Colonial Chrome

Is up and running.

**Moved from request thread**

Looks good!!

First off, just out of curiosity... Why add this ship to the CEC naming convention, its manufactured by Suwantek Systems?? (Im not against it, I think the HT fits it as it can be considered a Heavy transport with the external pods attached.

Onto the Praise... The layout makes suite some sense as per the small description in Allegiance. The Dorsal Hatch that Solo, Luke and Chewie came up thru in the book seems it would be around the hygene or aft bunks and the rooms fit what Solo saw, so I think it works well. The gunnery stations up front make sense as the guns are right there... I assumed they were in the cockpit, but the cockpit seemed a little small as per the images on Wookieepedia, so I think this layout is better! The only thing I would change is to shift the port side bunks aft and put the autochef room directly aft of the lounge... just me, but I would hate to be walking down the passageway with a place of food and someone walk out and knock it out of my hands... otherwise I think you put the description in the book into visual form perfectly!

On a side note, any reason for the differently shaped nose?? I kinda like it, just curious as to the change. I began modeling this guy after my request above... Here are my results: Suwantek Parked with a Barloz Freighter and Suwantek in flight with a Barloz Freighter. I think I will go back and tweak it to match your hull design... this version doesnt really look like the freighter it is supposed to be. Might you have a maquette or side elevation, those you gave me of the HT-2200 were rather helpful.

Diji

Because it has a huge amount of CEC design cues.


Never read it. I'd never consider it a source in any case, so any similarity is purely coincidental.


I would agree, that'd make more sense. The main reason for it being that way round is that it matches the WEG deckplan a little better, though having it by the hygiene units also means the amount of plumbing is reduced.


Differently shaped than what? The nose on mine matches three of the four known images of the ship.


I have a very rough one, I'll mail it to you shortly.

Understood... Ill take your word for it, Ive only seen a few of the CEC ships, so thats cool with me.


I figured you wouldnt include it as a source, but considering the general shape of the ship doesnt allow for much diversity, its pretty much a straight passageway, cargo rooms aft, then cabins, then lounge, then cockpit. In the book, this ship is an Imperial Security Bureau used by a group of Stormtrooper deserters after they killed an ISB major. It is highly retrofitted, much like almost any ship in the SW universe, heh. But the troopers end up meeting up with Han, Luke and Chewie, and they dock the falcon to the ventral hatch (sorry, said dorsal in previous post) and as Han climbs onboard the Suwantek, Timothy Zahn describes what Han sees as he makes his way thru the ship. Anyhow, its a good book if you are into it, takes place between EP 4 and 5 (my favorite timeframe in the SW universe).


Heh, never thought about plumbing, but it makes sense. As for the WEG deskplan, Ive never seen it... Im actually on the trail of a few WEG books, A guy at my local gaming store is working on finding some for me... We'll see how that goes. I only have a few books, otherwise I use wookieepedia and my salt-shaker (since we all know their stats are not 100% accurate)


This would have to be my ignorance again... Ive only found 2 images of this ship, and one seemed to be an edited version of the first... the image I used for my model was that from Wookieepedia.

Thanks!!

This would be an example of why I don't cite the pulp fiction as a viable source, or indeed, read them.


No, there are no good Star Wars books.


It's on the Wookipedia page.


Wookipedia has three of the four - Wald's version, and the two from Stock Ships. The last is in Pirates and Privateers.

I think we are looking at two different pages. When I search Wookieepedia for this ship, I search "TL-1800" and the only page that comes up (in fact, it goes right there) has a single image on it... the same image I get under a Google images search. No deckplan, or other images.

Diji

Odd, it was there when I first started looking at the ship. It is not there now. Ach well, c'est la vie.

Do you have any pics (even a rough sketch) showing how and where the cargo pods clamp on?

I do not have any images of the cargo pods... I struggled to find any pics at all of this ship. But looking at what I was able to decipher, and Admiral can correct me if Im wrong, but I would assume the cargo pods would clamp onto the sides where the hull tapers out. I could picture Rhombus shaped cargo pods that could attach to the tapered sections of the ship's hull overlaping some. But I also picture this ship to be much like the YT-1300, much favored by scoundrelous types... so the optional cargo pod function might not be used frequently.

All in all, I really wish there was more information on this ship. Especially for Gamers, since it could handle a party very well, and from what I have read, it is just as customizable as the YT ships, in fact, I think it could very well be a replacement for the YT-1300 that so may gaming parties use.

Putting some more thought into this, I think it would be really cool if said pods would not affect the ship's ability to land, could be permenantly attached, and made habitable (ie atmosphere and lifesupport), thus adding that much extra space to the ship.

Admiral, if you had any thoughts or insight into this cargo pod aspect, Id love to hear it... It wouldnt hurt to model the cargo pods incase I have a need to include this ship with cargo pods attached in my project.

Diji

Not yet, I'll do some modelly work this evening and upload a render or two. (Edit - http://www.colonialchrome.co.uk/OthersI ... ender1.png and http://www.colonialchrome.co.uk/OthersI ... ender2.png) I don't see much need to deckplan them.
They'll be bolted, essentially, one each of the four main surfaces of the centre flat section.


The ship's stats directly state that it can only have one attached when in an atmosphere, so I'm not inclined to allow them to be permanent. Under most commonly accepted conversion schemes these pods would have 100 cubic meters volume, which isn't very large.

Understood, and thanks for the visual!! I completely missed the part that stated only one pod could be maintained in atmosphere. Rather odd but I can see it due to the state of the engines described (you would think knowing the capabilities of what they were designing, that the engines would be built to accomodate all four pods in atmosphere, even if that meant adding a sixth as opposed to the five it has).

After seeing the visual Admiral provided I retract my previous thought tangent... I can agree that the extra 400m3 of space probably wouldnt give much at all, except maybe some extra deck heigth toward the outward most areas of the hull, maybe providing larger cabins, etc... but if such a modification were made to the ship, it would never break atmosphere unless its engines were upgraded to accomodate the extra weight of the pods.

Diji

Just thought of something as I was naming this ship's model in Max... I can see your CEC name conversion here and seeing how Suwantek only released two ships (that Wookieepedia accounts for), the TL-1800 and the TL-1200 (a smaller, three-engine version of this ship), I would even go as far as to give this ship the nickname "Suwantek"... first becasue that is how it is referred to in the book and second as a cue to the manufacturer that it is said to have come from (even though I can completely see your CEC roots). Just a thought...

Diji

Maybe, maybe. Of course that would potentially cause minor confusion if i ever get round to doing the amazingly ugly 1200.

Yeah, I thought about that, but I feel the same as you do about that ship... and what does it offer that the 1800 cant deliver... while its not the best thing to do, but I wouldnt be too upset if we forgot about it... or we can give it its own name, more suited for something of its caliber

D