This is something I started working on a couple days ago. It's mostly my own design, though I'm taking some influences from some ships that already exist, specifically the Intrepid from Enterprise, the Nova-class from Voyager and the USS Bonaventure, NCC-1000 (fan design.)
Basically, it's a small scout/science ship used from the late 23rd to early 24th century. This type of ship would be used for border defense, planetary surveys, nebula exploration, that kind of thing. Due to the finite amount of internal space, I figure it doesn't have the space to carry supplies needed for an extended mission outside of Federation and explored space, so it probably mostly stays within the Federation borders. The finished length is going to be 160 meters, the width is 110 meters and it has 9 decks.
Design wise, I'm going for a bit of a blend of Enterprise refit and Excelsior, with a few other things thrown in.
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I was looking at my images this morning and I realized my bridge module disappeared. (yes, the ship had one) What happened was I had accidentally saved my nacelle over my latest version of the ship. I noticed that and looked at the previous save of the ship and thought I was fine, until I saw the missing bridge after I rendered. So, I rebuilt it. The good thing is, I like my second one a lot better than the first one.
Yes, I am.
For those who don't read my blog, here's my latest bit of exciting news. The hard drive in my desktop is dying. It's been "losing" files for a while, and it's getting worse, telling me it's about to go kaput. Before it dies completely, I copied a lot of stuff onto my laptop. And, until my replacement drive gets here, I'll be using the laptop only. So, that's wonderful. :rolleyes:
The good news is, my replacement hard drive for my desktop has been ordered. The bad news is, it probably won't be here before sometime next week. Today was a holiday here in the US, so the mail didn't run. (and, by extension, neither did companies like UPS, I'm sure) Plus, I refuse to pay for shipping if I don't have to, and I didn't have to, so I didn't. That means I'll get it when I get it.
Anywho, working from the laptop right now. Modeling on it isn't bad, but rendering sucks. I went from a 3.0 GHz 8-core processor down to a 1.0 GHz dual-core processor and less than half of the RAM of my desktop. So, rendering is the slowest I've had to put up with in a long time. But, I've used worse.
I worked on the grid lines for the center section yesterday and today. I've got them pretty much done.
Digging those grid lines by the way. Nice and aggressive!
It's going to be the shuttlebay. Yes, the impulse engines will be on the back of the saucer. (or, "wings," if you prefer )
http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1392931093&sr=1-1
I'm not necessarily the biggest Western Digital fan, but I shop by reviews. I brought up Amazon's list of 3.5" hard drives and sorted it by average customer review and this was #1. Plus, it's relatively inexpensive because it's from WD's Blue series. Their Black series is supposed to be faster, but I couldn't see paying $11 more for a drive that's half the size. The drive I replaced is a Samsung 1TB SATA II 3 GB/s 7200 RPM drive with a 32 MB cache. This is a 1TB SATA III 6 GB/s 7200 RPM drive with a 64 MB cache. So, it's the same size but about twice the speed of the old drive. Plus, despite the claims of some reviewers, it makes no noise that I can hear. I even had my case open for a while yesterday and didn't hear the drive over my fans. Those people who heard noise from theirs either have superhuman hearing or (more likely) improperly mounted theirs. (or they just got duds) Mine is secured with 4 screws tightened just right, because I've found that improperly secured hardware can make a lot of noise.
Anywho, it's all good so far. After getting Windows installed and updated and installing my other software, I didn't feel like doing much last night. Installing Windows takes a while, no matter how fast your computer is, and Windows Update is easily the second slowest and worst software update program I've ever used. The only one I've used that's slower is the one in Fedora (Linux.) So, all said it took a few hours to get things back to where they were before the drive started messing up. Of course, there's still lots of games and whatnot to reinstall, but I got the essentials like Lightwave, Gimp and Inkscape installed. And, of course, my web browser, mail client and media player, 7zip, stuff like that (utilities.) So, back to this.
I did the grid lines for the saucer section the other day, but I didn’t want to render on my slow laptop. Now that I have my desktop back and I’m back to sub-two minute renders, here they are.
I probably put too much detail into the thing. It doesn’t even show up as much when zoomed out. But, if I ever need to do a 6k or larger image, I’m good.
