I think that you misinterpreted my meaning. You were trying so hard to match the configuration of the TNG design elements, rather than making logical design decision. Sometimes, the most obvious choice is the best one to make. It just makes sense that the docking ports would be on the rims of the saucers of compact designs like the New Orleans and Challenger classes. If I'm not mistaken, the Intrepid class has them in her ovoid section section, because her primary hull and nacelles would be a liability to docking procedures.
That wasn't the most obvious choice to me. I didn't design the saucer rim with docking ports in mind. In fact, I didn't design any hull contour with docking ports in mind. However, I never thought I was going to put one on the saucer edge. My idea was always to have the sensor greeble trenches all around the saucer rim, except for where the thrusters and impulse engines are, like the galaxy. But, I had to alter that plan when my original plan of putting them on the "secondary hull" led to ugliness.
Well, for what it's worth, the saucer rim placement looks like what you SHOULD have done in the first place. It's a nice, simple solution, at least in my opinion.
Have you thought about hanging the nacelles from the pod? Possibly as a variant. Could be a cool look.
No, I honestly can't say I've thought of that. I see the pod more as an add-on for the ship, somewhat like the Nebula class pod. I may even eventually design different ones. Even if I don't, it's mainly sensors and weapons up there. It's only 1 deck thick, there's no room for a warp core. That means the warp conduits would have to travel through the pylons connecting the pod to the ship, through part of the pod and through pylons connecting the nacelles to the pod. It's more efficient to have the warp conduits travel through the pylons connecting the nacelles to the saucer. Besides, I did my grid lines and paneling to account for the existing pylons.
Well, for what it's worth, the saucer rim placement looks like what you SHOULD have done in the first place. It's a nice, simple solution, at least in my opinion.
Well, I definitely can't fault that logic, since my first solution didn't work out so well.
I like the nacelles at-an-angle look. I like the pod shape
A couple of things bother me about the pod, though. The sharp corners on the grey bits look a bit out of place on the shape. And you've managed to trigger my... I'm not sure what it's called (calling it OCD overstates it) but with the wedge shapes on top, the lengths, from front to back go "big, smaller, smaller still, then bigger again". Bugs me.
Forgive my crude GIMP scribbles here. The yellow boxes are where I plan to put some transporter emitters, of the type seen on the TNG era ships. The green area might be OK without something, but the red circled area is an issue. Right now it's very plain. Looking at the bottom of the Galaxy class, you can see there are some plain areas:
Though, the Galaxy has a much bigger saucer with more decks. They have those cool window insets down there. I could certainly do those on my ship, but I have an issue with that. My hull contours really don't line up with a deck plan in an way that makes it seem that that is very prime real estate:
In order for there to be realistic window insets, they would have to be really close to the saucer's central axis. They would work, but not be ideal. I imagine that part of the saucer would house support framework and machinery more than anything else. Maybe some equipment like life support systems, water storage, etc. Things you need in a space ship. Access to it would likely be through Jefferies tubes, since the hull is too curved and shallow to support a real size deck. The actual deck in that area is more where the central axis gets beefed up a bit by the structure that connects it to the navigation deflector area.
Anywho, just thoughts before I got to bed. I may put a few escape pods there, but I already have a lot of pods for my intended crew size. I have 98 pods, with a few more planned on the lower curve of the central hull. 98 pods is enough to evacuate 392 to 588 people. That's plenty, even if the ship is carrying extra personnel such as families and passengers. Though, moving some escape pods more towards the central saucer would provide closer access to people towards the central axis
Thanks guys. I'd also thought about the cargo doors, so I may do those. I'm probably also going to do something for loading cargo in the fantail, like the -D has, but there's nothing saying I can't have multiple cargo loading spots.
A very few recessed window boxes? It's obviously -much- smaller than the E-D so, not too many.
Yeah, that's what I was talking about with the inset windows. In order to do them to where they connect to windows that humans (and assorted bipedal aliens) can stand up in, they would have to got to pretty much the center of the saucer. The area that has them on the -D isn't as shallow and severe of a slope. This area on my ship is more the area on the -D that has those cool fan shaped doors.
So, it's been a busy weekend, which is ironic because I've had the last 3 days off work. I bought a house back in September. I knew going in that the house had some issues, after all that's why you have inspections done. One of the red flags of the inspection was the furnace, which was older. I had it inspected and found out that there are a lot of issues, somewhere around $4600 of repairs needed to be done. (yikes!) However, repairing an old furnace made no sense to me. The air conditioner was older too, so old that they don't make the coolant for that model anymore. To even recharge it when needed would have been an additional $2500. That's on top of any other repairs that might need done. However, rather than go that route, I just decided to replace both the furnace and air conditioner. I'm going to be in this house for at least 30 years, as that's the length of my FHA loan, so there's no point in not staring fresh with heat and a/c. So, Friday the installers came out. As anyone who has had this done knows, it's an all day affair. I didn't sleep well the night before, so I wasn't in the right mindset to do CGI. Also, I'm technically still moving out of my apartment. I turn it over on the 30th, so I spent hours yesterday over there packing up the rest of my stuff and much of yesterday and today has been spent unpacking and doing stuff. I also found a board in a big closet that would make a great shelf, so I went to the Home Depot and bought some brackets and a few other things that I needed, and then I cut down the board, sanded it a bit and put it up to make myself a nice shelf in the closet.
Anywho, I did that, unpacked some more stuff, and then some laundry and cleaned up some more stuff in the basement, then I decided a nice sit down in my office chair would be in order, and I finally did some CGI.
Of course, they don't function, but I decided to make it at least look like they could. Looking at the Enterprise-D herself, I've noticed those doors really aren't visible on the 6-foot model:
They're definitely more visible on the 4-foot model:
Especially in this publicity shot:
One of the things that make details like that pop on the 4-foot model is the lovely dimensional paint that Greg Jein and his team did. That's one of the reasons I like the 4-foot Enterprise model better than the 6-foot model.
Yup. I like the 'bulldog' a bit more for that reason, that and the thicker deck to make 10-Forward work. I like the 6ft one for it's seamless look but just couldn't appreciate it on the smaller screen. It looks great in Generations.
Yup. I like the 'bulldog' a bit more for that reason, that and the thicker deck to make 10-Forward work. I like the 6ft one for it's seamless look but just couldn't appreciate it on the smaller screen. It looks great in Generations.
I like it for a number of reasons, including the saucer rim and the shape of the deflector area. It's slightly different than the 6-foot model and I like it. In fact, it's the only version of the Galaxy with that shape because the CGI models seem to be based more on the 6-foot model.
Here's a nice comparison from Doug Drexler's old blog:
I don't really do elegant. After all, the Constellation class is one of my favorite Trek ships and there aren't many canon Starfleet ships that are less elegant.
I do like the elegance of it but it just didn't work on TV. Even the HD remaster's barely capture it. The Bulldog pops more for me in later seasons. It really worked for Generations which is a shame because they crashed it :P
The 6-foot model never looked better than it did in Generations. That new paint job they gave it for the big screen was drool worthy.
I definitely agree with @ashleytinger. The original paint job never really worked for me on the 6-footer. It just looked very flat to me. That dimensional paint on the 4-footer really pops, especially in HD.
I don't really do elegant. After all, the Constellation class is one of my favorite Trek ships and there aren't many canon Starfleet ships that are less elegant.
I don't really do elegant. After all, the Constellation class is one of my favorite Trek ships and there aren't many canon Starfleet ships that are less elegant.
Posts
Working on some pod details.
I can't do it, I have to model almost everything. This ship has no textures, everything you see is modeled.
Well, for what it's worth, the saucer rim placement looks like what you SHOULD have done in the first place. It's a nice, simple solution, at least in my opinion.
No, I honestly can't say I've thought of that. I see the pod more as an add-on for the ship, somewhat like the Nebula class pod. I may even eventually design different ones. Even if I don't, it's mainly sensors and weapons up there. It's only 1 deck thick, there's no room for a warp core. That means the warp conduits would have to travel through the pylons connecting the pod to the ship, through part of the pod and through pylons connecting the nacelles to the pod. It's more efficient to have the warp conduits travel through the pylons connecting the nacelles to the saucer. Besides, I did my grid lines and paneling to account for the existing pylons.
