VSS 002 Space Carrier - Part 10

Round 2!

Welcome to round two.... At this point building the VSS 002 has entered the final design stage. Because I'm going up against a hard deadline -- JoeFest 2021 -- I don't have the luxury to dwell in design mode for too long. 3D printing takes time and many of the large parts that need to be 3D printed will take hours, even a full day, and there are many of these parts.

To re-cap a bit, in round one it was revealed that VSS 002 will have a new flight deck, a longer bridge, possibly a redesign of the middle flight deck, and the upper hull will have some beams reinforcing everything. So with that in mind I started new work on the engine room. The engine room will have some beams reinforcing the ceiling and floor, similar to the beams for the upper hull. I figured the engine room will make for a good test.

Engine Room - The Final Take

The engine room will stick out an extra two feet from the main structure. It will be designed like a box that will slide into the VSS. To help give the VSS that spaceship look, I decided to use as many angled structures as possible. There will be a network of reinforcing beams ribbing the top and bottom of the engine room "box". These beams will keep the shape of the engines even when walls are removed for accessing the inside or for taking photos.

Please note that there is still much work to do. The thruster units need to be supported and not resting directly on the floor, and the entire rear of the engine room needs to be sealed up. Beams and such need to be added to the outside of the side walls, and on the inside greebles need to get done.

One thing that I like about having this ribbing structure is that equipment and machinery can be attached to the outer hull. Weapon turrets added too, as well as armor and other interesting things.

Launch Tubes!

It was asked if the VSS 002 will have launch tubes. The answer is yes. At the time the question was asked I had only showed walkways along the port and starboard sides. I wanted to add more to the VSS and since I also do toy photography, having a long walkway with bulkheads, airlocks, and loads of equipment was important, but the main superstructure itself simply did not have the room for vehicles, maintenance, crew stations, and then a corridor. So I had to go external to the outer hull. But the suggestion for launch tubes never left my mind.

The Cobra Stiletto makes an excellent fighter. Nothing like a Star Wars or BSG, but in the realm of GI Joe, the Cobra Stiletto makes a formidable opponent. For the VSS it is a good size too -- small, dart-like. It can be moved around the inside of the VSS fairly easily and move into position to be catapulted into space. So a launch tube capable of supporting a space fighter the size of a Stiletto became my goal.

The walkways are now up-side-down and I am a little concerned about that because I didn't intend them to be in this position. But in terms of looks, up-side-down looks good with the launch tubes above them. Someone had asked why they were so large, being simply walkways. My goal with them was for them to be large enough that two figures could walk side-by-side, and have props such as computers and machinery along the side and mounted to the ceiling above the figures. There would also have to be enough room to have some good looking Sci-Fi bulkheads. All of this takes space to look right.

From here on out the design has to be ready to 3D print. I no longer have the time to experiment. I like the way the engine room looks with the ribbing, and that structure offers potential for mounting all sorts of machinery and things to the outer hull. All that will take away the boxy look of the VSS's hull and lean itself towards a Sci-Fi look. I would like to add beams and ribbing to the outer hull, but I may have to leave that for last.