I cut a bunch of holes in the ship. The impulse engines were shockingly difficult. There are a three curved surfaces and three flat surfaces; all of them are chamfered into one-another somehow and none of them are level to a plane.
I cut some holes in the bottom for the sensor packages. Those were pretty easy. They are not copies of one another. They follow the curve of the saucer.
I also cut the bussard collectors. It's starting to look decidedly like a starfleet ship.
And, some hull plate detailing! A massive thank you to Fredo6 without whom this would have taken for freaking ever. The Lib Fredo6 suite of tools makes my life so much easier.
You can see where I have left some space for the phaser strip on the bottom of the engineering section. I am not going to add the ones that the Nova has on the upper back side of the engineering section or the upper rear of the saucer. Both of those pairs face right at the nacelles and I can't see how that would be functional.
This is looking great. One thing that stands out to me is the fore section of that upper deck. You may want to curve it down a bit towards the front in order to keep the streamlined look.
I haven't been working much on the ship, but i got a few hours in this weekend.
Phaser strips are REALLY ANNOYING! I acquired a shape-bending tool which would allow me to take a specific shape and bend it around a curve. Sadly, phasers must bend in 3 directions (totally doable) and twist as they go (ARRRG!!!).
So, as in everything I do, brute force comes to the rescue. Instead of one bent piece, I created three components which I could fudge together into a strip using overlapping sections like scales on a snake or roofing shingles. It took forever to assemble, but it worked really nicely! And, I love the way they look on the ship.
I was also getting bored and frustrated with working on a colorless blob, so I colored the phaser strips and the RCS thrusters.
Yep, looking great. Phaser strips are easily one of the most annoying and frustrating things on Next Gen era Federation ships, especially the ones with oddly shaped saucers.
I had thought about adding more RCS thrusters near the nose because it bugged me too. They would be at about the forward ends of the phaser strips. But, I decided against it mostly because it would become too busy in that area with the phaser strip. the sensor array, the windows, and the secondary deflector. (I plan on adding a deflector which will go in the nose in a manner similar to the Rhode Island.) The RCS thrusters at the corners of the saucer are very large compared to the size of the ship, so even though they're not evenly spaced, I think they are properly sized in total.
I think my next step will be those deflector dishes. I was originally planning on using a deflector dish like is seen in First Contact (circular, stepped, and yellow), but I never actually liked that style. You can see the circular place I have laid out to receive that dish. The Nova class uses a large, irregularly-shaped dish with a smaller copy in the nose. I never liked that dish either, but the nature of the space I have for the deflector is such that an irregularly-shaped deflector would work well without leaving awkward triangular corners.
I have found this image from some of the concept sketches of the Sovereign class
I think i will use the basic lines of this deflector and stretch it into the irregular space. (which is, of course, the most difficult option... grumble.)
I haven't added the phaser strips to the underside of the saucer yet. I have considered leaving those off as well and adding some sovereign-style struts to the underside.
I always felt that the 1701-E should have had a circular version of the Voyager's deflector. I felt it would have looked better than what they ended up using, and I've never been a fan of the yellow color of the E's deflector.
What they wound up with was probably a budget choice. More detail on a scale model is one thing, but they had to build a full size set of the deflector. More detail means more money.
Yes, it was a budget choice (at least according to my research). Good Star Trek movies tend not to have functionally infinite money.
I am not happy with the deflector I have created, but it is roughly the right shape and appearance. I will rebuild it with the same attention to detail that I have given my other recent deflector dishes.
On the other hand, I am happy with the escape pods. They are the same size as those found on the Sovereign Class. It did not make sense to me to make them smaller just because they are on a smaller ship. I think they would make a standard part and use it everywhere. Each pod has room for about 16 people and The Nova Class has a crew of 78. I would round it up to 80 and then go to 90 for guests. I would need 6 pods. I have 8, but I am not sure I like the two aft of the observation lounge. I will almost definitely delete them.
I have also installed the ventral phaser arrays, some initial nacelle pylon detailing, and two of potentially four airlock hatches.
There! A much better deflector. It isn't colored and I will probably add more detail later, but this is likely the final version of the major deflector modeling. It isn't quite as complicated as some of my other deflectors, but it isn't round. In my other deflectors, I made one complex part and just used a circular array.
Yeah, I like this a lot. Can you get me a wireframe of the model or the model itself some time in the future? Really curious as to how you build up that deflector, it looks great!
Can you get me a wireframe of the model or the model itself some time in the future? Really curious as to how you build up that deflector, it looks great!
Definitely! The whole model will be up on the Warehouse when I'm done.
But, in the meantime, here is an image.
The basics is that I create a series of curves which I connect using the curviloft by spline curves function in the Lib Fredo6 set of tools. (That is how I did roughly 90% of the complex curved surfaces in this ship) Then, I punch some simple prisms through the curved surface and intersect them together. I use the thicken surface tool (again, thanks Lib Fredo6!) to add some depth.
