In addition I've been working on where the landing gear meets the body of the ship. I wanted the outer hull of the ship to be quite simple, but here where the landing gear doors are open I wanted a glimpse of what it would be like in the 'gubbins' of the machine. Shown here with the landing gear mocked up in place.
Ideally these details would be recessed slightly into the bay but its too late for that. When I scratch build another hull with a detailed interior I'll fix that.
No, the observant amongst you will have seen that the arc of fire of the under turrets is limited by the landing gear. I knew that was going to be the case, but decided that I could live with it.
However...
What I hadn't fully thought through was what would happen to the landing gear doors. There must be some sort of covering door that covers the landing gear when it's retracted.
My worries were justified...
Not only did the door obscure a huge area of the arc, but it also fouls the ground; and its not much better in any other position...
So rather than the single door that I had wanted to make (trying to keep down the number of castable parts), I'll have to make double doors. First attempt looks as bad as the single door for obscuring the turret.
So, the only option left is...
Well, thats the best option I have. I didn't set the mock-up for the photographs correctly as I'll have to make the doors so that they open fully, flush with the underbelly but that shouldn't be a problem... its just more work.
What if the door slid back, like a sliding door on a modern van?
ReplyDeleteI like Bill's idea.
ReplyDeleteWhy have doors at all? Make the feet slightly larger and the same shape as the aperture and say that the feet are effectively their own door. They retract as a unit and fill the hole.
ReplyDeleteAll you'd need to do is dirty them up when painting them as they would be dirtier than the hull due to them being in contact with the ground.
Why make life difficult?
On a different note, could you put a miniature next to a 6mm turret so that I can see how big they are? They look rather cool and may be just what I'm looking for...for a project ;).
ReplyDeleteFor the turret problem, can you convert that to a hatch or something and move the turret mount to the underside of the cockpit?
ReplyDeleteI like the revised cockpit front. Maybe add a few more greeblies to it to fill the space.
Thanks for all the comments guys - much appreciated. I'll try and reply to everything you raised.
ReplyDeleteBill - I wanted to do hinged doors, so hadn't considered sliding - however there isn't anywhere for it to slide to. I could do as Inso suggests (and had considered it already as the feet actually are deliberately ever so slightly smaller than the opening already) and ignore it but i think I want to do doors... i may ditch them but I'll give them a go.
As to usiing the turret mount as a hatch and moving the turret to under the cockpit - I could, but there is a similar turret at the rear too.
Inso size comparison pics will be up in a moment.
The windows look good. IMHO you don't need the centre strut in the 'shopped illo.
ReplyDeleteI really like the feet, and I think Inso's idea is the solution you need. Perhaps build up the rim of the apertures so the feet fit snugly?