Well, I definitely can't fault that logic, since my first solution didn't work out so well.
The pod's shaping up nice.
A couple of things bother me about the pod, though. The sharp corners on the grey bits look a bit out of place on the shape. And you've managed to trigger my... I'm not sure what it's called (calling it OCD overstates it) but with the wedge shapes on top, the lengths, from front to back go "big, smaller, smaller still, then bigger again". Bugs me.
Scale always matters when I build things.
Your skills evolved a lot. Congratulations!
Thanks a lot!
Forgive my crude GIMP scribbles here. The yellow boxes are where I plan to put some transporter emitters, of the type seen on the TNG era ships. The green area might be OK without something, but the red circled area is an issue. Right now it's very plain. Looking at the bottom of the Galaxy class, you can see there are some plain areas:
Though, the Galaxy has a much bigger saucer with more decks. They have those cool window insets down there. I could certainly do those on my ship, but I have an issue with that. My hull contours really don't line up with a deck plan in an way that makes it seem that that is very prime real estate:
In order for there to be realistic window insets, they would have to be really close to the saucer's central axis. They would work, but not be ideal. I imagine that part of the saucer would house support framework and machinery more than anything else. Maybe some equipment like life support systems, water storage, etc. Things you need in a space ship. Access to it would likely be through Jefferies tubes, since the hull is too curved and shallow to support a real size deck. The actual deck in that area is more where the central axis gets beefed up a bit by the structure that connects it to the navigation deflector area.
Anywho, just thoughts before I got to bed. I may put a few escape pods there, but I already have a lot of pods for my intended crew size. I have 98 pods, with a few more planned on the lower curve of the central hull. 98 pods is enough to evacuate 392 to 588 people. That's plenty, even if the ship is carrying extra personnel such as families and passengers. Though, moving some escape pods more towards the central saucer would provide closer access to people towards the central axis
https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/galaxy-class-sheet-4.jpg
Yeah, that's what I was talking about with the inset windows. In order to do them to where they connect to windows that humans (and assorted bipedal aliens) can stand up in, they would have to got to pretty much the center of the saucer. The area that has them on the -D isn't as shallow and severe of a slope. This area on my ship is more the area on the -D that has those cool fan shaped doors.
Anywho, I did that, unpacked some more stuff, and then some laundry and cleaned up some more stuff in the basement, then I decided a nice sit down in my office chair would be in order, and I finally did some CGI.
I added the cargo doors suggested by @Vortex5972 and @MadKoiFish.
Of course, they don't function, but I decided to make it at least look like they could. Looking at the Enterprise-D herself, I've noticed those doors really aren't visible on the 6-foot model:
They're definitely more visible on the 4-foot model:
Especially in this publicity shot:
One of the things that make details like that pop on the 4-foot model is the lovely dimensional paint that Greg Jein and his team did. That's one of the reasons I like the 4-foot Enterprise model better than the 6-foot model.
One possibility for that:
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/treknographics101/line-drawing-bashes-t490.html#p8714
I like it for a number of reasons, including the saucer rim and the shape of the deflector area. It's slightly different than the 6-foot model and I like it. In fact, it's the only version of the Galaxy with that shape because the CGI models seem to be based more on the 6-foot model.
Here's a nice comparison from Doug Drexler's old blog:
I definitely agree with @ashleytinger. The original paint job never really worked for me on the 6-footer. It just looked very flat to me. That dimensional paint on the 4-footer really pops, especially in HD.
Soyuz.
The USS Curry:
In use in the DS9 episode "A Time to Stand:"
lol FF anglefire, that is like finding a geocities link. crap sites. Bet it wont even work as a link.
https://www.angelfire.com/ns/firepit/msfm/stephen_l/ussyeager2.jpg
and that thing Janeway was in in that nick cgi show.