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Astrolab and Hornets

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When Star Wars came out in 1977, no one had ever seen anything like it – it was a true phenomenon. As a result, numerous sci-fi elements jumped the bandwagon either with reluctance, desire, or by chance and let nature take its course.

One such thing was a series of books produced by the publishers called Hamlyn about the stories of the Terran Trade Authority, or TTA written by Stewart Cowley.

Using painting of exotically coloured and designed ships to illustrate his story, Cowley created an adventure set 100 plus years from now where man encounters the Alphans, our allies and the Proximans our enemies, and a sort of space conflict erupts with slight overtones to World War Two.

He talked about technological achievements, advancements, and failures in an original format that had strong influences from the great conflict but remained its own identity.

The first of these books - Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD – depict the ships that were involved in that war; both aggressor and passive. It is an interesting book filled with a lot of great paintings from top sci-fi artists like Jim Burns, Alan Daniels, Peter Elson, Fred Gambino, Colin Hay, Robin Hiddon, Bob Layzell, Angus McKie, Chris Moore, Tony Roberts, and Trevor Webb.

However, despite these marvelous pictures, the technology and designs are to be honest, vague. The ships were infact depictions from 70’s sci-fi novels mashed together into these books.

In addition, there is no technological sense to them, and the end result is perplexing. Yet these books and its art influenced many since, even now. The finest example of this is the acclaimed videogame Homeworld.

Most of the ships are interesting but there are some that stand out of the crowd. One of which is the Astrolab; in the book its depicted as a tanker – yet it’s called a Lab? More to the point – if it is such a thing, why does it have windows over its fuel domes? In addition, where are the drive mechanisms?

So on that I gave the design a re-tweak to make her more understandable. I turned her into a modile command and control centre with powerful sensors donning her hull, granting tactical and stategic support for TTA forces. For fuel and munitions, Avery C-14s are there, and escorting the lot are four of Terra’s finest interceptors; the AAF 212 Hornet.

I modified the designed because I felt they are excellent but seriously would we paint ships like wasps and bees for combat?

I also made the lasers look like practical weapons instead of the crystal needles they were equiped with.
Like to hear your thoughts peeps :)

Enjoy!
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Comments102
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Bapt1's avatar
I really agree with you.