ST 32nd Century Ships Project
Me
Greetings fellow members and modellers, let me introduce myself, i'm Ael's, i'm 22yo and soon to be 23yo, i've been doing 3D since November 2019.
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My Project
Recently — mainly since ST Discovery Season 4 started — I've been thinking of how would look some TOS and more conventional ships in Starfleet 32nd Century. I'll admit that i went a bit overboard from the known 32nd century style. I also wanted to keep the Discovery A's nacelle look since I had fallen in love with it.
To make everything clearer I'm gonna summarise the basic ideas i had into a list.
Idea and General Direction
- TOS Ship Configuration (Modularity)
- Discovery A Refit Nacelle
- 32nd Century Style
Note that all of this is quite crude since it's my first real original project in the Star Trek universe, first in the sense that i've actually put a lot of thought in it and not simply shipped two design to make a baby (those who know me would remember the Aurora class that was supposed to be a child of the Sovy and Ody).
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Current State
So far beside shape and design exploration not much has been done, my main ship is the Saladin Class — yes, you already know that name which is why I'm going to refer to it as "32nd C' Saladin" — which some references to its TOS ancestor, such as two almost identically placed shuttle bays, one nacelle. The main differences would be two Pylons instead of one, negative space where the shuttle bays have been integrated, 32nd C' Constitution Class (Kirk Class for STO) like Exotic Saucer, Upper Saucer would receive the Bridge and the Lower saucer would be the main crew, engineering, "everything" area.
Beside the 32nd C' Saladin Class (32SC), I've worked on two other ships in accordance to
"TOS Ship Configuration (Modularity)", respectively known as the "Unknown Class A" (UCA) and the "Unknown Class B" (UCB) — yes, I know it's quite Original for names — let's describe them before seeing some pictures.
- The first one being basically a Saucer (for now all three saucers are on the same basis) with an Integrated Nacelle, so far the idea was to a more compact version of the TOS sister class — of the Saladin Class — the Hermes Class, a scout based mission is something i want to explore.
- The second one is born from a similar idea than the UCA, which is Integrated Nacelles, later described by a fellow fan as a "Equivalent of the Mayflower Type from ST '09" which surprised me since I didn't knew about until then. When learning about the Mayflower i already had a solid idea design wise, having received suggestions from friends on several server discords, including my own, I had already made some progress on the UCB. Composed of a Saucer, two slightly angled Integrated Nacelles placed on their own middle of saucer halfs and a back facing Shuttle Bay.
Before going to pictures and more precisely comments note that if you have suggestions you're free to send them but note that i might not know all the Technical Terms so please excuse any possible confusion.
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Pictures
Now it's time for some pictures — because yes pictures are useful — note that some changes might have been done since. Also note that i used my TOS Class F shuttle for illustration.
Posts
Also, those vessels seem to be incredibly large when compared to anything that came before. I wonder if the Eisenberg-class will be the size of a small moon when it's available in Star Trek Online at this season's event's end.
What you have is an excellent start. And since there's no hard rule on how big the ships are supposed to be, there is one suggestion that I have if you're interested. It might be a good idea to detach the warp engine to match what's been established so far in the series. Other than that you've got a good start!
He he, indeed. The Mars Class is uh, interesting. But i like to think that like the Saturn Class (USS Annan) it has a logic in the name, the Saturn referring to the Saturn's Ring by its shape I see the Mars Class (USS Le Guin) having it's two floating section as Mars' Moons, imagine being called in the comms and being asked to go to the Deimos or Phobos section of the ship.
I have seen some pictures of the Eaglemoss magazines showing the size of the 32nd C' and yeah but strangely some like the Mars Class (415.4m), 32nd C' Intrepid Class (452.95m) and especially the USS Tikhov (51.3m) are really small.
That's something that some friends suggested to me but I haven't yet thought of how, for the UCA and UCB I was thinking of a dent in the saucer where the Nacelles would dock when attached and have them float not far away when detached.
That said, I'm really not a fan of the 32-Century designs...especially the detached nacelles. Absolutely hate that concept...i just doesn't make sense to me that an engine would float along beside a ship.
I do like the Discovery design...although a departure from what we'd seen before, it really grew on me. And you're right, it does have a cool nacelle design.
I'd say keep up with what you're doing, and if you'd rather have the nacelles attached, please do!
Greetings, i am aware of the opinions on the 32nd Century ships and even share them on some ships (yes i'm looking at you USS Tikhov !).
As said in the above message i might do something that might please both opinions, but i've to admit that i'm still quite undecided about the Detached Nacelles tech, and as I said I mainly used Discovery style because like you i really like it.
Can't promise anything !
Having heavily inspired my design on the Galaxy Class Saucer Separation docking from TNG I'll admit that it doesn't really look 32nd Century but i felt that it was lacking such thing.
So without further ado, here's some pictures (In the spoiler due to a size issue).
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRhLEHgwgTKxsalM5YznYQ
Formerly furswift
Happy to be here, I hope to honor all the other members.
For example the recent update on the UCB and some previous screenshots showcased two totally different Upper Saucers (or Bridge Section) mainly due to my idea of doing a new Bridge Section. Bridge Section which is clearly WIP because it isn't even connected, hasn't proper Decks and still doesn't match my vision.
As for being swarmed-on by ideas, just recently — after watching DIS S4E6 and precisely how shaped the Discovery's Saucer is — I couldn't resist thinking about revisiting my current Saucer (which hasn't been re-worked on yet).
