Thanks for your answer. I would like to try how it looks on my constitution if you don't mind.
Yes, of course! Anything for that gorgeous Damsel! :-) Now seriously, I have learnt so much from you guys (and then the Internet at large) it's only fitting that I give back and very rewarding to do so! I'll be thrilled to be of help!
Almost done with this model, I think. I might work on the interiors and maybe details here and there, it's fr from detailed, but the gist of it, I think it's quite balanced.
A couple of pics for you to assess before doing the nice space shots... :-)
I really like the Fulgor. It's got those great Excelsior class lines to it with some cool 25th century details. It's a great blend of eras, and it would look great flying next to both the original Excelsior class and the Excelsior II class from Picard.
I really like the Fulgor. It's got those great Excelsior class lines to it with some cool 25th century details. It's a great blend of eras, and it would look great flying next to both the original Excelsior class and the Excelsior II class from Picard.
Thanks! :-) I will definitely try to push it in the future (as I'm not COMSFE, gotta follow the rules!). We already (will) have our version of the Excelsior II class, and a new class that I designed that's inspired by the Constitution, Excelsior and Obena classes (I'll post some of them on the finished projects when they get released, although not as detailed as this one, they are kinda cute , and I have another design with that feeling to sell, so it might be hard to justify yet another Excelsior, but in any case, it's been so fun making it and I've learnt a great deal, so totally worth it!
Then new model definitely looks Voyager-esque.
Yes! It's hard to fool you guys, lol! I'll explain in my next post. Cheers!
OK, the cat is out the bag already! It's hard to fool you, guys! I think I forgot I was among experts here! Sorry! :-)
So, yes, it's a kind of Intrepid class inspired design, the evolution of another design that played an important role in my life some 20 years ago.
The Tesla class (Tesla statistics mark I and Tesla schematics I color) is the evolution of the Feynman class destroyer, a surveyor based on the Intrepid class. With somewhat older tech, full sensor power while on Warp takes a heavy hit, something that the new nacelles as seen in the Fulgor class minimize a great deal.
Still, I find it a very elegant design, and the current model, as you can see in those pics, is a bit... basic. Let's solve that! :-)
So, yeah... Tesla class destroyer, a design of 2432 from an experimental design of the Feynman class of 2413, the USS Tesla II (so named after the 2408 Feynman class destroyer USS Tesla that was lost in action while trying to save a planet from incoming soliton subspace waves; that happened in 1996, so, as we say, it has rained since then").
15 decks of 4.3 meters in height, 386 meters in length, slightly over 830,00 metric tons of displacement, 6 type XI phaser arrays and two Mark XXIII photon torpedo launchers. Complement of 158, including passengers and the standard 35 Marines (as seen on the Fulgor class destroyer).
Sturdy and resilient, while having good autonomy and excellent sensors. The Feynmans were forced to have a dark, highly reflective coat on the hull due to how the AUGUR sensors worked, but the TESLA II and the Tesla class ships use ORACLE sensors and don't need neither the flapping nacelles nor the black coating.
We are going to model the USS Conway, NCC-66203, third ship of the class (the registry number NCC-66200 is reserved for the USS Tesla II, NCC-66101, still in service, the first two ships were the USS Maxwell and USS Mandelbrot). So cool!
Here's the basic plan, with the Kirov class adapted ILN-6xx series nacelles, and the slightly more streamlined line we love so much...
Here's the deck plan, as you can see deck 15 is actually higher than the rest. As on the Fulgor, while decks are fairly linear, there are some levels and stairs here and there.
A "throwback" to an earlier era of exploration, given the size, deck-count and overall design. A 25th Century Intrepid Class?
It's kind of a 25th Century intrepid class, yes... :-) This one has a very long history behind, so it's both innovative and nostalgic... :-) But yes, we are pushing for a new era of exploration, and this is one of the spearheads, although the new batch of ships (especially the cruisers) will surely take the lead, but let's not dismiss the destroyers, which are very flexible and adaptable.
OK, we are starting to get into shape... 5 out of 6 phaser arrays in place, a brand new deflector and the main hangar at the stern with doors and everything! lol
Obviously, lots of things to do, just step by step... :-)
Just bits here and there... Those curves are tricky and the phaser arrays get a bit jagged in some places, I'll have to see if that can be enhanced. I have observed that nurb curves work better with the array and curve operators. I did use part of the mesh to get the shape right, but maybe I just have to nurb a curve into the exact shape I need. Mmm...
