3DConstitution-ish

evil_genius_180

Thread image update:



Original post below:

So, I've been playing around with different projects for weeks now. I've tried to get new things going that have fizzled and I've looked at my open projects, but that usually just means I opened the files, looked at them, and the re-closed them. Then I was inspired. Specifically, by this thread:

https://forums.scifi-meshes.com/discussion/10001172/3duss-albacore-a-ship-based-on-the-ambassador-class/p1

I love the work that @SCE2Aux did on the Ambassador class. It's a fresh look with lots of greebles and other cool details. I decided to do something similar, but with the Constitution class. Basically, I want to take the original Matt Jefferies design, in its original size (no need to resize it because I know how to build stuff to scale and I didn't make a 700+ meter ship that it has to share the screen with) but just up the level of detail. I'm making a few minor design changes, but mostly sticking to the original ship, based on Alan Sinclair's blueprints.

Anywho, this is what I have so far:



Most of the design changes are to the secondary hull, I played with the shapes a bit. I did something totally different with the pylons. I also modified the teardrop a bit. The rest is mainly the same as the original 11' model, because most of the changes I plan to do are on the detail side of things. Basically, greeble the crap out of it. The grid lines on the saucer are an idea of how I plan to do the grids on the whole ship.

SCE2Aux

I'm flattered that the Albacore has some design ideas you'd like to apply to this ship! You've got a good start here, I'm interested in how and where you're integrating the extra greebles into the Constitution structure.
Welcome to the greeble mafia: Let no surface remain elegantly minimalist!

johnl2112

I suggest taking the opportunity to make the neck thicker so that you can fit in more than an intermix assembly OR a turbo lift. Maybe not full excelsior but something a bit more meaty?

evil_genius_180

The neck is 6m thick, same as the blueprints I'm using. That's plenty of room for a turbolift and intermix assembly. (assuming this ship has anything like the TMP intermix assembly) Like I said, I'm not looking to veer from the design much in the basic structures, just in the details.

SCE2Aux wrote: »

I'm flattered that the Albacore has some design ideas you'd like to apply to this ship! You've got a good start here, I'm interested in how and where you're integrating the extra greebles into the Constitution structure.
Welcome to the greeble mafia: Let no surface remain elegantly minimalist!

Thanks. Yeah, your work is very inspirational. I've done greeble-y Star Trek before, I did a Daedalus class a long time ago that had a lot of greebles. It's fun. It's way away from what Matt Jefferies wanted, but canon Star Trek sticks to his vision, leaving us hobbyists free to explore other possibilities.

I'm off work tomorrow, so it will be time to start the hull paneling.

Jayru

Very nice work. Looking good!

evil_genius_180

Jayru wrote: »

Very nice work. Looking good!

Thanks a lot.


I wasted a lot of time this morning messing around with modeled paneling on the saucer. It wasn't looking how I wanted it and I was just fighting it. Finally, I decided it's not really worth all the effort and I deleted what I had and spun a new saucer. It's slightly higher poly than the old one, which will aid me in doing the kind of detailing I eventually want to do on it. I'll probably just do texture maps for the paneling.

In the meantime, I started messing with the nacelles.



It's not much so far, just some basic line work on the nacelles and pylons. This is a necessary first step before I get into the major details. The nacelles are totally hollow and I plan to fully detail the insides.

Also, I didn't mention this in my first post, but I recently bought a couple new computers. I've been seeing a lot of favorable reviews of mini PCs on YouTube, so I decided to see what they could do. I bought on with a Ryzen 5 5500U, 16GB DDR4 RAM and a 500GB NVME hard drive. That thing really impressed me with its ability to play games. It was only $290 on Amazon and it easily performs as well as a $600+ gaming tower. I have it hooked up to my TV for playing PC games in my living room. After being impressed with that, I decided to try an even cheaper mini PC. I ordered one with a Celeron N95 processor, 16GB DDR4 RAM and a 500GB NVME hard drive. For being very low powered, it actually performs really well for Blender. I did have to turn my sample rate way down to have renders only take minutes, but I think the defaults were probably way higher than I needed for WIP renders anyway. Also, this computer only cost me $170. It's not bad at all for the money. It came with Windows 11 Pro. I had a Linux distribution ready to go on a flash drive in case it had issues with Win11, but it runs it and Blender like a champ. I'm having no issues working and I'm churning these renders out in just a few minutes on a tiny dirt cheap computer. So, after being impressed by these minis, I don't think I'll buy or build another tower again.