It's been a while — few days — since I've made a post. Work has been done since, for example a major rework of the Lower Saucer part to Upper Saucer part ramps, those ramps, which i will refer to as Saucer Ramps, have been remade following 32nd C' Constitution Class (Kirk Class for STO).
I also changed a little bit, the Nacelle Docking Area, the entire custom section of the saucer has for example been lowered and some lighting has been included in the extra meter of thickness.
But as per usual, some pictures will be more clear.
When Star Trek meets TRON.
I like it! 👍
In the following spoiler part, you will be able to see a concept I wanted to experiment with, I name the Sliding Bridge Section, it basically slides inside the Upper Saucer Part to be protected during heavy fights. This procedure would be used as preventive measure but also as emergency measure, meaning that it doesn't require 20 minutes to be initialized.
If you have suggestions concerning this experimentation don't hesitate.
Concerning the Bridge Interior, it's still quite WIP so please pardon any weird elements. Take into account that the Turbolifts were placed but not yet deeply thought. Note that the Starfleet Officer in my screenshot are 1.8m tall.
Placement wise you will obviously have the Bridge and a Turbolifts (to go bellow for now) in the Upper Level, for the Lower Level (according to screenshot) in the Center you will have two Rest Rooms for Senior Officers, Captain's Office on the Right, Meeting Room on the Left, a Turbolift in the far back. There's a Turbolift in the middle of the Lower Level but it goes nowhere, it will be taken out due to the shape of the Upper Saucer Part.
You would have understood, 3D isn't every X day, it's random. So between few sessions of SWTOR with friends and a little Fallout 4 game I thought of how I could do UCA's Nacelle Docking Area, considering how far the nacelle goes inside the saucer and how centered it is and the fact I didn't wanted to have an angled nacelle — pointing up or down if seen from the side — I went with a horizontally aligned dent in the saucer similar to how I did it with the UCB.
Experienced 3D modelers or/and fans having the tendency to look at details will notice the "massive" difference of the Nacelles Dock Area on both, yes UCB has full length light strips including navigation lights unlike the UCA which has corner stripes, it's something I wanted to try — commonly described as "variation for ideas" — if you wish to share your opinion on this don't hesitate, just know that it isn't locked.
Nacelle Docking and "Bluetooth" Tech ?
On this matter i decided to use the same setup in the sense that they precisely move of 30m from their docks, no matter on which ship they are or nacelle orientation.
Reminds me of a stingray.
I'm here today not to update on the previously shown ships but to introduce a new one, this one was originally a joke idea than I tested just to see how it would end up, and to be honest I'm fairly happy with it.
I present you the UTA wait no, this ship has a name — thanks to Adm. Banner a good person and well experimented modeler — so let's retry.. I present you the USS Salinon of Arbelos Class. Being 87.5m long, 44.2m wide and 10.8m tall this small ship could easily used as Quick Scout or Courier.
Built with a Discovery Refit style Nacelle which has been modified, it basically was shortened and received a different coil setup (blue lights not following the same path). Directly connected to the Engineering this nacelle has two EPS conduits as input, one primary and a secondary, secondary that could be used to potentially overload the Nacelle to achieve higher Warp Speed.
Suited with a Sensor Setup hidden behind a Foggy Glass "Dome" made of Transparent Aluminum — i know that it might have been replaced with a better equivalent in the 32nd Century but as a good fan of TMP I can't help but use it — it gives to the ship a minimum of look and possibly a better aerodynamism for atmospheric flight.
This ship has a physical entrance for crew and cargo located behind the bridge, a floating Elevator lowers to ground level and can be loaded. Note that landing gears haven't yet modeled nor thought.
Also note that the Impulse and Nacelle's Warp Grills and Bussard are behind a Foggy Glass just like the Sensor Dome.
Time for pictures !
EDIT 26/01 : Changed UCC to UTA (Small Ships or Shuttles like the Aberlos Class will be refered as Unknown Type # / UT#)
It's been few days and I thought that despite having a real update for you all I could ask you a question and do a listing of the current ships.
Have been working on the Interior Rooms, really rough to just have an idea where to put windows. So far it's just "Proof Of Concept" so most likely to be tweaked.
I'm here today to update on the previously shown ships. All received a name and registry but no additional class name yet.
Let me also introduce you to a new ship, UCC also known as the U.S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald NCC-75000-K which was named by Adm. Banner (April on the Scifi-Meshes Discord Server). This ship was built as a Kobayashi Maru, on the following pictures the cargo pods aren't yet developed but you get the general idea.
At the same time i will take opportunity to share you some progress on the "Typical" Bridge of those UC# ships.
Take into account that in the previous post I teased on the Saucer Windows on the UCA but those weren't ready so weren't included.
Something you might have noticed on the previous post is that colors changed a little bit, no i didn't change the materials, I just changed to a custom Color Management in Blender, RED IPP2 to be precise.
As usual pictures will be more clear, that said if you have questions don't hesitate.
Little update for a quick change, as it has been pointed out to me, the current Saladin Class looks more like a Nelson Class — from FASA — so I decided to rename it and make a true Saladin Class.
So I'm here to present you the new USS Saladin NCC-500-M which is quite close to the newly renamed USS Nelson NCC-7350-L, structure wise they're nearly identical for now aside from the "Pylon-to-Nacelle" area.
USS Nelson NCC-7350-L / USS Saladin NCC-500-M