Ok I guess I am ditching regular gizmo lighting for now.
using "table mountain 1"
Really like the light mats but wish it was a known unit vs just numbers, does not scale with the hdri or non number unit lighting.
Need to work on the hull material, I have a high reflection setting, least I think it is as it is a color slot vs a numerical value. Anyhow it just looks like a matte eggshell.
Here is a cap of that IPR or whatever vray does in viewport. Could just imagine Howard's gpus could do that in a useful framerate.
Kinda forgot what I was doing before all this upheaval. So I started laying out grids on the lower saucer. Originally had sensor pits on the lower saucer so I need to decide if I will reinstate them. I also have some ideas of a project that would need finishing by late summer so it might see me moving to a canon model of some flavor of D or E.
As I am modeling I am seeing all sort of odd new things, chamfer edge has a additional radio button. (Quad Intersection) Extrude poly has another method "from surface" Click it it stays on and wont turn off. No clue what it is suppose to do or if it is broken due to some altered setting or loading custom layouts or carry over scenes.
Considering adding a light on the off side below as HDRI lighting is a bit muted on the underside of the model.
Ok stuff from yesterday. lines have moved around some and a pit is made. Dunno if I will model new greebs for this or just use the old ones. Though I think I deleted those at some point so I will have to remerge them and dump materials on.
I am gearing up for a Enterprise build. have not decided on the D or E yet. I am leaning towards the D as the Galaxy has a bit more form to work with for the idea I have planned for it's use.
Ok got started by setting up a scene file and some ref stuff set up. I decided on the Galaxy, because it has the most hdw documentation etc. That and I think it has a more workable verticality to it for what I plan to do with the thing.
The real issue now is which of the Galaxy plans out there are the most accurate. ATM the only large ones I have are the Sternbach ones (the blue ink) ones and a Whitefire set that are a it lower rez. Issue though that I mention every time I start working from blues or 2d images is max's crap viewport rez. Even if I have pretty 10k blues max generally scales them down to 1024. I can work by setting maps to higher rez but viewport performance is usually in the .5 fps region.
Unless max has changed something or added other methods to project aspec correct 2d images for plans I have to sorta wing it. Kinda like I did with the connie.
Anyhow anyone have any opinions on which is the better plans. I have yet to decide if I will make use of the per deck slicing seen in the Sternbach (yes like 4 others worked on them too) plans as it could help me get the cross sections right. I guess I could see if that free vector tool would export edges to something max can take in. MMMm
Ok cool so yeah max seems to have fixed the texture thing. I will however have to watch how much goes into the scene. ATM I am only using the low rez blues but I have a saucer kinda.
I will move over to larger working view images. I just need to mate up the plans and do some image hunts and decide what I will keep of each blueprint as well as making a better transparency than just leveling the one image as a cutout. probably paint out all the call outs and annoying lines.
edit, ok max still has a ceiling on the maps. Tried the raw 10k image and it was about half scale. so 5000pixels in any one direction. Probably lower. But I guess it is enough to get by on. It is FAR better than it was the last time I did this sort of crap.
Ok I think I will go with the Sternbach ones as there are details that are there that are blank on the other. Wont toss the others out totally though. PITA is I have to get these all in one space and scaled to eachother. Then chop them while retaining the canvas to keep ratios matched in max.
and yeah slow is as slow goes, been arguing with hdds again as formatted sata connected does not mean it is visible in a usb enclosure guts from external drives where I gutted the hdw out. Heck even from one set of hdw to another the drive MIGHT ot night not show up. Add in win10 wont produce dialogs in disc manager that 7 does to allow me to initialize the drive on the usb dongle. Go fig.
Interesting is one of these barracuda drives is a 5490rmp drive with a huge cache and it goes faster than a 7200rpm drive but none of my WD drives be they red blue black can match the transfer speeds. 190MBps vs 60MBps for the older 7200 or the other WD drives.
shrug.