In any case, all phasers in place, new deflector dish, planetary sensor dome under the saucer and the place where the auxiliary hangar bay seats in the front of the ship.
I redid the hangar bay and doors, as I wasn't convinced the old ones were good enough, and I think I like them this way more. Also worked on a sketch of the FliOps room. The doors color is provisional, but it's not that ugly, either... :-)
Before starting to add details and start the adventure of the viewport cutouts, I wanted to work on the nacelles. Materials are still provisional and you can see the structure, which is relatively faithful to the original Sovereign-class nacelles it's based on (from the 25th Century model, the Kirov class heavy cruiser).
And this is how the nacelle looks, so far. I'll have to work on the photonic spill port assemblies as there are some things that don't match my idea of what I want, but these don't need to be 100% an exact match, so I have some degrees of freedom here and there... :-)
Just more work on the nacelles... I think I Iike the way the photonic spill port assemblies ended up: they took several attempts and a good number of hours.
Also worked a bit on the cargo loading bays in the Engineering hull and the aft ventral sensor pallet.
Like the nacelles, they will probably need some more details but the bulk should be just done. Now to think about paneling. Oh, joy. :-)
I really like the direction you're going with this. It's like the Intrepid class and Sovereign class had a baby.
Thanks! I have always thought the Sovereign class is really cool: it has the lines of the refit Constitution and the curves of a speedster, lol. And the Intrepid class has that trickster feeling, like a playful misfit. So, going from that design language and incorporating elements from the Sovereign, in the end it's kind of that, you are right...
Okay so I was wrong, I wasn't yet satisfied with the nacelles, so...
The green shade is where the Bussard collector dumpt vents will be, the material I had for it wasn't appropriate, so I might solve it using geometry, we'll see...
And, well, started to work on the indented viewports, so not most viewports are actually ceiling windows. We will probably have more quarters on the saucer rim and less weird things, but we'll see. We can also see a sketch of the forward facing auxiliary shuttle hangar bay. Small craft is important for a surveyor. Even with the added SESR modules, shuttles allow for enormous gain via parallax, which is kind of how the SESR works, so double the gain... :-)
SESR is the System of Enhanced Sensor Resolution, a creation of 20some years ago that consists of a torpedo-like sensor module (usually much bigger, though, similar to a shuttlepod; we are developing a micro-version so smaller ships can use it) that's deployed at sublight speeds via tractor beam and tethered to the ship via optical fiber and an extremely resilient synthetic rope. Once deployed, the SESR module will move alongside the ship, normally some hundreds of meters away, via inertia. The distance and angle between the SESR module and the ship sensors create a distributed sensor (like linked radiotelescopes do) that greatly enhance the resolution and reach of a ship sensory abilities. The gain goes up to 23% in long range sensors and about 29% in short range sensors for the ORACLE sensor array (like the one implemented in the Tesla class).
They aren't useful at Warp (and of course not at D-Warp) but are perfect for a surveyor scanning from afar. Most new ship classes have several modules and the additional computer cores and bandwidth needed to process the amount of data gathered.
Well, slow days... Started paneling, using backstept's technique and it sorta works in my model, but it's very subtle, I might have to try a different thing. It might have to do with some parameters on the modifiers or maybe the material needs to be friendlier, I dunno. Also, saucer main thrusters and the ventral forward observation area.
In the picture above it's completely invisible, and I had to reduce a bit the overall exposure to make it easier to see close quarters. There some small artifacts from the solidy modifier which I think work with the design, but were compeltely accidental, so I'm not completely sold... Ah, well...
That's a very TMP/TNG level of subtlety with the paneling. If you look at ships like the Enterprise-A, Enterprise-D, etc. you'll see that the paneling does go away in the wide shots. It becomes visible up close. If that's the look you want, you nailed it. It's just in later Star Trek that both that and the painted hull paneling got more heavy handed.
That's a very TMP/TNG level of subtlety with the paneling. If you look at ships like the Enterprise-A, Enterprise-D, etc. you'll see that the paneling does go away in the wide shots. It becomes visible up close. If that's the look you want, you nailed it. It's just in later Star Trek that both that and the painted hull paneling got more heavy handed.
Um. Hadn't look at it that way. I'll give it a thought, I definitely don't think it'll be as strong and marked as STO. Maybe this will enough... Thanks!
Also worked a bit on the cargo loading bays in the Engineering hull and the aft ventral sensor pallet.
So the orange doors are cargo loading bays? I was wondering if you were doing something new and making shuttle bays on the underside.
