Shrike-class Scout Ship

This ship is my first proper blueprint style map ("whiteprint" provided also) and made as a custom map for Kyrinn S. Eis, one of my $5 tier patrons. 

The assignment I got had a list of requirements, such as:

- A starship with room for about 40 people.

- It is an narrow, arrowhead / delta shape, with the central portion as the bridge, crew stations, engineering, living area, mess, etc. 

- The 'wings' of the delta are fuel tanks.

- I would like a forward fixed weapon and a dorsal/top and ventral/belly turret indicated. 

- Two small shuttle bays (which lower to allow the craft to depart/dock) on either side, each with an external airlock.

- Scale of 1 square = 5'

The instructions were clear and I had a quite clear pictureof the ship's layout in my head from the start. But that was not the issue. What took the most time (besides having an important deadline at work and family matters to handle) was to figure out how to do the map. I wanted to try the blueprint style, but I was not sure how to execute it. At first I though about doing the whole map in vector graphics, but that felt too sterile and clean for my style. I do like maps like that, but I figured it's not my thing as a cartographer / artist. 

Eventually I decided to go with a hybrid technique where I first drew the main layout (silhouette and walls) in Illustrator with vector lines. After the general shape and layout of the ship was approved, I printed it out and drew the details and the shading over it. After I was done with this phase, I scanned the drawing, cleaned it up in Photoshop and applied the blueprint style and text labels for the different parts of the ship.

The final result was the...

 Shrike-class Scout Ship

The Shrike-class scout ships are the tip of the spear in tracking and fighting the interstellar space piracy. These fast and maneuverable ships are designed for long-range scanning, high acceleration chases and interception tasks on remote systems with minimal military support. 

A typical Shrike-class scout ship is armed with a forward mounted railgun powerful enough to disable a small cruiser, twin-torpedo tubes and dorsal and ventral PDC turrets. 

In addition to the mounted weaponry, the Shrike-class scout ships are typically equipped with one or two boarding shuttles docked in one of the ship's shuttle / cargo bays. 

The ship's crew complement includes at least 14 crew members and 8 marines trained in ship boarding operations. At most the ship can support a crew of 24 with 16 marines (40 persons), when double-bunks are used in the crew berths. 

The ship's operational range is 20 light-years or 3 months in active duty without resupply. 

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There are three versions of this map included with this post. The map files can be also downloaded via Dropbox, HERE

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I hope you like this :)