3DMatt's 3D Trek Sandbox

Robert Harrison

Okay so i have had many disagreements with people over all kinds of things such as weapons and shield power and the worst of all the number of support craft a starship can handle. Now i know my Maths sucks at times but i have worked out that even a small starship can have a good number of shuttles and so i think that a Fighter carrier is a very realistic ship in Starfleet. I babble here but i need to get my point across before i show you my ship. I do not hold to the hole 'Canon' thing with Sci-Fi... Yes Canon is important but think about it, every time we make a ship that is even slightly different from what is seen on screen it become non-canon.

So with that in mind i want to show you a ship i have been working on (on and off) for about 6 months now. It is a Fighter carrier, a small ish crew of about 800 with a air arm wing of around 200 pilot's, 300 Flight crew and between 300 and 600 deck crew. Also a Company of Marines for boarding and SAR operations.

It will also be around 1200 meters long. (Maybe)

Weapons not decided yet but at least 4 Torp tubes and close in defenses such as maybe a Vulcan Mega Bolter type thing or maybe the missile system seen in the 2009 Trek film... Not sure yet though and my computer sucks so i may have to bye a new one just to finish this mesh

Robert Harrison

Okay this is the primary flight deck. There is a ramp that leads up from the shuttlebay to the outer hull. There will be a force field in place over either the or the ramp to allow rapid deployment and recovery.





The structure behind the flight deck is the Air control tower. Not sure if that will remain there or not though i will have to see how i go... I see many people have looked at this thread, your opinions please just s i know what ya all think...

Matthew

Robert Harrison

Impulse Engines


Three warp engines


Close up of Warp Engine

sojourner

A "flight deck" doesn't make much sense in space, you don't have to worry about your fighters getting airborne after accelerating. It would make more sense to have multiple launch ports.

Robert Harrison

Flight deck is a term, and the ramp isn't for gaining height it is to get from the holding bay to space and back again. Plus of course even a space fighter would need to gather up speed to take off, if they wanted to live passed getting into space that is. The faster the fighter is moving the harder it will be to shot down on take off. There might be launch tubes like seen in BSG but i am unsure about those are they are very un-trek, it is more likely that i will have a few more shuttle bays loaded with fighters to get ships up faster and from more then one location.

Robert Harrison

Warp engine



Upper Flight Deck



Aft Shuttle Deck



Three engines (Back)



Three engines (Forward)

Aresius

I love the nacelles, though I think 2 are fine. Just place them a bit further outside.

Robert Harrison

A little detail around the Engines and Aft Torp tubes...



Large Escape Pod hatches/Tubes (20 People each pod)

Robert Harrison

Forward shuttle bay and Phaser emitters.



Lower decks large escape pod doors/hatches/tubes - Also decided that they will only hold 15 but they will be warp able (only warp 2 and only for 12 hours but still)



underside of the ship showing the deflector dish, forward weapons and shuttle bay as well as some of the lower decks escape pods.

Robert Harrison

Okay so i have been playing around with the top section, i thought about a 3rd war engine, a module even nothing but i want your opinion on this, It is a war engine but it is just the warp bit with nothing else (no red bits )

Schimpfy

I'd say either keep it the same as the other nacelles or remove it altogether.

Hellsgate

Interesting design. I can't wait to see what you do from here.

Sevlek

The curves under the hull, where the upper hull spreads out wider than the lower hull. What are they there for? Wouldn't it make more sense to have the hull contain as much volume as possible for fuel, munitions, flight simulators, etc? And I didn't see it mentioned, but will this be a through-deck carrier?

Robert Harrison

Sevlek wrote: »

The curves under the hull, where the upper hull spreads out wider than the lower hull. What are they there for? Wouldn't it make more sense to have the hull contain as much volume as possible for fuel, munitions, flight simulators, etc? And I didn't see it mentioned, but will this be a through-deck carrier?

Thank you for the questions

Okay yes i guess it would make sense, however that ideal shape would be a cube (look at the BORG) the ship design, like other classes, look the way they do to be pleasing to the eye as well as functional..

As for the shuttlebay... no, it has at the moment 2 Shuttlebays and a fighterbay. I have decided not to do a through ship bay like the Akira due to the ships size. I feel that in battle one lucky shot, or a fighter returning badly and crashing could destroy the entire bay. Now like all shuttle bays it is armored to protect from explosions, however having a number of large bays across the ship made more sense to me then one big one.

Hope this answers your questions, updates are coming soon... promise...

Robert Harrison

Okay the first picture is and aft view showing the Impulse Engines, The torp tubes below then and the twin shuttlebays below that. The Warp engines have been skinned... a little... i wanted the contrast i have but i may need to work on the texture.

