Thanks!!
I forgot to mention, that most of these designs are based on those I've seen in dreams before. Except for the helicopter and, obviously, the Nostromo airlock. The helicopter was an idea by my forum friend Tsheten of Bhutan, who wants to study that form of anti-torque design on a rotorcraft, so I thought I'd help his 'vision' out by drawing a concept.
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And now for the promised concept art for Alien Reborn:
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This is the very first concept of the USCSS Dreadnaught, then called USS "Logan". It was originally a military vessel like the USS Sulaco, with a crew of 10, eight of them being space marines.
I started this adventure when I was 13 years old.
In an early draft of the script, the ship's name was changed to have an ironic meaning... "Dreadnaught" literally translating to "without fear", serving as the main setting of a horror film. It still retained military status, but the ship's class changed to a scout ship.
I then decided to rewrite the script, being that the first one was the first script I've ever written, and therefore the worst one ever written. I drastically changed the story to make it a civilian starship like the USCSS "Nostromo", but still with the original 10 crew member count as in my early draft.
I decided the script should call for the Dreadnaught to deliver some kind of cargo to a certain area in deep space, or pick up cargo to deliver it to another location where the story would unfold. One of the locations was an artificial colonial planetoid called Ketzel 942.
It had a back story as well:
"It takes the company almost eight years to fully complete these planetoids which are about the quarter of the size of the Earth's moon, about two years faster than terraforming. Unfortunately it's more expensive than terraforming, so the company dropped all funding for these complexes during the first four years of their construction. Only two of them are in existence, with accomodation for only 400 colonists. Since no customers invested in the colonization of these complexes, they only serve as deep-space re-supply spaceports with a maximum of 30 inhabitants, mostly workers."
I decided that would be too complicated, especially since it appears so briefly, so I dropped the idea. Instead the ship will simply appear towing cargo in the opening sequence. I also simplified the plot, and reduced the crew count to 5. I changed most of the names as well, and added the ship's on board intelligence, named Overscan (named after the administrator of the Secret Projects forum, who I'm friends with).
Here are further concepts of the ship:
This is a pressure door concept, with an emergency system where the panelling blasts away if it malfunctions.
This is a heavy intrasystem shuttle, which never made it to the script.
Description:
"Used for quick interplanetary or intra-system transportation, cargo-hauling, or surface bombing; Four hybrid booster engines with transatmospheric capability and multi-directional thrusters; Advanced communication system with "blade antennae" for reaching system-wide frequencies, plus universal communications with any type of air/space vehicle; Weather radar under nose, "needle" air-data probe mounted on nose, anti-collision early-warning system with automatic evasion and course-correction, infrared and NV tracking and targeting software, interplanetary or intra-system target tracking radar evident with convertible dish able to stow away in the fuselage to prevent blockage of airflow to the upper transatmospheric intake."
In the script, many types of craft and equipment can be found in the cargo bay, such as a "Hover-Copter", tracked surface repairing unit, and several utility/repair vehicles, including "Taarna".
DA artist Rodney Sellars drew me sketches of three of those vehicles...
The utility/repairing craft, later named "Taarna":
The "Hover-Copter":
And the tracked surface repairing unit:
However, his design for the Hover-Copter was far too large and I decided to shrink it down to a Nagler-type design:
I had also realized that I didn't plan the escape shuttle design. So I decided that I recreate the utility/repair shuttle to a more boxy shape, and give the escape shuttle the aerodynamic look.
Taarna revised concept:
And so I designed the escape shuttle like the earlier Taarna concept, with a mix of another design Sellars had done, a small hovercraft called "Aeronaut". With his kind permission, I used that name.
I removed the repairing arms and made a special mechanism to reveal the shuttle within the Dreadnaught's hull, in which a panel slides back, exposing the craft to the vacuum, and a large hinge would rotate the shuttle to an outward position, allowing the shuttle to safely blast away.
Sellars' concept for "Aeronaut":
My concept, as the escape craft, demonstrating it's activation:
Early observation room concept:
These were tests for logos for the crew patches:
I decided to go with the last one, since I figure a bit of a ZZ Top reference would be fun.
Final design:
Final design, alternate version:
In the script, the characters completely improvise their equipment... the tracking device, flamethrowers, etc.
There are two different flamethrowers: A basic propane model with limited range and less damage (Model 1), and a more portable version with liquid fuel (Model 2).
Model 1:
Model 2:
Tracking device: