Colonial Chrome

First post here, so first off, thanks for all this fine work - these ships have gotten a ton of use in my campaigns.

As far as requests go, is there any chance of doing Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator, possibly both as seen in Phantom Menace and as a scout ship?

I know Wizards of the Coast's Starships of the Galaxy has plans to it (and are also found on Wookiepedia) but I've got some issues - the lower deck sleeping compartments, for example, seem too small for a being of average height to lay down in. (Though Ray Park is a little on the short side, so maybe it's possible...)

http://colonialchrome.co.uk/Ships/Fight ... owHawk.htm
just as idea...
And well... A Sith don't really need much room to sleep

I knew I'd seen that somewhere... Forgotten it was here...

Is the Sith Infiltrator big enough to have a "deckplan"?

The short answer is no, it's not big enough. On the lower 'deck' there's the hatch and a teeny lift, on the upper, two seat, a teeny lift, a window. Everything else is equipment.

In a sense that cheers me up knowing it's not just my limited skills - I tried my hand at doing a deckplan myself and gave up, unable to fit much of anything.

Popped a generic Droomtreader up, not quite Malice's request, but near enough

HERE IT IS

WAY better than my request! It's like getting a gift that is exactly what I wanted, even though I didn't know that I wanted it!!!

Chromeyards...

impossible things will be solved in seconds,
wonders last a BIT longer...

For sense:
I request the "Hornet" Fighters from CSA? They're in the Marauder, sure. But stand-alone versions?

Another idea, kind of outside the box, could be the Quartermaster class transport from the Knights of the Old Republic era.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quarterm ... ly_carrier

The idea of the center cargo hold, with a wrap around cockpit and crew section is an interesting idea, I think. I looked at it the other day and just thought it was like an old fashion locomotive engine in appearance, and it was a cool idea for a ship.

Unless I'm missing something, whilst that ship IS pretty, it's also in the region of 250 meters in length, quite possibly more, and as such is really way too big to consider working on.

Here is a another Request for ya.
How about a Herald-class shuttle from KOTOR

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Herald-class_shuttle

Ugh, THAT ship is too ugly to do, I'd go blind...

I agree the Herald is a mess of a design for a ship. To be honest, I'd look at that one and use the Swan deckplans from one of the Serenity RPG sites to be an approximation of that.

I didn't realize the Quartermaster was that large of a ship. I wonder if a smaller version would exist, though. I like the design concept of it, with the central cargo pod, and the surrounding piloting/crew section. It would have distinct advantages for cargo capacity that other freighters wouldn't have, especially for carrying cargo that you couldn't easily place into multiple holds, like... a rancor. A zoological transport. Heh. Or for large power plants and the like. Maybe the cargo pod would be detachable... like a smaller version of what the Trade Federation's ships were supposed to be like. Just brainstorming suddenly.

Two major indicators of the size are the frigates in the background and the deck lighting on the upper bits of the fuselage indicating multiple decks in that area.

I've certainly no problem with the idea of a single large front loading cargo bay, the Yarni has just that.

I've always had a hankering to generate plans for the three main Thunderbirds, especially Thunderbird 2, but i've never been able to find even halfway decent plan elevations of the buggers.

Yeah, I know that WotC isn't the source for the most accurate of information on the ship sizes. According to the Knights of the Old Republic book, they have the Quartermaster listed at 45 meters. The central pod being detachable and modular as well.

I looked at that picture and realized that either WotC is smoking crack when it comes to ship sizes, or the artist in question doesn't understand proportions. Maybe even a little bit of both.

Say, also, does anyone have any idea what an "A-7" Starfighter looks like? One other things I've hated about some of the Star Wars books is when they post the stats for a ship (and this happened with WEG as well as WotC), and then don't put an image in, or even a half way description. It's kind of frustrating. I prefer to hand my PCs a ship, not a pile of stats. (Heck, for equipment and weapons in the game, I've been using the MSE program to make cards to hand to the players with the stats and an image for the weapon or item in question.) I believe in visualization, but also understand that because I know what a Aethersprite starfighter looks like, the players may not.

> they have the Quartermaster listed at 45 meters. The central pod being detachable and modular as well.

Hmm. Well, to put it mildly, its the crack option. These ships are described as 'often' having escort from one or more frigates, they list the Praetorian as escort. Praetorians are roughly 125 times larger than a 45 meter ship. This would be somewhat similar in scale to having a real world destroyer (or two) escorting a fishing smack. Whilst that's possible, of course, it beggars credibility that it wouldn't be simpler to put whatever cargo you want to protect into the destroyer itself.
That alone is enough to wash your hands of WotCs sanity. However, the other, to me obvious, but this is a speciality of mine, clue to scale, no, that ship, as shown, is much bigger. There's also not enough seperation between the alledged cargo pod and the ship for me to believe it is removable.
As an aside it may be worth mentioning that for detachable pods to make sense, there have to be a lot of them, very much standard items. If there are a LOT of them, as there are standard cargo containers in the real world, then it makes sense, you save cash by having the ship actually hauling cargo whilst loading and unloading happens at the same time. However, what we see in the Prequels is that ship designs are much more localised than one might otherwise suspect, and that would make the concept much less useful. It would be rather like having a system where every country had their own containers. A ship designed to haul Japanese cargo containers couldn't hold Norweigan ones, so these ships would be effectively pointless.

> Say, also, does anyone have any idea what an "A-7" Starfighter looks like?
What's the source? I can go check from that. But I'd say it's one of two things,
A: This is a typo, they meant the A-9 Vigilance.
B: They're creating a hypothetical earlier version of the Vigilance.

> It's kind of frustrating. I prefer to hand my PCs a ship, not a pile of stats.
I'd generally argue that statblock only ships are intended as cannon fodder, rather than playable ships, but I do get what you mean.
You have to bear in mind how the publishing industry works as well, when WotC or WEG hire an artist they pay an amount based on the amount of work comissioned, but that amount will be greater for a single piece than for many. There's a kinda 'activation' entropy. So, were I being hired, I'd charge more for a single image than I would for three (per image) because when I agree to a project I'm making myself unavailable for other work - I've moved all my Star Wars reference material onto my desk, and shifted all my Boeing work off it.
Most artists specialise to a degree, most people who do ships are really only good at tech, people who do scenes or characters aren't that good at ships. So if your publication has a single ship, but lots of scenes and characters, your budget probably won't justify hiring a second artist.

After this, then you have the issue of whether or not the writer should describe the ship instead, and you run into two whole other issues.

Firstly, most artists get all grouchy if their creativity is stifled by the demands of the writer. We're a piquey lot. So many writers would at most give a general vague description, expecting that if the ship gets illustrated, for that project or later, they'd give the artist enough freedom to do their work properly.

Secondly, I have never heard of even one RPG supplement or sourcebook that has ever come in under word count. The biggest problem RPG editors face is stripping out lots of prose that simply won't fit (Because these projects are given a fixed number of pages & formatting).

So, whilst I agree, it can be frustrating, I choose to look on it as an opportunity to make the ship your own...

Here's an odd request. How about another "napkin doodle" courier or something like that? I like it when you come up with your own ships. And do you still need a copy of KOTOR to finish the Ebon Hawk?

What, the Hurricane wasn't enough?!

The cigarette doodle ships are going to be rarer, since I no longer smoke cigarettes. but I take the point, something completely new. Hmm. We'll have to see.

In regards to the A-7... Looking at the description in the Force Unleashed Campaign Setting book, I'm of the opinion that that A-7 is supposed to be something between the A-9 and the Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor.

