Hi all,
I've been lurking about getting all kinds of inspiration from the talent here. Well I started learning Lightwave about 10-12 years ago, and just when I was getting a handle on modeling... I dropped it and focused more on my profession.
Well here we are now, and after a couple of years of trying to learn what I forgot, I feel I'm sneaking up on it. Here I've started work on a Star Trek design that's based on the Franz Joseph concept from the early 70's 'Starfleet Tech Manual'. I'm modeling it as a Dominion War era scout/ destroyer. Some changes will be forthcoming. At some point I'll take a crack at texturing.. (Lord have mercy!)
Posts
Well she's gotta be able to outrun what she can't outshoot..
They're all inspired from the old Franz Joseph designs....:D
Yes, it's the main navigational deflector dish. The one thing I didn't like about the old Franz Joseph design was the deflector dish hanging on a pole, but it's a minor nitpick. Voyager had an inset deflector on the saucer section, and the NX has a similar design...( funny thing is I wasn't even thinking of the NX when I did this, but it's a good comparison). It occurred to me afterward that one of my favorite Fed. designs, the Reliant doesn't even have a deflector dish! I guess she just shoots things out of her way.
That's funny the way you broke it down..;) Actually this was a concept I played with as a kitbash I could do to my Voyager kit. Never got around to it, but I liked the concept enough as a project I could use to learn, (re-learn) LW with. But the idea is that it is a kind of border patrol boat.
She's small, with a crew of about 200. I made a little 'red shirt' for scale. Yep.. it's a small shuttle bay.
Though, 30 is also a bit less. 30 is probably the crew-size if it were NX-era. Else (the impulse-egines look like from an Excelsior) I'd go with about 50.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
http://www.meshweaver.com/frames/tutorials/aztec.htm
http://discovery.scifi-art.com/aztec/index.html
http://www.flexomizer.com/post/An-easier-way-to-make-Trekkish-ship-hull-Aztec-patterns.aspx
A cross between your saucer and this one might fit the Ken Adam style saucer:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/mglenadel/NX01/NX-01_5views1500px.jpg
A few more renders... I'm really sneaking up on texturing and lighting, but looking forward to tackling it.
I'm having trouble though getting a sense of scale. Which objects are the life pods- the six shapes on the top of the saucer? or the hexagons on the "spine" of the ship? IF the lifepods are the six shapes on the top of the saucer I lost all sense of scale. Compare the size of those lifepods to the size of the windows. Those are HUGE lifepods when compared to the windows or the shuttlebay.
All that being said, as you continue adding detail the model's sense of scale will probably improve. Anyway.... looks good!
The shuttle bay is small... I'm thinking a few shuttle pods eg. what the Defiant would carry. It's all academic though... this is mainly for fun & to teach myself how to model. If I miss it here & there I'll do better next time.
Thanks for the input, keeps me honest!