Warship Build 01 — Fox Corvette
So, I am indeed back, although the posting frequency may remain somewhat slow. There is a lot happening right now, with some of these events being part of projects I intend to share with you all in the future. I do intend to maintain the Sunday schedule, though. After all, life needs Mech Sundays, right?
With this said, I told you that I intended to try out new things. So, here it is one of such new ideas — a spaceship!
Still within the theme of BattleTech, this is a simple design - something easy to begin the new series with. The ship itself only takes 19 easy-to-find parts, while the base needs 3 other parts.
In the lore, this vessel is part of an attempt to rejuvenate the aging fleet of the Federated Suns, using a slew of new technologies. This means that although it looks simple, the Fox is quite advanced. It is mainly used as a missile boat and scout warship, remaining at a distance from enemy vessels while probing them with long-range sensors.
Those of you who know the original design will certainly find the shape I present here rather odd. It is still rounded, but longer than the original model. This is because I’m basing my designs on the excellent work from BattleTech fan Steve Cross. Wanting to give some love to the much-maligned warships of the setting, he collaborated with some well-known artists within the fandom to craft a series of incredible Technical Readouts that you can download for free.
And he did not just end on the vessels. He went on to craft other TRO’s covering other maligned elements of the setting while retaining the gorgeous art and in-depth writing.
Seriously, if you enjoy this kind of thing you should check it out right now!
At least for now, my work with warships will be based on Steve’s work. My scaling will have each stud represent 50m of warship length, with means that a 450m warship like the Fox is roughly 9 studs long. This scale is a bit small, but I find that it allows a good amount of detail without making it too big (keep in mind that under this scale a McKenna-class will be 24 studs long!).
This also means that smaller ships like dropships with only be around 3 or 4 studs in length, and fighters will be little more than blips on a pole. Still, there is a good amount of variety to provide with this. I do hope you’ll enjoy it.
Let’s see how it goes. I hope you’ve enjoyed this new line of instructions. Let me know what you think. I’ll see you all really soon.
