Monday 14 January 2013

Steampunk SMS Emden, HG wells style

Here below is the SMS Emden, light cruiser designed specifically with aerial and space combat in mind.

This image, as everything else 3D in this blog, is straight from 3DS MAX, without tampering.


Just as the Royal Navy had started departing from traditional designing techniques with its HMS Dreadnought and subsequent capital ships, the German navy at last started questioning the wisdom of some design choices in warships.
It was found that converting ships to anti-gravity with the use of cavorite was done with great waste, and that new solutions had to be adopted if the ships had to out-perform the innovative British, French or Italian navies. Unlike the French (and their mess of prototypes), the Imperial navy would adopt a cautious approach and not attempt to revolutionize its designs -there was no Nouvelle Ecole in Tirpitz's Mind.


As it was, the Emden at last incorporated armament aligned with its gravity center and inertia center: a front gun and two torpedo/ missile tubes, one on each side. It was also the first German ships to incorporate a telescope for fire control, a precursor to the large stereoscopic one installed later on the Scharnhorst.

The main armament was two 10,5 cm SK L/40 in vacuum-capable turrets front and aft, and six same guns in open turrets. The former turrets did not perform very satisfactorily, having very poor ventilation and heat loss characteristics (crew had to wear vacuum suits most of the time, with the demand on stamina it represented).

Its propellers were installed widely apart so as to limit collateral damage and undue vibration, and the italian smoke exhaust system was at last copied (the smoke is forcefully vented on either side of the ship, depending on which side is engaging the enemy). Two assault ladders were installed in the belly, allowing for fast disembarking of raiding parties. The undercarriage has designed to allow for fast skid landings on uneven ground.

The typical three Wagner solid fuel rockets provide thrust for orbital and interplanetary travel: they were of acceptable performance but of great reliability (something the British achieved only after the Cressy and  Bellerophon disasters in 1906 and 1910).


The Emden performed well in its commerce raiding role, capturing more than 40 ships and orbital transports -both human and martian. She was able to escape British ships only to be ripped apart by an Asteroid Kraken while evading Martian vessels.

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