Both are made at Kuat Drive Yards and are supposed to fill the same sort of niche that the Eta-2 did in the Clone Wars and the TIE would in later years. Trying to think how the evolution of such a fighter would look, though, makes my head hurt a wee bit. Part of me thinks that it's very possible that it might have been either very impressive looking, or uglier than a Family Reunion when it's found out that the no-one brought the Potato Salad.

Hi there! I have been looking at this site for about a year now, and love it. I was wondering if you were working on the CEC YZ-775, or were planning on doing the deckplan in the near future? It is a ship I like very much, and would appreciate it a lot if you were to do the deckplan

The 775 IS pretty, but there iare two major problems with it.

I've discussed it with Jeff Carlilse (the original artist) and he is in agreement - the two illustrations are incompatible. Essentially there is a vast scaling irregularity between them - Jeff works, as I do, to set scales for common features of CEC vessels, so the airlocks are the same size, the fuelling ports the same, CEC have standard corridor sizes, for example. These can be used to determine the size of a vessel with pretty fair accuracy. The trouble is, when JC was asked to do the No Luck Required, he was instructed to fit the A-Wing ring to it, and that is wholly off scale (they simply couldn't fit on the 'real' 775).

Whilst I could ignore the A-Wing rack as an aberration and proceed with the ship at it's normal scale, we run into another problem which is that the 775 is listed at 52 meters in length. It's actually 26, which makes it a very small courier.

That on its own isn't a problem either except the few requests I've had for the ship have all been keen on it because it's big enough for a typical RPG party to spread their wings - whereas in fact every test rig I've done indicates it'd be a tight squeeze for even two crew.

I have to agree, Admiral, about the YZ-775. I'm looking at the picture on the wookieepedia http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Yz-775.JPG.
And it looks to me as though the ship would pretty much be a single corridor, unless I'm looking at it wrong.

That is unfortunate, it really wouldn't be the same ship if it was that small. I have noticed you have been doing many of Jeff's other ships, are there any more you have an interest in doing or are working on?

Yes.

A couple other designs that I thought were quite good that you have not made yet were the YV-100 (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/YV-100_light_freighter) and the JumpMaster 5000. I don't know how much free time you have or your schedule, but thank you if you decide to do one of them.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/JumpMaster_5000
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Punishing_One

OK, let me try to say this politely.

The answers to your questions can be found in these forums. It would behoove you to familiarise yourself with them, as I hate to repeat myself, and as is I think clear, I tend to be impolite in expressing annoyance.

After checking all the request threads, did indeed each of the ships named already requested. Next time I try a request, I will make sure to check thoroughly before attempting such a feat again. Sorry for any annoyance I may have caused.

I am new to this form, but not new to the Admiral's great work. In fact he is the one that got me started working on deckplans to a small degree. hopefully I will not be kicked off the board for this question/suggestion... So why not just make a 52m 775 and a 26m 775?

I don't make ships that, to me, don't make sense. As I don't get paid for any of this, I make ships that I would use myself in my own campaigns, and don't make ships that I wouldn't be happy to use myself.

If/when I do the 775 it would/will be at 26 meters because that's what, to me, it IS.

Under these criteria it then wouldn't make sense for me to do a 52 meter version - I wouldn't use it myself as to me it would be wrong. Bad and wrong. Badong.

The main reason I mentioned the scale thing is that I am aware to most people the larger version has more utility, so there exists a dichotomy between my perception of what the public wants, and what I feel able to give them, and so I fudge this by simply doing other ships first.



On the issue of making things RIGHT, it has always been my position that given we're talking a obscure branch of a fictional fantasy setting intended for kids, the idea that you can make things CORRECT and EXACT are fairly laughable. To me, it is only consistancy within the parameters one assigns oneself that hold any water. The SWDA twins use different, and to me ridiculous, criteria, but they do stick to them. (That they think I should stick to their criteria is the main reason I think they are, on the whole, clinically insane) but in any case, all this 'realistic' 'accurate' stuff is only true up to a point, and nothing to get overly serious about. Certainly nothing worth fighting over.

