As we required some sort of space craft for planetary exploration/landings, the Dove was born. (No fancy transporters here, just good old hardware!). The initial concept was to have a single shuttle-like vehicle on the main hub airlock, but as I stated in the last post, I upgraded that to a purpose built module for two new spacecraft. They were to be the next evolution of the Eagle, a new long range, faster transport with multiple uses and functions. The name was derived from "Doppelganger" again, but that vehicle was quite different; a lift body concept which was popular with NASA around that time (1969).
The lift body idea would not have worked with what I was going to put them through, so the only thing I kept was the name. To upgrade the Eagle to the next phase, I went opposite of a Year Two concept and made it logical. The inspiration came from the Swift spacecraft(s) from the "Brian the Brain" episode. (another fine miniature from Sir Martin).
I could never understand why the Swift (from yet another lost Earth expedition; are we seeing a trend here?) launched in 1996 with apparently three other Swifts and a Mother Ship, (which we never saw by the way...), was more advanced than the Eagles. So I reversed the timeline and made an Eagle/Swift Hybrid.
The Doves are 104' (32m) long, and are powered by a Mark XIII Queller Drive, with secondary standard fusion rockets. As with the Phoenix, the FTL has limited time and range, only 21 minutes of operation. Recharge time is 63 minutes. Again, the drive has no issues with fatal fast neutrons, pulsating or destructive tendencies. Two pilots, and a maximum complement of 20 individuals can be included (for emergencies). The craft also has long range sensors, lasers for defense, science & medical labs, plus supplies and life support for extended periods in space. Unlike the Eagle though, the pod does not disengage. An important consideration is we have a finite number of Doves; only two and only will have two! They'll be no crashing/abandoning or blowing up of these Doves in this version of the series, unlike the eight Eagles lost in the real Year Two (not including Year One).
So since I had to build two, it was assembly line time. I cobbled all the Eagle bits together from the three left over kits (the 1/96 ones of course), and spent many nights building, sometimes with success, other times changing the configurations.
The large tubes are those acrylic shot tubes again, (same as Module C types), capped with googly eyes and those plastic rings. A bit of thin tape for detail too. I dispensed with some of the truss work and added detail to the pod and other parts of the ship.
I used large snap fasteners for the landing pads, (as I omitted the four pods for escape pod parts), and the main booster is a small acrylic liquor glass with added metal rings. Inside that booster is also another lid.
The ships went through a few changes as I progressed of course. Once satisfied with the final result, it was prime time. But since I wanted the Doves to be slightly different visually, I painted them in dove grey (who's a clever boy then?). Also referred to the Swift again for some of the red oxide accents. Same routine with all the other parts. IPA wash (one night each), relief and panel lines with pigments & pastels, and then lots of graphics.
The Doves are designated as 01 and 02. Dove-01 is always docked on the starboard side of the garage, and Dove-02 on the port side.
The Dove models are actually heavier than they look. If only one is docked, it causes the whole Phoenix model to tip off balance. But how are they mounted you may ask? Very simple actually. I played around with a few ideas with pegs or rods, but finally settled on magnets. Rare earth magnets to be precise. There is a hidden magnet in each Dove at the pod door, and another hidden one on the garage airlocks. For mounting, another magnet is placed in the gap between the airlock and pod door. It's actually hard to remove them once attached.
And those are the Doves. Sorry, it's not an acronym this time! Next post, we'll get back to the series and take a short break from the hero model. Have a better one!
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