will be multiple writers involved. My primary job right now is getting the content management system set up. It is going to use Joomla 1.5 for the CMS which is something I’m new to me but it is pretty powerful and should work out great.

The goal of the website is to provide a place for information about adults living with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy, and to help them continue to beat the odds against it. It will soon be a place for blogs, articles, a special place to memorialize the fellow members who are no longer with us. It will also, of course, be used to promote the mailing list on Yahoo! Groups. You can check the progress on the site by visiting it at dmdpioneers.org. I will also periodically on my blog here at jedicharles.com.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!  Keeping in tradition with last year I thought I would let everyone know what I was given for Christmas.  Last month my parents gave me an early present which is a replacement for my trackball mouse called a SmartNav 4AT from NaturalPoint.  It is a hands free mouse that uses an infrared camera to track the movement of a reflective dot that can be placed on ones forehead, hat, eyeglasses or even a ring and translates the movement to the mouse cursor.  I also received a R2-D2 Projection Alarm Clock and a Mimobot 8GB Darth Vader USB Flash Drive early as well.  On Christmas Day they gave me a fantastic Star Wars Stained Glass Light-Up Panorama to display in my room along with my collection.  They also gave me the complete Beatles Stereo Box Set containing all 14 albums in 16 totally remastered CDs including a set of 13 mini documentaries on DVD.  They sound better than ever and I recommend the box set to anyone who can get their hands on it.  I also received the Star Wars Saga 2010 Calendar.  My Grandma gave me a nice The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock film, not the band) – Bodega Bay T-shirt that glows in the dark, very cool.  My sister made the 3 of us some hand-knitted Christmas tree ornaments; a stocking hat, a stocking and a scarf all in miniature scale!  I also gave my Dad a emergency car battery jump starter and my mom battery operated salt and pepper grinders.  They gave themselves a Nintendo Wii system including Wii Fit Plus and tons of accessories.  Here’s a gallery of what I received:

Stained Glass Panorama

The Beatles Stereo Box Set

Star Wars Saga 2010 Calendar

SmartNav 4AT

R2-D2 Projection Alarm Clock

Mimobot 8GB Darth Vader USB Flash Drive

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Starship Project Update 6

Here’s the abbreviated version of the update: I punched out a reasonable sized hole on either side of the cargo bay for the cargo doors.  The cargo doors were then modeled and designed with teeth that fit into the threshold when closed. I then started on the outer hull plating of the vessel and picked a simple color scheme to be finalized later.  Then after a few ideas I came up with a shape for the command module and created it’s hull plating.  From the beginning I had envisioned that there would be a separate helm/bridge on top of the command module that could separate from the ship and act as a separate craft for defensive maneuvers or as a landing craft.  I modeled the beginnings of that secondary spacecraft and I am ready to move on to the sub light and hyperdrive engines for the primary spacecraft.  So far the engines are no more than place holders to determine the proper “placement”.

See the gallery below or here to see what was added this update:

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What’s on my DVR?

Very little of what I watch is retained on my DVR because I usually delete stuff when I’m finished watching. So instead of listing what’s on it, I’ll list some shows I have scheduled to record as a series.

  • Heroes
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars
  • MythBusters
  • Science of the Movies
  • Fringe
  • Medium
  • American Chopper
  • Head Games
  • Whose Line is it, Anyway? Re-runs (ABC Version)
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