The human race is about to attempt its first interstellar voyage. Years of development and preparations have gone into the first deep space vessel christen the Hermann Weyl. The first of the Way Finder class exploration and reconnaissance ships at the core of these vessels is a new drive, capable of opening transverse-able rifts between two points in space. These points, once created, are forever open, giving humans the ability to create great networks of interconnected systems. However, these points in space are fixed, requiring the advanced sensors of the Way Finders to find the precise locations a rift can be formed, and due to the massive energy required to form a rift the Weyl has been sent to the furthers point of human expansion in the Sol system. This is where your first campaign begins.
In creating the Way Finder class vessels I took design ideas from current space agencies and extend the theme. I wanted the ship to look new, capable of the feats in which the crew are going to be faced with, but also primitive. It also had to have the look of both research and cargo vessel capable of carrying supplies and tools needed for what could be a very long mission.
Side View
Rear View
This is the first vessel to reach distant stars, created by scientists and engineers with little regard to its design beyond function. However I also attempted to capture the grace of modern solar arrays, unable to be captured in stills the large solar panels fold back gracefully, flower like, when the ship is about to open a rift.
Top View
Front View
When in normal space the Way Finder uses its main engine to push the ship through space. The large solar arrays a extended in normal space acting as both energy collector and long range sensor antenna. This array can be folded against the hull during meteor showers or similar interstellar phenomenon. However, during rift travel the main engine is shut off and the solar array is folded backward over the main engine exhaust.
This model is created using Blender 2.79, the graininess you see in the images is caused by the method I took the screenshots and wont show up in the final renders or in the game itself.
This ship is a part of my WayFinder project. You can find out more about it by checking out my Fundition page as well as some of my older posts on Steemit