5 1 vote
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
85 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Grand Admiral Declann
Grand Admiral Declann
5 years ago

This is amazing work! I can’t wait to see the finished model!

Ethan
Ethan
5 years ago

I am just curious if you had thought about doing the Venator class star destroyer and it’s Mandalorian inspiration which I believe was called the Akaan Galaar and a few non official sources state as being 2.5 km in length?

Grand Admiral Declann
Grand Admiral Declann
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Hey, Fractal, could you do a 4K Assertor?

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

Would you please be patient the Imperator redux will be his main priority.
Plus there is already an updated Assertor although it is only one picture and what better is that it is not 4K but 8K! Fractal said it himself here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/evkaY

StellarMagic
StellarMagic
5 years ago

Huh… I thought the ISD2 dropped the axial laser battery. Then again, I get the feeling there was a lot more variation with the ISD then anyone really admitted too.

Grand Fleet Admiral Spaceman 28
Grand Fleet Admiral Spaceman 28
5 years ago
Reply to  StellarMagic

Huh… what do you mean with the axial laser battery?

beta_520
beta_520
5 years ago

he means the three axial triples

BigBlue
BigBlue
5 years ago
Reply to  beta_520

I believe the correct term is “centreline.”
“Axial laser battery” implies laser cannons firing along the ship’s centre axis/axis of thrust. Centreline turrets, however, are turrets mounted on the vessel’s centreline.

keb
keb
5 years ago
Reply to  BigBlue

He may have gotten it confused with “axial defense turret” which is the actual term used in the Star Destroyer ICS picture. http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1367/58/1367587238082.jpg

As for the ISD2 armament change, Rogue One changed the ISD1 – including Devastator herself – by adding the four new ventral turrets (two near the hangar and two under the bow). If R1 was allowed to change the first Star Destroyer ever seen on the movie screen, then I see no reason why Fractal can’t make similar changes to the ISD2.

valoren
valoren
5 years ago
Reply to  BigBlue

@keb
actually, the devastator already had two turrets under the bow. Even thought they practically couldn’t put them on the model, you can distinctively see bolts coming from those places.

Admiral Prophet
Admiral Prophet
5 years ago
Reply to  StellarMagic

This is the Imperial 1-Class that is why it has those axial batteries.

Chris Bradshaw
Chris Bradshaw
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

If the movies/games/rebels were more consistent on ISD detailing, there might be enough footage to begin classifying all the shown ISD IIs into subcategories of ISD II Flight 1-4 to denote major refits.

StellarMagic
StellarMagic
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Refits and specialized loadouts are a thing too… We see either a heavily modified ISD1 or heavily modified ISD2 in Battlefront 2… Garrick Versio’s command ship, the Eviscerator, has an ISD2 style command bridge and ISD1 style main gun turrets (6 dual heavy turbolaser turrets and 2 dual ion cannon turrets… the inexplicably fire turbolaser blasts in the game).

We also see ISDs with ISD1 command towers and ISD2 style main gun batteries in Star Wars: Rebels. I’m guessing there are a lot of transitional field modifications and refits in the Imperial fleet.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  StellarMagic

Regarding the asymmetrical bridge tower (one side of the tower is flat, the other side has a slight kink in it, visible in the “Falcon on the back of Avenger” shot) – shouldn’t it be the port side that has the “not completely straight up and down” trait?

This one, shows the starboard side of the tower that way.

I’ve been comparing this one to the one on the Exhibitions: Avenger page of Star Wars Technical Commentaries – and it caught my attention.

StellarMagic
StellarMagic
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

Plus… the filming model only had full detailing on one side to keep the costs down. Some allowances can, and should be made.

It is known
It is known
5 years ago

Concerning the Resurgent class which is supposed to have 1500 guns. Well really we havent seen this one much in Action lately and the last movie was an disappointment in that regard. So far i can remember there werent anywhere near as many weapons to be seen. If that figures a correct which i doubt then most of ist weaponry is to small to be seen and possibly to small to be of any threat to anything in similar size. Considering that i would guess the impstar could pose a serious threat and the allegiance fractal made would definitely obliterate this one.