The next picture shows the top of the ship with the Flight Command centre and the Flight deck. a ramp from inside the ship where the hanger is. Either side are escape modules, warp able and housing... well not sure yet but i think around 30 people. and of course the upper warp engine.

The last one is the front. I really like that deflector dish . you have a Shuttlebay with a Phaser emitter on either side, two torp tubes the main deflector and of course the warp engines...

Hope you like...

LockeFP

Something seems amiss with those pylons. I have this feeling that instead of coming from the "saucer", where the connections and conduits and such would take up room better suited to fighter bays, that they should be coming straight out of the engineering hull, perhaps angling upward just as many prior Starfleet ships have done. This would allow you to move them a bit more outboard, as it seems to me to be a better spot. And the third nacelle is a little redundant in my eyes, but I've never liked odd numbers of nacelles to begin with.

Still you're doing a great job thinking this thing through. Many people just throw things together that look good, not stopping to think of the logistics. It would be nice to see this with some shadow rendering on it, just so we can get a better feel for the curves and angles.

Robert Harrison

Thank you, i did think about doing the engine mounts coming from the 'secondary' hull (if you can call it that) but it didn't look right. 75% of the internal space is in the upper section. Plus the 3rd engine and that there are two warp cores (P/S) each one feeding two of the engines means that it less of a nightmare for the internal piping and what not.. Also the nature of the flight bays and muster bays, quarters and other spaces... well it means that it is bulit around the internal workings...

Although there is of course another major reason... i have no idea how to remove the mounts and stitch the hole they will leave up;) as for shadow... um... ditto . But thank you... i like this ship, it is so diff from other ships that most people dislike it on sight so it is nice to know some people have an open mind...

matthew

Sevlek

Thanks for the responses! However, yes, I know, I'm sorry. I have a concern. You have 2 shuttlebays and 1 fighterbay? How would you retrieve a fighter into the fighter bay while other fighters are launching? In a real battle situation, fighters wouldn't stay out until the bad guys are shot dead. They'd have to return to the carrier to refill ordinance-type munitions (i.e. - Micro Torpedoes). That is where through deck carriers become king, because they allow both at once, much like modern day aircraft carriers to some extent. They would disembark from the fore bay doors and re-embark from the aft bay doors, or port and starboard depending on the particular through deck design.

On the note of a cube, lol, I did chuckle at that btw. The Typhon was a believable carrier design and it was a cube, it resembled a rectangle but it still had a carrier feel to it.

I do like the general direction of the design though, except the nacelles, for some reason I'm just not feeling them and I can't put my finger on why. Other than that, the design is very interesting.

LockeFP

Depending on what program you are using, I could help you with the "stitching" as you call it. It's basically creating new polys where the pylons used to be and moving vertices around by hand to mimic the curve of the underhull. If you move the nacelles outboard a bit and attach the sides of them to the underside of the lower hull, you'll see a much more pronounced definition in the shape of the overall ship.

As for the shadowing, that should all be done with the correct lighting and settings. Again, something that depends on the program you're using to model.

Robert Harrison

Sevlek wrote: »

Thanks for the responses! However, yes, I know, I'm sorry. I have a concern. You have 2 shuttlebays and 1 fighterbay? How would you retrieve a fighter into the fighter bay while other fighters are launching? In a real battle situation, fighters wouldn't stay out until the bad guys are shot dead. They'd have to return to the carrier to refill ordinance-type munitions (i.e. - Micro Torpedoes). That is where through deck carriers become king, because they allow both at once, much like modern day aircraft carriers to some extent. They would disembark from the fore bay doors and re-embark from the aft bay doors, or port and starboard depending on the particular through deck design.

On the note of a cube, lol, I did chuckle at that btw. The Typhon was a believable carrier design and it was a cube, it resembled a rectangle but it still had a carrier feel to it.

I do like the general direction of the design though, except the nacelles, for some reason I'm just not feeling them and I can't put my finger on why. Other than that, the design is very interesting.

Yeah that is in fact a very good point let me have a play to see if i can add a regress door to the one of the bays.. maybe mess around with the layout of the bays to allow for this... hum... let me think...

Depending on what program you are using, I could help you with the "stitching" as you call it. It's basically creating new polys where the pylons used to be and moving vertices around by hand to mimic the curve of the underhull. If you move the nacelles outboard a bit and attach the sides of them to the underside of the lower hull, you'll see a much more pronounced definition in the shape of the overall ship.

As for the shadowing, that should all be done with the correct lighting and settings. Again, something that depends on the program you're using to model.

I am using 3D studio Max 7, i had ago at removing the engine mounts... i made the hull too curvy and i have real issues even doing that... However do you not think that if i move the mounts so their stick out horizontally from the 'stardrive' hull it will look more like the delphin class?

