Happy New Year!

First off, Happy New Year!
I passed Ghosts from the Past on to Goodlifeguide.com Sunday. They were on vacation for the holiday however so no movement on the manuscript until after today I am afraid.

I have made some progress with Multiverse 2. I have 3 stories in it, it is just under 100 pages. I am shooting for 300 pages so if it starts creeping up to that mark I'll start dropping stories I haven't finished yet for the next book like I did before. :)
I have also been pecking at Battle Lines. :)

The past several days we (the betas and I) have been discussing various things. We've been working out some of the specs for some of the ships as well as discussing the weapon turrets, grades, ranges, etc.
I finally got around to modeling the Newmann, Arboth, Arboth escort carrier variant, Nelson, and Nelson flight VI refit. (I used my library of RJ001's ship parts for them) I also took a stab at the Derfinger remodel. (I am going to use a model from Skynet and Simon on Renderosity I think) It is insane however, I am still gibbering over the thing. I certainly wouldn't want to go up against it!!

I class the Nelson as a light destroyer and the Arboth as a heavy destroyer. More on that later. :)

Here is the Nelson. I used 4 ships to make this ship. I honestly don't remember if I described it in Fools Gold or other books, and I am too lazy to check right now. lol

The Flight V version (A hasty upgrade during the beginning of the Xeno war) has an appliqué armor shell over the dorsal side to cover some of her vitals. She mounts lasers and gauss weapons not phasers, grasers, or other weapons. She also has 4 missile tubes in her bow, along with 4 fixed lasers and a fixed graser with 4 lasers encircling it. You can't see it well, but there are 2 boat bays tucked into her flanks in the 1st notch.
The weapon like things on either chin are actually emergency thrusters on an armature. She can kick them on to brake or move the armature to maneuver.
The 2 spinal mount boxes in the bow under the shroud are actually her sensors and bow deflector.

Here is the Flight VI version. This is the latest upgrade.

This version replaces her old laser turrets (that lacked integrated sensors) with modern cruiser grade point defense phaser turrets. However the necessary modifications and additional power demand meant the number of turrets were cut in half. She keeps her 4 missile tubes, but gives up the 4 fixed lasers in her chin for an additional graser/laser cluster. She looses some of her magazine space but gains speed since her launchers have been updated.
Her gatling gauss turrets and fixed stern facing gatling have been replaced with modern gauss turrets. They are more powerful and fire at the same speed. They also require less maintenance but do require more power.
The appliqué armor is thicker and modern too. Everything possible was updated. Only the frame and basic shape are the same. SPOILER ALERT! This is the version Antigua and Pyrax will be building eventually. (along with Arboth and other destroyer classes) I believe, checking my notes, there were 2 Nelsons under construction in J3. Both will be Flight V versions with minor upgrades/updates. (It is easier to build a known ship from blueprints than change it mid construction) I'll have all sorts of stuff about the ships later. ;)
The Flight VI version has a wider notch for the boat bay. You can see the difference.

Hmm... I think I'll hold off on the Arboth and other ships since they need a better texture job.

Oh, if anyone asks, in a fight between an Arboth and a Nelson I'd put my money on a Arboth. She has more missile tubes in her bow, is bigger, and has single tube graser turrets to go along with the phasers and gauss turrets. She would chew a Nelson up easily.

Okay, that's it, I'm done for the evening. Ice cream is calling my name! :D

Have a safe and Happy New Year everyone!