StrikerUSA
StrikerUSA
5 years ago
Reply to  It is known

It is twice the size of an ISD so the weapons would be harder to see than on the Imp Star which in the movies all you ever see are the primary 8 turrets anyway except for Rogue One ISD that added more visible firepower. The Resurgent in ep VII showed plenty of larger turrets, like twelve alone on the bow, and there never was a close up in ep 8. ISD wouldn’t be much of a threat at all and I bet even the Allegiance would lose though that one does have more firepower for its size compared to the ISD. Resurgent per the description uses kyber crystals to power its weapons though and I like that someone gave it some thought for an upgrade over the older ISD’s. I wish instead of adding two new dreadnaughts, both of which I didn’t care much for the design, we got to see the Resurgents in action instead. Those first three would have easily handled the Resistance fleet on their own but instead they did nothing. Still liked the movie just wish there was some ship vs ship fighting and instead I don’t think Leia’s ship fired one shot back. Wouldn’t have done much but still. Hoping for a proper fleet battle in IX like we had in III. Not as large but cap ships duking it out on screen.

It is known
It is known
5 years ago
Reply to  StrikerUSA

Exactly my thought about this underarmed overrated dreadnought. they did not need it at all those SDs would have been more than capable of destroying the ground facility and interrupting any evacuation attempt. Well ok the ISD II is an bad example to fight an resurgent but i do still think an allegiance would have been capable of standing its ground (in space) fighting an resurgence. Cause the allegiance is only 700m shorter than the resurgence but very well armed for its size like you said. Best example the Executor 19km vs Assertor 15km my money would be on the Assertor though im a little biased to be honest. And for the lack of space battle in ep 8 im fully with you i hoped at least something like in Rogue one. Having said that i could still be wrong in the end im no astrophysicist nor ship designer im just some random fan dude.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

So Fractal between the Venator, the Imperator and the Resurgent how would you rank them from top to bottom by designs?

Hitfilmer
5 years ago

Amazing work! When you finish this, are you going to upload the 3d file?

Shaun
Shaun
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

LMAO!

StrikerUSA
StrikerUSA
5 years ago

Man that is just beautiful. Well done and the axial triples are the same caliber as the octuples correct? Hope you’ll model some XX-9’s and NK-7 ion cannons to put somewhere on the ship.

Soren
Soren
5 years ago

First: Welcome back Fractal! I hope you had a happy new year and a merry Christmas!

Second: She’s going along beautifully! I can’t wait to see the finished product!

cScott
cScott
5 years ago

Does barrel length for TLs have any effect on weapon performance (e.g., accuracy, recoil, energy output) in the disney canon? The barrel on the at-m6 TL is pretty short compared to the ones on this ImpStar. And do the octuples in picture 6 look like sextuples to anyone else?

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
5 years ago
Reply to  cScott

Don’t you know that Canon weaponry are powered by Disney Magic? But all (heavy hearted) joking aside, the “megacaliber” (which I am disappointed to learn that it’s just another turbolaser and not a more sensible mass driver based on its nomenclature) have their own independent reactor from the rest of the walker, granting it more power. As for your original question, I do believe barrel length is tied into the weapon’s effective range.

valoren
valoren
5 years ago
Reply to  cScott

I don’t really know what weapon range would mean in the context of space combat since their’s nothing to impede the beam’s movement. Range, as the distance to which a weapon would still be effective would be virtually infinite in that case. The only limiting factors would be the rate of propagation of the beam/projectile and the efficiency of the targeting systems. Maybe longer canons produce more stable beams and therefore possess more penetrating power, or accelerate bolts at a faster rate, making them more effective at longer ranges, particularly on moving targets…?

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
5 years ago
Reply to  valoren

Star Wars turbolasers seem to have ludicrously short ranges, fo an example this (KX-series?) boxy Death Star turbolasers have the range of only 100 km, but as for this means, I believe it has to do with the distance until magnetic field holding the bolt together weaken enough to reduce the bolt’s destructive potential.