Okay, Borgman gave me a laundry list of excellent suggestions for this ship, some of which were frustratingly difficult. I have been traveling for work, so I haven't had time to do any modeling. But, I got the day off today, so I sat down and did one.
The transition between the top of the saucer and the top of the engineering section was a leftover of the way the thing was modeled. I never really liked it, but it was the meeting place of a bunch of frustrating curves and that was the result of the mesh that various curves created when spanned between the edges.
I have reformed it somewhat. It isn't perfect, but it is better. The new mesh doesn't really make sense from an overall standpoint, but locally it is smoother.
The airlock hatch will need to be dealt with. I still want to put one there, but I am not sure how i will do it yet.
Okay, I have not updated this in months! It isn't dead, it has just been severely backburnered. In the time of my absence, I had a girlfriend, broke up with her, got another girlfriend, bought a condo (moved, of course), swapped offices in my company, dedicated more time to getting fit, got horribly sick, and have just been generally busy.
But, I had some time recently to add some greebles. I am not completely happy with it all, but I am mostly happy with it. Most of this is adding windows, sensors, and nacelle details (not nearly done with either of those later two)
Windows are nominally complete. I still need to add a core ejection hatch, another set of transporter antennas, sensor greebles, decals, the shuttle bay door, and the waverider shuttle.
Nice to see this still being worked on. Everything's looking good to me. My only critique would be on those cut outs for the windows on the bottom of the primary hull. Feels that on a ship this size, that space could maybe be put to better use.
Or if you want to keep them (They do look good.) maybe make those windows bigger, like observation rooms/ a botanical garden.
I really love what you have done. You've improved the design in every possible way. I'm not that much of a fan of those pylons (too narrow for my taste), but I still love this redesign very much! :thumb:
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My only critique would be on those cut outs for the windows on the bottom of the primary hull. Feels that on a ship this size, that space could maybe be put to better use. Or if you want to keep them (They do look good.) maybe make those windows bigger, like observation rooms/ a botanical garden.
I agree that my pylons are pretty thin. They are actually thicker than both the reference Nova that I'm using and the reference Sovy, in ratio. But, I generally think that Trek pylons are thin. I could make them more substantial, but I'm going to add detail before I try that. I will see what I think about their thickness after the thing is fleshed out.
The original plan for the windows on the underside of the saucer was to make them large windows. It looked weird. I still like the cutout, and I'm not going to get rid of it, but I will need to find a balance. I think they will end up being as large as the observation lounge windows, eventually.
I really love what you have done. You've improved the design in every possible way. I'm not that much of a fan of those pylons (too narrow for my taste), but I still love this redesign very much! :thumb:
Agreed, both on it being improved and on the pylons
If I may, I would suggest straightening the Impulse housings out, as the current curved edge makes them look distorted.
The ventral RCS on the hull are also a little abstract for functional solid fuel thrusters - per example: VoyagerRCS.jpg
I go back to this a little bit. (I've been astonishingly busy, as always.)
The major change here is the installation of a second deflector dish set into the saucer. SO MANY people wanted this that I figured I had to give it a shot. (still not adding those additional RCS thrusters, though.) I'm not sure I like it overly much. My inspiration was this image by AdamJCross, which has a similar setup. I may lay the secondary deflector down a bit to make it more flush to the hull, or make it more of an ovoid shape like the main deflector, but I like the little Greeble in there, so I'm not sure. It does mess with the location of the registry number and ship name, though. I may need to put those on the sides in the only bare patch left on the saucer.
In other miscellanious stuff: Added sensor greebles, Added ribs to the underside of the saucer - echoing the Sovy, Added a shuttle bay door, added the holes for the probe (torpedo) launchers, added a warp core ejector hatch, and a few miscellaneous housecleaning things.
About the shuttle bay... I may want clamshells... I wanted the rolling door to mimic the Nova class (And it is SO MUCH easier to draw), but clamshells ight look better.
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I cut a bunch of holes in the ship. The impulse engines were shockingly difficult. There are a three curved surfaces and three flat surfaces; all of them are chamfered into one-another somehow and none of them are level to a plane.
I cut some holes in the bottom for the sensor packages. Those were pretty easy. They are not copies of one another. They follow the curve of the saucer.
I also cut the bussard collectors. It's starting to look decidedly like a starfleet ship.
And, a side view by request.
You can see where I have left some space for the phaser strip on the bottom of the engineering section. I am not going to add the ones that the Nova has on the upper back side of the engineering section or the upper rear of the saucer. Both of those pairs face right at the nacelles and I can't see how that would be functional.
Phaser strips are REALLY ANNOYING! I acquired a shape-bending tool which would allow me to take a specific shape and bend it around a curve. Sadly, phasers must bend in 3 directions (totally doable) and twist as they go (ARRRG!!!).
So, as in everything I do, brute force comes to the rescue. Instead of one bent piece, I created three components which I could fudge together into a strip using overlapping sections like scales on a snake or roofing shingles. It took forever to assemble, but it worked really nicely! And, I love the way they look on the ship.
