"Some digital Aeronef designs" Topic

I made most of these last year, but never got around to sharing them here on TMP.

First up is the Sha'Zulu fleet. By way of backstory, these ships belong to the Sha'Zulu Alliance ("sha" meaning simply "new" in Zulu). After discovering diamonds on their lands in 1867, the Zulu and Xhosa tribes set about conquering their neighbors, then began to gird themselves for battle against the encroachment of the European powers. The Sha'Zulu hired a Polish inventor who had been unsuccessful in selling his designs in Europe to direct the building of their new fleet.

Sha'Zulu ships are designed for speed and firepower; consequently, their weakness is in their thin armor. The Sha'Zulu doctrine of aeronaval combat is to strike quickly and then withdraw, repeating as necessary until the enemy is defeated. A favorite tactic is to lure an enemy ship out of formation with a seemingly-helpless frigate, then pounce on it with destroyers and battlecruisers.

Design notes: The shape of the ships is actually inspired by the shape of the traditional Zulu shields, rather than a traditional boat shape. I kept the VSF-looking round turrets, funnels, and torpedo tubes in order to keep the ships from looking too futuristic against other 'Nefs.

Group photos:

Ithayiga ("Tiger")-Class Frigate

Umdumo ("Thunder")-Class Bombard Frigate

Gwaza ("Slaughter")-Class Destroyer

Ingwe ("Leopard")-Class Light Cruiser

Inkemba ("Sword")-Class Heavy Cruiser

Isijula ("Javelin")-Class Battlecruiser

Siyonqoba ("Conqueror")-Class Battleship

Ukhozi ("Eagle")-Class Fighter Carrier

Next up: The Tso Chinese. Following the assassination of the Imperial family by Muslim Chinese rebels in 1876, General Tso Tsung-t'ang, military genius and founder of China's naval academy, took over administrative control of the government until questions of imperial succession could be resolved. This regency became permanent without any official orders or proclamations, and General Tso immediately moved to modernize the Chinese aeronef fleet.

There are some design elements that are meant to invoke a feeling of traditional Chinese architecture, such as the "turtle boat"-inspired Frigate, the sloping roofline of the Aerofighter Carrier, and the junk-inspired steering vanes present on all the ships. I was going to put a dragon's head on the front of each ship, but I couldn't make a decent one.

Frigate:

Destroyer:

Bomb-Ketch:

Protected Cruiser:

Salvo Rocket Cruiser:

Marine Raider (note the sally ports and harpoon guns):

Battleship:

Aerofighter Carrier:

That's all for now, folks!

Next up: The Irish Home Fleet.

When the Irish rebelled against British rule in 1798, Pope Pius VI saw an opportunity to check the growth and power of the Anglican Church. Channeling funds and Swiss mercenaries to the Irish, the Pope was able to assist the rebels in expelling the British from all but the northernmost tip of their island by 1803.

The Irish and British continue to spar with each other over such things as trade routes and fishing rights, with occasional small skirmishes between navies. Great Britain's development of a new line of aeroships towards the end of the 1850's spurred an Irish renaissance in shipbuilding, leading to a new generation of heavier, more potent ships taking to the Irish skies. Armed with German guns and belted round with American steel, the Irish Home Fleet has served as a respectable deterrent against any invasion of the island itself.

Frigate:

Destroyer:

Light Cruiser:

Heavy Cruiser:

Battlecruiser:

Battleship:

Dreadnought:

Fleet Carrier:

And a group portrait:

One note: If I decide to put these on Shapeways for sale, the windows will not be recessed -- they'll be popped out like on Brigade's 'Nefs. That point was made to me by a fellow over on Brigade's forums, as he felt the windows wouldn't be paintable if they were recessed.

Very, very nice, I'd be a buyer. Specially for the Chinese fleet. So based on your comment and eyeballing the measurements you included, these will be the same scale as Brigade's nefs?