Right. As you can see I've had a big 'ole prune, which brings back disturbing memories of vists to my insane grandmother.

If anyone wants to have a good old barney about something then please;
1 - Wait one day before setting at it. I'd still be a member of several more forums if I stuck to that rule and cooled off or sobered up before posting something.
2 - Make sure it's about something and not a spot of miscommunication. The internet intrinsically strips off much of the subtext context and non-verbal communications, so just make sure you've read whatever you've read as it was intended.
3 - Make sure the arguement you're looking to have is germaine to the site.

4 - Be aware personal snipes, trolling and flaming won't be tolerated.
5 - Try to include the word marsupial in any rant.
6 - Start a suitable thread in Misc.

What I would have preferred to have happened here would have been for Silverwolf to have PM'd Jordan and said something along the lines of 'That seemed a bit angry and aggressive' then Jordan re-read his post and note that it could be read in a more inflammatory way than he intended, and re-worded it accordingly, and every body goes back to being happy little elves.

And now, back to requests...

Going back to the original purpose of this thread as the good Admiral suggests...

In one game I ran, my then girlfriend (now wife) played a Wookiee smuggler. She piloted a Kazellis light freighter called the Crystal Katarn. I think, at least as a stock ship, that would be a cool ship to have a deck plan for.

This was the ship where the group barely managed to escape a Star Destroyer after the ship accidentally exited hyperspace right into an Imperial Warlord's blockade of a planet. When the Star Destroyer order the newly arrived freighter to identify itself, lower it's shields and prepare for boarding the wannabe Jedi flicked on the com and stated:
"Attention, Imperial Star Destroyer! I believe you lost the war. Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded!"
He then turned to the Wookiee and said "I think now is a good time for evasive maneuvers."

I'll think about it, again. The main trouble with the Kazellis is it looks sleek as all hell in the top view, but it's short, and that makes it troublesome to get the five meters of headroom in without making it look sleek ONLY in the top view, and fat and munty in every other view.

Of course, isn't the artist who did the side view for the Kazillis the same one who did the wonderful job on the Hyrotii Crescent? I don't know if I've seen any other side views of the ship other than that one.

Yes, indeed, Christina Wald. I'll not be touching the Kazellis until I get my 3D studio up and running again, and that'll be a while. But, when I DO, I'll figure out a way of making the Kazellis look sexy from every angle.

Exxxcellent.

Hey Admiral,

I was wondering if you had considered drawing the Galofree "Rebel" Transports ships? they are a fairly large player in the Sar Wars universe and could be done really well. I would be happy to supply reference material, such as material i have from the Star Wars Complete Locations book published by DK Books.

Ackbars Lover

I would have to suspect you're not aware that a Gallofree transport consists of (in terms of habitable deck) a small tear drop shaped room with two seats in it. Everything else is engines or a big empty space to put crates in.

Yes i am aware, i thought it would still be able to be done though.

Sorry if it sounds like a stupid idea, but i have been trying to draw my own version to scale with your Corellian Blockade Runner and various other ships, but may talents on texturing and design arent nearly as good as yours. I have reference material showing a passenger pod, maybe other intershangable pods could be designed as well?



[images courtesy of Star Wars: Complete Locations by DK Books

Its not really a question of whether is can be done, but whether there's any point in doing it.

The way I see these ships working is that they're essentially analogous to container vessels. Whilst you can, if you're especially keen, build a container that has seating, toilets and maybe an autochef or other food preperation gear, you wouldn't really want to - when it comes down to it, you're just sitting in a box.
From the point of view of 'what a deckplan is for' you run into the fact that these passenger pods are just small boxes with seats in; there's not enough variation or complexity inside to need a deckplan, especially when you can't get in or out of them when they're sealed.

Because of their container ship roots, I don't see there would be much call for modular pods. I can see it being fun to design and play with them, but I have to always go to the root level and ask why would Gallofree build them originally? Who would have a legitimate reason to want them?

