Progress With the 3D Cover Spaceship

I've had a few moments on the computer, and I spent them working on the latest spaceship. The hull is starting to get a lot more complicated. The lighting is catching the edge of the hull panels beautifully too, an accidental effect that is making me very happy.

When it is finally done, the spaceship will grace the cover of the new sci-fi book I'm writing. The spaceship is called Iron Dart, and so is the book. The new book will be part two of my series of science-fiction novels. The first novel in the series is Galaxy Dog. (Get it here at Smashwords).

As I'm crafting the spaceship, I'm adding detail to the hull, and trying to make sure it fits with the description of the spaceship given in the book. That makes it sound like a boring process, but it is anything but. Working on a model in Blender is one of the most intellectually and aesthetically enjoyable things there is to do. And, by the way, Blender is free for any purpose.

The string of events that has led to such a powerful suite of software being free to use by anyone is just amazing. It makes me very appreciative as I smoothly twist and turn my 3D model in the Blender window, tweaking the shape and adding detail. And Blender can produce everything else I need for the book cover too, the text, the starscape background, even a planet or two. I'm having so much fun creating the cover that I'll be posting renders here on my blog whenever there is the slightest progress.