evil_genius_180

evil_genius_180

I don't like how I did those grid lines on the engineering hull. The lines inside of lines works for me on the nacelles, but not as much there. Luckily, I had the file backed up to a flash drive from before I did all of that mess, so I loaded up the engineering hull without the lines and redid them.

Vortex5972

I like what you have so far. Shall be interesting to see how this turns out.

wibble

Your approach actually was what I had in mind for my own constitution. Stay true to the original concept and only flash out the details. But as you probably noticed over the years I got a bit off course. With your experience in building the original Enterprise it shall be indeed interesting to see how this turns out.

SCE2Aux

That doubled-up ring of panelling going around the secondary hull where the nacelle struts connect is a really nice looking feature, and it makes logical sense too - you'd need that sort of extra reinforcement around that high strain area.

evil_genius_180

Thanks a lot, everyone.

SCE2Aux wrote: »

That doubled-up ring of panelling going around the secondary hull where the nacelle struts connect is a really nice looking feature, and it makes logical sense too - you'd need that sort of extra reinforcement around that high strain area.

Believe me, way less thought went into it than that.

ashleytinger

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Thanks a lot, everyone.

SCE2Aux wrote: »

That doubled-up ring of panelling going around the secondary hull where the nacelle struts connect is a really nice looking feature, and it makes logical sense too - you'd need that sort of extra reinforcement around that high strain area.

Believe me, way thought went into it than that.

Many people who've modeled the real model kit versions of the ship would agree lol

publiusr

Maybe the big gangway doors in the flat area behind the secondary hull dish?

Mon Cal torpedo tubes either side of the secondary hull at 10 and 2?

That way, you could lower the saucer…lean it forward for a more aggressive stance…

evil_genius_180

Quick one for tonight. More panels and greeble channels on the pylons, and some line work on the neck.

Jayru

Loving the detail you are fleshing out on this. Looks amazing!

evil_genius_180

After I got home from work yesterday, I reworked the lines on the neck a bit. No need to do new renders for that, the work is visible in a few of these renders. Today I'm off work, so I spent much of my morning working on lines for the saucer section. I also recreated the indentations for the RCS thrusters, created an indentation for the upper registry and I put the greeble indents back in roughly where the lighted panels were on the original model. For the underside, I decided to put in some nods to the original ship with the 3 indented rings that go around the whole diameter and the triangle details.








For the bits I have modeled, I need to do line work on the teardrop, but I'm probably going to take a break from this for the rest of the day.

Jayru

You're really doing the old girl proud. She looks amazing!

SCE2Aux

Wow this is really coming along well.

evil_genius_180

Thanks guys.

evil_genius_180

Quick update before I go to work. I started on the bridge.

Vortex5972

That's an interesting looking module. Whole ship is coming together nicely.

evil_genius_180

Vortex5972 wrote: »

That's an interesting looking module. Whole ship is coming together nicely.

Thanks a lot.

evil_genius_180

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

So, after being impressed by these minis, I don't think I'll buy or build another tower again.

I swear I meant that when I said it.



I can't help it, I have next to no impulse control and this stuff was on clearance at work. I have everything else I need to do a build. Besides, the minis are mighty, but not really that good for rendering, especially when I get into illuminated and reflective materials, which I'm going to be doing soon.

Jayru

I am loving the attention to detail on your ship, the lines and shapes... really breathing life into her. Can't wait to see the finished ship.

