3DWIP Akira-class [Star Trek]

Arsene Lupin

Well, hello everyone. This is my first post here and... good grief is this one hell of an intimidating community. You are all so ridiculously, amazingly talented I can't even imagine myself ever coming close to approaching the average skill level here. It's nuts.

Anyway, I play around with 3D models in my spare time, using Google SketchUp. I've been modeling for about two years now, mostly either building my own (original) starships--most of which were early enough in my career that they're simply too amateurish to share--and Star Trek ships.

And it's the latter that brings me here. All the work I've shared publicly you can find at the 3D Warehouse, here:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/user.html?id=1085868953901063482433374&nav=models

Please check it out if your curious.

Anyway, I am currently hoping for some advice/feedback on my current WIP Akira-class model, which I have been working on, off-and-on, since September 2016. I recently learned how to create non-standard meshes (IE how to incorporate S-Curves and use the circle tool to increase/decrease the number of polygons used) and... that made me ambitious. So I decided to try and make a model of one of my favorite Star Trek ships, and honestly I'm probably attempting to do something beyond my abilities. Anyway, here's what the model looks like right now:

Akira WIP.png

Akira WIP 2.png

The bridge dome, latter half of the upper saucer, and weapons pod are all placeholders. Beyond that, I also need to add some panel lines to the nacelle pylons, a little bit of geometry to the nacelles themselves, and a whole bunch of torpedo ports. I probably will not model any RCS thrusters, and in my experience they're more trouble than it's worth.

I suppose I should explain my "modeling style."

• I am *not* attempting to make 100% accurate models. My goal is to make "versions" of ships I like (perhaps best exemplified in my U.S.S. Persephone model which combines elements of the TOS Enterprise with the TMP Enterprise). When it comes to adapting existing models, my goal is to make the overall form/silhouette match the official models, but not the details (IE see how I did the torpedo tubes/RCS thrusters on my Ambassador-class U.S.S. Surak model).
• I try to adopt a "cartoony" style. This means I emphasize some elements and demphasize others, and in general try to keep the level of detail low. This style is more suited to my (very amateur) skill level and also allows me to build models fairly quickly and move on--the longer a model takes the more likely I am to simply abandon it.
• My primary goal is to design my own starships, and my own original Star Trek starships. When it comes to modeling existing ships (like the Akira here) my additional goal is to introduce consistency. It is very important to me that all of the windows and decks line up perfectly! This means "fixing" ship designs that are problematic, like the Ambassador and Excelsior.

I tend to be a bit verbose so I apologize if I'm writing too much. In my defense I can only say that since this is my introductory post here, I feel a certain need to explain myself. Now that's out of the way, let's get down to why I'm here in the first place: I would very much like some advice.

The Akira-class is a very complex model with a lot of very subtle curves, and I've found it exceptionally difficult to integrate disparate hull elements cleanly. I think I've more or less succeeded with the secondary hull and catamaran hulls, but the four pylons have been causing me quite a bit of headache.

Basically, a "straight" pylon will not intersect the rear catamaran hull evenly. so to fix that I decided to curve the pylon along with the curve of the catamaran. I wanted to keep the overall thickness of the pylon constant, but this means that it looks kind of wonky when it intersects with the warp nacelle because the curve is maintained.

Akira WIP Pylon.png

I also slightly adjusted the positioning of the nacelle and increased its thickness.

I think I've played with it enough that I'm not really wanting to change it (I've modeled the nacelles twice, the pylons four times, and the catamarans three times) but I am curious if anyone has any suggestions for other approaches I could have taken to solve the problem.

In general I've had a lot of difficulty when it comes to having two different curved surfaces intersect (it's difficult making things line up, the intersecting lines tend ot have lots of jaggies) so I'd greatly appreciate any advice or tips you might be able to offer.

EDIT: I should note that I've been using the Eaglemoss model as a reference.

