your other images have very clean curves and lines. The Bailey has lots of ridges and edges, perhaps this slight difference in style doesn't feel familiar to you.
Your comment was at the very forefront of my mind when I was designing, Doc. Industrial and fly like a brick, I'm glad I've hit that spot on while still improving the model!
Would steamlined craft matter on worlds with thin or no atmosphere? I assume these craft are used on what are referred too as "mek" cities, and those are on worlds similar to Earth?
If ICAR has human colonies are diverse planets and those planets don't necessarily have to be earth-like then the vehicles will vary greatly, depending greatly on the planet type its being used upon.
IMHO, most of these look too much like traditional cars and given the year why would they still cling to those traditional designs? I think it would change as much as a the horse-n-buggy looks like a modern day sports car...
There are plenty of concept artists out there that do just amazing work. Perhaps they could provide some inspiration?
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Once you get past a certain size, streamlining matters very little. Furthermore, energy fields provide streamlining on all the smaller vehicles. The smooth, soft and almost organic curves of the vehicles, space craft and technology are purely aesthetic. They are used and found everywhere. The Blackwater is an example of a cheap, simple craft that is the very bare minimum of what is needed for space flight.
Vehicles are mass-produced to fit as many colonies as possible. There are some colonies where a Zipper is inappropriate but all the vehicles work equally well everywhere. As for similarity to modern vehicles, the way I design these is to sketch out the core components (generators, grav engine, seats, drinks machine, turbines, intakes, compressor, grav plates) and then wrap them in a shell. I don't mind that they look similar to today's cars - there is enough about Icar that is jarring for the cars to be familiar.
Thanks for the links, I follow both those and concept robots too. My aim is to make Icar individual with a basis in its own quasi-science and I find that if I start copying other people I'll end up with glowing engines on the backs of my space craft!
I imagine that everything the crew sees is in the form of a projected holographic display. You can't get a good grip on what's going on by looking out the front as that will rarely be the direction you're going in. Looking "out of the window" is actually a throwback. Not to mention I've just put one on the new Blackwater model.
They shouldn't have windows. There is no need for them.