Robert Harrison

Okay so doing this the quick and dirty way... i removed the old mounts and added in two flight bays (like those on the BSG) through deck flight decks maybe even two flight decks in each module... (shruggs opinions)

I have rotated the engines 40degrees out wards and moved them down a little and added downward slanted mounts...

I must stress that this is very quick and dirty, i have massing holes in the model where the new flight bays are ...

Robert Harrison

Okay added a quick set of bay doors... two forward 1 aft.

Falin

Sevlek wrote: »

Thanks for the responses! However, yes, I know, I'm sorry. I have a concern. You have 2 shuttlebays and 1 fighterbay? How would you retrieve a fighter into the fighter bay while other fighters are launching? In a real battle situation, fighters wouldn't stay out until the bad guys are shot dead. They'd have to return to the carrier to refill ordinance-type munitions (i.e. - Micro Torpedoes). That is where through deck carriers become king, because they allow both at once, much like modern day aircraft carriers to some extent. They would disembark from the fore bay doors and re-embark from the aft bay doors, or port and starboard depending on the particular through deck design.

On the note of a cube, lol, I did chuckle at that btw. The Typhon was a believable carrier design and it was a cube, it resembled a rectangle but it still had a carrier feel to it.

I do like the general direction of the design though, except the nacelles, for some reason I'm just not feeling them and I can't put my finger on why. Other than that, the design is very interesting.

Through deck fighter bays don't work in reality, an aircraft carrier isn't a good comparison because they can easily push any aircraft on fire off the deck in any direction. on a space ship, a large cramped chamber is a potential disaster in waiting, thus Compartmentalized systems are better. you have multiple bays that can be isolated and contain any explosions or massive decompression. each bay would have it's own launch and recovery doors, allowing multiple fighters to launch or be recovered at the same time.

Just imagine what would happen if a Photon torpedo penetrated the hull right at the flight deck, with all those munitions, people and fighters sitting there, you'd essentially cripple the ship. if a Photon torpedo penetrated a compartmentalized bay system, it would confine the damage to one bay and only a handful of fighters and crew would be lost.

Robert Harrison

That was what i did have in mind to start with...

At the moment and with out the flight bays i just added the ship does have 4 shuttle/fighter bays...

There is no reason why there can't be internal lifts to move the fighters and shuttles around... I mean it is a BIG ship... I was also thinking that the primary maintenance bay is in the middle of the ship along with the ammo and fuel stores (not all in one place but in the middle)

Robert Harrison

Okay, so i have gone back (again) to version IV of this ship... As you can see i have the engines back in their old place. What i have done is made the engine mounts a little straighter and less curvy. I will continue to work on the shape but i think that is more or less where the engines will end up. I want to get away from the 'normal' layout a little...

The images attached are of the engines and the deflector, Which I would like your opinion on... i love the shape but there is something missing. I have had a look at what some of you guys have done and mine is very flat compared... Please give us some opinions on that please

Robert Harrison

Added some lighting... don't like it.. but don't know how to use spot lights to make it look like an internal glow... i have used video post FX to get some glow but it isn't as good as i would like...

Robert Harrison

Hey, is there a way that i can add a 2nd texture/skin to the same module? I have just added two Phaser strips to the main hull but extruding them... and now i have to make them stand out a little more and i can't work out how to do it with a skin... help please...

Robert Harrison

Got board... again... so while i wait for more replies to the carrier ship i have decided to work on an idea i had today

Taken from Star Trek Atlantis and War Hammer 40K Imperial Fists starbase I have created this... a warp able starbase... not to big, able to house only 4 Galaxy Class ships or 16 Defiant class of equal mass of ships...

I am thinking around warp 7, massive power drain of course and would only be deployed after much thought... But what a sight it would be... it would have massively powerful shields and maybe long range weapons... Lots of fighters and shuttles and of course work bees...

Robert Harrison

I have removed the upper Warp Engine and replaced it with a sensor module, this module is a high powered and high definition and would normally be seen on a Science ship. This will allow the ship to keep track of it's fighters and shuttles even in combat. Also enemy ships and all stellar bodies in the area.

Robert Harrison

Okay so a few posts back i mentioned i was making a warp able station as well...

Here are some more images... The warp engines and impulse engines are massive, easy 750 meters long. The larger 'petals' are are docking bays for starships (one Sovereign class in each) and fighter/shuttle and transport bays and Cargo bays. The central core is where everyone lives and rests. It is 2'161 meters across and is capable of warp 7 warp 8 at a push...

And some one please comment on this post no one has said anything in a while...

matthew

Robert Harrison

Took advice and found a way to have a 'through' deck flight bay... i have a 'T' shaped fighter bay...