Sometime ago, I was putting some rather deep contemplation on overhauling the Miharu. When I went on hiatus from SARP, that's not something I stopped doing, though the impetus for it was lesser. Basically, I did not want my work to go to waste, but there was less drive to get it done. In a way, I'm much better at thinking this stuff up than actually making it, I guess!
Well, I had a bit of a breakthrough with my modelling software more recently, and things finally came out the way I wanted. At first, I made sketches on paper and I was trying to draw out precise bezier curves in my 3d software so I could adhere to 'my plans' and try to have things as good as I wished them... but that never quite panned out: the transition from 2d to 3d wasn't something I did very well.
Later, I approached the problem differently. I wanted my ship to 'make sense' and I thought it was pretty enough... but a significant amount of people - Wes included - had seemed to think of it differently. Since I had made little actual headway with my 3d project I went back to the drawing board and reconsidered my endeavor. I considered the state of the Miharu clan, Hinoto being at its helm, and how Hoshi was the last ship bit still existing.
Then, I figured out something. Making an overhaul of Miharu was too little too late. That boat had come and gone. It was destroyed, the Himiko project mostly in shambles, and it seemed pretty much a dead end. Which leaves Hoshi the auxiliary ship: a 'ship' in name, plucky and clever despite her diminutive size... but truth me told, Hoshi is -this- close to being called obsolete. It doesn't even compare all that well to the Ketsueki corvette. If you compare it to a modern Chiaki escort... unless you involve some clever ruse from the very small bag of tricks Hoshi has, the Chiaki (and most other modern destroyers) would definitely have the upper hand.
Hoshi's prime concern would be improving itself, not recreating something that was lost and - honestly? - that no one care to replace due to a mix of it being part of the past and irreplaceable. So, I set myself a few targets: Hoshi would rebuild itself into a functional equivalent of what Miharu's main hull was capable of, without the caveats - after all in its prime, Miharu worked out great as a fighting vessel. I wanted better design, but Hoshi is has neither the capacity or inclination of being cruiser material - so, I targeted a 4-deck tall Command Destroyer as image for the ship's role. I looked at some of the similarily-sized ships and what they were capable of, and tried to plan for Hoshi to hit the similar marks (with a penchant over being well designed rather than more powerful). Finally, I wanted her to be visually appealing under most angles, as well as graceful, lean and fast.
Perhaps you remember some of the sketches I made earlier, such as these?
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... chy_01.jpg - Cruiser overhaul sketches
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... chy_01.jpg - auxiliary corvette vessel concept
I latched on to the Iruka concept's general shape pretty quickly. What I liked about it was my inspiration for it: using my hand miming an airplane shape (with thumb and little finger spread out wide). I liked the added detail and curvature I planned for the cruiser overhaul and wanted to keep its near-organic aerodynamic sleekness - particularily the topmost part, the pointy-shape at the top-rear and the embedded torpedo launcher. But I also wanted to keep something recognizable from Hoshi's design and settled on the rear engines. I figured that if I could grab those engines as the base point for the forward-swept wings on the Iruka concept that it could look pretty cool. Sure, I like the side bays on Hoshi... but I think I prefer them being positioned toward the rear like on the Iruka concept.
https://wiki.stararmy.com/lib/exe/fetch. ... 723570.gif - See here on the deckplan where Hoshi's twin engines are, and how they flare out to the rear some?
I liked the idea of the cockpit-like viewport on the Iruka's front, but also understood it gave a 'bridge' too much vulnerability.... so I decided on a more central position (like on Hoshi presently). What I decided, though, was that I could use the front of the ship as a living quarters section, and the frontal "cockpit-like" viewport would be large windows for a fore-facing Taisa's suite (Wes does the same on his Plumeria design, shoving them up front - I figured I could follow suit).
Then I went to apply my curves, basing myself on my new sketches... only to crash and burn again. I tried again, this time I discarding my previous 3d file and starting a new one. Rather than forcing out a shape, I started out from a humble cube, and just sculpted it and stretched it out to form a basic shape. I went really well, and after 3 hours of trial-and-error, I arrived to a result that made a convincing rough draft in my eyes.
That was the result:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... e_view.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... entral.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... dorsal.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... entral.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... dorsal.jpg
That felt like a good foundation, where I had all my basic shapes already well defined, and it was almost at Miharu's level of detail as I did her several years back. Now that done, I began revisiting it in order to refine her - before going into the details, I wanted better curves to seize that sleek overall look I had been seeking all along - with the objective of making her look more aggressively aerodynamic.
About a week later, that was what I got:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... e_view.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... dorsal.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... entral.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... entral.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... dorsal.jpg
At that point, the shape which needed to be refined more were the wings so they'd flow out better. That done, I'd be ready to embark on actually detailing the 3d model. That would involve getting a better grasp of scale and planning out the interior of the vessel.
