High Poly Venice Model

Are you making this up Hemp Monkey? Where do you get this stuff? What sources are you referencing?

From AC65-9A Airframe & Powerplant Mechanics General Handbook: U.S. Department of Transportation; chapter 10, page 486

A properly designed joint weld is stonger than the base metal which it joins.

So yes, I have found that the act of welding makes the metal stronger. I've found that quite a bit in my previous career as an aircraft mechanic.

And a racing car is not a 'combat' vechile. It is a taskspecific device used for peace time entertainment.

Sooo, you're saying that combat vehicles are not task specific?

More effiecent things always come at a cost. . .

Do you realize that this sentence is the exact opposite of the definition of increased efficiency?

Then agian, when you look at the american army, you do not see that reasoning.

Well, I'll put my military against anyone else's any day.

Your point about the firrary either a) a lack of knowldage of military or really american.

I don't get it. What's a firrary? Is this about my drive belt example? I was refering to the slew of mid-nineties American compact cars that suffer from this problem. What are you talking about?

I can't even respond to the rest of what you said because it's mostly broad generalizations that don't make any sense or reference any specific examples or ideas.

And please Hemp Monkey, let's keep it nice here. I respect you and your opinions. Please show me the same respect by not resorting to attempting to make fun of me. I am an ex-U.S.Marine with a keen interest in military history. My previous careers included both commercial pilot and aircraft mechanic, so I don't just make up facts. I also don't claim to be the ultimate expert on everything. If I'm expressing my opinion, I'll make sure everyone knows that it's just my opinion. I enjoy debating with you, but please, let's keep it friendly.

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"Well, it's the future and I'm sure they have some magical system where the pilot throws a pill into space and it grows into a fully-functional spacecraft."

Lol! Meet George Jetson. . .

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What zeal we have when predicting the future. Perhaps this might be of use.

Gentlemen, one thing which has bothered me during the building of the Venice model is attempting to figure out what function some of it's parts serve. For instance: If you watch the Venice in action in the game, on the forward side of the engine section you'll see bright blue 'rings' which glow when the thrusters are in use. They clearly aren't reverse thrusters (since that would bake the rest of the ship). I cannot for the life of me see any purpose in their existance. The closest thing I can come up with that sounds sane is that it serves as an indicator to a person viewing the ship from the front that the ship is under thrust. Can anyone come up with something better? While its not really important to the model, it something I'd like to sort out.

Also, the 'rudder' at the bottom rear of the craft... what, exactly, would that do? Again, the closest thing I can come up with is a pylon to house sensor and antenna arrays. What do you think?

<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

That blue glow is a tough one. Here are my thoughts.

Blue ring glows: Definitely something that operates in unison with the main thrusters. Perhaps they're super-heated energy conduits, exposed to space for its cooling effect. Or maybe some kind of particle collectors that ionize the particles during collection (I don't know what they would be collecting). Maybe they could be some part of the engine reaction system that itself gets super-heated.

Sorry, that's all I've got while trying to keep it quasi-realistic.

Rudder: Communications and navagation center. Supported by having the ship's only antenna mounted there. Or crew accomodations (how many people are on this type of ship?). How about, Lower Observation Deck, to keep an eye on the lower part of the ship. As well as docking pods on the bottom half.

Any of that work for you?

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Here is a wild idea: The Aurora Borialis glows when charged particles hit the atmosphere. And they follow down the magnetic field. One could imagine that the massive super conducting magnets driving the thruster rings and main reactor ring could cause particles to accelerate, bounce, and glow. Those magnetic fields must extend quite some distance from the ship. And they might have a very unique shape, outlined in glow. Kind of like using metal filings to 'see' a magnetic field.

I think your right about the pylon. Unlike sea going vessels, these craft need to see 360 degrees all around. And need multiple mounts to avoid being shadowed by the hull.

How does he get the torque? How does he keep himself from turning instead of the bolt?

A really good point. And I do agree that powering every attachment point with self actuators would be complex, and expensive. What if something like a bank vault door lock was used. You know the kind of gear driven pins that retract when the big wheel spins. The astronaut/robot could provide the motor to spin the gear, the pins retract, and the modules seperate. Might take multiple sets of pins for a larger module.

Rather than have the person mag boot on (and require the human frame take the torque required to spin a 7 meter wide retracting bolt (ouch), I think your right about needing an frame or something. How about&#058; there is a central drive shaft. The portable motor is hauled over and connected to this shaft. On either side of the shaft are two large locking pins. The motor slides over all three and clips in. Then it can spin away, held from rotating by the locking pins. And without needing to stress the operator.

Of course it only really works if you get rid of the bolts. Otherwise the nut needs to be retracted as it spins off, and the driver must move away from the locking pins. So I guess that is another reason for a bank vault kind of system.

I can imagine that there would be very standarized setups, so many kinds of ships could be taken apart using the same drive motor system (drive motor robot?).

-Gtrout

Yeah! That bank vault idea is great! And how about, instead of round pins they use wedge-shaped pins. So inserting the pins into the holes causes the module (or whatever) to tightly seal to the base (like the water hatches on a ship). A totally mechanical seal too, so pretty safe and not prone to failure. But easy to open or seal just by spinning the lock.

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