How to Make Good Looking Rockets

In this guide you will learn how to make detailed, good-looking rockets in 10 easy steps.

Step 1: Block Out the Shape

Take some fuel tanks and block out the shape of your rocket. No need to add color or detail - just make the rocket exist first, in its simplest form. Make sure you've got an understanding of all the components and how they come together. Decide on the number of stages and boosters, the mission, the payload, etc. Later, you can decorate all the parts one by one.

Step 2: Subdivide Stages Into Parts

Each stage of a rocket is not just a uniform cylinder of metal. It is divided into 4 parts.

The engine bay holds the main engine. Usually, on first stages, most of the engine is covered up, but on second stages, it's the opposite.
The fuel tank is put above the engine bay, it holds the main fuel for the stage.
The oxidizer tank is on top of the fuel tank. It is about half the size. It holds the oxidizer, which the main engine uses to burn in a vacuum.
The fuel and oxidizer tanks have rounded ends to better hold in the pressure. The intertank covers up these bulges and connects the tanks together. It should be between 0.25 and 0.75 the rocket's width.
The avionics bay holds the flight computer that lets the rocket fly automatically. It is present only on the last stage of a rocket. Sometimes, the avionics unit is hidden inside the intertank.
The engine bay, intertank and avionics bay usually have thin grooves on the outside, in SFS this is replicated with the Rivets texture.

Step 3: Detail the Fuel Tanks

In real life, rockets are made with plates of metal, welded into circles. To replicate this in SFS, you could just use the "Metal Bands" shape texture. It works on larger rockets, like the Starship. But for smaller rockets, it's best to do something different.

Make a fuel tank of your preferred height. (I'll go with 0.75.) Then give it the "Edges Thin" texture. Copy it, and stack up multiple of these fuel tanks. You will end up with something like this.
Now, apply this to your rocket.

We're not done yet - the parts with the Rivets texture still look bad. Right now they have no edges, so it looks like the're smaller than they actually are. Let's give them some edges.

Take a fuel tank the width of your rocket, and make it really thin. (I'll go with 0.0625 height.) Give it the "Edges Thin Top" texture. Move it down a bit, so the upper edge is alligned with the grid. Copy it and mirror vertically, place the second tank lower down. Take your original intertank, decrease its height and move it up, so it perfectly fits between the two edges. This should be the result.

Do this with all the riveted parts of your rocket. For the first stage engine bay, you can make the edges a bit thicker if you want. If the engine bay is tapered, then you will have to adjust the width of each fuel tank.

Here's what you should end up with:

Step 4: Add Some Color

Your rocket is already looking a lot better than before! But it needs some color. Paint it as you like!

Step 5: Detail the Interstages

The default separators look quite bad on this rocket. Let's replace them with fairings: they will do the same job, but look much better!
Interstages are supposed to be riveted too. We will use the same trick to give them edges, except that this time, it will be done with fairings. Keep in mind, fairings are 0.4 units wider than normal, so if you want a fairing to be 4 units wide on the outside, then set its width to 3.6 units.

Step 6: Second Stage Engine

The second stage engine looks bad, let's fix it.

First, let's make the engine mount. It should be an inverted cone shape, have a look.
Now, add the engine itself. The Frontier is the best engine for second stages, it has good thrust and the highest efficiency.

The engine needs a better nozzle. You can make it with fuel tanks, a rounded nose cone, or a combination of the two.
Just make sure you turn the engine's gimbal off, otherwise it will pop out of the nozzle when turning!

The nozzle's upper edge looks weird, let's cover it up.

In real life, engines use a vacuum bracket to not collapse from their own thrust. We can replicate that with a thin wide fuel tank, and two more narrow tall ones. It should look something like the ones on the Valiant engine.

You can add whatever other details you like.

Step 7: Side Boosters [OPTIONAL]

If your rocket has no side boosters, skip this step.

Right now the side boosters are too far away from the core stage. This is not realistic, and it looks bad. Set their width to 1.75 and move them right up to the core stage.
The engines are a bit too big, we'll get rid of them for now and work on the other detailes.
You can do any design you like. I'll go with the classic Space Shuttle-style solid booster, white with thin black lines all the way around. To make these lines stick out, as they do in real life, you can give the white parts the "Flat Smooth" texture.
Now, it's time to add the engines. But the boosters are 1.75 units wide, and the Hawk engines are 2 units wide, so no matter how we shrink them, they will always show through a little bit!
This issue can be fixed by using fairings where the engines show through.

Detail the engine's nozzle hewever you like!

Boosters are mounted with special brackets, this can be replicated with fairing fragments.

Step 8: Crew Module [OPTIONAL]

If your rocket is designed to carry cargo under a fairing, instead of a command/service module, skip this step.

This is the module that we have right now.

Let's make the service module half a unit taller. We will also give it the metal bands texture we made earlier. Except that this time each band will be 0.5 of a unit, instead of 0.75.

It needs a means of propulsion. Use a Valiant or Frontier engine, whichever one you prefer. Give it a custom nozzle if you want.

The capsule looks kinda bad. Get rid of the old windows. Make the docking port a bit smaller, push it a quarter of a unit further in, and cover it up with a fairing.

You can decorate the capsule however you want. Personally, I like to add stripes on the top and bottom, similar to the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. You can go the extra step and make the stripes half-riveted.

Don't forget to add RCS thrusters, a probe and a parachute to the capsule!

Now, let's add a window. Take a fairing, set its shape texture to flat and its skin to whatever color you want. Have it adapt to a small fuel tank on top. Put both parts in the middle of the capsule, and you got a little window!

Add RCS to the service module. If you want, you can also put the abort system there. And as a small quick detail, a burnmarked solar panel can work as an antenna.

Step 9: Final Touches

The rocket is almost complete! But it still needs some extra detail. I'll show you some of my favorite tricks for this.

These checkers made with half fairings look quite nice.

You can add these cool-looking square plates to intertanks. These are made using two fuel tanks that fit inside each other, let's call them A and B. A should be lower in height than B, and have a slightly higher width, but be compressed horizontally a little bit. A should be using the standard "Metal" texture, while B should be using "Metal_4".

Rockets have tubes on the outside to pass propellant to the engine, or route cables. You can make these with fuel tanks and nosecones, and put them on the side of the rocket. Or with fairings, and put them right in the middle. Either way, remember this: if the tube is near the right edge of the rocket, where there is less light, then it should be darker. You can make this with burnmarks. Or, if your rocket has the "Metal" texture, just use the "Color_Gray" texture on the pipes.

Logos made out of fairings not only look nice, but also prevent your rocket from being stolen by others and used without credit. Just make sure to clip the logo with a strut, to prevent parts from being disconnected.

Don't forget to add a nozzle to the first stage engine!

You can add RCS and even solar panels to the second stage.

Step 10: Testing

Now it is time to test your rocket. Don't forget to add small fuel tanks directly oon top of the engines to supply fuel. If you need to, clip some extra engines for more thrust. Or even add some extra fuel tanks. Remember, SFS is not about realism - it is about making a rocket that looks good, and then strapping enough engines on it until it flies!

[robertebj86]

Do you use part editor?