KOB R4 LT 3D model

Ship inspired by the Cobra spaceship in the Elite Dangerous game.

The in universe story:

"Karstern O'Brien was one of the first people that bought one of the first models of the Cobra MKIII when it first came out to make a living with. He spent the next 5 years eking out a living by mining and transporting his ore to close refinery systems. It was a safe route and paid the bills but it was a boring life without many credits to show for it, then Karsten hit forty and something clicked. He loved space, but had played it safe all his life fearing all the stories about pirates, slavers and many other terrible things, but hadn't much to show for it except his trusty ship, so he suddenly decided to spread his wings, abandon mining and find new routes out there in the black.

Needless to say, it wasn't an easy life he chose at 40, but through perseverance, courage and luck he eventually hit it big and started his own transport company all from within his beloved Cobra, "Mistress of the Abyss". [For the complete story, the book "Karsten, the Man, The Legend" can be bought from any KOBC office]

["Mistress of the Abyss" has gone through a full restoration and can now be viewed at the KOB Corporation Headquarters in the main lobby]

He was a successful and rich old man by the time his real passion, obsession many would say, became apparent; spaceships, especially Cobras. He collected them, restored them, modded them and sold them without caring if he lost money or not. It wasn't a long hop from this to envisioning building his own version and so he tried acquiring the licenses for building the Cobra MKIII from Cowell & MgRath and setting up his own factory. He was so sure all would go smoothly that he started building the shipyard station first and then applying for a license, yet what happened next bewildered him, Cowell & MgRath flatly refused him a license no matter the amount of credits he threw at them. Cowell & MgRath simply replied every time that they are not interested in licensing the Cobra MKIII at this time.

Furious, Karstern used his power and influence in order to force Cowell & MgRath to sell him the license, all to no avail. Still furious and dead set on doing what he set out to do, he managed to find and buy smaller shipyards and companies that held licenses and tooling for the old, but still loved Cobra MKI and to his surprise, he also found the plans, tooling and parts for the ill fated Cobra MKII at a small shipyard which was considering building the MKII when Paynou, Prossett and Salem went bankrupt.

Paynou, Prossett and Salem which had designed the MKI had went under after investing all they had into the development of the MKII, but failed to detect a serious fault in the hull design which prompted Cowell & MgRath buying them and redesigning the ship which became the wildly successful MKIII.

After all this, Karstern finally had a plan, vision and means of making his own version of the ship he loved so much so it comes as a suprise that this was the time he chose to die at the cheery age of 150. The shipyard he built remained and operated maintaining the large fleet of transport ships KOB Corporation used. All the cobra tooling and parts were stored indefinitely. Nothing would have come out of those if not for another ship nut CEO of the KOB Corporation, Kamden O'brien great grandson of the founder.

He created a ship building division in the KOBC, took all those obsolete parts and made new old ships, which had become highly collectable, hence valuable. He then made high quality reproductions slowly gaining experience, building a data base and a group of skilled workers. After a few years he had finally all that he needed to build his dream ship the KOB R4. Taking a page out of the Cobra's history, they took the plans for the MKII they had and completely redesigned and updated it.