That color is temporary until I get to the materials and UV phase, but in this case, yes, the doors under are cargo doors. Workbees are stored there, in the upper levels, while the lower one is the main cargo door, but the hangar bays are main hangar aft and aux hangar to the front.
The standard craft complement for the Tesla class is:
Embarked Craft
Shuttlepod: 4
Personnel Shuttle, Small: 4
D-Warp Shuttle: 4
Cargo Shuttle: 1
Runabout: 0
(and an undetermined number of Workerbees, probably 8-10)
The standard distribution is to have 1 shuttlepod, 1 shuttle and 1 D-Warp shuttle in the aux hangar bay at all times. The rest of the crafts are usually in the main hangar bay. This is to ensure craft (mainly D-Warp) can be deployed even if there's heavy traffic. There's an easy route from the Bridge, so the CO has always easy access to a craft, if needed. And in case the SESR is deployed, one of the two bays will be able to launch without generating too much interference.
There are some models with shuttle bays on the underside, but the internals of the ship make it harder: that section of the Engineering hull has to have the antimatter storage, Warp core, one of the D-Warp nodes and, at least, one computer core. Plus supporting infrastructure. Those are all very delicate systems. Craft operations can be crazy sometimes, so it's better to have some distance between the hangar and those systems. Cargo operations are usually conducted on a space dock or in orbit when things are calm. Of course part of the cargo will be delivered on the other shuttle bays, and moved around via cargo transporters, but the bulk of the storage is around that section. Besides, the cigar shaped secondary hull set from the Constitution class (and then in previous models) leads itself to an easy to access rear hangar bay. While space has no inherent orientation (except when in a system), the ship has a definite gravity direction, and it's easier to maneuver down once you enter the artificial gravity of the ship, as is the way you'd maneuver when landing on a planet. The Excelsior had an underside hangar bay, but its secondary hull had a very different shape.
The Fulgor class might have had an underside hangar bay, but getting rid of the impulse engines, there's a lot of real estate available for that on the top. We have a variant of the Akira class, the Montu class, and a variant of this, the Katana class, which is an antipiracy patrol vessel. It has 2 big ventral hangars for combat shuttles in addition to the dorsal main hangar bay. But the Akira frame doesn't really have an engineering hull per se.
We have some "innovative" designs with VTOL hangars, both as the only option as well as additional access to or egress from the hangar bay, In some cases, the VTOL areas also serve as docking areas for bigger craft (mainly the Dragonfly and Brilliance classes, but also the Wanderlust class). They'll be soon put in production, so there's that.
I'll keep it in mind for a future design, though... Thanks a bunch for your comment!
I decided to do the bridge. Yeah, sorry. It's interesting, though. You can see the turbolift in red and the door to the head and maybe some storage or escape routes in gray on the starboard side, on the port side the Captain's Day Cabin, and the main parts of the bridge, with the CO at the center, XO by their right and TAC on their left, standing; then, in front of the main viewscreen, the OPS and HELM, and some consoles around the bridge for Sciences, Damage Control, Life Support, Engineering, etc...
You can see most elements, including the 3 doors, the consoles all around and the carpet! :-)
Here's a view with the Ready Room with its full wood table glory. It will have viewports, of course, it's the CO after all... :-) (by the way, the interior of the bridge is on top of the outside of the bridge, for easier manipulation... It will all go 4 meters down, more or less.
The briefing room will be by the back of Deck 1, facing aft. It's the best place to put it. And now starting to position all the viewports. Lot's of work to do here.
As for the rest, tried several paneling options on the Engineering hull, but none worked, so I'll give me some more time...
Many attempts at things that weren't going anywhere, so back to yesterday, not much visible, but I have swapped the turbolift and the door on the bridge, that way the door serves to communicate with the rest of Deck 1 in a natural way.
More viewports blocking and I have worked on the phasers using Nurb curves. It should make them subtly smoother but... well... :-)
Saucer rim blocked as it has other things besides rooms, and the new phasers...
Finished the viewporting! And now we have some exhaust/cooling on the nacelle pylons, and our two torpedo launchers! You can also see the thinner phaser strips, and the saucer ventral sensor panels. Also, escape pods!
And we start viewports from the bridge, as is fitting. Gotta make it go all the way through so the CO has their nice office views... :-)
I'll need some days to do all the remaining ones... Oh, well, cheers! :-)
Ugh. One at a time. That'd take forever with some ships. That being said, sometimes if I have too big a group of windows in Lightwave, the software goofs on some of the windows. I can't give a number but I have a feeling for when enough is enough.