And yes, I do know that standard containers have been designed in the real world for all sorts of interesting purposes and ends, but we've also standardised the dimensions of these things across the entire globe, for it to make sense in the SWU, you'd have to have a similarly universal system, which just doesn't fit into the SWU that I know and love.[/url]

I have to agree the Admiral. I mean, the concept of the ship is as a cargo vessel. You don't see Cargo Ships converted into Cruise Ships. Yes, there's the smuggling of people, but it's uncomfortable, cramp, and not very decorative.

The implication of the ships being used by the Rebellion to escape Hoth is something along the lines of the desperation of the Alliance to escape. They had their cargo ships that had brought the physical materials of the base (electronics, power generators, food stuffs) and quickly throw people into those containers as a last ditch effort to get EVERYBODY out. I don't see the Gallofree being usually considered for that job.

A smuggler who runs one may customize a few of the pods, hoping that that inspectors and customs officials decide not to go through every... single... container, but I see such things as being done on a case by case basis.

I know that the Star Wars Design Alliance is currently working with a ship that uses modular containers. If you want something along those lines, you can check out their forum.

I just don't see many players using a Gallofree as their "personal transports".

Heck, I had a character that had been a noble in the Empire and ended up as a bounty hunter to make a living, that had managed to get his hands on a Sentinel Landing Craft and convert it into his personal ship. I've been debating asking for a modified version of that, but I've been looking at the layout, and having difficulty with how something like that could be laid out.

Depends evry much on exactly what you want. Do feel free to email me, I'll be happy to discuss it

If you are looking for a player scale container transport you may want to check out the Modular Cutter from the Traveller series of games. If you specifically want deck plans for various modules, those are available as are military versions and carriers that can do hyperspace. (The cutter is specifically a local only craft, like the lamda shuttle or tie fighter.)

Admiral
Have you considered knocking out Anakin's Ship Twilight yet?
Looks like a 2 decker up front, with the aft cargo section taking up both decks in height.

Just a thought.

I'm not going to rule it out, but I have a couple of big projects underway. I'd also have to put the missing wing back on, center of gravity stuff.

So, looks like we're waiting with baited breathe for the Big Projects.

Any one else seen the horrid deckplans in the new Scum and Villainy book? There's not a refresher to be found anywhere. Apparently if ya need to go to the bathroom, you've got to just hold it.

Ya the Admiral is putting the finishing touches on his 35.5 scale Death Star Deck Plan (did everyone go out and by their Terabyte hard drives to view it on )

Actually, of everything in the works, I am most anticipating the YT-1300 Project. I have been waiting with baited breath ever since the Admiral mentioned (more liked teased me with ) the idea a few years ago.

Well, if you're that keen...

teaser

teaser vid

airlocks

Wonderful work, sir...
especially the 3D-Model

WOW! That 3D model was just WOW!

Is that part of your plan, or is that just a teaser? A modular 3D model with video?

I'm glad y'all like it. The irony is that's the roughest render I have, the 'real' one is fair prettier...

In broad terms the YT project breaks down into three stages.

Stage 1
Creating a 3D model of the stock ship in order to generate hard data on useable space, and available usage of the spaceframe.

This has been done, and so the model is unlikely to have any further work performed on it. It has allowed me to visualise the construction of the 1300 from the chassis up. I am now at one with the machine.......

Stage 2
Creating a modular deckplan system for the 1300.

This is going to take time. Essentially there are seven identically sized basic 'rooms' within the chassis. In any configuration one of these is the cockpit tube. I'm in the process of building the alternate rooms for the other sections. When completed, the idea is you can plug in whichever you wish in more or less whatever configuration you want for your own 1300. There will be a similar modular array of exterior images, available in ancient, old and new colour schemes.

Stage 3
Involves finding a software solution whereby this modular construction system can be made available online, somewhat like the hero generator system, so you can plug and tweak and then save to your heart's content.