Lit Fleet Junkie Flagship- The technical discussions of the GFFA (Capital Ships thread Mk. II)

The front half is a Taylander attached to some massive cargo container framework pod.

Also what a waste they didn't bring the Lambda along, I really like its representation in the Rebels artstyle.

 

I enjoyed that we saw a truly civilian freighter and space station. In reality, the number of these sorts of vessels and stations should grossly outnumber military installations, so it is fun to see a little bit of the galactic infrastructure that keeps things in motion!

--Adm. Nick

 

It's basically a Lambda-variant, not the ROTJ original. That underslung pod is similar to the way they animate the Sentinel and unlike the flatbed version they made originally. Also cool to see the Imperial gunships in space.

 

I wanna see a REALLY big cargo ship though. The one we just saw very obviously doesn't match from interior to exterior, the interior being far larger than the outside suggests. And the biggest cargo vessels we see so far are the Eta class barge and the Class 4 Container Transport (the d4 die, which AP5 refers to in The Wynkahthu Job), but those can't be much more than 150-250 meters. Surely there's got to be something in between that and a Trade Fed Lucrehulk.

 

@Star_Desperado

Does this fill your needs??

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Baleen-class_heavy_freighter

 

I forgot about that but I still want to go bigger.
I feel like there ought to be an intergalactic Knock Nevis around somewhere, something along the scale of an ISD or even an SSD, that's more generalized and prolific than the now defunct Trade Federation's Lucrehulks and those apple-cored CIS Supply Ships.

 

Interesting art on the cover the The Last Jedi: Look & Find:

Spoiler

We see a bit more of the Resistance transports and the Raddus. I've posted spoiler tags for now, as we want to only discuss the merits of the ships, not any plot points they are tied to.

--Adm. Nick

 

Spoiler

I don't really think this is a spoiler because it's only speculation, but I have a pretty strong hunch that those windowed transports are escape pod lifeboats from the Raddus after it inevitably gets destroyed by the Supremacy (which we see behind it at one point)

 

Still, we don't speculate on plot points in this thread in regards to movie stuff pre-release. Only the ships themselves and their merits. It's a fine line, but one we must walk.

--Adm. Nick

 

Found another difference between the Lambdas. Because they reused the Sentinel ramp and pod, they had to move the Lambda's wing guns beyond the corner of the wing-struts.

 

I made a few screencaps...

Spoiler

I must say, it is nice to see a cargo ship that looks like it can carry cargo.

 

ETA: Ooops! Double post.

 

Star_Desperado is right. There should really be some absolutely giant cargo ships. Much bigger when fully loaded than a star destroyer even. I mean, compare how many containers that Rebels ship is carrying to how many this real ship is. The containers are roughly the same size.


Think about how much stuff a planet like Coruscant must have to import. They would need hundreds of these giant ships I would imagine.

 

Related: Animation concept art with instructions on what to take from the Sentinel model.

Spoiler

 

Yes, it's unrealistic that an Empire that takes over a large Trade organization, including its container ships, would either scrap them or not replace them with similar designs.

 

Some of the containers are significantly larger than their real world counterparts, but still. The Trade Federation can't be the only one doing galactic shipping for the galaxy. The Baleen classes that Chris0013 reminded me of are a great start, but I think we're overdue for more large civilian ships. Even the real world Knock Nevis herself was larger than the Baleen - 458m to Eravana's 425.

 

Maybe something like this?
from http://0-hr.deviantart.com/

 

A bit too reminiscent of Warhammer 40k imo, but something like that that's a mile or two long would be great

 

They could always recanonize Fractalsponge's take on the super-sized freighter from WEG:

 

What about the ships we see at 1:49, 2:21 and 3:30

It looks a bit thin around the waist

 

Those Valerian ships remind me of Dune for some reason

 

Actually now when I think about it, it's a bit hard to guess the sice of that ship. My first thought was that it was not really broader than Leia's blockade runner but it could be larger.

 

I think that they had the right idea with the Class 4 Cargo ship, just the wrong way around (should be pushing not pulling) and far too small

For a spaceship that loads and unloads in space it would make sense to just have interlocking containers, then you'd have a completely flat faced ship that is almost all engine, attach onto the back of the containers. The ship could have an extendable hammerhead bridge that moves along the top of the containers to allow a better view. So basically the containers become part of the ship.

 

Maybe somting like this:



It's a bit hard to see here but the main engine is behind the cargo

 

I just searched the internet for more on this thing, after I zoomed in on this picture and recognised the gold bar shaped cargo containers, only then did I realised how big this is. AND at five field bubbles here, this is only a quarter of its maximum capacity!! 20 container force fields being 19,200m long with the mass of a Super Star Destroyer!

I'm not sure how the two drive ship sections are supposed to work though. I mean does the chain of fields sections curve so both ends are facing backwards for forward thrust? Or does the front ship power the fields leaving the rear one to focus on engines, and then they switch roles for the next trip? Wookieepedia makes it clear though that these ships weren't designed to stop, they stuck to their trade route like a train on a looped rail system, and smaller freighters would load and unload containers on the move. So then how would the two drive sections ever get to switch roles?

Anyway THIS is the kind of thing that needs to be canon again.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Field_Secured_Container_Vessel

 

So movie Lambda and Rebels Lambda....different models of shuttle or just different variants of a shuttle model??