Well, I had a bit of a breakthrough with my modelling software more recently, and things finally came out the way I wanted. At first, I made sketches on paper and I was trying to draw out precise bezier curves in my 3d software so I could adhere to 'my plans' and try to have things as good as I wished them... but that never quite panned out: the transition from 2d to 3d wasn't something I did very well.
Later, I approached the problem differently. I wanted my ship to 'make sense' and I thought it was pretty enough... but a significant amount of people - Wes included - had seemed to think of it differently. Since I had made little actual headway with my 3d project I went back to the drawing board and reconsidered my endeavor. I considered the state of the Miharu clan, Hinoto being at its helm, and how Hoshi was the last ship bit still existing.
Then, I figured out something. Making an overhaul of Miharu was too little too late. That boat had come and gone. It was destroyed, the Himiko project mostly in shambles, and it seemed pretty much a dead end. Which leaves Hoshi the auxiliary ship: a 'ship' in name, plucky and clever despite her diminutive size... but truth me told, Hoshi is -this- close to being called obsolete. It doesn't even compare all that well to the Ketsueki corvette. If you compare it to a modern Chiaki escort... unless you involve some clever ruse from the very small bag of tricks Hoshi has, the Chiaki (and most other modern destroyers) would definitely have the upper hand.
Hoshi's prime concern would be improving itself, not recreating something that was lost and - honestly? - that no one care to replace due to a mix of it being part of the past and irreplaceable. So, I set myself a few targets: Hoshi would rebuild itself into a functional equivalent of what Miharu's main hull was capable of, without the caveats - after all in its prime, Miharu worked out great as a fighting vessel. I wanted better design, but Hoshi is has neither the capacity or inclination of being cruiser material - so, I targeted a 4-deck tall Command Destroyer as image for the ship's role. I looked at some of the similarily-sized ships and what they were capable of, and tried to plan for Hoshi to hit the similar marks (with a penchant over being well designed rather than more powerful). Finally, I wanted her to be visually appealing under most angles, as well as graceful, lean and fast.
Perhaps you remember some of the sketches I made earlier, such as these?
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... chy_01.jpg - Cruiser overhaul sketches
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... chy_01.jpg - auxiliary corvette vessel concept
I latched on to the Iruka concept's general shape pretty quickly. What I liked about it was my inspiration for it: using my hand miming an airplane shape (with thumb and little finger spread out wide). I liked the added detail and curvature I planned for the cruiser overhaul and wanted to keep its near-organic aerodynamic sleekness - particularily the topmost part, the pointy-shape at the top-rear and the embedded torpedo launcher. But I also wanted to keep something recognizable from Hoshi's design and settled on the rear engines. I figured that if I could grab those engines as the base point for the forward-swept wings on the Iruka concept that it could look pretty cool. Sure, I like the side bays on Hoshi... but I think I prefer them being positioned toward the rear like on the Iruka concept.
https://wiki.stararmy.com/lib/exe/fetch. ... 723570.gif - See here on the deckplan where Hoshi's twin engines are, and how they flare out to the rear some?
I liked the idea of the cockpit-like viewport on the Iruka's front, but also understood it gave a 'bridge' too much vulnerability.... so I decided on a more central position (like on Hoshi presently). What I decided, though, was that I could use the front of the ship as a living quarters section, and the frontal "cockpit-like" viewport would be large windows for a fore-facing Taisa's suite (Wes does the same on his Plumeria design, shoving them up front - I figured I could follow suit).
Then I went to apply my curves, basing myself on my new sketches... only to crash and burn again. I tried again, this time I discarding my previous 3d file and starting a new one. Rather than forcing out a shape, I started out from a humble cube, and just sculpted it and stretched it out to form a basic shape. I went really well, and after 3 hours of trial-and-error, I arrived to a result that made a convincing rough draft in my eyes.
That was the result:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... e_view.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... entral.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... dorsal.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... entral.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... dorsal.jpg
That felt like a good foundation, where I had all my basic shapes already well defined, and it was almost at Miharu's level of detail as I did her several years back. Now that done, I began revisiting it in order to refine her - before going into the details, I wanted better curves to seize that sleek overall look I had been seeking all along - with the objective of making her look more aggressively aerodynamic.
About a week later, that was what I got:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... e_view.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... dorsal.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... entral.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... entral.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll27 ... dorsal.jpg
At that point, the shape which needed to be refined more were the wings so they'd flow out better. That done, I'd be ready to embark on actually detailing the 3d model. That would involve getting a better grasp of scale and planning out the interior of the vessel.
