Hello All,

I need some advice on this model, I don't know where to place these hatches and i need some input. on TOP or on the SIDES ??

Also any tips on the basic design would help... I know about the slipt in the middle of the ship this is to help me build the forward internal section (cockpit) I understand in need more detail to the exteral ship but am open to idea on how to add more detail to the outside of the ship to turn it from a flat surface into one full of detail.

I look forward to hearing all ur feedback and thank you for viewing

Personally I think the escape hatches on the side maybe lower closer to the bottom so they shoot away from the ship encase of an emergency that would be my thinking do love the detail for the engines almost reminds me of the Earth Force ships in Babylon 5 maybe you might want to look at them for potential ideas for detail on the sides and the rear of the ship hope this helps

I agree I think the escape hatches look better on the sides of the ship and should be closer to the bottom. It looks aesthetically better as well as making them a bit more functional. Is this going to be a low poly game asset? If so, then you'll want to consider the detail coming from normal maps and textures. You can model floating geometry on the model and then bake that detail into a normal map, for example. If it's for VFX or film, then you can create real geometry using kitbashing techniques or greeble techniques. It really depends on what your intentions are for the model.

What's the crew count [looks like the helm is manned by just one]? Where are they coming form in the event of an emergency [what kind of emergency]? What other safety measures are in place? Could you just detach the entire "head" of the ship from the "neck" instead [if they're escaping a fuel/reactor problem]? Is it a pressurized environment [what about explosive decompression when the hatches are opened]? Why hatches instead of escape pod[s]? Drifting around in space, hoping for a pickup before your O2 runs out, isn't gonna much fun, nevermind the fact you'd have to, very quickly, get far enough away from the ship to be out of harms way if does pop.

If you do opt to put it on the side, don't forget to consider asymmetry, there's probably not a great need for two hatches, almost within arm's reach of one another, especially if there's only one person at the controls, and asymmetry can a be a strong design choice sometimes.

From a modelling stand point . . . forget the notion that the hull needs to be one piece! It doesn't and probably shouldn't be. You're only going to handcuff yourself trying to make it a single piece of geometry. With the exception of a few specific use cases [where a "water-tight" mesh is required] there's virtually no benefit to a single unified mesh, almost nothing in the real world is built that way either. Embrace the "splits" and learn to work them in at places you'd find on the real world counterpart. All you generally need is "light-tight" [so you don't get holes in shadows] and that's easily taken care of with a little overlap at those "splits".

For adding detail, Lux, pretty much hit it on the head, how you do the detail is going to depend largely on your end use case. What kind of details you add, will probably depend a lot on the purpose of the ship, a fighter vs a freighter, gun placements vs cargo mounts, etc.

Here's some quick thoughts tho. [Excuse the slop, my tablet is not at all calibrated for this laptop!?! o.O ]

Maybe give it "cheeks" you could mount your escape hatche[s] [or pods!] on/in them as well as some more coms/nav greebles? Maybe something like a "collar" where the "neck" meets the body? A simple curve to either the top, or the sides of the main body, will help break the "box" look, it doesn't take much to make it more interesting.

In the back where the engines are, instead of the part of the body that surrounds them being perfectly vertical, maybe the "lip" could be angled [when looking at it from the side/in profile? You could keep inner area where the engines intersect the body vertical the way it is now, but if you adjusted the "surround" so that it was angled from the top to bottom, or even vertical the way it is now, but sloped the bottom half forward, or a gentle curve that tapers off at some point.

Keep in mind you don't have to cover EVERY, SINGLE, SURFACE, with details, its usually a stronger design aesthetically to have contrast between large empty areas [with only minor details like a couple panel seams/screws/rivets] and more heavily detailed areas.

Just some quick thoughts!

Post war multi crew aircraft like the B52 have individual ejector seats and escape panels. An alternative to the above escape hatch is to have flat blast panels on the hull above or below each of the crew postions plus a larger panel for a survial pod that would be also ejected in an emergency - it would keep the sleek lines of the design and achieveable using texture and normal maps rather than require additional geometry - not saying it's a better design just throwing some ideas at the wall.

If this is a faster than light ship a pod would probably be the best bet. Probably with a way to enter suspended animation while a SOS beacon sounds off, in case there isn't a habitable planet in range. They may never get picked up but at least it would save them form the more unpleasant ways to die (loss of life support, starvation etc). It depends on whither the crew sits around in vacc suits or not. If the don;t an escape hatch isn't really practical anyway.maybe the vacc suits contain a way to go into S/A. Be better again than those worse ways to die (adding insanity from loneliness to the list)

The model going to be stand along item for poser and daz. which will come in 3ds, obj and dae format. Plus I'm crap with textuers so i'm not really using them for detail work.

It's maned by a one man crew. so i see the point with having 2 hatches is kind of pointless but i was going more for aesthically pleasing the practical. E.G. having both side look the same rather then one been odd and only have a hatch. Tho with the exteral detail "cheeks" i could make once hatch work. The escape pod is out the window as it would be too large to fit on the side of the ship.

The inside of the ship... front to back.

The inside a bit more of a play around at the mo. I'm not sure if i should have the 2 parts linked as the only way i can see it is with a hallway of somekind with airlocks on both side. tho there going to need to be stairs or something to get from the upper deck to the lower cargo hold.

PS this is early days with the idea so there a few items missing like the airdock doors.

View from upper cockpit

View from lower cargo hold

PS many thanks for all the comments on this post as it all helps the development of this model

Dark

I see a lot more reasons for them to be connected, than for them not. I'm assuming since the engines are back there, that the main power source is back there as well, and if you have any fixable problems/maintenance with either during flight, you're going to want access to that part of the ship. Nevermind that there may be cargo that needs to be checked on periodically depending on what the ship is hauling. So it seems like some form of access is better than none. Doesn't have to be fancy of course, a simple corridor or crawlspace will suffice.

I don't know as you'd need a true air-lock, certainly not two of them. If it were me, I'd put a sturdy hatch at both ends of the corridor, and use that as a means to turn the whole corridor into an airlock, if needed. You could probably get away with just a single hatch if you really wanted, but I'd use two for "safety", cause redundancies are always good to have if its you vs space.

It wouldn't be terribly hard to believe that there were systems in place that could switch the cargo hold between a vacuum and standard pressure. You could store the volume of air in a 6m x 8m x 15m cargo hold [720 cubic meters] in 4 cylinders each about 1m x ½m and around 2000 psi, which isn't at all unreasonable.

As for getting from the forward access to the cargo floor [when there's gravity] ladders are great for that, and take minimal space. If not a completely vertical ladder, maybe look into what's called a "ship's ladder", which is a very steep staircase case/shallow ladder [usually at a pitch around 70 degrees]. Either would be more practical in a zero-g environment [as they offer means of navigating them with the hands] than a standard staircase which relies largely on gravity for descent [magnetic boots would be a bit cumbersome on a regular flight of stairs].