Nice. Do you cut your windows one at a time or in groups? I like to do them in groups.
I usually do it in groups. It's proven challenging in many of my previous models because the boolean operations make it harder to then move all the viewports inwards so there's some kind of indent between the hull and the plexiglass or the transparent aluminium and they are not flushed with the hull---that, or I haven't found a convincing way to move multiple selections along their own normals (I can do with resize, extrude and so, but not move: instead of moving each along their Z axis, it averages all the selections, which is not what's intended in this case). Those three viewports on the Bridge were done as a group and then I managed to get solidify to work for me, so they are slightly indented via operator. If this trick works with the rest, I'll be such a happy camper! Not that being flush is wrong, but the existing canon models show real viewport modules with rims and indented and thickness and multiple layers. While not going for such amount of detail, some visual cue is nice...
In previous models I've done (not yet shown on this forum) I tried a trick that sort of works, because they are less detailed and to be viewed from a bit further away: I grouped all cutters, duplicated the hull, slightly shrank it, intersect them, then difference with the original hull, with the right numbers it kinda worked. Finally, sometimes the knife tool is the solution: mark, extrude, separate, edge split, subd if necessary and material and it works.
In this Tesla class model, I think I'll go by ranks, as I did on the Fulgor. Those viewport triplets are already a single group. I will look for a better way to handle the direction of the cutters, right now most are horizontal so they are aligned, with such a curvy hull is hard to get them right and snapping wasn't working for me, I still have a lot to learn. The trade-off is that the same cutter produce slightly different viewports, especially in very curved zones. Well, I can accept it in this case, but in others it will probably be unacceptable.
Also, I do a backup before applying the operators, so I end up with several--many--hidden hulls... That makes the tris count go up quite a bit! but it makes for an easier recovery when something goes wrong and you failt to see it before saving or going over the undo limit, which is quite easy in Blender because almost anything you do is an operation that goes to the stack.
Posts
Yes, of course! Anything for that gorgeous Damsel! :-) Now seriously, I have learnt so much from you guys (and then the Internet at large) it's only fitting that I give back and very rewarding to do so! I'll be thrilled to be of help!
Cheers!
A couple of pics for you to assess before doing the nice space shots... :-)
Just a hint for the time being... ;-)
Then new model definitely looks Voyager-esque.
Thanks! :-) I will definitely try to push it in the future (as I'm not COMSFE, gotta follow the rules!). We already (will) have our version of the Excelsior II class, and a new class that I designed that's inspired by the Constitution, Excelsior and Obena classes (I'll post some of them on the finished projects when they get released, although not as detailed as this one, they are kinda cute
Yes! It's hard to fool you guys, lol! I'll explain in my next post. Cheers!
Yes, more or less... I thought that angle might fool you guys but it's clear I was being naive... :-D Oh, well!
So, yes, it's a kind of Intrepid class inspired design, the evolution of another design that played an important role in my life some 20 years ago.
The Tesla class (Tesla statistics mark I and Tesla schematics I color) is the evolution of the Feynman class destroyer, a surveyor based on the Intrepid class. With somewhat older tech, full sensor power while on Warp takes a heavy hit, something that the new nacelles as seen in the Fulgor class minimize a great deal.
Still, I find it a very elegant design, and the current model, as you can see in those pics, is a bit... basic. Let's solve that! :-)
15 decks of 4.3 meters in height, 386 meters in length, slightly over 830,00 metric tons of displacement, 6 type XI phaser arrays and two Mark XXIII photon torpedo launchers. Complement of 158, including passengers and the standard 35 Marines (as seen on the Fulgor class destroyer).
Sturdy and resilient, while having good autonomy and excellent sensors. The Feynmans were forced to have a dark, highly reflective coat on the hull due to how the AUGUR sensors worked, but the TESLA II and the Tesla class ships use ORACLE sensors and don't need neither the flapping nacelles nor the black coating.
We are going to model the USS Conway, NCC-66203, third ship of the class (the registry number NCC-66200 is reserved for the USS Tesla II, NCC-66101, still in service, the first two ships were the USS Maxwell and USS Mandelbrot). So cool!
Here's the basic plan, with the Kirov class adapted ILN-6xx series nacelles, and the slightly more streamlined line we love so much...
Here's the deck plan, as you can see deck 15 is actually higher than the rest. As on the Fulgor, while decks are fairly linear, there are some levels and stairs here and there.
