Here’s the collection of Orion vehicles I built in CAD for APR issue V2N2 , all in scale. The Battleship which is currently being prepped for physical modeling is the fourth from the left on the bottom row. Far right on the bottom is the “Archangel Michael” from Niven & Pournelle’s “Footfall,” as drawn by Aldo Spadoni. Creating this model in the same 1/288 scale as the battleship would certainly be possible, but it’d be fargin *expensive* (probably around $200 as a limited-run resin & fiberglass kit). However, if anyone is interested in this as a kit, let me know via commenting below. If anyone is interested in contracting to have this made especially for you in whatever scale, let me know via email:
14 Responses to “Orion in scale”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
You’re not going to add the external nuclear blast powered space ship from ‘Deep Impact’ in amongst them?
A little pricy, but I’d purchase one.
So at 1/288, this would be about 17 inches tall?
I’d like a Michael!
> ‘Deep Impact’
I vaguely recall hearing that Fantastic Plastic had someone lined up to do the “Messiah” from Deep Impact, in 1/288 IIRC.
> about 17 inches tall
Yup. At this scale, many of the parts would have to be fiberglass, hand layup.
I was going to do a Messiah. I may still it just got WAY on the back burner.
As for Michael. No fibreglass required. Just make all of the huge structures separate pieces to be assembled hollow. Make them about 1/8″ – 3/16″ thick and you get no sagging of the finished piece. I can probably do the dome as one piece since it will likely fit in my pressure pots.
We should talk more about it…. email me.
Folks – very cool place. I would love the Archangel Micheal. Awesome book and would be a great model. But anything Orion is awesome.
BTW – I found this spot by following a random thread over on Jerry Pournelles site from Winchell Chung (posting above).
The interesting thing about this is I love the Orion concept, ultra high ISP and thrust in the same combo. With the added bonus of man-sized ordnance (my career field) to get it going (almost as cool as HARP). My coworkers think I am a little wonky when I chat about Orion but I am gradually winning them over and they know the roads I travel for work.
The double freaky point though is a coworker and I were discussing the merits of the old microgames, since I have an Ogre at my desk and Mr. Chungs Warpwar artwork on my desktop – loh and behold a random thread on Dr. Pournelle’s blog has an email from Mr. Chung. Double Thanks.
Sorry for the ramble.
> As for Michael.
I’m anxious to see what the final retail price and sales success of the Orion Battleship will be. I can’t imagine that the Michael in the same scale could be made economically viable for less than twice the price of the Battleship, unless some shortcuts were made… big bits made vac-form, say. I’ve actually got an ancient 12X18 vac former available (haven’t turned it on in more’n ten years, though… damn thing would prolly burst into flames), so that’s jsut barely possible.
If the FP battleship is a roaring success, you betcha I’m going to put together a quality Michael. But if it flops, no way in hell. I’m hoping for sales that give Allen headaches to fill, but you never know. I worked out a mathematical relationship between sales and something termed PPPF (trade secret, ya mooches), and the Battleship and Michael have PPPF in freakin’ *spades,* but there are always statistical outliers.
So if’n y’all want a Michael, then buy a Battleship.
I will most likely put together a *crude* CAD model of the Michael, just to work out the basic parts, and perhaps to get quotes on “printing.” While I was raised on do-it-yer-damned-self carving and scultping and lathing and such, the advantages here are pretty obvious. So, we’ll see…
John Scott: welcome to the blog. My plan is working, the more people I lure here, the higher the sales for the Orion Battleship.
I do get around.
And I trust you’ve read my bits on the Orion:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3c2.html#orion
If you haven’t already, do go there and download the report GA-5009 vol III,
and follow the link to Aerospace Projects Review.
I would purchase one, certainly! I’d have to do some digging for the money, but I’d find a way!
Glad to be here – I’ll have to find some disposable income away from a couple of other niceties over at GHQ (The original Furious and Glorious Light BC have caught my eye).
The Orion BB looks to be interesting – if it takes some BB sales to get Michael I am for it.
Thanks for the tip on your website Winchell – I had not been to that portion of your site (which is very cool as well overall).
I do have the report already.
John
John
Winchell,
I had a very interesting conversation with a gentleman from JPL at the Joint Propulsion Conference in Denver this week.
I was watching a presentation on interstellar flight and the presenter made one large assumption- he wanted to explore propulsion opportunities that would allow man to travel to the nearest star and return within 15-20 years.
Very interesting but he completely ignored Orion – of course my first question to ask him was “Why not Orion?” We’ll the guy from JPL beat me to it and the verbal sparring ensued. With the presenter claiming eventually that Orion would not work – which evoked derision from JPL.
I thought the debate was interesting – but I firmly believe Orion can be a workable propulsion system.
I believe that Orion can work. But as a starship capable of a good fraction of lightspeed? Not Orion as it’s currently known. The “Medusa” concept for an Orion-like ship with a truly vast “spinnaker” instead of a pusher plate might do the job, with an Isp in the hundreds of thousands.
But starships, truly practical manned starships, are just damned hard no matter *what* tech is assumed.
Totally agree – just the whole conversation that Orion won’t work smacks of a political solution instead of a technical solution.