Tomb of the Cybermen Rocket

[Cardinal Hordriss]

I was watching Tomb of the Cybermen and got inspired...

The spaceship the archaeologists use to travel to Telos in could use something of an update... I started beefing up and detailing the original design when completely by chance I found just the thing on Etsy so here it is, printed in a coppery brassy, colour and weathered a bit. I thought about it and realised a bunch of academics on a private mission wouldn't have had the resources to hire the USS Enterprise and so gave it the look of a hardworking cargo/transport ship.

I went even further and made the rough outline of the ships interior, flight deck at the top, navigation and engineering on deck 2, mess and rec facilities on deck 3, crew and passenger sleeping quarters on deck 4, two decks for cargo below that and some sort of hyperactive at the bottom, which would be the back in space flight. Large cargo modules could perhaps attach to the back and be pulled by the ship like a train.

For the name I thought of several things, those chunky engines - ideal for lifting heavy cargo into space, the overall heaviness of the design, its purpose as a cargo or transport ship and came up with Orion Class Orbital Load-Lifter. As for the name of this individual ship the story never tells us. If the shop had a name I believe they would have spoken it, perhaps it was simply something like X-31 so they just call it "the ship". My impression of Captain Hopper leads me to think that he'd name it after an ex-girlfriend were it to have a traditional name so perhaps it's better that they never said.

Things then got further out of control when I put together a landing pad to display the ship... I started wondering if the Captain would own/rent a spaceship garage to store supplies and to perform maintenance. Ironically it came out looking a bit like Cyber Control seen on Telos in Attack of the Cybermen. The doors are a bit large but I figured that would be useful fir cargo lifting machinery and such. I think it would be found somewhere on the Saturnian or Jovian moons which were colonised by the time Tomb of the Cybermen is set and would be ideal as only a short hop from Earth. I can see carrying people and cargo to and from the colonies in the outer solar system being easy work to pick up for a ship like this when no long haul/interstellar work comes up so it would be well placed for business if it was on Ganymede or Dione.

Then I made myself stop...

[Andrew Harvey]

That's great, How are your diorama building skills? I reckon it would look great on a rocky planet surface with all sorts of cranes around that base for loading etc. You could photograph it from a lower angle, say eye level with a night sky backdrop... I'm also loving the shadow of the hat stand on the wall!

[Cardinal Hordriss]

I hadn't noticed the shadow but it's better than my housemates My Little Ponies and clean laundry creeping in without me noticing lol.

As for a diorama... I was very tempted to do something like that but it's really a question of space... or lack there of. I came close to turning the landing platform into a whole base with buildings, radar dishes etc. but it's just not practical unfortunately.

[Andrew Harvey]

Ah, That's a pity! Its the curse of the model maker- that need for extra space! Mind you, a diorama base the same size as your Tardis Console's cylinder would fit alright. I can see those extra buildings in my minds eye.....