3DAnother Enterprise F

Dannage

Calamity Si introduced the fact that a competition on the Star Trek Online site to design the next Enterprise wasn't open to people outside of the US. Fair enough, but then he designed a nice Enterprise F, and there was oohing and aahhing and then some silly idiot said "Ooh, why don't we have an Enterprise F thread for other non US citizens."

That was me, and now I'm paying for it because I started to get inspiration for a new trek ship... As if I didn't have enough stuff to work on!!

Still, the generic thread was in the gallery section, and I didn't have a finished product, so here I am. ho hum.

- - - -

Coming up with the concept.

Well, whereas some of the designs on the STO site have essentially used Sovereign parts or tech, in a different configuration, I decided an Enterprise always wants to last at least a generation of ships. I was thinking we needed something which made the Sovereign look outdated.

The main problem is that making a futuristic, say 25th Century trek ship, is that it just isn't an Enterprise. If you look at the silhouette of the Constitution, the Excelsior, Ambassador, Galaxy and Sovereign, whilst the proportions are different, it's the same ship. It's a saucer, a central body behind it and two nacelles reaching back on pylons. Even the totally warped JJ-prise still held true to this tradition.

To that extent, this one doesn't feel to me like an Enterprise, but... I have to be able to let go of the past and embrace change!

Dannage

So, here's the first day of sketches. Started in the top right hand corner on the worlds smallest post-it note.



This is the approach that I normally take with my trek designs. I always ditch detail and go for a general shape. If I can get an outline that is pleasing on the eye, that's something I can push forward. Then onto another post it (top left) and I try and expand the design a little further.

So the premise here, is that we have a design which looks a little symmetrical. There is no 'neck' between star drive and command section. At one point I was considering basically making the two halves of the ship essentially be clones of each other.

I dropped that fairly quickly though, since half way down the ship you'd have to flip upside down. So I think the outline when the two halves separate is still largely the same, there is still the difference. One thing I am thinking of which sets this apart from previous ships is that when the ship separates the command section is the one that does battle, meaning it's got the main core and the main weapons. On the plus side, this does mean the senior officers don't have to retire ten decks to get to the battle bridge. Conversely, with main engineering in the command section, the habitation and crew quarters are all in the tail, bit longer to get home from the office, but meh... don't take your work home with you.

Middle picture is a slightly more formed outline of both top and bottom which ends up looking like this when split out and mirrored.

oldmangreg

Interesting. Although I would have gone with a traditional circular saucer and two nacelles not attached directly to the hull configuration that all Enterprise's have, in some new form. But cool idea anyways.

colbmista

looks to much like the adramada form the adromada series

Dannage

omg - Yeah, it was a tough choice to go with an entirely new layout. If you saw the Parallax, you'd know I've got no trouble making a few unusual shapes (not as many as atolm, mind!) but this definitely felt difficult to justify as a new Enterprise. I had to think about the relativity and the dauntless and thing about the general shape of 'future' trek ships and move her torwards that. Technically she still has two nacelles and a body behind the hull.

Colb - Now you mention it I can see that from a top perspective. I have to admit, I do like the Andromeda, but I think her side and front profiles will be sufficiently different enough so that in 3D she will look different. We'll have to wait and see!


One of the reasons behind my thinking with some of the lines was pulling trek back to TNG era. As I always do when trying to find a 'successor' shape, I did similar sketches to what I had done in my initial one here, for all the enterprises. No distracting detail, just the outline very roughly, so you youlc look at the dynamics and how each design moved. The Sovereign class seemed to me to be all about speed. The design itself sang out "I am a really fast ship" but the Galaxy class, more like a whale (even though according to the ol technical manual, it's designed on a bird!) What I wanted to do was not to make a ship that said "I kick ass" it was needing to be a ship returning trek to it's less combative roots, and saying "I am a graceful ballerina" ... sort of thing. So, less militaristic, more explorery... We'll see how she looks when I build her.

And if Cassio is watching, I'll probably send her to you to texture.

Melak

Looking like a cool design - although I have trouble with the "Enterprise" name. Seems that, when designing an Enterprise, it is always expected to carry some sort of lineage design wise - so from that point of view I'd say don't make her en Enterprise.

But it certainly is a nice design.

calamity_si

Yeah I call it "The Jein Conundrum" . I think it's something that ANYONE who's tried designing an Enterprise is familiar with. You've got to stick with Greg Jein's original layout whilst making it look sleek and new. I read a blog from John Eaves about designing the Sovereign class and he spoke about the same difficulties. Seeing as we have all experienced the same syndrome, I thought it deserved an official title, hence "The Jein Conundrum"...

Aresius

I also thought of the Andromeda as I saw it. Nice idea, bringing together these two shows.

calamity_si

Dude, as for your ship, I can see elements of Andromeda mixed with Talyn from Farscape mixed with a fed starship. It's an interesting mix of ideas and looks like she would make a cool exploratory or science vessel. But I think the lines drift too far away from the Enterprise lineage to fit properly. In other words, she makes a fine ship but she's not an Enterprise.

Starship

ItA’s different, but looks cool, for sure!

Dannage

Considering even the flippin J looks like the sovereign just got pulled through a huge mangle, I couldn't agree more she doesn't reek of enterprise material. It's no doubt adesign which will cause controversy, maybe that will propel it to greatness?

