"1928 Aerial Battleship" Topic

Not quite Victorian i know but hovering in that grey area between steam and pulp

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Opinions requested both good and bad please

Very cool-it reminds me of the old Starblazers cartoon with the ARGO.

Kevin

High praise indeed. And funny you should say that considering my favourite style of ship to build *L*

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"Cruising speed 26 aerial knots"

Aerial knots??? ;)

Otherwise, very good looking ship. Much better than the Leviathans designs, which really do just look like WW1 battleships with tanks and pipes slapped on the sides.

My only change – add some firepower on the underside. The belly screams 'shoot me with your AA batteries!'

Thank you. I know aerial knots is a daft term *L* but it is a sort of homage to Yamato where they refer to space knots. I thought of putting armament on the underside. The first aerial warships in this timeline had bomb chutes and defensive guns but they were built on dirigible hulls. The post WW1 warships of which this is a typical example use a form of electrostatic repulsion which tends to detonate ground fired shells before they penetrate but also make it problematical to mount weapons on the underside

Honestly, it looks precisely like what I would want 1920s/30s airships to look like. Too bad I couldn't hope to scratchbuild something like it in miniature.

I also like the idea that the method of flight provides the underside of the ship with a rough force field of sorts.

1928 League of Nations Aero Ship Victoria

Armed with 3x2 14" Tesla beam projectors. 6x2 8" Tesla beam projectors

6 aerial torpedo tubes fore (18 torpedoes stored)

Cruising speed 26 aerial knots

aerial knots are the same as water knots.

But dear lord, that's a LOT of particle beam cannons!!! (yes, that's exactly what a Tesla beam is. heavy metal ions cranked up to obscene speed by multi-million-volt electrical fields!)

If you've read any of Larry Correia's "Grimnoir" novels, the Tesla "Peace Rays" are obscene things that can wipe out any and all life inside the beam. Nothing grows there for decades afterwards.

Well. When (as in this timeline) WW1 goes on until 1926 things tend to get a bit overarmed *L*
I know they are particle beams but Tesla cannon has a nice sound. I've never read those books they sound interesting especially since im fascinated by all things Tesla. I'll have to check them out. But im treating the Tesla cannon as the directed energy equivalent of standard ships guns rather than the peace ray

I love that style of ship, I just need to get some other projects done before I take on Edwardian space fleets.

Oh, I agree that "Tesla cannon" is a much better sounding name than "particle beam."

I bet you could use a Tesla coil to power a "Marconi Cannon" aka railgun. Still throws a projectile, but no powder to blow up!

Actually the Americans use those but they refer to them as Edison Accelerators since he claimed credit for them

Crickies I like that! Tis a beast of rare beauty, indeed!

Agreed advanced for VSF, but I'd see it even a bit earlier than WWI, stretching a point here and there.

Larry Correia's "Grimnoir" novels

One can assume these aren't the same monsters; doesn't take much inefficiency to bring into doubt use at all. EG can make them as effect as pleases. ;->=

I thought of putting armament on the underside.

I tend to dismiss that for most 'nefs; until directly underneath, topside guns will have a 'drop' to shells that allow hitting targets at lower altitude.

Tesla's, as LOS weapons are a BIT different, but, again, don't require a lot of depression to be deadly at a distance.

a form of electrostatic repulsion which tends to detonate ground fired shells before they penetrate but also make it problematical to mount weapons on the underside…

Watch that; everybody will be developing shields. ;->

With sheathing, such as liftwood, anything underneath compromises the anti-gravity.

If I really HAD to quibble, and I recognize the homage to Yamato, I'd rather have side 'fins' similar to the rudders, but smaller, and fore and aft.

Have you tried a print?

Doug

Actually the Americans use those but they refer to them as Edison Accelerators since he claimed credit for them

Works for me!

I am all about the fins on ships but wanted to make these different from the Yamato style ships since i have designed so many of them as well *L* Fortunately or unfortunately the shield effect only starts working when a ship reaches a certain altitude away from magnetic ground interference so no one as yet has found a way to use it for tanks or ocean going ships.
I have tried a print and while the pics did not come out well the miniature came out nicely.

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Along with the earlier mid WW1 dirigible based ships and the eventual Dan Dare inspired 1964 space fleet (i know that is veering sharply away from Victorian but it is the same timeline and im pretty pleased with the rockets *L*)

I am all about the fins on ships but wanted to make these different from the Yamato style ships since i have designed so many of them as well.

Not the little tabs at the back; I've seen versions with side fins similar, but the same, as yours.

Agree about the prints, and the piccies… ;->=

The photos look fine, just teasing. However, thank goodness the ships aren't available for purchase; my Shapeways resistance is sorely tempted of late as it is.

The IFP are Dan Dare-ish? I've a book or two, but must have missed a fair number of ships. I'm mostly familiar with the not-slingfighter. ;->=

Doug

Dan Dare'ish' yes. Big glass bomber windows and the straight fins rather have more of that look than the curves etc of the Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers style. I see what you mean about the wings. I had them on some of the early designs but since these actually are designed for shapeways i decided that with the method of lift (formerly Professor Lohengrin's lifting gas but now the Tesla Electrostatic system) being more advanced they fins were not needed and removing them would make the miniature cheaper. Though i must admit i did think they looked better with horizontal stabilizers as well

Tesla? TESLA??? Everyone knows the design came straight out of Menlo Park!!!

Sorry, I've seen Edison oft used as a lift originator; love the imagined partisanship. I'm a big fan of Tesla, pigeon or no.

You can imagine advancements with gyro-stabilization, but I really do think flight planes are more appropriate. Just vented a bit of humble preference for the WWI-II sub versions.

As for the inestimable Dare, my googling has has introduced me to ships unknown (to me), and fully see what you mean.

Of course, in the old serials (before I was born; I'm not THAT old) FG/BR ships could be bowling pins, or flat irons. Definitely all over the place.

I now realize that the War Rocket Ajax owes at least a nod to DD.

So, just to tempt me, you ARE considering adding these to the store? So cruel! ;->=

Doug

*L* But Tesla patented a design for an aircraft using broadcast energy that could move in any direction making sudden high speed changes in vector but that looks silly in a large vessel so these move at a more regular pace.
Maybe ill make a horzontal stabilizer version as well. The world the Aerial warships come from may have been shocked into peace by a 12 year long WW1 But there are still threats from madmen, rogue nations and disgruntled scientists suddenly finding themselves without state sponsorship. So more than one kind of Battleship is certainly not out of the question.
Actually unless there has been some weird issue with the site most of these are already available. I think the earlier models might not be (The dirigible ships) but i know the rockets and the 1928 warships are. If my computer lets me finish it im working on a human version of a Martian fighting machine from 1906 and when i upload it ill double check the model availability statuses