About the Rusty Bull
The Rusty Bull is a customized civilian freighter based on the Taurus class.
The ship is owned and operated by Josh Nicks, an experienced courier who decided it was better to buy an older freighter and augment it with newer weapons and sensors rather than spend it all on something new.
Josh is accompanied by gunner Rich Taylor, engineer Wayne "Dartmouth" Dart, Trudy the parrot, and thier rusty Type A robot.
This Taurus class freighter is powered by a twin plasma reactor, which feeds the engines through a series of conduits out to four side mounted sustainer engines, and two articulated side thrusters.
The sensors have been augmented significantly, providing the Bull with a better view of potential threats than most civilian ships out there.
Weapons on the ship consist of a dorsal defence turret, with a slower rate of fire compared to military equipment, and three sets of four micro missiles -- more deterrent arms than anything else.
Cargo is hauled by attaching containers to the back of the ship.
The general appearance of the Rusty Bull is one of a junk ship, and it's not an innaccurate assessment.
Still, the crew loves thier rust bucket of a ship, and hauling cargo through space, as long as the pay is good.
|
|
The Rusty Bull and her crew of three: captain, gunner, and engineer.
|
|
|
From the front, she looks quite dangerous, bristling with antennas and weapons.
|
|
|
However, the side view shows just how much of a mess this unique ship is.
|
|
|
All six engines are spread out to allow cargo containers to bolt to the back of the ship.
|
|
|
The far side isn't a mirror image. This thing really is held together with whatever is available.
|
|
|
A very boring cargo container.
|
|
|
The cockpit is covered in a wide array of sensors, antennas, and dishes. Seeing and avoiding threats at a distance is an important feature of the Rusty Bull.
|
|
|
The navigation HUD is a great help for the gunner.
|
|
|
The compact radar dish is flanked by two pairs of micro rockets banks.
|
|
|
The underside of the cockpit and its entennas.
|
|
|
Wide-set side thrusters provide great maneuverability, particularly for landing with heavy cargo.
|
|
|
Each side also has a pair of smaller sustainer engines.
|
|
|
These externally mounted structural struts hold the odd geometry of the ship together in flight.
|
|
|
While it's not a great idea, the crew stores thier side arms on the outside of the ship.
|
|
|
The main hatch is quite small, and not exactly conveniently placed.
|
|
|
Life support is crucial but unarmored.
|
|
|
More of the crew's weapons, plus thier coat of arms.
|
|
|
The defence turret on top is the heavy hitter for this ship, but it's rather outdated compared to comparable military equipment.
|
|
|
The cockpit is big enough for the captain and his parrot.
|
|
|
These flight controls aren't as automated as the new hardware.
|
|
|
If we could cut the ship in half and look inside the split-level deck, here's what we would see. The lower section holds the engine room, the mid deck has the cockpit, and the upper has the rest of the crew.
|
|
|
The crew poses with their weapons and helmets.
|
|
|
From inside, we see the gunner's station, and the targetting controls.
|
|
|
The engineer's station at the rear, with navigation plots and engine status readouts.
|
|
|
The crew in the upper deck.
|
|
|
The engine room in the lower deck, with twin plasma reactors, and energy conduits. Tending to the engines in flight is a rusty little Type A robot.
|
|
|
The crew posing one more time for the ad, this time with their parrot and robot.
|
|
The Rusty Bull was made from a pile of limited parts, built using unorthodox techniques, and postd to MOCpages in March of 2008.
To call it an experimental design is a bit of an understatement.
It's highly impractical but it does properly look like a janky mess of a ship.
Crew accomodations? What are those?
Honestly, the best way to describe it is an attempt to work with limited resources and still create detail (and greebles) with what was on hand, and I think I succeeded.
|
|
|
| General Characteristics |
|---|
| Name | Rusty Bull |
|---|
| Type | Taurus Class Civilian Freighter |
|---|
| Affliation | Josh Nicks, Private Contractor |
|---|
| Armament | 1 x Twin barrel defence turret
12 x micro rockets) |
|---|
| Propulsion | 6 x engines fed by a twin plasma reactor |
|---|
| Decks | 2.5 |
|---|
| Crew Compliment | 3 + Type A robot |
|---|
|