Melak

There's also the association in most of our heads of "Enterprise with some letter after E = USS Fanboy"

But I'd worry about the design first. Lets see more

Jenny

calamity_si wrote: »

You've got to stick with Greg Jein's original layout whilst making it look sleek and new.

Actually, it might be better to call it the "Jefferies conundrum," as Greg Jein was the lead modeler of the TNG era. Matt Jefferies created the original design of Enterprise for the original series.

Dannage

He's also responsible for tubes.

Dannage

So, here's some placeholders I knocked up, give an idea of the way she looks. The non -top- view, clearly less like the andromeda.



I'm still in two minds at this stage, whether I will have the second 'ring' bit on the back, but we'll see.



I also wanted to get some shots of the two sections separated. The underside just a stretched half sphere at the moment. Wouldn't put too much stock in what you see there.

But the basics now give us an idea of what the two sections will look like.



As you can see, I have put warp nacelles on both sections. The ones on the 'habitation' section are smaller and on her own I'm sure she'll do much less speed, but it seemed to me a bit daft to give the traditional 'lifeboat' saucer section impulse only. That means a saucer section will never really leave whatever star system she's separated in. Giving an albeit slower warp capability to the drive section, say Warp 5 or 6, at least means she gets to travel back to federation space, even if the 'battle' section is destroyed.



Edit - Forgot orthos.

Dannage

Then this morning while the Mrs was asleep I managed a start on the nacelle.



They are not the sleekest nacelles out there, but then I'm not trying to convey speed, more grace, so the design ought to have nice gentle rolling sweeping lines.



That said, since I'm not that hot on modelling, let alone smooth, organic beautiful shapes, I may just get her as far as a medium quality model and then give her to expert modellers to rebulid properly, if anyone will want the job.



And with just the top section.

Lizzy777

So what are those rings for?

James Midsen

Ok, couple of things. Firstly, I LOVE this design. It screams elegance and power, and while it may not follow the same lines as the rest of the Enterprises, it could still work.
Secondly, on the topic of the Ent-J... I regret to inform you that she never existed in the prime universe. The only reason that the J looked like that was because it was in an alternate timeline which Archer then prevented. So in all honesty, the -J would not look like that, so really there's no need to think about making the -F a linear succesion the the -J. When I saw this design, I probably got the largest smile on my face in a while. You have avoided the lineage to the -J entirely. Bravo.

Furthermore, I honestly look forward to how this design progresses, and how the detail comes along when you get there. Excellent job so far. You've truly captured the essence of the relative term 'Futuristic' with this ship.

Dannage

Cheers Tom, grace was what I was going for! I should really have done a bit more 2D drawing, but making these placeholders is going to help with more drawings now I get some sense of perspective! Some 3D doodles I did really didn't look any good, but helped me 'see' the ship in 3D in my minds eye.

Lizzy, in truth, they were for aesthetic purposes to create a smoother line across the front, ideally an unbroken arc. I would say in true star trek tradition I'll come up with some form of heisenberg compensator to ensure that they serve some function. Probably a high energy set of sensor arrays of some form, trading a pallette for them.

Lizzy777

It is a bit difficult to figure function after form. Looks good though!

I do like the departure from the general Fed design, and I see the evolution from Voyager and later Arrowhead shaped hulls.

Aresius

Hm, I'm a bit sad that such a futuristic design still has the classical set of nacelles...

Dannage

Several of my other designs don't have nacelles (Unity, Parallax etc) but I felt the need for nacelles for a little bit of familiarity (and because putting nacelles on makes more people respond, heh heh) but also because I'm not diving into the 30th century with this or anything. Bearing in mind it's the F I consider this thing being part of the family directly after the Sovereign, so possibly 2390's. This will ground it close enough to canon to be recognisable and still leave a lot of timeline between this lineage and the relativety designs.

Stevie_D

Its certainly steamlined, i'll give you that, Dann!

Have you given any thoughts to the deflector yet?

japetus

I agree Aresius, it's funny how it seems so many times that the nacelles stay the same/very similar in fan designs. I'd encourage you to come up with a new nacelle design. I'm thinking of the large changes between the original Enterprise, to the A, to the Excelsior. I always though nacelles looked better with more subtle glowing effects myself.

colbmista

i lik ethe necelle styls that john eaves makes do somthing along thos style smaybe

Aresius

Precisely, japetus.
I've nothing against nacelles, they just should match the rest. With that, it's like having the Enterprise-E using nacelles from the Ent-A...
It just doesn't match up well.
Didn't hear about those other two designs, can you give me a link?

Dannage

Well, the difference in nacelles between D and E is less dramatic, so more like sovereign with galaxy nacelles, but as it's just the 'red front with blue glowy bits' you're worried about, I shall set my mind to thinking of some new thing... maybe purple.

Lizzy777

Dannage wrote: »

I shall set my mind to thinking of some new thing... maybe purple.

That only works for Samuel Jackson. :flippy:

James Midsen

If I recall, both Dark Saber's and STO's mirrorverse made the nacelle Intercooler grilles purple in stead of blue

Dannage

Did some more work the other week before rebuilding the nacelles

Dannage

Changed the Nacelles, the pylons and the body... And the saucer... uh...