Possible Mech Model

[CGB [Ancient Demise]]

It looks like it would "hang in the air in much the same way that bricks don't." 

[Colt45]

I wish to expand upon the previously mentioned 'Escape Game Mode'

*clears throat*
A asteroid is predicted to hit your vicinity on the planet _____. There is only 60 minutes until impact, and you must hurry to get to a dropship before the asteroid reaches the atmosphere. Only one problem... there is only one dropship left, and you need to fight off the opposing forces to control it!

--Could also include--
Once you are in control, it will take 20 minutes for the engines to warm up, after which you can leave...and let your enemies burn in the flames of impact.

So tell me what you guys think! Does it sound good?

Other information I have regarding this Dropship. I plan I implementing weapons slots. According the BattleTech Wiki the Leopard class Dropship has:
2 x PPCs
3 x LRM-20s
7 x Medium Lasers
5 x Large Lasers
Quite a hefty loadout. What do you guys think about the Dropship having all of these weapons? The weapons could act like automated turrets in favor of the team that holds it ----OR---- The weapons could be controlled by a human. There would be a control room in the dropship where you can remotely control the weapons. Instead of the battle element "entering a vehicle" , It would enter the weapon turret for example. This would be like a stationary vehicle that can only pivot on a torso.
Personally I like the later idea better. And I have already thought of some balancing mechanics so this turret controller isn't playing god on the battlefield, which I will share if you guys want.

I plan on modeling the dropship like a small 4 mech hangar, as there are 4 doors on the dropship. And if you guys the the idea of having controlable turrets, I am comfortable modeling an interior that includes hallways, corridors and maybe a control room much like the main bases.

So please provide me with you valuable input! Thinking about this gives me the shivers 

[Stahlseele]

player controlled weapons would be oh so cool!
but remember the placing of those weapons.
they are distributed fairly evenly in the front hull and the wings of the leopard.
and since it has 2 PPC's and the turret we see up top has only 2 weapons, i guess the PPC's go up there.
Maybe one LRM20, 1M Laser and 1 Large Laser get aft mounted, with the rest being front mounted.
So as soon as you get to the sides, you are basically out of it's field of fire, aside for the turret mounted PPC's.
And those can only hit you if you are far enough away so the dropships own hull isn't in the line of fire.

[Colt45]

I was thinking something like this.

Blue is PPC
Yellow is Heavy laser
Green are silo style LRMs
Orange are medium lasers.

Yellow and orange range of motion included.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Stahlseele]

Hmm, yeah, why not O.o
Who controls the LRM?
The PPC guy?
If ha has a 360° field of fire for his PPC turret, then he can aim the LRM's, which shoot straigt up and come down where he is pointing at too, right?

[Colt45]

Hmm, yeah, why not O.o
Who controls the LRM?
The PPC guy?
If ha has a 360° field of fire for his PPC turret, then he can aim the LRM's, which shoot straigt up and come down where he is pointing at too, right?

I would make sense for the turret guy to control the LRMs. And yes the LRMs would shoot straight into the air and them down on to the target. I imagine this turret guy would lash out some devastating firepower on anyone even with his up and down range limitation. A way to balance this out could be to add to the recharge times on the weapons.

[Colt45]

Before I continue modeling I just want to double check with you guys regarding the door sizes on the side of the ship. They appear to be very close to scale in comparison to the official drawings, but they appear narrow. Maybe I'm forgetting how tall the ship is. These doors just look unnecessarily tall for their width. Do you think they should be changed?

[attachment deleted by admin]

[CGB [CoffiNail]]

toss me a top down please.

*edit*
otherwise so far
I think it is looking good, the doors should be pushed forward slightly I think, the space between them shortend maybe less that 1/4 off and then the space between the back bay door and the start of the thruster case expanded about the same about you took off the middle beam.  I think this would allow a tad bit of widening... as I think the doors are the right height.  This is just my thought

Here...

[Colt45]

Here. I have also included some mechs to help show the size

[attachment deleted by admin]

[CGB [CoffiNail]]

Aff As I said, very nice. Even just shrinking that middle beam a bit would push the door space a little.

Looking at the top view, you could also expand the whole model out a bit.  It is a flatter shuttle.  Then the sides would be angled more, keep the top part of where the PPC turrets the dimensions it has now but expand the bottom out. 

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/f/f5/Leopard.png

[-SM-SUCKER]

Before I continue modeling I just want to double check with you guys regarding the door sizes on the side of the ship. They appear to be very close to scale in comparison to the official drawings, but they appear narrow. Maybe I'm forgetting how tall the ship is. These doors just look unnecessarily tall for their width. Do you think they should be changed?

Keep in mind that those drawings from the books were made without actually thinking what it would be like in 3D.
As long as the ship is recognisable, feel free to add some thought about the actual funtion of each part, making the whole thing more "realistic".

[7.[WD]Ragor]

Here. I have also included some mechs to help show the size
(pics)

I felt free to modify your pictures slightly: -> Moved the bays more to the front. (obviously)
#1 That the disembarging don't step onto the wings.
#2 To get more distance to the (probably quite hot) thrusters. (...and leaving more room for the engines/fuel tanks/cargo bays, the passenger/crew quarters I assumed to be in the nose.)

And I made the middle beam a bit smaller (like Coffinail suggested) and lowered the max height of the bays itself.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Colt45]

Thats pretty good photoshop work ragor. Ill give it a go.

[Sean Lang "Phil"]

Colt, from the Dropships & Jumpships TRO here are some measurements for you to use if you want REAL world and perspective:

Leopord Class Dropship
Type: Aerodyne
Tonnage: 1,720Tons
Dimensions:
 Length: 65.5 meters
 Height: 22.4 meters
 Width: 51.6 meters
Crew: 9 crew, 6 mechwarriors/aerospace pilots
Mech complement: 4
Fighter complement: 2
Armament:
 2 PPC
 3 LRM 20's
 5 Large Lasers
 7 Med Lasers
 4 tons of LRM ammo

Mech cubicles: 4
Mech bay doors: 4
Aerospace cubicles: 2
Fighter bay doors: 2

You can easily see that the leopard is the smallest mech carrier, especially when you put them next to the Union/Overlord

Union size:
 Height: 78 meters
 Width: 81.5 Meters *40.75 meters radius*
 Mech capacity: 12
 Fighter capacity: 2
 Weapons:
 3 PPC
 6 LRM 20's
 6 AC/5
 5 Large Laser
 12 Med Laser
 9 ton LRM ammo
 12 Ton AC/5 ammo

Overlord:
 Height: 131.2 meters
 Width: 99 meters *49.5 meters radius*
 Mech capacity: 36
 Fighter capacity: 6
 Weapons:
 6 PPC
 3 LRM 20
 2 AC/20
 6 AC/5
 6 Large Laser
 12 Medium Laser
 16 tons LRM ammo
 10 Tons AC/5 ammo
 6 Tons AC/20 Ammo

I created cylinders for the union/overlord and a square for the leopard, put these next to my rifleman and wow.. you can see the difference. Scale is a huge part to these things! Let me know if this helps!

edit: also note that these have ramps that go from the hangers to ground level.

[Ghiest]

Aerospace cubicles: 2

... You're missing the aerodeck.