In celebration of the game’s 10th anniversary, we launched a reward challenging our community members to make their very own Elite Dangerous ship designs. The results are some of the finest reward submissions we’ve ever received. We dished out $320 worth of prizes to the winners, and, as you’ll see below, they’re worth every cent.
As well as the ship designs themselves, each entrant has introduced their ship, named it, and told us about the unique features it’d have. We’ll start with our three grand-prize winners, before giving a brief rundown of a dozen other beauties in no particular order.
The Boa
Just as with his Elite artwork, CMDR Henckes has gone so far beyond the call of duty that all we can do is salute him. That, and show off his astonishingly detailed design. Fittingly for the series’ anniversary, he’s chosen to revisit its past:
“My idea was to redesign a ship from the previous Elite games that’s yet to be introduced in Elite Dangerous. In the DataCard below, you can see the original ship design:
“I took some info from Alioth wiki, which describes the Boa as faster and slightly bigger than the Anaconda. That’d help inform my design, as would choosing the manufacturer: Core Dynamics. I then began work on my design for a large multipurpose ship with three huge thrusters to compete with the Anaconda by making some rough concepts to define the shape and position of the hard-points, the landing gear, and canopy.
“Next, I started to model it, using the Corvette as a reference for size and style:
“From there, I added some detail and colours:"
Then there’s this hyper-detailed blueprint:
And here it is, the Elite Dangerous Boa:
Scroll back up to the top of this page to view CMDR Henckes’s digitally illustrated Boa, which we’ve used as this article’s cover image.
The Copperhead
No less breathtaking is Marcelo's unique and sleek ship design - the Copperhead, as seen below in Marcelo’s Tweet. At the time of writing, their post doesn’t have many likes, which we think is an injustice. Give them a like and follow to show your love for this Zorgon Peterson inspired “small, fast, maneuverable, combat-oriented” ship.
They used Fusion 360 to create the model; check it out here:
The Imperial Moray
Beetlejude's endless creativity continues to impress us. With the help of Wotherspoon, they’ve crafted this great introduction to their Imperial Gutamaya Moray dredger, so we’ll pass over the reins:
“We have ships for all sorts of specialist tasks - mining, combat, exploration and so on - but we don't have any ships designed to quickly and efficiently scoop up the clouds of cargo canisters in debris fields full of materials. The best we have are limpets, little programmable retrievers which take an age to individually pick up each canister and transport them back to ships’ cargo holds.
“Wouldn't it be great if we could have a huge cargo net mounted at the front of the ship so we could fly at speed through all the debris, sucking everything into a super-sized collection chamber? Here is the answer: The Moray. Modelled partly on the idea of a space dredger, but small enough for one person to fly, and partly on the fearsome moray eel with all those rings of teeth inside its maw, and with a stylish Gutamaya-style body, the Moray makes scooping a moment's work.
“Discreetly hidden in normal flight mode, all it takes is a button press to open the giant scoop, which can clear a high-gGrade emissions material cloud in less time than it takes to power up your frame shift drive to move on to the next. Found a wrecked spaceship surrounded by lots of tasty cargo? Why not scoop up the cargo and the ship using the Moray's patented Rend-O-Matic, which will reduce and recycle the wreckage into metal alloys to sell on at the next port. Profitable and kind to the environment at the same time!”
Extra kudos for this line, which brought a smile to all of our maws:
“When your ship has a jaw in a space dredger maw? That's a Moray!"
We recommend you visit Beetlejude’s submission to view the ten sketches that outline their thorough and iterative design process. We’ve shared a few of our favourites below:
And finally, here’s a gorgeous illustration:
The Lakon Settlement Transporter
Those are our picks for the top three, but as you’ll see below, there’s no shortage of other spectacular fan-made Elite Dangerous ship designs. Like this idea from LCU No Fool Like One:
“I’ve always liked the idea of being able to transport containers down to the surface of planets and leave them behind, a bit like the Eagles in the movie Space: 1999. So I thought about a ship dedicated to delivering modules to the surface. This was created by kitbashing various models together using 3D Builder. I used some shipping containers for hab modules and chopped up a Type 7, finally adding some wings and a few primitive components.”
The Hybrid Proto-D, Proto-I, and Proto-G
Kethervir's ideas are unique and creative, combining the best of human and Thargoid tech.
“After the glorious battle against the Thargoids, humanity finally manages reverse engineer their foes’ previously unknown modules to create a new series of hybrid ships with special characteristics:
“The PROTO-D (Destroyer), equipped with a self-repairing hull, has a module under the cargo that emits corrosive clouds. Furthermore, the recycled cannons from Cocijo have allowed for significantly improved firepower from the multi-gimballed weapons.
“The PROTO-I (Interceptor), equipped with the galaxy’s most advanced engine system, can use wormhole tech for cruise-like teleportation. Alongside rapid-fire weaponry, it has advanced long-ranged scanners providing impressive details of the systems, planets, and ships scanned - down to the smallest bolt or screw.