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Ah, this makes sense. But on that note, is there any indication on SW’s sensor range? If its far longer than the TL’s effective range, shouldn’t it be possible to have your cannons point int the said direction of hostiles an unleash saturated fire to cripple their capablities?

valoren
valoren
5 years ago
Reply to  PhantomFury

The problem with the 100 km range figure is that it would make any orbital strike exceedingly hard to execute or even downright impossible, since an atmosphere would add resistance, potentially shortening the range even more. As fractal said, for me it was always more a case of limited effective range, which would explain why they can hit immobile targets (like cities) or objects moving in a predictable pattern (like asteroids) just fine.
The XX-9 on the death star are around 10 m long/wide/high. in term of volume, in our universe, they’re easily in the WWII battleship main turret-ballpark.

Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon
5 years ago
Reply to  valoren

Well, this has the potential to bring back the old magnetic-containment field theory versus the ramping-up lightspeed beam theory debate.

If you subscribe to the magnetic containment field idea, it does support a exponential increase in range based on the size of the beam emitter, regardless of what exotic particles are actually being fired if the containment field expires on a timeframe corresponding to the size of the emitter.

That might why Han’s poorly maintained Falcon couldn’t target a TIE only a few hundred meters ahead of it while the Death Star could hit Alderaan.
It also could explain why the Imperator-I was given such a heavy main HTL battery, in order to pound on Lucrehulks from outside of their own effective range, given how unmaneuverable the Lucrehulk is.

The XX-9 in such a case would be more akin to the Mark 12 5″/38 caliber gun of WW2 fame, capable of engaging both fighters and corvettes, but with much less effectiveness against destroyers at typical capital-ship engagement ranges.

Valoren
Valoren
5 years ago
Reply to  valoren

The containment field theory was thrown around when turbolasers were considered plasma weapons. When your projectile is composed of super-agitated gas, an invisible « something » preventing it to just desintegrate as soon as it leave the barrel make sense. It was also created to explain the flak effect that some bolts seem to have.
The problem with this interpretation is that it suppose the existence of a « field » both self-sustaining and strong enough to maintain the beam’s unity for a long period of time, and you can probably already see the problem with that idea.
Personally, I would lean more toward the « lightspeed particles travelling in helix » idea, where the particles (?) composing the beam are made to travel around it’s central axis at lightspeed, via some unknown exotic effect. In that case, the flak effect could be caused by the programmed decay of that effect over a distance calculated by the targeting computer. Also, when the superlaser is fired at Alderaan, we can see a closeup of one of the tributary beam and it seem to consist of green concentric circles moving around a central red beam…
For the Falcon, I really have no idea since we see it at Endor destroy fighters farther than that.
For the XX-9, I was just making a comparison in term of sheer volume.

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
5 years ago
Reply to  valoren

I can affirm the fact that 100km range does make orbital bombardment far more difficult as mentioned even by the magical whammy that is the Canon, which raises something along the lines of atmospheric disturbances yadda yadda make turbolaser far weaker when it finally reaches the ground. But on the note of turbolaser mechanics, the idea of a helix of photons does sound rather intriguing, though I am from the plasma bolt school of thought.
@Steve I doubt XX-9 made for starfighters, however, as Ep. 4 made it clear that starfighters are “too small, they’re evading […] turbolasers.”

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
5 years ago
Reply to  valoren

(Btw, I got my Canon technicalities from the wiki, though it got its sources from the Thrawn book. Here’s the entry: “A turbolaser’s effectiveness was weakened drastically as the bolt moved through layers of a planet’s atmosphere making them largely ineffective even against unshielded targets, however this can be negated by moving the ships deeper into the planet’s stratosphere.” So one could say that orbital bombardment is massively nerfed in Canon.

valoren
valoren
5 years ago
Reply to  valoren

As fractal said, energy cannot simply disappear. If a bolt lose megatons upon megatons worth of energy due to air resistance, it’s just going to heat the atmosphere around it like a nuclear bomb would.
Another big problem the plasma bolt theory (and plasma weapons in general) is that, as stated previously, without a containment field, the projectile constantly wants to kill itself on it’s way to the target, which mean that when it eventually does and the CF is ruptured, the beam’s particles will just fly randomly in all directions and most of them won’t hit anything. Plus, plasma, being basically superheated gas, possess mass and would therefore be subjected to gravity.

