I have an account now with Photobucket. I have made the album and lets see if I get this link right

oooooo thumbnails! well they are not all that bad for a cell phone.
now remember this is just a mock up for testing, The real one is planed to
be more beefy looking.OH and the pictures are before I based the model.

cool build
i have to say i like the station in starship troopers (the first film) better, though it is a bit more of a sprawled out affair and it would be more difficult to model

Interesting design Ralph. keep going! I'll keep a close eye on this one

Play testing was called off today so I started to work on version 2.
So far I have some textures and the lay out some what set.
Also I think I will make it a tad smaller maybe 10 inches by 10 inches

Very cool!
Looking forward to see more!

*jawdrop*
Holy crap that's frickin' awesome!

Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

here this may help.
the black is the triagle and the white x at the center is the four parts of the first level

I agree with Ralph, Adding those triangles would add a lot of structual support, but I might still do a few internal supports as well.

I also would probably change up the layering a bit, here's what I had in mind:



You can see by adding a little more varied heights, it adds a lot more visual interest.

Hope the Pox goes away soon!

The 3d render looks very good.

But I think you may want to add something at the end of the arms that touches the ground. I think the way the arms are now they'll sag.

Or perhaps having the arm sides based on something like foamcore for the entire length.

That shouldn't be hard at all. In fact, let me advise you if you intend to make it "combat capable" that you may want to make each formcore rest for the arms have information about the station, status cube spots for each arm, and weapons info/archs.

Just make the parts that hold up the arms have ship bases.

wow the ends do look better that way. I should be able to make them separate and that will allow me to make the arms in one piece,but then I will need to peg the ends to the arms for support after all this is a game piece and will be handled a lot.
the placment of level 3 on top look good but I was going to put some eye candy up there, it is going to be a transparent bubble that lets you see the agro gardens inside.looking at all this stuff really has me thinking now.
as for how it will be attached to the base, well that has been worked out very well with standard card stock in the shape of an x. almost all the way to the ends on all four sides this way I get max support with little or no interference with anything else.

Well the model planning is done,as this mock up of version 2 works very well.
I followed the advice of solospirit the model has two braces inside the arms just a simple v fold glued in place.
Now dirkgent001 with his idea of the layering not only makes the model look better,it made it easier to put together.
I have installed paint shop pro today and will start the textures soon,and as for mike he is feeling better but with all that lotion and sores on him he looks like a zombie.

I agree, the geometry looks good. A nice size and it looks pretty simple to build.