…and „Meet The Lone Lady“ made it onto the August sheet. Check it out here: DriveThruRPG.com or here: Lulu.com.

Traveller Calendar 2015 Preview embedded from Lulu.com

100odt Tukera Long Liner

Using a 1000-ton streamlined hull, the Tukera Long Liner is a main-route passenger transport serving much of the Imperium. It mounts a  jump drive V,  maneuver drive E, and power plant V to supply power for one month of continuous operation, giving performance of Jump-4 and 1G acceleration. Fuel tankage supports a month of operations and one jump-4. On the bridge is a Model/4 computer. There are 50 staterooms and 5 emergency low berths. The ship has five hardpoints. Only one triple turret is usually installed; it carries a heterogeneous mix of one beam laser, one missile rack, and one sandcaster. The ship carries one vehicle: a 20-ton launch, grappled to the hull. Cargo capacity for the long-liner is 130 tons.

Scan from The Traveller Adventure, (c) FFE

The Long Liner requires a crew of 13: captain/pilot, astrogator, 6 engineers, medic, 3 stewards, and gunner. The pilot or astrogator operates the launch. The ship can carry up to 36 passengers.

Deckplan found on the Inter-webs

Image found on the Inter-webs

Design specs by Robert Eaglestone

Rosendal class Shuttle

The shuttle is a large interplanetary passenger and cargo vessel. This type of shuttle can operate between a port and an orbital facility fitted out to allow easy docking, but normally is used for interplanetary trade.

Now, there are several illustrations of Traveller shuttles and none of the deck plans that I am aware of actually show this particular craft as drawn by William H. Keith, Jr. for GDW’s Imperial Encyclopedia, but for me it is THE shuttle and so I went on to make a 3D model for my Frontier Transport.

This is what basically came out:

The craft can also be seen in the following images:

Rosendal Class 90ton Shuttle WIP

The following Small Craft List was compiled by Robert Eaglestone for the Citizens of the Imperium Forum. I use it here as a convenient listing to link all the small craft that I modeled (and will model) together. I might rip the List apart to have only a craft index here in the future and place the lines for each craft inside the corresponding craft’s article post. However I just got permission to leave it here as it is, and I think it’s  very convenient like this.

All craft were designed by Robert Eaglestone („robject“ on CotI) solely using Traveller5’s Adventure-Class Ships design system, with no modifications. Direct link to the original post with the file: Traveller 5 Small Craft List.pdf (CotI Login required).

NOTES: B = Lift Body. C = Cramped Bridge. K = Cargo Lock. L0 = Short Term Life Support. L2 = Long Term

Life Support. S = Spacious Bridge. +5 = Overtonnage by 5 tons.

Vol.  Volume, in tons.

Name.  Official name for the small craft.

TL. Technological Level at which this ship is manufactured.

Free.  Open, configurable space, in tons.

Gs.  Acceleration, in gravities.

Fuel/Duration.  Fuel tank size, and operational time given a full tank.

MCr.  Price of small craft in millions of credits.

Computer.  Computer model installed by default.

Well I had this model for a while. But it lacked a certain something. Now what might that be? Interior? Landing gear? A mounted Weapon? Drive exhaust trails? A Pilot?

Let’s have a look…

20ton Gig WIP 01

I could be color.

This is a larger 30ton variant. But you get the idea. I’m on a mission to texture all my existing models.

The Modular Cutter is a versatile craft. However in some cases the circular cross section is not optimal. The images below show a Cutter with a module that features a rectangular cross section almost over it’s entire length. Only the end „caps“ with the landing gear and cutter’s connectors as well as the overhead fixtures remain the same as on any other module. It is an unstreamlined module however.

The Container Module has 35 tons and affects the performance of the cutter by reducing accelleration by 1g. The image below shows the same module with an optional AeroCowl installed, that partially streamlines the module and provides better handling capabilities in an atmosphere. The cowl can be installed by two workers within 30 minutes, provided they have access to some lifting device or a forklift.