Cannot wait for 3 and 4 tb ssds to get cheap. Will so quickly ditch spinners. Even in a heavy read write load senario. Hell I have vertex2 50gig ssds that had like 1/10 wear and they have been going non stop since 2011 as boot drives in pcs that are never turned off.
ANYHOW, should be back to modeling soon. Getting the saucer center done and keeping the edges flowing with the grids is a nightmare right now. So I might have to give that ideal up.
Looking good so far Dan! If you're looking to faithfully recreate the 6ft filming model (as I am) there aren't any decent blueprints, you just have to eyeball it, but the Christie's auction photos are your best reference. I used orthos of Tobias Richter's enterprise to get started as it's imo the closest to the model. Almost all the blueprints out there (inc. Ed's) are drawn from the 4ft model, and even then deviate a bit. In the end go with what works for you but be aware that none of the blueprints are 100% accurate, so probably just use them to get the proportions in and then switch to using screen grabs and auction photos. Decide weather you're using 4ft or 6ft as reference though because in some places the models are vastly different
Yeah, I fond some low rez ones with his name on and some others I dunno who they are from. Could swear I had some From Doug but I cannot find them. Anyhow I got those as well as the one set of blues in planes atm. I am considering importing in a few meshes to ref too but I might whimp out on that as itll dump all sorts of wtf into the scene.
Anyhow Tobias' orthos closely match the "offical" orthos. The 4fter model is way off in the struts deflector etc. not to mention huge 1to 1 blues were made prior to the 6ftr being built as ILM used it to make the ship from. See link below.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Galaxy_class_model
AND given how close BOTH blues are and they had access to the studio or staff in hire I am sure they are all based off those early blueprints. HOWEVER, I am sure ilm in converting from paper to physical model added in distortions as well.
I have to be careful with the christies photos as they changed a bunch of things on it when it was repainted for Generations. I forget if it was hung over the BBQ pit prior or after. Either case I HATE the 4ft model so it will definitely be based on the larger model and pre Generations as much as I like that paint scheme and patterning. The reason I am building this will force me to duplicate the farpoint model. THOUGH I might add my own details. Or deal with bits of the model that are a bit dodgy in the real thing. Sorta like the wobbly saucer back on Voy. I am fighting if I should use those odd blue/green colors on the hull.
top 2 colors are panels A and B.
Well dam all this extra work I ended up doing means my goal of having the secondary blocked in is a fail. Just orthos planars and a adjusted saucer.
And also, heh all of these in viewport refs are going to be loose references as the nice sharpish mapping I had went away after restarting max. Still seems to be bugged I guess.
Ok real quick some real ugly B and D decks. Still need to work out that hump in the saucer top. Matching each view ends with this odd crease. so I might have to give up my hopes to land edges near grids to ease cutting.
I also need to figure out why the hell my backdrop file is showing through the ship. Do not think it was doing this on my other file, but who knows.
It was the 4t that hung over the grill in a restaurant so you;re ok there. Basically you can use all the christies pics for everything except the paintjob I guess. I much prefer the generations paint scheme so I'm going with that. The farpoint paint scheme is a weird green and blue which never really resolved on screen right so will be interesting to see in renders. You;re right in that the felector is waaay out on the 4ft and blueprints so I ust spent ages doing it by eye, I think I'm as close as I'm going to get. I'd kill for a hi-res copy of that huge ILM blueprint though, someone must have it! Looking great so far though!
What I could see of it is damn close to either of the whitefire or offical blues. I figure I will use those and model some bits here and there differently based on other orthos. EG pick and choose what I like the looks of.
The one thing I loathed about most of the blueprints is they come folded vs rolled. Those official ones were huge, poster sized or maybe a bit more. But full of folds and flaking ink from the folds.