OK, still a long way to go!
It's kind of a 25th Century intrepid class, yes... :-) This one has a very long history behind, so it's both innovative and nostalgic... :-) But yes, we are pushing for a new era of exploration, and this is one of the spearheads, although the new batch of ships (especially the cruisers) will surely take the lead, but let's not dismiss the destroyers, which are very flexible and adaptable.
Oh, well... :-) Thanks for your post!
Obviously, lots of things to do, just step by step... :-)
In any case, all phasers in place, new deflector dish, planetary sensor dome under the saucer and the place where the auxiliary hangar bay seats in the front of the ship.
Cheers!
I redid the hangar bay and doors, as I wasn't convinced the old ones were good enough, and I think I like them this way more. Also worked on a sketch of the FliOps room. The doors color is provisional, but it's not that ugly, either... :-)
Before starting to add details and start the adventure of the viewport cutouts, I wanted to work on the nacelles. Materials are still provisional and you can see the structure, which is relatively faithful to the original Sovereign-class nacelles it's based on (from the 25th Century model, the Kirov class heavy cruiser).
And this is how the nacelle looks, so far. I'll have to work on the photonic spill port assemblies as there are some things that don't match my idea of what I want, but these don't need to be 100% an exact match, so I have some degrees of freedom here and there... :-)
Cheers!
Also worked a bit on the cargo loading bays in the Engineering hull and the aft ventral sensor pallet.
Like the nacelles, they will probably need some more details but the bulk should be just done. Now to think about paneling. Oh, joy. :-)
Thanks! I have always thought the Sovereign class is really cool: it has the lines of the refit Constitution and the curves of a speedster, lol. And the Intrepid class has that trickster feeling, like a playful misfit. So, going from that design language and incorporating elements from the Sovereign, in the end it's kind of that, you are right...
The green shade is where the Bussard collector dumpt vents will be, the material I had for it wasn't appropriate, so I might solve it using geometry, we'll see...
And, well, started to work on the indented viewports, so not most viewports are actually ceiling windows. We will probably have more quarters on the saucer rim and less weird things, but we'll see. We can also see a sketch of the forward facing auxiliary shuttle hangar bay. Small craft is important for a surveyor. Even with the added SESR modules, shuttles allow for enormous gain via parallax, which is kind of how the SESR works, so double the gain... :-)
SESR is the System of Enhanced Sensor Resolution, a creation of 20some years ago that consists of a torpedo-like sensor module (usually much bigger, though, similar to a shuttlepod; we are developing a micro-version so smaller ships can use it) that's deployed at sublight speeds via tractor beam and tethered to the ship via optical fiber and an extremely resilient synthetic rope. Once deployed, the SESR module will move alongside the ship, normally some hundreds of meters away, via inertia. The distance and angle between the SESR module and the ship sensors create a distributed sensor (like linked radiotelescopes do) that greatly enhance the resolution and reach of a ship sensory abilities. The gain goes up to 23% in long range sensors and about 29% in short range sensors for the ORACLE sensor array (like the one implemented in the Tesla class).
They aren't useful at Warp (and of course not at D-Warp) but are perfect for a surveyor scanning from afar. Most new ship classes have several modules and the additional computer cores and bandwidth needed to process the amount of data gathered.
Well, that's all for now... Cheers!
In the picture above it's completely invisible, and I had to reduce a bit the overall exposure to make it easier to see close quarters. There some small artifacts from the solidy modifier which I think work with the design, but were compeltely accidental, so I'm not completely sold... Ah, well...
So the orange doors are cargo loading bays? I was wondering if you were doing something new and making shuttle bays on the underside.
Um. Hadn't look at it that way. I'll give it a thought, I definitely don't think it'll be as strong and marked as STO. Maybe this will enough... Thanks!
That color is temporary until I get to the materials and UV phase, but in this case, yes, the doors under are cargo doors. Workbees are stored there, in the upper levels, while the lower one is the main cargo door, but the hangar bays are main hangar aft and aux hangar to the front.
The standard craft complement for the Tesla class is:
Embarked Craft
(and an undetermined number of Workerbees, probably 8-10)
The standard distribution is to have 1 shuttlepod, 1 shuttle and 1 D-Warp shuttle in the aux hangar bay at all times. The rest of the crafts are usually in the main hangar bay. This is to ensure craft (mainly D-Warp) can be deployed even if there's heavy traffic. There's an easy route from the Bridge, so the CO has always easy access to a craft, if needed. And in case the SESR is deployed, one of the two bays will be able to launch without generating too much interference.