 Various Variants

Imperiallines

Navy

Navy 2

Navy 3

More to come…

Based on my 30ton Ships Boat Model with a slightly shortened hull, this winged boat has much greater cargo capacity than the Ship’s Boat at the cost of accelleration.

Texture variant „Imperiallines“

Texture Variant „Navy“

It features the same landing gear as the Boat or Cutter, is based on a 5m diameter hull with a slightly elongated nose cone.

The container visible in the Render above is a 4 dton Container measuring 6m x 3m x 3m. All three craft are designed to be loaded with this container in mind. Of course a lot of capacity is wasted carrying containers due to the circular cross section, Except for the slow boat whose cargobay rear of the loading gate has a rectangular crossection.

30ton Slow Cargo Boat w Container Extension (closed)

However loading two of these boxes side by side would be a very tight fit there too. Considering this the Rhaan Interstellar variant of this craft has side loading gates at the rear section too. These are complemented by loading davits that hoist one container into the bay on each side. The container however needs to be placed beneath the wings with the cargo gates open.

All „tubular“ Traveller RPG small craft follow the same basic layout. Maybe I should to try to explain…

The bow section houses cockpit, sensors, computer, fresher, weapon control and airlock, next to the center is either a passenger compartment or the cargo bay, wich is always located in front of the powerplant housed in the rear section just in front of the maneuver drive. Front and rear are seperated by bulkheads. Fuel and piping or wiring, safety equipment and sometimes more storage space is located beneath the deck. Wings, fins and the like were also used as a distinguishing feature.

Here are deckplans that illustrate the concept (not this particular craft):
http://juliahwest.com/Traveller/Peter_Vernon/smallcraft.html

Typical craft were a small 20ton Launch, the larger 30ton Boat, an even larger 40ton Pinnace and at 50ton the Cutter, each with several slow, fast or modular variants. These are very typical Traveller subcraft dating back to the mid 70ies. ☺

The Subsidized Liner comes in several variants. The most common being the standard Stellar-Class and the slightly modified Bastien-Class Liners. There is a supplement by Loren Wiseman on RPGNow detailing the ship in four variants, including Deckplans and Adventure Seeds.

I have a problem with this ship, or – to be precise – with it’s subcraft. According to TNE it sports a 10ton launch (a life boat by CT definition or customs) , CT assigns a 20ton launch so well, why not a 30 ton ships boat? Nah, just kidding, but at the time the rendering was done, only the Ships Boat model was in a representable condition.

I will likely model the basic liner and at least the Mercenary Cruiser variant (similar to the ship detailed in the MegaTraveller Supplement Assignment: Vigilante available via RPGNow).

The image below shows a popular depiction of the Liner (well popular in my book). The subcraft Dock is normaly located beneath the main fuselage.

There are still a few models I am eager to make and the Liner is no exception. It is in the very early stages of blocking out the vessel, but a tiny preview is due taday. See… but wait… that’s a Ship’s Boat and it’s in a cradle on top of the hull. What the hell am I up to?

Below: an older image now superceeded by the above.

And that’s it for now. Cheers.

Tiny update on that craft. I already had the combi-variant with a cargo compartment behind the passenger compartment. But I figured a passenger only „shuttle“ variant and a pure cargo variant would be nice too. So here are all three.

The 30ton Ship’s Boat and 20ton Launch share the same diameter hull and front section. As visible at the cockpit window configuration these craft have three windows out front. The 50ton Modular Cutter and the 40ton Research Pinnace however share a 6m diameter hull and the same front section to. These cockpits have four windows out front.

So, long time no posting. That’ll change in the near future. I currently plan to revisit the JG ships and craft. First to give you an idea were I’m heading a scan of the original craft…

And that same image painted over with the planned facelift…

I hope to start modelling these during May and will keep you updated here.