I much prefer the generations paint too as it did strange things in video for the tv series but my use for it is from early on. If the colors become too nasty I can change it I plan to map them out via materials. But we will see if it is too much mess I might resort to a diffuse bitmap. (I just do not like the idea of unwrapping some of the shapes on the neck) There are elements windows and patterns that changed as well as the paint color. Those funny things off the backs of the nacelles are add ons rows of windows vanished (painted over I am guessing) and if I remember a lot of the pattern on the warp cutout is changed. Not nailed down everything that was changed, hoping someone has done this already. I just jumped ahead as I wanted to get some geometry done. Staring at websites and fudging around in image galleries was getting to me.
Ok tired of attempting the convex area near the necks leading edge so processed all the deck layouts on those orthos to at least have a guide VS screwing with photos and contour tracing it out. YUCK. As is applying these deck slices is giving me ulcers in setting it all up. YUCKx5
I am only importing ever 3rd deck or so as my sub cage is spread out that far. NOW this is not the final cage just a rough out that I might later rebuild or re flow. There is a lot of crap on this part and given how it is made there are very few places I can break the mesh. Stuff like little tricks I have used on those upper B c D decks using visual objects to break the complex forms into simpler ones as well as allow me to have that blister have a nicely subdiv rounded edge on the surrounding hull. Trick is I detached that bit and the ring hides the change in edge count from the saucer to the lower count B deck blister.
Well keep finding more wtf in the orthos. heh. Nothing new. The nacelles are sorta in the lines and woah they are so wrong. Even if you account for the details and the ribby bits lightening the shape they are so off. Anyhow rought block in stuff done next is the flowing of the edges and loops to get those struts and the body unified with proper details like the deflector lips. the backside cobrahead and the undercut bits of the cobrahead. I also have to decide on the strut shapes. As nothing I have really matches the various photos I have. Nacelle overlap on the neck is another one. Example is Tobias' nacelles really are pulled in from the blues and a few shots of the 6fter makes them look more like the orthos. What I will do is make a set of struts for both and just mess around until I decide what I think is best to my eyes. You can see some weird humps in the leading edge of the struts too. Need to find photos at that angle to verify if those exist. (struts atm are loosely based on the blues) But top side profiles do not match on those at all)
hate to say it I might be tempted to ask doug for a export of the studio mesh. Though who knows how accurate that is as well! Oh well figured I would run into this as I am giving this build a 6 to 7 mo window.
Regarding studio meshes, it depends which one you mean; Tobias' was used for the TNG blu rays and imo is probably the best one, but not perfect. You mean his nacelles and imo he's made them a touch too 'fat' as if they've been inflated, I chose to slim mine out a bit. Gabe Koerner's was used for the Enterprise final ep but it not accurate at all really so not much use to you, it was built 20 years ago though. You're nearly at the fun bit of getting the neck to join the saucer smoothly! I messed about for ages with that then gave up and joined it all in to one cage, then cut and separate them when the subd is frozen in.
I plan to follow what I see in those christies images, I will likely make the entire ship sans the nacelle bits and the deflector interior as a single cage. I just find it easier to rough things in in parts then decide what i need to do to meld crap together. It helps avoid me fighting where extra edges go if I just do not have them in the mesh to begin with. I could probably model the head separately but will likely just chop it out. I will need the head though as a element even if it is only for the one image.
Im referring to whatever it was that Doug Drexler has. So likely the Korner one. I could swear I had renders of it and it was supposedly the one modeled off photographic orthos. Then again I could be remembering things wrong.
ATM I am mostly using the Tobias orthos and the official blues. The official blues are the ones I refer to with the fat nacelles. They are far fatter than the ones on tobais' images.
Lost some work as win10 is shit. Cannot seem to go more than 2 days before it fuqs up so bad it is unrecoverable. Worse than 3.11 or 95.
This is what I was refering to. I need to verify this seam if it is there prior to generations ort not. As some of the cgi images have something else going on under here. This is the area of the ship that bugs me most as there are a lot of wonky surfaces going on. Good example is the neck none of the orthos I have match up here. Offical blues, whitefire, tobias and a few other cgi orthos I have no credits for.