I think you need to change the names on the Irish ships… the names all look a bit too "traditional Royal Navy". Maybe take some names out of Irish/Celtic mythology instead?

Rather nice, really a waste to consign them to Shapeways only. You ought to talk to Tony over at Brigade Models and see if they'd be interested in converting them into castable metals – set up a deal like Studio Bergstrom's been doing with Irrational Designs and Future Frontiers and SemiLucid Studios.

Or even ask Drew Bergstrom about it – they aren't his usually type of thing, but maybe he'd be willing to branch out.

@boy wundyr: Yes, I based the measurements of the ship classes off the measurements listed on Brigade's own minis.

@captainquirk: I'm open to suggestions! I just slapped some names on there. I thought about making it a spoof of the Royal Navy names -- Irrational, Irascible, Indigestible, Immovable, Imflammable, etc. -- but I wasn't crazy about getting a care package from the IRA.

Maybe browse Brigade's Celtos line, especially the Gaels… the entire line takes its inspiration from the Book of Conquests. Or look to the Book of Conquests or the Ulster Cycle.

Conor, Culann,Cuchulain…. Lugh, Dagda… lots of very Irish names from mythology.

Probably a less contentious source than using names from any of the more contemporary English-Irish history.

Wow those chinese neff's are awesome, if those ever get cast up it just might tempt me into the whole aeroneff thing.

Sweet! Thanks, captainquirk!

RE: Dragonhead on the Chinese ships – a head borrowed from a 2mm or 6mm dragon might do the trick.

I thought about just making a dragon-head silhouette, too, kind of as a ram-type structure, but I gave it up to focus on the other elements.

How are planes supposed to land on that Chinese carrier? Or is it meant to be a launch-only platform?

It's whatever you want, I suppose. I was actually thinking that they could catapult out the side doors and then land on the runway platform.

By the way, does anyone have any ideas for a new or unusual design aesthetic? Looking at the hull shapes on Brigade's and Irregular's minis, there are plenty of rectangles, rounded rectangles, ovoids/ellipses, traditional ship hull shapes, dirigibles, rectangles with snipped corners, and even circles, etc. I'd like to do something different, but I'm not coming up with any great ideas.

Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

I think he's sick today.

Disperse structures could be one thing. Couple of teardrops with girdered between. Side on: C>=C>

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Cylinders with blisters. Head on: (O)

Doug

Any plans for an Afrikaaner (Boer) fleet or Mahdist fleet?

I really like your Fleets for me the Chinese Fleet is very nice and I would second calling for Dragon heads on the ships.

The other 2 Fleets look pretty good as well and if you make them most likely I'll buy them.

Have you thought of doing any other Fleets?

If you do I would suggest a Scottish Fleet with names like Robert the Bruce and William Wallace.

Michael

…in order to keep the ships from looking too futuristic against other 'Nefs.

Strange, after four years, the Sha'Zulu look too new to me. I wonder how I felt low these many years.

Now that we finally have some Japanese, I've become interested in some Chinese to face them. Designs look very good to me.

Irish a bit large for my VSF; can't imagine the British able to show much attention to Empire with that as a distraction on the opposite shore from that facing the French.

jeffbird, if you're going to practice rampant threadomancy, you should acknowledge it. Jav's been focusing elsewhere, including space fleets. No telling if he'll notice this.

Doug

Doug

Wow, it's been a while since I've shared any updates on those 'Nefs. I've got a couple new fleets, and I've done some refinement on some of the existing ones.

First up is my take on the Spanish armada:

Group shot:

Fast Frigate:

Destroyer:

Light Cruiser:

Heavy Cruiser:

Battlecruiser:

Battleship:

Dreadnought:

Fighter Carrier:

Next up is the dig-based fleet of the Kingdom of Greater Siam:

Group Shot:

Frigate:

Fast Destroyer:

Light Cruiser:

Armored Cruiser:

Battlecruiser:

Battleship:

Dreadnought:

Aerocarrier:

I did some revision of the ShaZulu and Irish fleets last year, too:

For example, here is the original ShaZulu heavy cruiser next to the revised version:

Here is the revised Irish battlecruiser:

javelin98 might I ask how it takes you to do each ship?

