Thrust the Process
Also available on Patreon. Join the discussion and follow me there
Sometimes you just roam the internet and see some designs that just click in, and you MUST make them into miniatures. Not sure if that happens to everyone, but it surely happens to me quite often.
And sometimes you get a pretty neat and flawless flow, from the references to "understanding what is what" all the way to the finished piece.
The image that caught my eye was this. A simple thruster, and I think I kind of understand the way the flaps work, with the actuators pushing the flaps in a concentric movement tightening the nozzle. Or something like that.
The mechanism translated pretty well in digital form too.
And that's about it. Together with another "nozzle + pipes + tanks" sort of generic variant, it builds up the permutations of spaceship styles you will be able to get with Full Spectrum Overdrive.
The printed version might be a bit small for what's supposed to do, so I might try enlarging it to show better at the end of models - either way, one of those happy accidents that can happen in creative projects.