That transporter sticker really bugs me too, stuck onto all of the wobbly surface underneath. I think in the farpoint footage of the separation there is a marker light mounted in the middle of it as well.
Doesnt look like the seam is as promounced, if it's there at all, your're right about the light though. Careful with the CGI, tobia's model was built prior to the blu rays being comissioned. It's my understanding that his mesh was picked simply because it was the best at the time, it has has a few of the generations mods on, like the coffin shaped details on the back of the nacelles, they were not added until the generations repaint.
^This also highlights Tobias's slightly chunkier nacelles too.
I'm fighting the neck shape myself too atm, it's a pig. I had froze my subd in again but then realised it wasn't quite right so have had to go back.
Those things that look like they are off a battery door are one of the bits I was refering to. I dunno what was there prior maybe it was a battery door to get access to wires or something that poped off and was lost? Or likely the lights for those markers back there burned out. I think most of the lighting in the ship sans the interior fluros was still those incandescent railroad lights. I have not gotten around to locating and foldering up all my pre generations refs.
As for the under neck I think I saw a image of that area with some decent lighting so I have to just locate it. That image you posted of the old paintjob shows some of the stuff I disliked about the earlier paint. All those dark panel grooves. So I already know I might be leaving all of that out. I will also be adding in the later RCS thrusters as the old ones were just yellow blots.
Update, not much ATM got some gut rot from lazy food, so mostly I got distracted by the ships "lips" so arguing how I will do the mesh as well where I will seam it. Real rough as I am mostly paying attention to where edges are going vs loops and tightening up the mesh.
Changed my HDRI to the "offical" SFM one. lol Smallhangar01 It really does a good job lighting all views. Side effect, my blue ship isnt very blue. Though she isnt very blue in other hdris as well go fig.
bleh, getting there I suppose ignore the deflector bits.
Really need to work on the softness on the lip near the neck. too used to keeping consistent curves in hulls that this is a bit annoying. Mapping that under cut along the rim is a pain too because it changes long the ships length.
Also concerned about angle of the hull around the base of the neck for those windows that run along it.
Looking good! However I feel like your beveling of the edges is a bit too much. Since the Model was so huge, it had a lot sharper edges -- at least I think it had ... but I might me wrong.
are you doing the 6 or the 4 Foot Version by the way? (... I say, hoping, that noone has asked this already :-D )
If your referring to the rounding on the edges of things I am way too sharp ATM the model has some really soft edges in places and those taper and pinch in as the hull was sanded down etc. Good example is the lower lip and the area of the upper lip near where the neck sprouts up. You can see this in the ref image I posted a few posts back. I am used to consistent loops to keep the curvature even long a length of hull. This is how something would be built so that say a bracket on spot A would apply to spot Z. However given this was made with wood spacers and I think foam infill sanded down (least for the mold parts) It has that "hand made" quality. Now I could argue that those are abberations and I should account for that. Shrug, not sure if I will abide by them or not.
I have mentioned it sorta, I am building based on the 6ft model. I suppose you could include the 2ft one but I have no real refs of that one. I do know the deflector dish itself (the bit inside) was very different as it has flat sides) What I lack most is refs of the ship prior to the refit for generations.
Anyhow update is me fussing with the warp cutout. I cannot get any good views of this part to know if it flows out backwards or along with the strut bottoms. Ref images I have suggest it does something vs flattening out at the strut root. Also noticed inconsistencies in the 2 3d models and 2 sets of orthos in this area. Some have indented grids (none of which I can find in refs) and other have the cristies where they have attached some panel with "teeth" on that spans the cutouts width. What is funny is it looks a lot like bad subdiv modeling on the physical model! So I might have to add some more loops in to "scalop" it out more.
