Mola Ramsayi - Kaluri med transport

[bszlrd]

Update: mod file
- Odd or missing transformations on gear bay doors.
- Only a Baked AO texture
- No LOD
- No Collision & Shield mesh

I've started working on this sketch:

A bigger sister of the Mola Mola, named after a similar species of sunfish from the southern hemisphere, the Mola Ramsayi.
The images bellow show it's scale relative to the Mola Mola and the Deneb:




It has trilateral symmetrical structure. Three main and retro engines. There will be a cargo hatch on the top and on the side. And a cover on the nose for a docking collar. I could imagine it as a tailsitter too. Atmo capable, but won't win any aerobatics competition.

[DraQ]

Nice. I'd add either a cluster of three more thrusters or three hemispherical tanks between existing main thrusters.

Having tail-sitters would definitely be nice.

Atmo capable, but won't win any aerobatics competition.

Seems to be a recurring pattern with Kaluri vessels.

[bszlrd]

I want to keep the back flat and plain. Definitely no additional engines.
I don't really like the look of an extruding tank in the end:


And here are some closeups for the landing gears:



Now onto the RCS clusters.

[FluffyFreak]

That's cool, look forward to trying it out noz :)

[bszlrd]

Here comes the mod file, if somebody wants to give her a spin.
- Odd or missing transformations on gear bay doors. (euler rotation axis order issues I need to work around)
- Only a baked AO texture
- No LOD
- No Collision & Shield mesh
- Dirt cheap right now, but that will change.
Any thoughts about the flight characteristics, stats?

Related question: would it be possible to make the thruster tags to be limited to certain directions? Like this ship uses it's (slightly angled) belly thrusters for forward thrusting, which looks odd. Also it would be nice if I could define some thrusters to fire only when maneuvering, but not accelerating. (Thinking about the backwards RCS thrusters for example).

[DraQ]

I want to keep the back flat and plain. Definitely no additional engines.
I don't really like the look of an extruding tank in the end:

I was generally thinking of something (anything) that would make the rear end busier and accentuate ship's trilateral symmetry, so a cluster of 3 tanks, a cluster of 3 thrusters, some other mostly triangular feature between the thrusters (like cargo door or docking port), etc.

[Tichy]

In the top view, it looks like my bunnies :D

[DraQ]

In the top view, it looks like my bunnies :D

My mind just tried to combine ship's 3-fold symmetry and general look with that of a bunny before I was able to stop it.
>.<

...
I hope you're proud of yourself.

[bszlrd]

The nose of the Pumpkinseed was already a rabbit head for me for some reason :)

[DraQ]

The nose of the Pumpkinseed was already a rabbit head for me for some reason :)

Not helping. :D