EDIT2: Almos done with the exterior.
NCC-86160, Image 1.jpg

EDIT3: Exterior is more-or-less done. Currently trying to decide between these two versions (IE whether or not to hide panel lines).
Akira-class with alternate panels.jpgAkira-class with hidden panels.jpg

EDIT4:
z1.jpg

SATR

always liked Akira

evil_genius_180

Welcome to the forum.

Yeah, you picked a tough one to do. The Akira is a whole lot of curvy craziness. Still, your version is looking really solid so far.

[Deleted User]

Welcome Arsene Lupin

IA’m a great fan of the Akira-Class and IA’ve made a mesh of it in 2014. I also made my own version of it with Lightwave, and the USS ICICLE, for my FF with some more modifications. You can see it here:

--> http://ulimann644.deviantart.com/art/STAR-TREK-USS-ICICLE-NCC-79823-455678986

To create the mesh with all the curves was really tricky.

I like it, when people create their own versions of a canon-ship-class. And itA’s nice to see now another Akira-Class WIP.

Arsene Lupin

Ooh, nice. I love the double roll-bar. Looks very "60s" to me, if that makes sense. Very stylish.

Re: curves, it's such a pain in the ass. I'm kind of... obsessive when it comes to making sure interiors and exteriors line up, and I've had a devil of a time with the windows. I've placed all of the windows (and then removed them) at least eight times. The problem I ran into is kind of obvious... if every window is the same (vertical) height, when applied to a curved surface, each deck's windows will have different areas. The closer the hull is to being horizontal, the greater the area of the windows; the clower it is to vertical, the lesser the area.

It's soooo annoying.

I can totally see why so many modelers just say "screw it" and don't bother trying to make everything line-up.

What I've finally settled on is to keep the *area* of each window constant, even if this screws with the height. So, now, there are approximately two standard windows: large and small. Every large window as the same dimensions and area as every other large window, and ditto for the small windows. And while the distance between the bottom of each window and the floor of each deck is inconsistent, the distance between the top of each window and the ceiling of each deck *is* consistent.

I tell yah, these curvy TNG+ ships are a pain. I was able to whip up a pretty decent Ambassador model in a couple of days. This Akira has been on my desktop for *months*. Hopefully it'll be done in a week or two, though.

My big ambition is to model the whole shuttlebay interior, and then animate a shuttle flying through the front shuttlebay and out the rear shuttlebay. I don't know how to properly animate things, so hopefully I'll be able to find someone who can help me out. Otherwise I think I'll be able to make a moderately smooth stop-motion animation.

Arsene Lupin

Working on the shuttlebay, using the NCC-1701-D Blueprints as a general sort of reference. I've tried a number of different shapes, but the "cross" shape seems to work best given the overall shape of the saucer.

I tried to make all my models properly to-scale, but looking at them side-by-side in the shuttlebay I think my Kestrel fighters are too big--they're larger than the old-style shuttlecraft, and more than twice the size of the Voyager-inspired (Type-9?) shuttlecraft (which fit 2-to-a-lift).

This is the main shuttlebay deck, with three main doors at the front (right-side) and two smaller doors at the back (left-side).

The shuttlebay will consist of three large compartments spread across six decks. The main shuttlebay deck (image) is the largest compartment, and runs from one end of the saucer to the other. There's a smaller shuttlebay directly on top of it (w/ doors on the aft end of the bridge module) and underneath it is a large hangar/cargo bay for storage, maintenance, etc. All three compartments have access to the central lifts; outer lifts only move between main shuttlebay and the lower maintenance bay.

I wanted there to be a "column" dividing the port and starboard sides of the main bay, but I'm going to have to heavily modify how I've got the central area arranged, because as it stands things don't quite line up with the upper shuttlebay. I'll need a lift right in the middle of the four central lifts on the left side, which means the central column won't be able to extend as far back.

WideFoot

Hey! Good to see you here!

You've already uploaded the final model and I've already commented, but I wanted to say Hi.

Also, I like learning about your process, so thanks for this!