Hard Bargain at the edge of space by Darklorddc
Open full image in new tab Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.
No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Remastered version of the Hard Bargain about to leave a planet's atmosphere.
This is a much more detailed version of the Hard Bargain than I've previously posted. This is a total refit of my design. She's got about three times more polygons than the original, and I made all the detailing actual parts instead of relying on textures like I did in my earlier versions (look back a ways in my pics to compare if you'd like).
The Hard Bargain is a Xintrin Free Trader, a former patrol boat reconfigured by the Xintrin Merchant Guild to civilian class and sold as a medium freighter. However, the Xintrin left all the old patrol boat infrastructure inside...the military power plant, lots of hardware links, oversized hardpoints and the like, which means the Free Traders can be heavily modified with little loss of performance. The Hard Bargain was found by Shiva Reece and Dante Warner in a used ship lot. The dealer said the ship had been found a drifting derelict at the edge of known space. He had claimed it as salvage and got it up to spec. Only later did they discover that the ship had been "pirate rigged", meaning that at one point the Hard Bargain had been a vessel used by criminals, most likely pirates. She's one of the most extensively modified ships of her kind, and only Dante's former position as an Operative for the Guardsman Interstellar Security Service allowed Shiva and Dante to purchase the vessel, because it required a class 2 weapons and paramilitary hardware permit to own.
To their surprise, shortly after buying the vessel, they discovered a robot with an advanced A.I. and a bad case of amnesia. The robot, L8-TH, was able to lock down the ship's controls, and only released them after they agreed to make him part of the crew. Though his chassis is common enough, Shiva and Dante believe L8-TH is an alien built robot that somehow has free will, something humans do not build into their computers and robot systems.
Shiva and Dante have converted the Hard Bargain into an armored courier, and they deliver sensitive, valuable cargo from port to port throughout the Free Colonies.
The Hard Bargain is a ship I've envisioned since the late 80s. I first built her as a kid out of space legos. I originally conceptualized her as the Millenium Falcon mixed with a "rocket ship" from the old 1920s Flash Gordon and Buck Rodgers serials, with the cylindrical body and fin-like wings and needle nose. You can still see a lot of that influence in her lines.
Modeled in DOGA-L3, with finishing touches, textures and render done in Carrara.

Comments (11)
kinda reminds me of the Doga program ships. Likes it.
Nice!
A beautiful image very purified by sci-fi
Well done! nice to see a dream realized!
Excellent scene!!!!
Clever design and a name to match. Cool!
Very nice! And I like the backstory.
The back stories are as great as the images.
fanatstic model!!
Clever piece of ship design. The story adds a lot too.
Cool combo with the background.