All right all, after many years, it’s time. Tector!
This may be unpopular but my take on it is basically a slightly different ISD. We know the hull plan to be nearly identical to an ISD from ROTJ. Before Rogue One, I would have said that a Devastator-contemporary should have different ANH model style details, but then ILM basically went with ISDII details with some ANH elements. Works for me as a starting point.
Right now, I’ve modified the gut battery, and added a new terrace layer to bring a bigger reactor completely internal. This, along with say a Venator main power plant in the old main hangar volume, brings us to 1.7-1.8x ISD power. This is closer to Allegiance (~6xISD), which works for me thematically. I expect identical engines at this point but may be talked out of it…
Would a Tector at the very least have a shuttle bay? It seems odd that a ship of that size wouldn’t be able to at least carry shuttles as that would be the most efficient way to transfer personnel around.
It’ll have a shuttle bay. Just not a full-fledged TIE hangar.
Not that it wouldn’t be able to carry fighters
What’s the funcion of rangefindery-looking thing on the turret roof? Is it that straightforward?
Probably for long-range fire. I don’t know much about the Tector-class star destroyer, but I’d have to say that it’s purpose is for long-range targeting.
If I were to guess, I’d guess that you are correct. I’d assume the guns took targeting from the main ship sensors, but having backups on the guns themselves is a time-honored tradition in naval gunnery and was commonly done on the real-world warships, especially gun-based ones of the WW2 era and earlier. They became important in several major engagements when damage physically or metaphorically cut the lines of communication, or damaged the main targeting systems.
I can’t imagine the smaller system on the gun would be better than the ship’s main sensors due to size alone, but I could see the advantages of having a dedicated array in case of damage or if the ship’s main sensors are focusing on other things during a frantic battle.
Hi, this might have been asked to death already, but do you use some sort of particle emitter for the minor details that are scattered around everywhere with cleanup afterwards or do you individually place every single piece? On turrets and major parts i’d imagine you have to do it all manually, but on large areas like the side trenches of ISD’s where it’s just clutter everywhere i’d imagine it to be infinitly faster with almost the same result to use particle emitters. Just thought i’d ask 🙂
I do it all manually. Particle emission will let you fake it reasonably well but it’s not the same.
On the subject of different engines, it seems the Tector could be seen as a similar ship to our Zumwalt class Destroyer. An attempt at a streamlining of a concept, but with a much larger power plant, it is able to be a test bed for experimental designs, such as more powerful engines, weapons, sensors, etc.
If I was to offer a change, since you appear to be open to suggestions… I would move the main battery turrets out further towards the edge of the ship. That way you can put them all in a line and they can have a wider arch of attack. It also puts the turret more in line with the Allegiance since you are already making comparisons to it. It would also make the ship look significantly more intimidatingly with those turret out a the edge. Since the inspiration for these is a WWII battleship, there is little more intimating then cannons hanging out over the edge of a great big ship.
Ooo the Tector I always wanted to see what your version of it would look like.
I like what I see so far, look forward to seeing the finished product.
Will there be hanger space of some kind? I get that it will not carry all the TIEs…but I would imagine a ship like this would need shuttles and other support vessels.
Nah the Tector was like the Allegiance in that it didn’t have a hanger bay at all.
It was a republic ship originally so it was basically the Republic Clone Wars era Imperator but with more weapons a bigger reactor core and a lot more armor.
Think of it like a proto allegiance almost.
That did make little sense from beginning. Sure, elimination of main hangar space but every landing space? Ship of this size would need at least that forward shuttle hangar for personnel transfer, inspections, orbit-to-ground flights ect. Chris is right in this case, ship of this size do need some support crafts. So I hope that Fractal’ would consider this argument valid and would leave this little hangar in the bow for the shuttles.
Exactly…personnel and cargo shuttles, boarding craft, landing craft, etc…something this size is not going to have nothing.
It will retain the forward shuttlebay, just like in the movie.
Cool. Thanks for the reply.
It probably still has docking ramps for loading and unloading and docking ports for shuttles. But as for a dedicated hanger bay or hanger space for fighters that it does not have.
But as for the lore the Tector does not have a dedicated hanger bay same as the allegiance.
If you look at Fractal’s Allegiance model there’s a small hangar forward on the underside of the hull, much like the small hangar on the ISD. I believe the Tector will have the same sort of small hangar.
If I remember right it’s just a little hanger for things like shuttles.
Since canonically the Allegiance doesn’t have a fighter complement.
This should be interesting. Looking forward to the side-by-side comparison shots with the ISD in the final Tector post.
Good to see your work on the Tector-class! Do you have any plans for the bottom since there won’t be a hangar? I’m sure anything would look better than a blank hull.