by John Douglass

Deployed by the Mercenary Army to protect the Banana Boats and Camel Boats, the Narwhale is so small that each of the two-man crew are isolated in their own escape pods. The front sensors are distanced from the rest of the ship by a long boom. Dual long-range antennas are atop the main hull and a moveable long-range high cycle-rate gun is below and abaft. Only two thruster clusters, flanking the main hull, are needed to maneuver this size of vessel. Main thrust is provided by the two hybrid rocket motors abaft, in turn flanked with additional fuel cells.

Sometimes you get a part and hold it in your hands and it tells you exactly how to use it. That's how it was with the toner cartiridges that became the people-pods of this ship. Of course, to have recognized how I was going to use them, I had to have been a Ma.K fan from all the way back when it was called SF3d. Naturally, I love the Lunardiver and the Falke, but it was one of the more recent designs, and one that doesn't require putty to effect, the Banana Boat, that inspired this build.

The overall cross-section of the people-pods and the inspiration ship dictated a basic cylindrical shape. The conical shape of the engineering hull and protruding engines, like many of the detail parts, just added some interest. The placement of the gun was dictated by the part I used to mount it. Similarly, many of the parts, like the radiator on top of the hull and the mounting bars around the engines, are there because they fit nearly perfectly both the ship and the design esthetic of the original. The antennas are there because otherwise the part they're glued to would make no sense. And SF3d vehicles have similar fins.

The sensor pod is there... Just because.

Image: Starting point

Image: front/right view

Image: Righ side

Image: Top/rear