ATM I have it pulling up and following a pretend circular hull form copying what is above in shape. I however think the scoop follows the struts instead and flares out. So far I have not found any photos at the right angles to tell me if it does. A lot of the images are that if it had 3 or 6 more inches to the left or right it would be PERFECT. lol.
Also!, this thing is really a flying pancake!
Well sorta answered my own question as the opening scene in TNG ep2 shows that area pretty clearly if not a bit crushed. Man this ep reminds me why I disliked TNG for the first few years, remake eps. Did forget how much of the original series and TAS music made it into the show.
I cant wait to see this Galaxy take shape. One thing of note. The arch of the strut for the 6ft vs 4ft. I thought the 6ft was bent because it was filmed upside down, until I discovered Probert's sketches.
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using "table mountain 1"
Really like the light mats but wish it was a known unit vs just numbers, does not scale with the hdri or non number unit lighting.
Need to work on the hull material, I have a high reflection setting, least I think it is as it is a color slot vs a numerical value. Anyhow it just looks like a matte eggshell.
Here is a cap of that IPR or whatever vray does in viewport. Could just imagine Howard's gpus could do that in a useful framerate.
As I am modeling I am seeing all sort of odd new things, chamfer edge has a additional radio button. (Quad Intersection) Extrude poly has another method "from surface" Click it it stays on and wont turn off. No clue what it is suppose to do or if it is broken due to some altered setting or loading custom layouts or carry over scenes.
Considering adding a light on the off side below as HDRI lighting is a bit muted on the underside of the model.
I am gearing up for a Enterprise build. have not decided on the D or E yet. I am leaning towards the D as the Galaxy has a bit more form to work with for the idea I have planned for it's use.
The real issue now is which of the Galaxy plans out there are the most accurate. ATM the only large ones I have are the Sternbach ones (the blue ink) ones and a Whitefire set that are a it lower rez. Issue though that I mention every time I start working from blues or 2d images is max's crap viewport rez. Even if I have pretty 10k blues max generally scales them down to 1024. I can work by setting maps to higher rez but viewport performance is usually in the .5 fps region.
Unless max has changed something or added other methods to project aspec correct 2d images for plans I have to sorta wing it. Kinda like I did with the connie.
Anyhow anyone have any opinions on which is the better plans. I have yet to decide if I will make use of the per deck slicing seen in the Sternbach (yes like 4 others worked on them too) plans as it could help me get the cross sections right. I guess I could see if that free vector tool would export edges to something max can take in. MMMm
I will move over to larger working view images. I just need to mate up the plans and do some image hunts and decide what I will keep of each blueprint as well as making a better transparency than just leveling the one image as a cutout. probably paint out all the call outs and annoying lines.
edit, ok max still has a ceiling on the maps. Tried the raw 10k image and it was about half scale. so 5000pixels in any one direction. Probably lower. But I guess it is enough to get by on. It is FAR better than it was the last time I did this sort of crap.
and yeah slow is as slow goes, been arguing with hdds again as formatted sata connected does not mean it is visible in a usb enclosure guts from external drives where I gutted the hdw out. Heck even from one set of hdw to another the drive MIGHT ot night not show up. Add in win10 wont produce dialogs in disc manager that 7 does to allow me to initialize the drive on the usb dongle. Go fig.
Interesting is one of these barracuda drives is a 5490rmp drive with a huge cache and it goes faster than a 7200rpm drive but none of my WD drives be they red blue black can match the transfer speeds. 190MBps vs 60MBps for the older 7200 or the other WD drives.
shrug.
Cannot wait for 3 and 4 tb ssds to get cheap. Will so quickly ditch spinners. Even in a heavy read write load senario. Hell I have vertex2 50gig ssds that had like 1/10 wear and they have been going non stop since 2011 as boot drives in pcs that are never turned off.
ANYHOW, should be back to modeling soon. Getting the saucer center done and keeping the edges flowing with the grids is a nightmare right now. So I might have to give that ideal up.
