Spacebucket Challenge

[Kiwi Imperialist]

I like the ideas for the steam battleship challenge and the Ram challenge myself. Would the C.S.S. North Carolina and C.S.S. Mississippi be fictional even they would become the Scorpion class ironclad in the Royal Navy?

The Scorpion-class ironclads are not suited to either challenge, having too few guns for the Steam Battleship Challenge and lying outside the specified time frame of both. Regardless, it would be better if you used any real life ship as inspiration for a fictional design rather than drawing a real life design under a different flag.

[Rob2012]

I like the ideas for the steam battleship challenge and the Ram challenge myself. Would the C.S.S. North Carolina and C.S.S. Mississippi be fictional even they would become the Scorpion class ironclad in the Royal Navy?

The Scorpion-class ironclads are not suited to either challenge, having too few guns for the Steam Battleship Challenge and lying outside the specified time frame of both. Regardless, it would be better if you used any real life ship as inspiration for a fictional design rather than drawing a real life design under a different flag.

I meant using something like the scorpion class ironclad in the ram challenge, not the steam battleship. They weren't called the Laird Rams for nothing.

[Kiwi Imperialist]

Spacebucket Challenge Results
The Spacebucket Challenge poll has closed and the results are now available. Competition for the top spot was fierce. One point separates first from second, and second from third in turn. Congratulations to JCSTCap, Rodondo, and BillKerman1234 who achieved first, second, and third place respectively. JCSTCap's aesthetically pleasing Type 19 Long Gun Slip Nuclear garnered 181 points, Rodondo received 180 points for the towering Selene VI, and BillKerman1234's USS Senden with its wonderful cutaway achieved 179 points. Great work!




For those interested the Ram Challenge is now open.

[Charguizard]

Many congratulations to the podium on three well detailed and interesting entries, and thanks to kiwi once more for a successful challenge.

[Corp]

Congrats to the winners.

Some brief comments on people's entries

sebu
I've always loved your stuff and your entry is no exception. Like the rest of your work it's well thought out and grounded.

As for your comment about parts, I recognize a few bits in there that started life on some of my old space stuff (e.g. the parachute) but nothing worth crediting.


maxwell john
I like the design and the concept but I'm not totally sold on the shading. In addition I feel like the side docking should have gotten the black outline treatment. It's well drawn but doesn't match the drawing style used elsewhere such as the airlock forwards of it.

Rodondo
You really went all out here. Drawings of this scope oftentimes seem like they fall into a trap of repetitive, but you've managed to leap over that trap. A few bits here and there like some of the railings seem incomplete but with this scale and the time frame they're not something I marked down for.

APDAF
An excellent heavy lift vehicle. I love the capsule and the exploded view although I feel like it might have benefited from the inclusion of the lander.

Armoured man
It's well drawn but feels a bit underwhelming. I think that's due to the fact I'm more used to your excellent SBY stuff.


Me,
I'm already thinking about revision 8. Also kicking myself for forgetting to draw the deployed mast on the front view. Kicking myself that I got inspiration for finishing a more intresting aborted alternate idea I had for entry the day *after* the challenge ended.

acelanceloet
The first of two gundam style entries. It feels like something straight out of the UC. I'm digging the mobile suits and all around design.

BillKerman1234
My favorite entry of the lot. An excellent take on the TinTin rocket. The cutaway is fantastic, especially the angled view of the lunar tank. I'm hard pressed to find any real faults in the drawing.

WesleyWestland
Another lunar launch vehicle, I'm a bit mystified by the double fairings but other than well drawn. Your colors seem fine to me and I love the little lander.

Saryn
I like it. A nice space battleship but I don't really have much to say on it.

Sp3ctra_star
While I like the design, the whole amidship section feels empty. I'm also not entirely confident on what shape parts of it are supposed to be, especially as it relates to the description.

Aiseus
I like it, very halo-esque but for some reason it looks backwards?

Themax
Excellent drawing. Very well done in adapting the pinup girl to the shape of the hull. Not fully sold on 12 of the cutters fitting inside

JCSTCap
I love the eye and the patch and the shape. I do fell however that superstructure and the CIWS seem a bit tacked on and the top forward ciws seems like it would hit the superstructure when fully elevated. That's purely a matter of personal taste though so it's not something I hold against the drawing.

Charguizard
The second gundam style entry and again something that I think fits right into UC. The Mobile Suit in particular is amazing.


