Well, this week I've been distracted from working on my Liberator model by lingering exhilaration from the Star Trek: Into Darkness, plus some significant encourage from my friends, and have started rebuilding my alternative Warp Five ship (an alternative to the Enterprise Enterprise, that is) in Blender. And you know what? I'm having fun! [Admittedly, it helps that I have the accompanying plot swimming through my head as I build...]
I've built most of the superstructure and I've started detailing the rim of the saucer (with some radio, optic and phlebotinum telescopes, plus thrusters). I'm currently working on a shuttle to give me the scale of the shuttle dock, though I'm not quite sure where to put it.
My original version [
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?77491-U-E-S-Endeavour-Orthos] was rather crude, so I'm going to streamline her a bit - one of the things I want to evoke is the Flash Gordon style of spaceship, which is something that warp stabiliser fin hinted at before but which I want to nail more this time around - hence the spiked nacelles, of course. Not sure if I want to keep the cones at the other end, but it seemed wrong to default back to a ball or flat grill....
Comments welcome, as always! Expect a Romulan bird of prey and a Klingon raider to follow...
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I did an Endeavour from the NX-era also, about 4 years ago. Though, mine was more of a kitbash of the Intrepid from the episode The Expanse, which I had built previously. http://evilgenius180.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/endeavour_orbit01.jpg Ironically, I've also recently completed building a new ship that I was going to call Endeavour but, being as yours is called that, I may go with a different name.
NXN - there's certainly a heavy aircraft influence in her. I'm partly inspired in that by the delta/wedge ships from Enterprise, which I'm taking as the basis for the ships preceeding Endeavour (though when/if I get around to building them, I'll fit them with tails like Endeavour).
evil_genius_180 - nice looking ship! I have a soft spot for the Intrepid, so it's nice to see another ship in that vane. And sorry for scooping you on the name for your latest model!
This is perhaps not much of an update, but it's taken me all day to get the impulse engines looking right, so I'll post it anyway! Had to totally rebuild the drive pods to fit around my planned engine structure. Ah well, it was worth it I think...
It's no biggie. I just kind of decided at the last minute to name it Endeavour. But, I haven't even put the name on the textures yet, so it's really easy to change at this point. (not that it's hard to do after I've put the name on there, but it's even easier now)
Sanderlee - yep, it's the angle. See below!
Added detail to the nacelles and split up the thrusters. Also started blocking out the deflector dish!
Added some more detail, plus started in on the shuttle. I'll detail it much more later, but for now it's going to give me the scale for the dock. Not sold on the wings - but I'd like to keep them to keep up the tradition of shuttles sharing elements of their mother ships!
Glad you like the saucer rim, publiusr - I'm very pleased with how the sensor batteries have turned out. I'll need to work out what's going in the rest of the gaps...
After much experimentation, I've fitted in two shuttle docks on the underside of the saucer. I figure this makes sense, since you'd want a back up in case one of them was obstructed. She'll carry four active shuttles, with one or two more mothballed in storage, plus a few inspection pods. There'll probably be a cargo bay between the docks, since that's the logical place to put it, giving easy access on to both launching doors and the main engineering section.
Also started trying to work out where to take the Impulse engine cowls next...
Still working on the pulse cannons, and I'm not sure about the distribution, but I like where it's going.
Oh, and better Impulse cowls.
spacefighter - yeah, it's definitely an ugly duckling! I'll have to do some refining work, but I was very pleased with how those tanks came out.
As previously promised - I've started an accompanying Klingon vessel. My starting premise is that in this period, there is no consistent Klingon design - each House is churning out starships and making a grab for territory and spoils. I know it's not anything like that in canon, but the idea seemed to fit with the general feudal feel that Klingon society has. This, therefore, is an example of one House's raiding ships. I've grabbed elements of various diffent Klingon ships and tried to create, I suppose, the Viking longboat of the spaceways.
Also, the Endeavour now has more thrusters, phasers and panel lines.