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
5 years ago
Reply to  valoren

Between TLJ’s implied (H?)TL-bolt attenuation (seriously, at a certain well-within-visual range Mon Cals can indefinitely tank fire from a ship half DS1’s width??) and that nu-novel atmospheric degradation, I’m less than thrilled with the Disneyboot’s technical turns re: capital craft. Hell, now we have the odd SDN pundit taking Rebels + said novel as proof positive Impstars need strike birds to do anything besides sit there & sic walkers on hardened surface targets. And come to think of it, where’s this Atmo Diffusion Factor(R) re: ESB’s ion cannon? Or are we supposed to figure that V-150 would’ve sufficed to wipe out Death Squadron if the Rebels could’ve come by a proper spaceframe?

BigBlue
BigBlue
5 years ago
Reply to  valoren

If I remember correctly (I probably don’t but I can’t check right now), the atmospheric degradation was mentioned in the context of a shielded rebel compound just outside a planetary capital. I believe that, in that instance, Thrawn’s worry was about the very effect which Fractal and Valoren mentioned.
If memory serves, every operation (in that book), which Thrawn considered to be a success, resulted in very few/no civilian casualties, so it’s not really a stretch to think that he would be reluctant to effectively set of a series of 100Mt+ explosions with millions of civilians within the blast radius.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

So Fractal If you done this redux will it replace the old model on the front in your website?

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

Awesome details, I love your work some much!

Shaun
Shaun
5 years ago

The tertiary floozle hub on the upper outer main reactor flange is backwards. It’s supposed to face maintenance observation port A3-12958230, not the manifold intake recirculation valve.

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
5 years ago
Reply to  Shaun

Good eye, chief. We’ll get a team on that sometime this decade.

Shaun
Shaun
5 years ago
Reply to  gorkmalork

Don’t you mean, “We’ll get to work establishing an entirely new class of ships based on this variant of random modeler detailing”?

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
5 years ago
Reply to  Shaun

Who needs new classes when you have a 1400-character database’s worth of Basic-numeral variants to fill?

RhysT
RhysT
5 years ago
Reply to  gorkmalork

I confess I can’t tell if ‘tertiary floozle hub’ was made up…

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
5 years ago
Reply to  gorkmalork

I’m about 89% sure that was asspulled. Current official technowidgets tend to demand some kind of super-scarce crystal power amplifier shaved off the Fortress of Solitude.

Shaun
Shaun
5 years ago
Reply to  gorkmalork

Y’all wouldn’t know a graizle beam refractor from a Byson-Hansi fusion splicer if it lept up off a 7H-ductal flange and bit you in the ass.

RhysT
RhysT
5 years ago
Reply to  gorkmalork

Well now you’re just being silly. Everyone knows the crystals from that fortress are the wrong colour for this season. And that Byson-Hansi fusion splicer can take a long walk off your 7H-ductal flange and eat it into a black hole at a moment’s notice. No, no you need a crystal in silvery white, not that crappy ‘Chantilly’ white like that cape wearing hack makes his house out of. What you ‘really’ need is the scradlow de compleszh/Kuati 6-R8 hyper thyroidal produced sodium based hyper matter crystals. Though I will confess they’re hard to come by this time of year, being as they’re so popular? Yeah, and I’ll see you a nerf steak and raise you a bantha half-rack. Comprende?

Shaun
Shaun
5 years ago
Reply to  gorkmalork

Porg. Pellets.

Astro1derboy
Astro1derboy
5 years ago

Dang . . . staggering details. LOVE IT!! 🙂

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

So if this is all the heavy turbolasers you going to put (unless you put more which I bet is unlikely) then this all add up to 73 turrets.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Oh forgot about the trench quad heavy turbolaser cannons. (by away please built them if the devastator have then I’m sure this should also have them)
But heavy hangers guns? I never knew they were there before unless you were talking about the ones on the devastator in R1 and if so then I bet they will be the same triple heavy turbolasers cannons on the axial right?

