Blast from the past

[Brandlin]

Remember this?


Well, I've dusted off the idea and am now doing this.


My son is learning CAD as part of his engineering schoolwork, so I got a copy of Solid Works and am using this model as a test for teaching myself! So far so good.

I always wanted to have a hollow version of my dropship so that I could deploy troops and vehicles from inside. This model is the same size as the physical one, and accomodates my old crow scout cars.

The design i've chosen is a bit of a pain as the height of the rear door becomes the limiting factor in getting vehicles in. SO to do anything bigger will require a MUCH bigger hull. I'm hoping to be able to scale the model up. The good news is that the design is very unlikely to accomodate walkers as they're too tall!!

The hope is that I'll be able to laser cut this out of ply/MDF to make the wooden skeleton/carcass you see here and then clad it in Lasercut styrene panels as the original is.

[Inso]

Looks interesting

I have deliberately NOT got hold of a 3D software tool because I know that my life would just disappear

As for walkers... they may have a 'down form' like in the VOTOMs series:



Or they may fold up and have air-portable pallets.

Just saying

[Brandlin]

Looks interesting

I have deliberately NOT got hold of a 3D software tool because I know that my life would just disappear

As for walkers... they may have a 'down form' like in the VOTOMs series:



Or they may fold up and have air-portable pallets.

Just saying

No.

[Brandlin]

Now with added opening door and extending ramp action!

[beefcake]

Nice. So are you going to go and get it printed?

That was the old listerine bottle drop ship right?

[Brandlin]

I'm likely to get it laser cut - though i am undecided whether to do it just for me or to see if i can sell a few. It's unlikely to be cost effective to sell.

[Brandlin]

[Brandlin]

And now with Landing Gear ... more details on the blog.

[Mr Teufel]

Wow, you're going all-out on this one!

[Brandlin]

Never do things by half!


A little posing of it all coming together...

[Steel Penguin]

that is looking veryyyy good there Brandlin
the thing with a price is,  how much? 
what you may think is too much has to compare to the rest of the dropship market, and there arnt that many others out there.

[Brandlin]

that is looking veryyyy good there Brandlin
the thing with a price is,  how much? 
what you may think is too much has to compare to the rest of the dropship market, and there arnt that many others out there.

True and to be honest I have no real idea at the moment. I suspect there is about £30 worth of lasercutting time based on the amount and complexity of parts compared to previous models, and thats not including material costs or any cast components.

For example I've just priced getting the landing gear feet 3d printed at shapeways and they come in at around £3 a piece. So 3d print the master and cast up the production runs.

Add to that I haven't modelled the cockpit or engines yet.

I expect this will top 400 component parts.

[Brandlin]

WIP Detail of the Engine Mounts, allowing the Engine nacels to be attached by magnets and rotated to one of 12 positions for posing in flight or on the ground.

[Mr Teufel]

Nice!

[Brandlin]

Today's thought challenges:

• How to make the rear ramp longer to get a shallower open angle. An additional sliding piece looks necessary but that is going to make the door very very thick!
• Whether to mount both the engines close to the hull or to push the front engines out further so they dont eject into the rear intakes. Will anyone except me care? I'm trying to avoid the hunched shoulders look of the prototype where it became almost as wide as it was long.
• Whether to put a missile bay in the belly with opening doors. Will anyone want this? It wont be accessible with the model on the ground.
• Where and how to mount this to a flight stand. Especially if I mount it on a flight stand. Will anyone use it in flight?
• Whether to design the cockpit to be ply and styrene or resin cast - I'm not making it hollow, so resin would be easier however the weight will make the ship tip forwards to rest on its nose. SHould I put a fifth landing gear under the cockpit?

Lots to mull over in my head and your views and comments welcome...

[Mr Teufel]

Have the ramp slide out horizontally from under the flooring, then hinge down?

[Brandlin]

Have the ramp slide out horizontally from under the flooring, then hinge down?

Great minds think alike! I was considering this just over a short distance to bridge the gap caused by the hinge, but your idea takes it a step further. Have a simple door with a ramp that pulls out from a 'slot' under the hull floor.

I like that.

Lots of structural redesign......

[beefcake]

I think keep it simple. I would use it as a starting point for skirmish games and having lots of opening stuff ie. missile bays, makes it seem more a toy than a gaming model. If you were going to make it able to have a flying stand then missile bays on the bottom would make it even more difficult to mount. If you were set on them how about ones that appear from the top of the craft? I seem to recall a model of the alien's dropship doing that? Is that right? Or were they fixed that way?

[Brandlin]

Just a few images to show the arrangement of the Engines. Note these are WIP at the moment. They will need to be detailed so they can be 3d printed and then resin cast.

I decided to go for similar shaped engines fore and aft for simplicity. I'm still debating whether to push the forward engines further outboard to prevent them from ejecting into the rear ones. I'll fiddle with it to see what looks and feels right.

The engines are shown here in the standard forward thrust position, but the mechanism to allow them to be placed in any of 12 locations.

[Steel Penguin]

instead of inboard / outboard,  would high / low work ?   just a thought.

[Brandlin]

instead of inboard / outboard,  would high / low work ?   just a thought.

Yes and no. The engines swivel to offer VTOL capability through vectored thrust. So mounting them High/Low Fore /Aft would eliminate the problem only when the engines were in forward thrust mode.

I think I'm just going to leave the rear engines flush to the hull, and move the front ones outboard. At least thats a lot better than the very wide configuration I had on the prototype.

[Steel Penguin]

fair nough  ( where's the ponder icon?)
not having been close to the original I wasn't certain how well it would work,  but if we don't suggest the best idea will escape 
still looking good though 

[leadhead]

 

Found it!

[Brandlin]

Found it!

please dont stop contributing Steel Penguin - all thoughts appreciated. I've thought a lot of this through but there will still be great ideas out there and if people have them i'd rather know!

I did get a suggestion elsewhere that said, instead of side mounted engines, just put huge rotors at each corner, remover the cocpit and have the hull land verticle do that we could fit 40k dreadnaughts in it. So i replied... "so basically you want a completely different vehicle?"

I was wrong - there ARE some stupid ideas!

[Steel Penguin]

wile ive sensible suggestions to make, I will carry on adding,  I may not be  jabbering away constantly, but I do try to pay attention ( worried yet  )
keep at it though its looking good.