Those PC parts will make for a nice rig :-)

evil_genius_180

Jayru wrote: »

Those PC parts will make for a nice rig :-)

We'll see. I'm having nothing but issues with it so far. I don't think the WIFI works on the board. Also, Windows 11 keeps rebooting for no apparent reason. Though, both of those could be Windows problems. (before anyone says it's an issue with Win11 vs 10 or 7, I run 11 with no issues on several computers, such as my laptop that I'm on right now) Luckily, I went to a site where I got the Windows license on the cheap. It's a 100% legit license, so that can't be the issue. Besides, it started that crap right after initial boot this time, before I even got to the part where I log in, which would connect it to the license. I'm going to try Linux next and see if it's a problem with the hardware. I did order a new case and PSU because my stuff is older and not in great shape. The PSU could be the issue, or it could also be a hard drive issue. I'll start seeing what's what once I put a Linux distribution on it.

Jayru

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

We'll see. I'm having nothing but issues with it so far. I don't think the WIFI works on the board. Also, Windows 11 keeps rebooting for no apparent reason. Though, both of those could be Windows problems. (before anyone says it's an issue with Win11 vs 10 or 7, I run 11 with no issues on several computers, such as my laptop that I'm on right now) Luckily, I went to a site where I got the Windows license on the cheap. It's a 100% legit license, so that can't be the issue. Besides, it started that crap right after initial boot this time, before I even got to the part where I log in, which would connect it to the license. I'm going to try Linux next and see if it's a problem with the hardware. I did order a new case and PSU because my stuff is older and not in great shape. The PSU could be the issue, or it could also be a hard drive issue. I'll start seeing what's what once I put a Linux distribution on it.

I run Windows 11 without issues or problems, on my main rig and laptop too. It works for me... I get that others may not agree or have issues with it... But, that's not me.

Booting like that could mean you have a registry problem, or something going on your handwear. Last time I had that issue, it turned out to be an issue on my MB, which had to be replaced. You're defo going the right way to diagnose the issue. Hope it works out for you and you get your rig back up and running!

evil_genius_180

I think the motherboard has issues. The WIFI definitely doesn't work. I know the hard drive is fine and I don't figure it's a problem with the RAM or processor. I'm installing Kubuntu right now to see if I can replicate the problem.

Also, not affecting function at all, but the I/O shield isn't properly cut. I've never had that issue before.

Edit: So far, no issues with Kubuntu. I had an issue with Windows 7 where it didn't like something about my hardware config on one of my builds, and it gave me BSODs all the time, requiring a reboot, but I never had any issues with the computer on Linux. It's too early to tell if this is one of those situations, but it's a possibility. If that's all it is, I'll keep the board. The WIFI thing is annoying, but not a problem on a board that I got on clearance. I have a WIFI card in the PCIEx1 slot right now.

evil_genius_180

Well, so far so good with Kubuntu 22.04 LTS. Not a single reboot that I didn't intentionally cause. Who knows, maybe Windows doesn't like the combination of the motherboard and RAM. I didn't go by a compatibility list or anything, I just grabbed components on clearance. I have to go to work in a bit, but I'll do more testing tonight. If it works, then that's fine. The WIFI thing is a minor annoyance. It's not worth taking the board that I got for $80 off back to Walmart to replace it. Who knows, another one could have worse issues or be perfect. Luckily, Blender is open source, so of course I have the latest LTS version of it installed too:



That definitely renders a lot faster with the GTX 1660 Super than it did with the Celeron or even the Ryzen 5. (it blows the i5 out of the water too) Apart from Blender, I also use GIMP and Inkscape, both of which are also open source and I have them installed already. One thing I like about Ubuntu and its offshoots is the "minimal" installation option. Just the basic OS and a web browser, and I also chose to install my graphics drivers during the OS install. That type of install allows me to choose what other software I want to install without having to uninstall a bunch of crap that I don't want, like the "full" Ubunutu/Kubuntu installation does.

The good news is, after I work today, I have the next two days off to really put this thing to the test and work on my model. I get my PSU and case tomorrow, so I'll move the computer over to there whenever that arrives. While I have it disassembled, I'll modify the I/O shield so that I can actually use the top USB ports.

Jayru

Sounds- and looks - real positive. Fingers crossed!

rojren

Just thinking about building a new PC gives me a headache. I used to do it years ago, and it seemed like between one PC and the next I had to relearn everything because of the technology changing so quickly.

I assume now, that the technology changes before you can finish reading the description of the technology.