Open Source Construction Techniques for Craft Aesthetics

[Halsfury]

This is an entry on how to make some neat looking fairings

I just came up with this in a failed attempt at a Saturn V, it's the Saturn IB

It uses 4 sets of the SLS main engine part in an arrangement that copies the Saturn I with only one hard to spot difference, but I made it look cooler

Here's a close up of the engines, notice the bell shaped engine mounts

in order to make this you just need 4 of the big 3m tanks and 4 of the SLS engines and 4 1/4 size 2m tanks

just clip the 1/4 2m tanks into the bottom of the 3m tanks and then clip the SLS engines onto the top of the smaller fuel tank, then adjust the arrangement of the engine with wasd keys to look however you like

NOTE: This thing doesn't need all the fuel in the first stage since it's only lifting a small command module, and 4 engines producing 3200KN of force each should fit most requirements for lifting

Edited April 3, 2014 by Halsfury

[GusTurbo]

Looks cool! Are any of the engine bells clipping into each other?

Here's an engine cluster I made. You take 4 KR-1 liquid boosters and mount them underneath a size 3 tank using either a cubic strut or radial attachment point, then moving them into place so none of the engine bells are overlapping.

There are probably some really clever engine arrangements you can make with the new liquid booster, which I'm eager to see.

[Halsfury]

Looks cool! Are any of the engine bells clipping into each other?

Here's an engine cluster I made. You take 4 KR-1 liquid boosters and mount them underneath a size 3 tank using either a cubic strut or radial attachment point, then moving them into place so none of the engine bells are overlapping.

There are probably some really clever engine arrangements you can make with the new liquid booster, which I'm eager to see.

I don't think any of the engines overlap, but if they do they are certainly in the centre of the cluster where you can't see them

Nice rocket by the way, it looks a lot safer than the Ares I

[Overfloater]

I've made cool fairings for my interplanetary Apollo...

____

Q&A:

Does it make rockets fly better?

-No.

Is it aerodynamic?

-In a way

Will this conserve fuel?

-Not at all.

Is it cool enough to use anyway???

-Absolutely!!!

Edited April 4, 2014 by Overfloater

[Rune]

Looks cool! Are any of the engine bells clipping into each other?

Here's an engine cluster I made. You take 4 KR-1 liquid boosters and mount them underneath a size 3 tank using either a cubic strut or radial attachment point, then moving them into place so none of the engine bells are overlapping.

http://i.imgur.com/bB3sScz.png

There are probably some really clever engine arrangements you can make with the new liquid booster, which I'm eager to see.

That's the first thing I did with those engines too. About the only way you can use the huge KR-2L as a proper upper stage engine with a big mass ratio and still have a proportionately sized core. And the combo is amazing, 320s isp at sea level for the core and boosters, and 380s for the upper stage, all of that at T/W>>30. I doubt you can do better... here's the finished thing, 75mT to Jool (LKO+2.3km/s), or 250mT in 70km circular orbit (the EDS+75mT payload stack). I'm sorry the pics don't show the bottom cluster very well, but the whole thing is not difficult to recreate, the boosters are just crossfed to the core directly:

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I however, went with clipping them on top of each other and running a single fuel line to one of them, 3 parts for the whole engine and it runs fuel without issues. I'm getting the hang of how fuel flow gets blocked by clipping, when you put several things in the same node only the fuel flow between the first two gets affected, the next part in the same node only counts as joined to the one put before. If I explain myself correctly, which I doubt.

Edit: I can't read, at all. What I did is completely different from what you did, I took two 4 engine clusters and clipped them together with a 90º offset to get a 8 engine core with 6400kN. You have 8000kN in there, plus fuel, and more T/W... no wonder you think that is a tad excessive, not to mention you are stretching the limits of believability by clipping fuel inside fuel... how about trying my way?

Rune. Amazing the first rocket I build in 0.23.5 came into thrust limitations I had to cheat my way across...

Edited April 4, 2014 by Rune

[GusTurbo]

I've made cool fairings for my interplanetary Apollo...

Q&A:

Does it make rockets fly better?

-No.

Is it aerodynamic?

-In a way

Will this conserve fuel?

-Not at all.

Is it cool enough to use anyway???

-Absolutely!!!

Nice fairings! You seem to have a gift for using wing parts.