Kiwi Imperialist
A stark diffrence from the others in terms of style. I love the space bubble car.

[Themax]

Corp has commented the content and I feel like I could also give my feedbacks so I'll do the same.


Sebu
An excellent take on a near-future interplanetary spacecraft, which I can totally see in the near future.

Maxwell John
As corp has said, the design is interesting but the shading could have gotten some more work.

Rodondo
The design is utterly massive, and I love it, despite at some point having the feeling that it fell repetitive. A more careful examination however is enough to convince me that it is one of the best designs yet seen.

APDAF
An interesting design that gives a "Russian Saturn V" vibe, I feel like it could have gotten more details and I'd have enjoyed to see the lander but it is well deserving of its place.

Armoured Man
I like this design, not because it makes "sense" to me but because I find it to be nicely drawn and because I love the aesthetic which reminds me of a XXth century ocean liner with big guns.

Corp
A very nice design with a nicely detailed interior, although some of the colours used to depict it are confusing. I really like your take on the mast, which is close to what I envisioned for my carrier but much better executed and I hope to find inspiration in that design. I hope to see your other ideaat some point.

Acelancelot
Gundams are cool however I cant figure out if they are deployed from the aft or from the front.

BillKerman1234
Not unlike corp, I find this entry to be very nicely done, just lacking the familiar red and white chess-board scheme of the Tintin rocket we love so much and the orange suit. I especially love the cutaway which I could definitely draw inspiration from for my own designs. My good person, I must congratulate this work.

WesleyWestland
Traditional rockets are stuff I like to see and yours is not an exception, I love the "exploded" view and I really like the way the lander was done. Perhaps it could have deserved a bit more attention shading-wise, but as you are colourblind, It's not something you can do much about it.

Saryn
A nice take on a space warship with nice attention on the specifications and Equipment, something I found hard to do with my own design. However for such a large ship, I wish it had more details, although I can understand the limitations of the dreadnought scale.

Sp3ctra_star
The design is nice in appearance, and feels very organic, partially reminiscent of old Japanese animation spaceships, however, as Corp said, it is hard to know which parts are what, and the amidship section does indeed feel empty even tho its a part where you could have easily added some detail.

Aiseus
Nice design, I just have questions about the flag, its a detail I have never seen in any spaceship and I wonder what it brings, is it like the moon-landing flag with metal supports holding it "flowing" ?

Themax (me)
I am glad I was able to finish this design which is a strong departure from my previous ones and is definitely bigger than anything I envisioned. I first considered working on a fleet carrier but the sheer scale of such a vessel would have made this work an hassle. As an answer to corp, the cutters inside of the hangar bay have their radiators retracted and are set-up in what is essentially a rotary missile launcher, a choice that is explained by the need to make it more compact, while also making it easier to rearm the cutters. The hangar is correctly sized for those cutters but I see my error in that I should maybe have spent a few more time to design the inside section, it is a bit confusing rn.

I wanted to make a ship that had a "sci-fi" aesthetic, fitting for the setting which is in the 3300s all while retaining as many realistic physics-accurate aspects as possible, which explained my take on radiators, an hybrid drive relying on fusion/antimatter propulsion and a ship built as a skyscraper (akin to those from The Expanse). I think I nailed the design I wanted and although there is room for many improvements, it is the result I hoped for and I am glad to have delivered on time. I look at releasing an updated design in the near future, that includes improved design of the optics and equipments and a better cutaway.

In the future, older vessels might be made that are fully dependent on real physics and dont include any fancy handwavium and theory to allow for FTL com, travel and so on, but I definitely want to increase the size of the fleet first.

JCSTCap
The best design imo, well deserving of its first place. I dont have much to say, I could totally see this existing in the next century with a vertical layout (if it does not have one already) and big radiators, which I find to be a big plus. Your ship was really an inspiration for my own as some of its aspects really added a lot to it and convinced me to seek a similar result. You were, in a way, one of the designers of the Vauban class escort carrier .

Charguizard
Gundams are cool and I can better figure out where they come out. It really is a nice design.

Kiwi Imperialist
The fact such a thing exist in your timeline, is mass-produced and seemingly run on physics-breaking techs is impressive, even more when it is just ~200 years after today, it's nothing too fanciful, just an average "spacecar" for the average joe, with questionable design choices that make it feel truly unsafe (I mean, a reactor without shielding just behind the driver? It is a call for an accident), and this is why I love it so much.