Anyhow Tobias' orthos closely match the "offical" orthos. The 4fter model is way off in the struts deflector etc. not to mention huge 1to 1 blues were made prior to the 6ftr being built as ILM used it to make the ship from. See link below.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Galaxy_class_model
AND given how close BOTH blues are and they had access to the studio or staff in hire I am sure they are all based off those early blueprints. HOWEVER, I am sure ilm in converting from paper to physical model added in distortions as well.
I have to be careful with the christies photos as they changed a bunch of things on it when it was repainted for Generations. I forget if it was hung over the BBQ pit prior or after. Either case I HATE the 4ft model so it will definitely be based on the larger model and pre Generations as much as I like that paint scheme and patterning. The reason I am building this will force me to duplicate the farpoint model. THOUGH I might add my own details. Or deal with bits of the model that are a bit dodgy in the real thing. Sorta like the wobbly saucer back on Voy. I am fighting if I should use those odd blue/green colors on the hull.
top 2 colors are panels A and B.
Well dam all this extra work I ended up doing means my goal of having the secondary blocked in is a fail. Just orthos planars and a adjusted saucer.
And also, heh all of these in viewport refs are going to be loose references as the nice sharpish mapping I had went away after restarting max. Still seems to be bugged I guess.
I also need to figure out why the hell my backdrop file is showing through the ship. Do not think it was doing this on my other file, but who knows.
The one thing I loathed about most of the blueprints is they come folded vs rolled. Those official ones were huge, poster sized or maybe a bit more. But full of folds and flaking ink from the folds.
I much prefer the generations paint too as it did strange things in video for the tv series but my use for it is from early on. If the colors become too nasty I can change it I plan to map them out via materials. But we will see if it is too much mess I might resort to a diffuse bitmap. (I just do not like the idea of unwrapping some of the shapes on the neck) There are elements windows and patterns that changed as well as the paint color. Those funny things off the backs of the nacelles are add ons rows of windows vanished (painted over I am guessing) and if I remember a lot of the pattern on the warp cutout is changed. Not nailed down everything that was changed, hoping someone has done this already. I just jumped ahead as I wanted to get some geometry done. Staring at websites and fudging around in image galleries was getting to me.
I still cannot figure out what is up with the backdrop showing through the hull.
I am only importing ever 3rd deck or so as my sub cage is spread out that far. NOW this is not the final cage just a rough out that I might later rebuild or re flow. There is a lot of crap on this part and given how it is made there are very few places I can break the mesh. Stuff like little tricks I have used on those upper B c D decks using visual objects to break the complex forms into simpler ones as well as allow me to have that blister have a nicely subdiv rounded edge on the surrounding hull. Trick is I detached that bit and the ring hides the change in edge count from the saucer to the lower count B deck blister.
Well keep finding more wtf in the orthos. heh. Nothing new. The nacelles are sorta in the lines and woah they are so wrong. Even if you account for the details and the ribby bits lightening the shape they are so off. Anyhow rought block in stuff done next is the flowing of the edges and loops to get those struts and the body unified with proper details like the deflector lips. the backside cobrahead and the undercut bits of the cobrahead. I also have to decide on the strut shapes. As nothing I have really matches the various photos I have. Nacelle overlap on the neck is another one. Example is Tobias' nacelles really are pulled in from the blues and a few shots of the 6fter makes them look more like the orthos. What I will do is make a set of struts for both and just mess around until I decide what I think is best to my eyes. You can see some weird humps in the leading edge of the struts too. Need to find photos at that angle to verify if those exist. (struts atm are loosely based on the blues) But top side profiles do not match on those at all)
hate to say it I might be tempted to ask doug for a export of the studio mesh. Though who knows how accurate that is as well! Oh well figured I would run into this as I am giving this build a 6 to 7 mo window.