There are some models with shuttle bays on the underside, but the internals of the ship make it harder: that section of the Engineering hull has to have the antimatter storage, Warp core, one of the D-Warp nodes and, at least, one computer core. Plus supporting infrastructure. Those are all very delicate systems. Craft operations can be crazy sometimes, so it's better to have some distance between the hangar and those systems. Cargo operations are usually conducted on a space dock or in orbit when things are calm. Of course part of the cargo will be delivered on the other shuttle bays, and moved around via cargo transporters, but the bulk of the storage is around that section. Besides, the cigar shaped secondary hull set from the Constitution class (and then in previous models) leads itself to an easy to access rear hangar bay. While space has no inherent orientation (except when in a system), the ship has a definite gravity direction, and it's easier to maneuver down once you enter the artificial gravity of the ship, as is the way you'd maneuver when landing on a planet. The Excelsior had an underside hangar bay, but its secondary hull had a very different shape.
The Fulgor class might have had an underside hangar bay, but getting rid of the impulse engines, there's a lot of real estate available for that on the top. We have a variant of the Akira class, the Montu class, and a variant of this, the Katana class, which is an antipiracy patrol vessel. It has 2 big ventral hangars for combat shuttles in addition to the dorsal main hangar bay. But the Akira frame doesn't really have an engineering hull per se.
We have some "innovative" designs with VTOL hangars, both as the only option as well as additional access to or egress from the hangar bay, In some cases, the VTOL areas also serve as docking areas for bigger craft (mainly the Dragonfly and Brilliance classes, but also the Wanderlust class). They'll be soon put in production, so there's that.
I'll keep it in mind for a future design, though... Thanks a bunch for your comment!
I decided to do the bridge. Yeah, sorry.
You can see most elements, including the 3 doors, the consoles all around and the carpet! :-)
Here's a view with the Ready Room with its full wood table glory. It will have viewports, of course, it's the CO after all... :-) (by the way, the interior of the bridge is on top of the outside of the bridge, for easier manipulation... It will all go 4 meters down, more or less.
The briefing room will be by the back of Deck 1, facing aft. It's the best place to put it. And now starting to position all the viewports. Lot's of work to do here.
As for the rest, tried several paneling options on the Engineering hull, but none worked, so I'll give me some more time...
Cheers!
More viewports blocking and I have worked on the phasers using Nurb curves. It should make them subtly smoother but... well... :-)
Saucer rim blocked as it has other things besides rooms, and the new phasers...
Cheers!
Finished the viewporting! And now we have some exhaust/cooling on the nacelle pylons, and our two torpedo launchers! You can also see the thinner phaser strips, and the saucer ventral sensor panels. Also, escape pods!
And we start viewports from the bridge, as is fitting. Gotta make it go all the way through so the CO has their nice office views... :-)
I'll need some days to do all the remaining ones... Oh, well, cheers! :-)
I usually do it in groups. It's proven challenging in many of my previous models because the boolean operations make it harder to then move all the viewports inwards so there's some kind of indent between the hull and the plexiglass or the transparent aluminium and they are not flushed with the hull---that, or I haven't found a convincing way to move multiple selections along their own normals (I can do with resize, extrude and so, but not move: instead of moving each along their Z axis, it averages all the selections, which is not what's intended in this case). Those three viewports on the Bridge were done as a group and then I managed to get solidify to work for me, so they are slightly indented via operator. If this trick works with the rest, I'll be such a happy camper!
In previous models I've done (not yet shown on this forum) I tried a trick that sort of works, because they are less detailed and to be viewed from a bit further away: I grouped all cutters, duplicated the hull, slightly shrank it, intersect them, then difference with the original hull, with the right numbers it kinda worked. Finally, sometimes the knife tool is the solution: mark, extrude, separate, edge split, subd if necessary and material and it works.
In this Tesla class model, I think I'll go by ranks, as I did on the Fulgor. Those viewport triplets are already a single group. I will look for a better way to handle the direction of the cutters, right now most are horizontal so they are aligned, with such a curvy hull is hard to get them right and snapping wasn't working for me, I still have a lot to learn. The trade-off is that the same cutter produce slightly different viewports, especially in very curved zones. Well, I can accept it in this case, but in others it will probably be unacceptable.
Also, I do a backup before applying the operators, so I end up with several--many--hidden hulls... That makes the tris count go up quite a bit!
Cheers!