FA FireBlade MEEV: Multi Environment Exploration Vehicle.

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FA FireBlade MEEV: Multi Environment Exploration Vehicle.

The FA FireBlade MEEV is a huge Multi-Environment Exploration Vehicle for all your most demanding overland expeditions.

Please view all of the promo images to get a more detailed idea of what you get with this product, words alone cannot do it justice. You get two versions of the vehicle, almost identical but for the turrets. The civilian version has eight camera/sensor turrets while the military version has the same turrets with a 20mm cannon added to each. The controls for the two vehicles are identical apart from the turret names, so once you learn your way around one set of controls you automatically know your way around the other vehicle's controls too. There are lots of texture options for the vehicle and more will be made available in my Free Stuff. If you don't see any additional textures in the free stuff area at purchase time just keep looking, within a few weeks there will be many more textures available!

This vehicle represents a mobile exploratory headquarters that is designed to tackle almost any terrain. Want to explore the Arctic? Mars? The rockiest slopes of Altair IV? The FireBlade is ready! The suspension has a huge amount of travel to allow you to pose the vehicle convincingly on almost any terrain. The steering works with proper Ackermann Steering Geometry. One Poser control dial both steers the front and rear wheels and moves the steering wheel in the control room. The tyres deform as they rotate and the contact point can be moved (a modest amount) for more convincing posing on uneven surfaces.

The roof has a hangar for the small drones provided. There is a fan powered drone and a rocket drone in case your crew are exploring a world without an atmosphere. Both drones have nearly identical controls for the same ease of use as the two versions of the FireBlade. By default the drones are unarmed sensor carriers but there is a conforming turret available if your story-telling image requires the drones to be armed. The turret fits either drone and works in the same way on both, so it is easy to learn to use it.

In addition to the rooftop hangar you can use the conforming roof platform, a giant roof rack that can be used to carry additional supplies or converted into a luxury dining area if you want to use the FireBlade as the ultimate mobile home.

In the control room there are five crew positions with some keys, trackballs and joysticks and also touch screen controls. One is set up as the driver's position, one as the sensor operator/observer, and the other three are multi-purpose drone/weapons operators consoles. The seats can be slid backwards and forwards relative to the control panels so you can fit almost any adult Poser figure into the seats and pose them convincingly using the controls. The control room is the only room fully detailed. However all the doors open internally and externally and there is lots of room for accommodation and scientific or military equipment.

Since the vehicle is so huge and the suspension has so much movement ladders could not easily be designed for it. So on the left side of the vehicle is a small boarding elevator for up to two people. The upper gates on this elevator are locked shut as soon as it lowers, while the external gate can only be opened once the elevator is down. This was done to make posing the vehicle easier — as a side effect it keeps your Poser people safe ;-). There is also a larger elevator at the rear for people and freight. This has similar safety locks on the interior elevator doors and on the gates, so the gates can only be opened when the elevator is at the top or bottom of its travel and the doors only when it is at the top. This also makes the big elevator easier to pose and keeps your Poser people safe... The external and internal doors all open. There is also a roof hatch with an elevator so the drones can be serviced and the roof platform can be reached if it is fitted.

Since the side racks and the rooftop storage area would look very bare without them, I have made a load of props for these. There is lots of cargo, many props loaded in smart-prop sets so you don't have to position lots of crates one at a time. If you want to imagine the FireBlade as a luxurious mobile home the conforming roof platform can be configured as a dining area with a table, seats, an outdoor cooker and food. There is even an umbrella for the table to provide shade or keep the rain off! Most of the cargo props can also be extremely useful in scenes where the FireBlade isn't used (for example to fill up Stonemason's warehouse) so I have provided them all as separate standalone props as well.

So where will your imagination take the FireBlade?

Real world dimensions:

Length: 17.91m, 58ft 9 Inches
Width: 7.08m, 23ft 3 inches.
Height: 9.08m, 29ft 9 inches (to top of Drone Hangar)
Height: 9.63m, 31ft 7 inches (if fitted with rooftop platform)

Software: Poser 8 / Poser Pro 2010+

Renderosity
Transportation for Poser and Daz Studio