Im referring to whatever it was that Doug Drexler has. So likely the Korner one. I could swear I had renders of it and it was supposedly the one modeled off photographic orthos. Then again I could be remembering things wrong.
ATM I am mostly using the Tobias orthos and the official blues. The official blues are the ones I refer to with the fat nacelles. They are far fatter than the ones on tobais' images.
Lost some work as win10 is shit. Cannot seem to go more than 2 days before it fuqs up so bad it is unrecoverable. Worse than 3.11 or 95.
This is what I was refering to. I need to verify this seam if it is there prior to generations ort not. As some of the cgi images have something else going on under here. This is the area of the ship that bugs me most as there are a lot of wonky surfaces going on. Good example is the neck none of the orthos I have match up here. Offical blues, whitefire, tobias and a few other cgi orthos I have no credits for.
That transporter sticker really bugs me too, stuck onto all of the wobbly surface underneath. I think in the farpoint footage of the separation there is a marker light mounted in the middle of it as well.
Doesnt look like the seam is as promounced, if it's there at all, your're right about the light though. Careful with the CGI, tobia's model was built prior to the blu rays being comissioned. It's my understanding that his mesh was picked simply because it was the best at the time, it has has a few of the generations mods on, like the coffin shaped details on the back of the nacelles, they were not added until the generations repaint.
^This also highlights Tobias's slightly chunkier nacelles too.
I'm fighting the neck shape myself too atm, it's a pig. I had froze my subd in again but then realised it wasn't quite right so have had to go back.
As for the under neck I think I saw a image of that area with some decent lighting so I have to just locate it. That image you posted of the old paintjob shows some of the stuff I disliked about the earlier paint. All those dark panel grooves. So I already know I might be leaving all of that out. I will also be adding in the later RCS thrusters as the old ones were just yellow blots.
Update, not much ATM got some gut rot from lazy food, so mostly I got distracted by the ships "lips" so arguing how I will do the mesh as well where I will seam it. Real rough as I am mostly paying attention to where edges are going vs loops and tightening up the mesh.
Changed my HDRI to the "offical" SFM one. lol Smallhangar01 It really does a good job lighting all views. Side effect, my blue ship isnt very blue. Though she isnt very blue in other hdris as well go fig.
bleh, getting there I suppose ignore the deflector bits.
Really need to work on the softness on the lip near the neck. too used to keeping consistent curves in hulls that this is a bit annoying. Mapping that under cut along the rim is a pain too because it changes long the ships length.
Also concerned about angle of the hull around the base of the neck for those windows that run along it.
are you doing the 6 or the 4 Foot Version by the way? (... I say, hoping, that noone has asked this already :-D )
I have mentioned it sorta, I am building based on the 6ft model. I suppose you could include the 2ft one but I have no real refs of that one. I do know the deflector dish itself (the bit inside) was very different as it has flat sides) What I lack most is refs of the ship prior to the refit for generations.
Anyhow update is me fussing with the warp cutout. I cannot get any good views of this part to know if it flows out backwards or along with the strut bottoms. Ref images I have suggest it does something vs flattening out at the strut root. Also noticed inconsistencies in the 2 3d models and 2 sets of orthos in this area. Some have indented grids (none of which I can find in refs) and other have the cristies where they have attached some panel with "teeth" on that spans the cutouts width. What is funny is it looks a lot like bad subdiv modeling on the physical model! So I might have to add some more loops in to "scalop" it out more.
ATM I have it pulling up and following a pretend circular hull form copying what is above in shape. I however think the scoop follows the struts instead and flares out. So far I have not found any photos at the right angles to tell me if it does. A lot of the images are that if it had 3 or 6 more inches to the left or right it would be PERFECT. lol.
Also!, this thing is really a flying pancake!
Well sorta answered my own question as the opening scene in TNG ep2 shows that area pretty clearly if not a bit crushed. Man this ep reminds me why I disliked TNG for the first few years, remake eps. Did forget how much of the original series and TAS music made it into the show.