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

I wonder if the brim quads were part of an attempt to grant the Imp-I sufficient fire rate for fast-frigate targets (as opposed to Lucrehulks & other CIS heavies). Deuces might or might not have deleted those based on official whim and/or sector-group demands (I’d certainly want extra mains for the odd Home One cruiser run-in). Kinda doubt the hangar guns are especially heavy; quad or double 40s strike me as useful & compact.

DanielShenise
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

They managed to add a couple of the 3 barrel medium turrets ahead of the tractor beam dishes in the Rogue One model. I can’t imagine anything larger.

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
5 years ago

Ohohoho! The details! This bring tears to me eyes!

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

Damn, that’s an impressive amount of detail!
(On a sidenote: there seems to be a minor collision with hull geometry on the first of the four side-turrets – some box shaped greeble is intersecting with the base plate of the turret.)

jamesmcgr
jamesmcgr
5 years ago

holy crap this is so detailed. I love it.

Storm
Storm
5 years ago

It’s beautiful…
Welcome back fractalsponge

Are you planning on doing a version with the new dual heavy TL turrets seen in Rogue One and the new Battlefront game? I can send some close-up reference screenshots if you’d like.

Grand Admiral Declann
Grand Admiral Declann
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

Wow… for such limited sources, this is amazing!

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

So awesome! Fractal, thank you for all your hard work!

beta_520
beta_520
5 years ago

were the octuples superfiring before? or is this Fractal working magic and solving the 100,000 problems with the Imperial II (as already happened with the LTLs I see)

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  beta_520

What is superfiring?

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

‘Superfiring’ basically refers to a turret arrangement where one or more emplacement(s) are placed *just* high enough to fire directly over the next in line, thus allowing a ship’s main guns wider field of fire than you’d get if they were all on the same level (several WWI & WWII battleship designs had that issue).

Unknown Anonymous
Unknown Anonymous
5 years ago
Reply to  beta_520

Noticed that too was wondering if i missed it on other models or had he just fixed this little problem. Anyhow it makes definitely more sense that way. Im so pumped to see the finished one.

beta_520
beta_520
5 years ago

Yeah I think they were slightly superfiring (stacked vertically so they can fire over each other) just because of the hull shape before, I think this is maybe a bit more pronounced.

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
5 years ago
Reply to  beta_520

This raised another observation I noticed about the octuple: was it always perfectly flat on the hull’s sloped surface or was it always flushed with the slope and this is a design choice? If not, it’d make some unique advantages of them having a firing arc on things below the vessel’s trench if it was far away enough.

PhantomFury
PhantomFury
5 years ago
Reply to  Fractalsponge

I see, thanks for the detailed clearification!

Grand Fleet Admiral Spaceman 28
Grand Fleet Admiral Spaceman 28
5 years ago

Is this the IMP 1 or 2? I can’t tell yet.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

IMP 2 with the detail of the Avenger.

Grand Fleet Admiral Spaceman 28
Grand Fleet Admiral Spaceman 28
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

I see it now with the bridge. And lack of smaller weapons so far.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

Actually there are a lot of light turbolasers and heavy laser cannons around the layers if you look at it close enough.

Grand Fleet Admiral Spaceman 29
Grand Fleet Admiral Spaceman 29
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

So a Imp 2 with the weapons power of the 2 but the variety of the 1?
Weird.

Anonymous
Anonymous
5 years ago

Awesome And some light turbolasers and heavy laser cannons which is neat but no medium turbolasers which is one of the thing I was expecting to be on the Imperator but I’m sure you got the good reason for not adding those.
Also love the oct heavy turbolasers details!

Chris Bradshaw
Chris Bradshaw
5 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

When Fractal does the trench detailing, I think you’ll find your medium turbolaser batteries there.

valoren
valoren
5 years ago

Yes ! triple axial turbos FTW.
By the way, happy new year.

gorkmalork
gorkmalork
5 years ago

Gotta love those main-turret closeups, PD mounts & general luscious greebling. You remain a crucial bastion of unmitigated SW joy, Fractal.