 December 22, 2009 - 1:26pm | Introducing the Thunderbug Class Light Freighter:  She's a Size 3 Hull (some 30+ metres tall) - I know she's only supposed to have two engine mounts, I honestly don't care. I'm undecided yet wether to make them Ion, Nuclear or Chemical engines. I'm favouring chemical ones with the idea being that she latches on to the front of an ion jump frame that also stores a whole load more cargo containers. She essentially acts as a shuttle or interface Lander. In the landed image, you can see the cargo containers being unloaded from the cargo hatch on the underside. They are stacked side by side and three high. The idea is that two are loaded into position and then winched up inside the hull and locked in position so that two more can be positioned. There are three cargo bay doors positioned triaxially between the engines, meaning that it can carry up to 18 containers. I'm thinking that if the Thunderbug is just the lander of a larger ship then that ship can carry a whole load more containers that are fed shotgun-like into the Thunderbug for transportation to the surface. The in-flight shots show the astrogation/observation bubble at the top with it's shields open. The airlock will be situated on the underside in the centre of the cargo bay doors. This will allow docking with other ships and also ingress/egress when landed in an atmosphere. I'm not happy yet with the main body. I toyed with making it more streamlined but I think human ships should be angular and functional and leave all the curves to the aliens. That said, it needs something to make it more interesting. It's just too....boxy. at the moment. Deckplans (and more renders) will follow once I'm happy with the concept. Crow Wayne Peters Senior Artist Blitz Games, Leamington |
 December 22, 2009 - 5:19pm | Looks pretty nifty so far. Cant wait to see more. Thanks for sharing. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
 December 22, 2009 - 9:56pm | nice catchy name and I love the concept of a landing module that laches on to a jump frame. really makes a lot of a sense. when you think about it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 10, 2014 - 8:19am | I would like to see deck plans and stats. |
 September 17, 2014 - 12:28pm | Nothing wrong with a third drive in my book. If anything you can use additional drives to balance a performance loss elsewhere. I like the idea of a jump module as well --- so it makes sense to have the Thunderbug running chem thrusters. They make the right noise to earn the term "Thunder". |
