Robinson complex

Big spacecraft composed of several smaller ones has been my favourite toy idea since childhood. First such papercraft I have seen was a two section Interplanetary cruiser from Abc magazine; its "shark mouth" bow was an inspiration for two scratchbuilds (first unfinished, second - a three section monster - eventually scrapped). I managed to collect a complete print, but don't plan to build it anymore. Abc's second separable ship was Galaxy, but it looks way too toylike to me. But now we have a complex of eight ships, looking so pretty, believeable, and totally irresistible :) . Meet Jan Rükr's Robinson complex:




Here is the model's website:
Robinson - Alienspapercraft 3

And here is translation of the official background story:

Quote:

It was a system of several inhabited worlds around a beautiful blue sun. I was travelling to Vostacor by R7 interplanetary line when something happened to our star. I don't know exactly what it was, but the sun suddenly burst into blue fiery cloud, spreading its tentacles in all directions. Planets vanished in it one by one. All that was left were faint orange traces, as if written by a huge invisible pencil. Anger mixed with desperation and I felt hopeless. Our whole civilization was erased in the blink of an eye. R-seven's captain headed for outer perimeter of the system, hoping to join another survivors and to get away from that bluish scourge. I'll make long story short and tell you about the Robinson. The complex was assembled in the orbit around Terra-F, the outermost world with a small colony. She is composed of eight ships, making a unique self-supporting, habitable space island. First is our ship, REA Liner R7 number 561, connected to Orca factory ship, heart of the whole complex holding everything together. Beam Catcher, a ship with long range sensors and transmitters, is attached on the portside. Ion refinery on the starboard takes care of fuel production. Behind the Orca, there are two tugs with powerful engines: long range Next Liner and Solar Explorer with a shield generator. Flagship Opalia, facing backwards, forms the stern. And finally, Neucom's luxury cruiser with a huge garden and command bridge tops it all. It's been almost ten years since no more than 2000 people decided to start looking for a new habitable world with this complex. Long range sensor data files and remains of the Solar archive provided a blue planet in a yellow sun system, matching our parameters and not very far from our current position. At this speed, I guess the journey will take at least another ten years, but I believe Robinson will safely get us to our new home.

Because I don't have enough builds already in progress (just about four :rolleyes:), I'm starting the Robinson now. It will be a long run with lots of tuning and modifications, even lights. Also, I'm going to modify and expand the story as well and try to bring more science into the fiction. Prepare your popcorn and have fun!

P.S.: this is a weekend-only job. Serenity is being textured on weekdays on another computer and will not be affected by this :cool:.