I haven’t decided on a name for the ship yet, but I’ve narrowed it down. However, I’ve picked a registry number. I thought of doing NCC-2187, because 2187 is the number of Princess Leia’s cell on the Death Star in Star Wars. However, the Hathaway was commissioned in the mid 2280s with the number NCC-2593, the Bozeman about a decade earlier with the registry NCC-1941. I figure that would put a ship with the number NCC-2187 around the year 2280 or so, assuming the numbers are actually sequential. (I ignore the Excelsior with NX-2000, as that ship was likely on the drawing board for many years with that number.) I want my ship to be a bit later than that, so I decided on the number NCC-3574. (anybody want to hazard a guess as to where I came up with that? )
I also started some detailing on the bridge module, but I’m not really liking how it looks, so I’ll probably scratch it and do something else. I can do that, since I’ve got older saves from which I can get a “clean” version of that part.
And, that’s probably all I’m doing with this today. I’m probably going to spend the rest of my night playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. For some silly reason, I got in the mood to play that again last week, so I downloaded and installed it. I’m currently playing the Scoundrel story line.
The ship looks great. I think you've over detailed the bridge module. Something a little more simplistic might work better.
I hadn't played TOR in ages before I installed it last week. It's fun, but currently suffering from a bug where enemies and even sometimes your companion go under the scenery. (worse then before)
I redid the details on the bridge module. What I had before was too busy and hectic looking. I went back to a more simple design. The lines also aren’t as deep and wide as before. Also, I nixed one of the windows for the observation lounge.
Note: I also nixed the stupid light and it will probably stay gone. I know they’ve been faking lighting on Star Trek ships since TMP, since there are lighted areas without source lights and those flush to the hull lights won’t light much more than the area directly in front of them. There’s no way that light would light the ship’s registry, which will be on the center part somewhere in front of the bridge. I’ll work out a more realistically located light source for the registry later.
I know a lot of people have heated opinions about the JJPirse, but one thing no one can argue with, they did get the spotlights right on that. It's a lot more realistic than the single wide light on prime ships.
The rest looks great.
Books: [ Ashes of Alour-Tan | Embers of Alour-Tan ] | Blender Tutorials | Blog
It's going to definitely have a dome.
The lights ILM did for the JJ poop are more realistic because they still don't light up the entire registry. They just light up a little bit in front of them. However, I think it looks stupid having a bunch of little lights stuck all over the hull to light that stuff. Plus, I'm suspicious of anything done in CGI because we all know we cheat.
Real world: Last year, Steve Neill did a Reliant build for a client using the re-issue AMT kit. To light the registry, he stuck an LED into the B/C Deck structure, about halfway up, and angled it so that it would light up the registry. It actually works. It wouldn't work using the lights where they supposedly were on the movie model, but it didn't take a lot of work for him to rig up a real light that would work. (with a single light source)
Get used to it.
Anywho, the last of the real pain in the butt stuff is done with the addition of the shuttlebay cut-out and doors. There was a lot of cleanup involved after that, but it’s done now. The rest of the build is mostly details, which suits me just fine. Aside from the bay, I also added some grid lines to the curve underneath that area and added some grooves to the upper and lower saucer. These will eventually hold greebles, which will represent sensors. I figure a ship like this would have a lot more visible sensors than a Constitution-class, since it mostly performs scientific duties and whatnot.
Watch out where you're putting that greeble-patch, though. Right now it looks as if there isn't a lot of room left between the docking port, it's adjacent systems and corridors. Same goes for the crew quarters. I found out while making my Cassini interiors that those things take up a LOT more space than I anticipated...
I still haven't decided what I'm doing with the deflector and housing, so I'll definitely keep that idea in mind. I like it, though, so there's a good possibility it will happen.
Everything along the saucer edge is carefully planned. The edge is 6 meters tall, taller than the edge of the original Enterprise's saucer edge. The hull starts curving upward slightly from the edge, even though it may not look like it does. And, the trenches are only 10-20 centimeters deep. So, the hulll won't be as thick in those spots, but it should be fine. (I thought about all of this when I did it)