Realised it's been a very long time since I last posted! Between work being manic and some rather depressing personal stuff I haven't had much motivation. But with all that going on, I did manage this:
I envisioned this as a pre-fall Eldar yacht, which exists solely for the enjoyment of sailing through the stars. So no weapons, but very, very fast.
Digging back through my sketchbook I realised the seed of this design had been planted many years ago. This sketch was done a long while back while musing on Eldar ship design. You can see the basic design notes are there in some form or other. This was done in pencil with shading using the classic "smudge it with your finger" method.
For this design, I wanted to make the design a blend of corsair and craftworld geometries. I also considered elements of the Nightwing and Phoenix craft. The Nightwing is a personal favourite, I still have an old resin model knocking around somewhere. Below is the first sketch, you can see the similarity to the old sketch. As these were very quick sketches, I didn't bother with proper construction, and just went at it with a biro! For a proper, good, sketch I normally box out the major components and angles to get the perspective right. Instead I went straight for a cod-isometric view (for those whose English isn't from a P. G. Wodehouse novel, not a proper isometric view but a rough approximation).
Unusually for me, I wanted to refine the design a bit, and also do little studies on various bits of the design. This is so I can get them right in my head before spending ages doing them in CAD. Eldar ship design is fiddly and complex. All my quickest and best designs have been when I've had the concept clear in my mind, which is where sketching is very useful. You can see one of the major changes here from a more solid forward sail to something a bit more like a lizard's crest. This makes it dominate the silhouette less. I also had a bit of a think about how the thruster would work and fit to the rest of the design. This was based off other Eldar thrusters. In the later images you can see some extra detail was added as well. The wings here were more based off the Nightwing, but they ended up being more like the Phoenix, just because the shape worked better and looked more "Eldar".
This last image is a closer look at the prow. As you can probably guess it's not a bit I was too sure about. The cutout and underside especially were tricky to get a handle on. The final model did away with the cutout altogether - I just couldn't get it to look right.
This is the final sketch of the design. The shape war nearly final, and I used it to add some hull detailing. The hull joins are really useful for breaking the big expanses of the hull up. The intakes in the wing roots were also quite good for creating a better transition in thickness between the hull and the wing. I've mirrored the image so it's easier to compare with the CAD images. I don't know why they're the other way around! I seem to sketch one way round but then design the other.
Below is an image of the final CAD design. The major changes from the sketches are the removal of the prow cutout, and the addition of hexagonal cutouts in the sails. This makes them much more interesting and less of an expanse of flat. The other little changes are a frame on the bridge, based off the grav-tank shapes, and little plates on the back of the hull. These extra plates hide the slightly dodge transition in the rear hull. There are also some regenerative cooling ducts on the thruster nozzle and some little fins as well.
Blender is a great tool for doing quick renders to see how a model catches the light so you can see how it would look once printed. Much better than CAD programs' built-in renderers. Here's a view of the rear hull, with a better view of the thruster. It's a big 'un!
This side view shows up the detailing along the keel a bit better.
After I designed this I realised it was far too big! So for the final upload I halved it in size to make it a bit more managable. I haven't checked for thin features, although I've always been amazed by what resin printers can manage.
The file is available from: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/eldar-sunjammer-tiny-dancer
This ship is called "Tiny Dancer" because it was the name of the boat my mum used to sail in the Solent a long, long time ago. She passed away from cancer recently and I really wanted something to honour her. I'm glad I hurried the design on a bit, she got to see it before she died which really meant a lot to me.
I also want to give a shout out to Macmillan, who were really wonderful to my family. They do good work, and always need donations at: https://www.justgiving.com/macmillan
If you want to support my work, I do love pizza: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/italianmoose