"New orbital defense platform for Full Thrust" Topic

*** NAC Intelligence briefing ***

TOP SECRET ULTRAVIOLET LEVEL
A recent stealth ship probe of the ESU capital system Nova Moskva has revealed new planetary defense installations around the capital. Of particular interest is a never before seen platform of an unusual configuration. Analysis of probe data indicates this unit carries a large beam weapon armament, including a triple beam spinal mount. This is a mass 190 unit, is heavily screened, and has a significant secondary armament.

It appears that this unit is operational, and that given that it's actual performance level is unknown, additional Humint assets should be deployed to obtain more concrete information.

*** End briefing ***

I have just finished up a new planetary defense platform that may be seen in the upcoming fleet book I am working on. This is just a teaser. I will also upload construction pictures in a separate post if there is any interest.

Rear view. The rear of the radiator assemblies are radiating waste heat from the platform. Upon firing, both the front and rear radiators would glow white hot while dissipating the extreme amount of heat generated by the spinal mounts.

Front view, showing the spinal mount cannon and radiator assemblies.

Tentative SSD based upon incomplete intelligence data:

very cool

I know my fleet commanders are seriously jealous; planetary R&R is just that much sweeter knowing one or more of those is overhead.

Sweet, Bill!

Doug

Nice!

Yes, construction pics and notes, please!

Looks neat!

Here you go, Nvdoyle:

Construction notes:

Initial parts: L to R, front row:
Ravenstar EC-5 space factory, lower half of a Pike Station, screw top from a bottled water, brass 1/16" pin.

Drill a 1/16" hole in the center of the space factory bottom section, and the middle of the top of the Pike station piece.

Sand down 4 Ravenstar hex bases to about .1" thick. I used a sheet of 150 grit sandpaper. I recommend leather gloves to reduce the chance of sanding one's fingertips while holding the hex bases. You could possibly use some 1" Liktko acrylic bases as well.

Drill a hole in the middle of the bottled water cap, and attach to the bottom of the space factory. This was to test fit everything, and I did not glue the rod yet. Remove the rod and cap for now.

At this point, I decided to remove the circular "ears" from the space factory and directly attach the hexagonal assemblies to the factory.

Hexagonal cooling radiators attached with super glue gel, top view.

Bottom of the assembly, with epoxy reinforcing the radiators.

Glue the piece of brass rod into the hole in the top of the Pike station piece.

Bottled water cap, with epoxy around the inside edge.

Put a drop of super glue gel in the central hole in the top of the Pike station half, and attach the bottled water cap. Leave like this to ensure that the epoxy drips down and securely fastens the cap to the station half.

Attach mount for the base. I used a Corsec small adaptor. Allow to dry.

Put a drop of glue in the hole in the rear factory section and attach to the front. Ensure the rear radiator assemblies are centered.

Prime the miniature grey and paint. Ship ready for paint:

Paint-wise, I used Reaper Military Green for the base coat. Green highlight is 2 drops Military Green and 1 drop Reaper Pure white. Shading is 6 drops Military Green and 1 drop Reaper Pure black. Weapon mounts around the rim are painted Reaper Rainy Grey. The central main cannon hole is painted with Tamiya Metallic Blue (X-13).

The rear of the radiators was done like this:
Base coat is Reaper Pure black. Cover the entire rear with a combination of 3 drops Pure black and 2 drops Reaper Carnage red. Then do most of the center of the radiator (leaving the edge area alone) with a combination of 1 drop Pure black and 2 drops Carnage read. Then do the central area "blob" with Carnage red.

Bill, that is your coolest scratchbuild yet. Kudos, Sir!

Nice job, but the engineer in me wonders if that is enough surface area for heat dissipation. Oh well, it's for a game and looks cool. Who cares?

Well the other side of the radiators radiates as needed, especially when the spinal mount cannons fire. :) Maybe they are using superconductors?

I don't think I could have gone much larger, radiator-wise, without it becoming unwieldy.

Yeah, I know. Actually, if someone does bug you about it, as the inevitable cheese monster is somewhere a lurking, you could use an idea Bova put forth in his one book. I think it was Venus. As a way to push heat out of a landing craft for Venus, one of the ships uses heat build up to melt some metal like lead. The lead is essentially boiled off into Venus' atmosphere. Same concept could work for the KAG (kick ### gun) above.