A Nebula hot-rod! I've always loved the Nebula class and wish more configurations beyond a sensor dome or weapons pod had been presented. I've always thought that many other options might be interesting, such as a landing platform for craft just a bit too large for a standard shuttle bay, to provide support for recon/fighter/whatever squadrons, etc. And a place for those poor DS9 runabouts to park beyond large stations! Or in my own little universe, these stealthy AWACS peregrine falcon thingies. (While I've done some of the modeling here, some elements are the work of others, especially flateric's nebula model, rduda's chairs/desks/etc, main shuttlebay island structure from Aryh-Peixoto-Filho). The back half of the main shuttle bay has been widened beyond other fan designs to allow berthing for peregrine-sized craft. (Also, as a side-note, notice how much of the Galaxy-class saucer should have been visible outside the ready room and observation lounge windows!)
This is my first posting here, so If this is the wrong place to post this kind of thing, admins feel free to remove this of course!
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I agree with your idea of more Modules for the Nebula class.
But Personal I am not a fan of what you have done here. Now if you had gone with an enclosed module that did the same thing that could work better. Maybe also have it feed into the Main Hanger bay.
As for your comment on observation lounge windows. It looks like you got it spot on.
I do concur somewhat with Freak, in the scenario of star trek ships, having them exposed to air is generally not within the federation schema. Definitely replacing the triangle pod with a massivey extended shuttle/hangar bay would be a great idea. You could pull the existing shuttle bay's hatch all the way back and make the entire superstructure some large hangar/carrier segment.
Your observation lounge looks like it's off to a great start
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You could have it elongated and play with the lines so it fit with the rest of the ship.
Definitely love the conference room. So, welcome to the site and I hope you keep posting great work and presenting ideas that challenge convention.
I'm loving the tng aesthetic at the minute... seems like a lot of you guys are doing interiors in that style.. could be because i'm half way through a tng binge... i just find it so appealing.. Keep up the great work..
I agree with others regarding the docking platform though, it looks more like something out of Star Wars. The main difficulty I see with it is that without a gravity field, the shuttles essentially need to be kept in the landing pads with tractor beams at all time. That would be a huge and otherwise unnecessary use of energy, plus we see how often these fail in Trek, particularly during battle or at warp, and those are two situations where you definitely don't want your shuttles floating away.
Still, I like the concept and how unique it is, I just feel it needs some more refining.
Also, keep in mind, the DS9 runabouts do fit into the main shuttlebay. We see the Enterprise use them in one episode, and we know they were the ones who transported the runabout squadron to DS9. The shuttlebay's just high enough to have them inside.
I've always been a fan of the Nebula class - the "Reliant" of the 1701-D. I like the fact that you are working on a "carrier" concept. Your design has the advantage of faster fighter launches. Will be interested to see what you come up with as you play with it.
1) I would think gravity plating is still an option on those kinds of external pads. I'm not aware of any reason why it couldn't be. Open to space does not preclude the possibility. We see the crew mucking about on the outside of the Ent-E with gravity boots because there's no reason to have the outer hull fitted with gravity plates, but on these kinds of pads the options would be there.
2) Like those gravity boots, I'd think craft in this arrangement would be magnetically locked to the platform. Grappling mechanisms built into the pads would also be an option.
3) I will need to revisit the issue of the Danube fitting within Shuttlebay 1 without some sort of Tardis technology at play. I was using the Danube as an example, but perhaps that's not the best one. A Danube could fit in Shuttlebay 2, which has a taller door, located beneath the landing platforms, but it'd be a tight fit for sure. Regardless, external platforms like this could serve as "overflow parking" for when the two shuttle bays are full.
Another thought was that perhaps keeping craft like these AWACS peregrines on the exterior would allow linking the sensor pods they are carrying into the sensor system of the Nebula itself, while they are docked, extending sensor capabilities along the lines of Paul Allen's SETI radio dish array being linked together.
This is from a catalog for an upcoming auction:
https://content.propstore.com/auction/EMLA+LA/EMLA-LA2020_Catalog_OnlineView_B2.pdf?_ga=2.214181783.180733806.1595887109-1827870685.1595887109
There is a lot of other cool stuff in it as well. If anyone wants to build a model of the Nostromo there are some great refs.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRhLEHgwgTKxsalM5YznYQ
Formerly furswift