The ships of Siam look very nice I was trying to figure who would they be fighting?

Michael

But you never did put any up for sale, right?

…Siam…who would they be fighting?

Feels like mostly internal from what little I've seen of their history, but I think Dutch, Portuguese, and Chinese would all be possibilities.

A strong Indochina power is not unreasonable to imagine.

Naturally, I will not claim any suggested 'nationality' would last me getting in hand, and possibly repurposing.

Tony of Brigade Models, Jon of GZG, and everyone else I've bought from has had to live with this terrible truth… ;->=

Doug

@jeffbird: I'd certainly be willing to give those a shot!

@Captain Gideon: It depends. It usually takes me a few days to settle on all the style and particular structural elements of a new fleet. Once I've got that, each individual ship might take a couple hours, at most, unless they're really complicated.

For example, it took me about three hours of surfing for a particular dragon's head design that I like, but the actual building of it took maybe half an hour.

@TheBeast: No, I never uploaded them for sale, because I figured they were just too expensive, but if people are interested, I can certainly do so!

What's everyone's opinion of the Chinese dragon figurehead?

New Viking Order? ;->=

Do you have a ballpark on what various designs would cost?

I've never said price is no object… *lol*

Doug

So, here is a concept of a dirigible-based 'Nef, based on Doug's suggestion from 2013.

Captain Gideon, this took about six hours start to finish. It is faster to do the rest of the ships because I can reuse the core components.

I had uploaded some of the Irish ships awhile back. Here's what they cost:

White Strong & Flexible:
Irish FF (x4) -- $10.41 USD
Irish CL (x2) -- $9.17 USD
Irish CA -- $6.05 USD
Irish BB -- $8.24 USD
Irish CV -- $11.37 USD

Frosted Ultra Detail:
Irish FF (x4) -- $29.49 USD
Irish CL (x2) -- $26.39 USD
Irish CA -- $18.59 USD
Irish BB -- $27.19 USD
Irish CV -- $30.93 USD

So, yeah, those are pretty pricey.

I like the Mahdi concept

javelin98 I might've seen your ships on Shapeways but not certain about it could you post a link to your Shapeways store?

I do believe that I've seen some Aeronef ships on Shapeways which were German Aeronef Barges and some Dutch ships.

For myself I'm more or less set with most of the Aeronef Fleets but if I could get Irish or Chinese then I would do that.

I do thank you for letting me know about how long it takes you to do these ships.

Michael

I had to ask him myself. He designs as javelin98, but calls the concern the National Cheese Emporium, so I can never remember what it is.

link

He's got a LOT of stuff, so finding things…

Doug

Edit: Actually, you don't have any in the shop, right? You've just up loaded for your own edification,Jav?

Yeah, none of the 'Nefs are publicly viewable at the moment, but I can certainly start uploading them.

I'd like a look at a pack each of Chinese FF's and DD's. At about two inches, they'll fly as a bit larger craft with my models. They'll stay Chinese in spite of what I said above…

Encouragement enough?

Madhi Sudan is not how my personal vision went, but VERY interesting and I'll still take credit for inspiration. Any idea of price on that?

Doug

…Siam…who would they be fighting?

Feels like mostly internal from what little I've seen of their history, but I think Dutch, Portuguese, and Chinese would all be possibilities.

And, Brigade Models has just announce three new 'Nederlands' ships to add to the two already in list.

Indian Ocean heat may be rising!

Doug

But Doug the 2 that they already make are going to be redone since they have to redo the molds.

So the Heavy Crusier and Destroyer will get a new look.

And the Spanish will be next.

Michael

*shrug* Still going to be five official, and still a good thing.

Doug