Edited April 4, 2014 by GusTurbo

[Giggleplex777]

I used a similar method to Rune's while attaching two LFBs to make a powerfuller core stage for my SLS.

It's the only ARM liquid fueled engine I use, and really hope they don't nerf this one.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[Tankbuster32]

Apparently lots of people thought of that, oh well it makes for great 2.5m stages. These do require some fuel line trickery though.

[FishInferno]

Since people are showing off their clipped engines for the new size fuel tanks, I thought i'd share mine:

Four mainsails:

Step one:

Step two:

Step three:

Step four:

Done!

Sorry for the bad quality, my computer is not the best for ksp.

Edited April 6, 2014 by FishInferno

[RocketscientistV]

This one is self explanatory, Rotate radial Ant Engines into a fuel tank for it to look like coolant.

[LABHOUSE]

Here's a very compact and capable space taxi, for moving Kerbals between spacecraft, or roving on planets, or whatever

http://imgur.com/a/DyGsJ

Finally a safer way to EVA

[astropapi1]

Finally a SAFER way to EVA

I see what you did there.

[sgt_flyer]

my new ullage pods 1 restartable, the other not

the basic build is the same for both, using solar panels casings as the 'body'

the non restartable one use 2 separatrons, with thrust limiter at 22.5 and 3.2 units of solid fuel each. (that matches the LV-1R thrust)

the restartable one use two LV-1R's, and a oscar-B fuel tank for fueling the pod. (caution, do not mount on another fuel tank, or the LV-1R's will pump fuel from the fuel tank once they depleted the oscar B )

here are the 'building' steps i used :

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here are the .craft files of the subassemblies :

Restartable Ullage pod

Non-Restartable Ullage pod

the restartable ullage pod has 10 parts, the non restartable one has 9 parts.

these pods were meant to somewhat replicate Ariane V upper stage ullage pods, but they can add a small nice touch on any rocket (you can even hide RCS thrusters inside, or use the LV-1R's nozzles to 'fake' additional RCS thrusters for your spacecrafts replica's )

i might post in a few days some infos on my stock launch towers

here's a preview of my latest addition to my ariane V launch pad, the cryo arms (for cryogenic upper stages )

clic the image to see the .gif animation

Edited April 8, 2014 by sgt_flyer

[horndgmium]

I've got some VTOL building techniques if anyone is interested

[karolus10]

My poor attempt of replicating Saturn I -ish tank clustering:

[GusTurbo]

Poor attempt? That looks awesome.

[karolus10]

Poor attempt? That looks awesome.

It had rather terrible TWR with "only" 8 engines, but With some tampering and adding... more realistic trust it fly like a charm. Also I was surprised that stock Lv-909 had enough trust (yet barely) to make into orbit still with some fuel left in 3.75m tank.

Inspired by this

EDIT_1: Stock, "Flight ready" version, using stock thrust values in first stage engines. Payload(but also it's 23t lighter than kerbal X) and fuel tanks (second stage fuel level is tweaked down too) scaled down to compensate lower engines thrust.

Edited April 9, 2014 by karolus10

[Blue]

I wish I had some new techniques to report, but as yet, I don't.

[astropapi1]

My new ullage pods 1 restartable, the other not

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to sgt_flyer again."

Enough said.

[RapidUnplannedDissasembly]

Woah- nice idea astropapi1, ive gotta find a way to use that.

[problemecium]

Just a small tip but I thought it wouldn't hurt too much to post it:

The long boosters (and new extra-long booster) make decent structural components if you want a long/tall craft without it being too floppy or having an excessive part count, as prior to 0.23.5 the long booster was the longest part in the game, and now the extra-long booster is, while neither of them weigh too much when empty. Just remember to empty out all the fuel first! And I also set the thrust limiter to 0 just for good measure.

[ThatNoob]

I'd like to share something i've been using a lot lately.

Pretty Nukes

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[GusTurbo]

That's a pretty interesting look. I'd be curious to see how it looks with even more toroidal tanks added.

[astecarmyman]

Can someone make a tutorial on how to make a working stock rover suspension? (that doesn't cause craft to flip over)

I already know of one way, but I want to experiment with others...

[ThatNoob]

That's a pretty interesting look. I'd be curious to see how it looks with even more toroidal tanks added.

That's something i should try out, although i think i have find a way to make a radial version.

I'll probably edit this post soon.

EDIT:

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Edited April 15, 2014 by ThatNoob
Added album