“Finally, the colossus, the PROTO-G (Gravity), which has an immense reinforced cargo hold and near-impenetrable shields, guaranteeing maximum protection of hauled goods. The colossal hardpoint on top is able vaporising three ships. The weapon takes a long time to load, and will need significant cooling after use, which may expose the ship to dangers if it doesn’t hit its mark.”
The D123
Move aside Diamondback, there’s a new quadrilateral in town. Here’s Doc:
“My idea is to have a very distinguishable and unique ship, a medium-sized, diamond-shaped ship inspired by the F-116 aircraft. Since I’m no design expert, I did my drawings using good ol’ Paint and recorded the process:"
The Eye
USCSS used Paint too, check out their unique design below:
“I’ve never designed anything in my life, but I decided to have a go. The Eye is a small capsule-type ship that couples high speed and manoeuvrability with minimal fuel consumption. When landing, the wings rotate to support the landing gear.”
The Explore-O-Pod
Ships need not be vessels of war to be fun, just check out MrT's whimsical exploration pod, reminiscent of deep-sea discovery submarines:
“Here's something I created in Blender which I dub the Explore-O-Pod. It would have room for just one person and would be an SLE (Ship Launched Explorer). The large canopy at the front should be big enough to see whatever you want when exploring a planet. It would only be available to those with Odyssey and would come with a built-in exo-biological scanner, so there's no need to scan on-foot. Of course, if you want to get the first footfall, you'll still have to get those boots on the ground. As you can see, I'm not the best modeler; I'm sure someone with professional experience could make it look much better. However, you should get the idea.”
Any design-savvy volunteers care to bring the Explore-O-Pod to life?
The Kraken
Realis's ship design is simple but slick, and we’d love to see it realised in more detail. What do you think, readers: should Frontier release the Kraken?
“My ship is called the Kraken. It’s a large, landing-pad cargo ship with cabin space for five. Its defining feature is its huge cargo hold and its rotating tails equipped with a Frame Shift Drive to enable a long jump range. The ship needs to be lightweight to optimize the new tech for these big jumps - estimated at 120Ly - so the hardpoints and hull have been sacrificed."
The Ithuriel
Odinoji had no experience in 3D modelling before entering our reward, but you wouldn’t guess it from their Elite Dangerous ship design. They’ve created a concept for a lost Guardian starship, and we think it’s pretty cool:
“I’ve been playing Elite for years, and what a great year for the game this has been. I wonder what the future holds. Talking of which, my ship: I’ve long said that we didn’t complete the Guardian storyline. I’ve been actively looking for Guardian clues for a long time, and I’ve always pictured a Guardian ship to look something like this:"
Now here are the specs:
“The ship’s firepower is somewhat lacking; it only has two medium and two large hardpoints with subpar power distribution and a class-six powerplant. It’ll struggle against top-of-the-line combat ships like the Mamba, Fer-de-lance, and Python Mk2. However, it’ll be able to outrun nearly anything else given its speed and agility.
“Given its Guardian heritage, it has the best shields of any medium ship in the game. Pair these shields with exceptional thrusters and you’ll be long-gone before receiving any damage. But be careful: each additional tonnage, be it hardpoints or optionals, will greatly reduce the Ithuriel’s speed.
“If you ask Felicity Farseer, she’ll tell you that this just might be the first ship in history able to jump up to 100Ly, once it’s been paired with the Guardian FSD booster!”
Odinoji spent days learning how to 3D model from scratch to create this ship design, and they’d love your feedback. Share it with them in the comment section!
The Stellaris Zenith
Next up, a ship from Block9 that really captures Elite’s aesthetic quality. Watch the video to find out everything you need to know:
The Skylark
Akemi_Whitacre's Elite Dangerous ship design is one of the most unique submitted to our reward, and very nearly made the podium. Manufactured by Saud Kruger, it’s a large exploration vessel with only two seats. We recommend checking out the concept images at the submission post for this one too, where you’ll also find further notes and commentary. Here’s a sneak peak:
And here’s the finished product, or at least, the prototype:
The Imperial Razer
We love this awesome design from VanillaIsi, and the artwork alone was enough to impress us. Manufactured by Gutamaya, it’s a medium combat vessel designed for agility - “a true competitor to the Mamba”.
The H-M
K03y created their “amateur project” using Blender. They’ve named it ‘H-M’ because from a top-down view, it looks like a halfmoon. It’s a small ship that could be used for recon or agile attack purposes, if guns were added to the wingtips.
The Fer-de-lance MkII
We’ll end this list of fan-made Elite Dangerous ship designs the same way we started it, with an update on a community favourite. This time: the Fer-de-lance. Jimmy0916 / Cmdr Donald Duck streamlines the existing ship’s design for greater manoeuvrability and a slick new look.
“The principal idea is to lower her vertical profile and to apply engine tech used for the new ships like the Mandalay, while maintaining the same volume as the Fer-de-lance Mk1 - ensuring sufficient space for the same modules. The huge hardpoint can now be placed below the hull as well.”
Let us know which ship you’d love Frontier to introduce to the galaxy in the comments below! You never know, a Frontier developer might just read this and you wish could come true.
Some text has been edited for brevity, clarity, or spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You can find the original wording here. Image credit: CMDR Henckes.
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