I was also getting bored and frustrated with working on a colorless blob, so I colored the phaser strips and the RCS thrusters.
Have you thought of maybe putting RCS on the nose or to either side or it? Always bugged me how lacking the Nova is in that regard.
I think my next step will be those deflector dishes. I was originally planning on using a deflector dish like is seen in First Contact (circular, stepped, and yellow), but I never actually liked that style. You can see the circular place I have laid out to receive that dish. The Nova class uses a large, irregularly-shaped dish with a smaller copy in the nose. I never liked that dish either, but the nature of the space I have for the deflector is such that an irregularly-shaped deflector would work well without leaving awkward triangular corners.
I have found this image from some of the concept sketches of the Sovereign class
I think i will use the basic lines of this deflector and stretch it into the irregular space. (which is, of course, the most difficult option... grumble.)
I haven't added the phaser strips to the underside of the saucer yet. I have considered leaving those off as well and adding some sovereign-style struts to the underside.
I am not happy with the deflector I have created, but it is roughly the right shape and appearance. I will rebuild it with the same attention to detail that I have given my other recent deflector dishes.
On the other hand, I am happy with the escape pods. They are the same size as those found on the Sovereign Class. It did not make sense to me to make them smaller just because they are on a smaller ship. I think they would make a standard part and use it everywhere. Each pod has room for about 16 people and The Nova Class has a crew of 78. I would round it up to 80 and then go to 90 for guests. I would need 6 pods. I have 8, but I am not sure I like the two aft of the observation lounge. I will almost definitely delete them.
I have also installed the ventral phaser arrays, some initial nacelle pylon detailing, and two of potentially four airlock hatches.
I agree with you about the two pods on the spine. You could maybe get away with one or just use shuttles to evacuate that area.
Definitely! The whole model will be up on the Warehouse when I'm done.
But, in the meantime, here is an image.
The basics is that I create a series of curves which I connect using the curviloft by spline curves function in the Lib Fredo6 set of tools. (That is how I did roughly 90% of the complex curved surfaces in this ship) Then, I punch some simple prisms through the curved surface and intersect them together. I use the thicken surface tool (again, thanks Lib Fredo6!) to add some depth.
The transition between the top of the saucer and the top of the engineering section was a leftover of the way the thing was modeled. I never really liked it, but it was the meeting place of a bunch of frustrating curves and that was the result of the mesh that various curves created when spanned between the edges.
I have reformed it somewhat. It isn't perfect, but it is better. The new mesh doesn't really make sense from an overall standpoint, but locally it is smoother.
The airlock hatch will need to be dealt with. I still want to put one there, but I am not sure how i will do it yet.
But, I had some time recently to add some greebles. I am not completely happy with it all, but I am mostly happy with it. Most of this is adding windows, sensors, and nacelle details (not nearly done with either of those later two)
Windows are nominally complete. I still need to add a core ejection hatch, another set of transporter antennas, sensor greebles, decals, the shuttle bay door, and the waverider shuttle.
long list... it'll get there...
Or if you want to keep them (They do look good.) maybe make those windows bigger, like observation rooms/ a botanical garden.
I agree that my pylons are pretty thin. They are actually thicker than both the reference Nova that I'm using and the reference Sovy, in ratio. But, I generally think that Trek pylons are thin. I could make them more substantial, but I'm going to add detail before I try that. I will see what I think about their thickness after the thing is fleshed out.
The original plan for the windows on the underside of the saucer was to make them large windows. It looked weird. I still like the cutout, and I'm not going to get rid of it, but I will need to find a balance. I think they will end up being as large as the observation lounge windows, eventually.
Agreed, both on it being improved and on the pylons
If I may, I would suggest straightening the Impulse housings out, as the current curved edge makes them look distorted.
The ventral RCS on the hull are also a little abstract for functional solid fuel thrusters - per example: VoyagerRCS.jpg
I go back to this a little bit. (I've been astonishingly busy, as always.)
The major change here is the installation of a second deflector dish set into the saucer. SO MANY people wanted this that I figured I had to give it a shot. (still not adding those additional RCS thrusters, though.) I'm not sure I like it overly much. My inspiration was this image by AdamJCross, which has a similar setup. I may lay the secondary deflector down a bit to make it more flush to the hull, or make it more of an ovoid shape like the main deflector, but I like the little Greeble in there, so I'm not sure. It does mess with the location of the registry number and ship name, though. I may need to put those on the sides in the only bare patch left on the saucer.
In other miscellanious stuff: Added sensor greebles, Added ribs to the underside of the saucer - echoing the Sovy, Added a shuttle bay door, added the holes for the probe (torpedo) launchers, added a warp core ejector hatch, and a few miscellaneous housecleaning things.
About the shuttle bay... I may want clamshells... I wanted the rolling door to mimic the Nova class (And it is SO MUCH easier to draw), but clamshells ight look better.