Trying Out an Illustration Style

I dragged out my old Carrara 5.1 Pro with WireFrame Pro installed, and imported my Free Trader model to get this illustration look. It's one of the reasons I still have Carrara.

A Re-Mastered Broadsword Vue Scene

Last night, I was looking all over for my Broadsword scenes. Then I realized they were all done virtually instead of locally. I was able to reverse-engineer one of the scenes I did in the past and create imports from it for use in a Vue scene that I had thought I made for this ship in the past.

I guess what I'm saying is, this is my first render in Vue, of this ship, in over a year. A one-pass render with no layered processing, that I normally used Paint Shop Pro for in the past with my Broadsword and Cutter models.

So this Vue scene file here will be my new master to make renders of other scenes from.

More Images

Been adding more images to my Traveller RPG Pinterest.

No Landings Allowed

Looks like I'll be using the start of an old space elevator model as a base for my highport. It will give the Free Trader something to tether onto, or park inside of.

For reasons unknown so far, ships may not be allowed to land on the planet surface. So all trading is done from orbit.

"Cold As Ice" is Her Name

The blue stripe came first. Then the name. Then the dice, rendered in modo.

ADDED:
Orbit shot.

Space Furniture

I been modeling the chairs for the Free Trader I'm working on. Nothing fancy yet. Just need two for the cockpit area.

ADDED:
Got the desk and foot rest installed.

Painting Starships

I'm sitting here thinking what color to paint my Free Trader? The original artwork was B&W, and mostly white. The Traveller far-future looked bright, etc.

I may end up making various paint jobs for this modeled ship. Setting comes first. What is the setting that this ship will be in? How are ships painted in that setting? Were all such ships sold in yellow? What decals do settings glue onto their ships?

For now, I'm just trying out different burn/scratch/pit marks, seeing what jumps out at me for a paint job.

ADDED:
Ok. Found some white paint that wasn't too bright.

MORE ADDED:
Some drafts.

Modeling a Free Trader

I spent a few hours, playing with different apps I have, doing various draft models of the Free Trader. It will be a lo-res model when completed. Something that I don't want to spend more than a couple days on. Which meant Hexagon would be used. Ha!

Amapi Pro is great at NURBS. But it is a terrible box-modeler, which I was finding worked better for this kind of object. I had forgotten that Hexagon does boolean cutting, which speeds up the modeling process as well. I'm hoping I don't have to do too much clean-up work on the mesh, once I'm done cutting chunks out of it.

Because I'm old-school, when it comes to modeling Traveller ships, I tend to use only the first drawing made of a ship for reference. I have no idea what the back or bottom of the Free Trader looks like, because there is only the one image of it in The Traveller Book hardcover on page 64. Maybe I have some notes that I took about that back in the day still. Otherwise, creative license as usual.

Like all models I make, this one will also be done by eyeballing things. No tracing.

ADDED:
An update of the model.

Can't Roll Less Than Five Using 2D6

Ok. So what happens when your 2D6 rolls are less than 5, and you change them to 5? This happens. 28% of the time, you'll get a 5.

Broadsword Candy

Thought I'd try different mixed medium for this pic. Lots of postwork that was done in just one click. I might try a water color filter on the scene next.