References would definitely be appreciated. I know my basic shape is off. I was using Prologic's work as a reference, as well as my old Ertl model. I couldn't find really good shots of the Studio model BB, and actually I don't really care for that shape as much as some of the fan versions. This is sort of my take on the basic design, I guess. I Don't like that point at the very front, but it's too late to fix that now. I have to re-do the phaser strip and add more piping, greebles and detail to the top.
I'm looking for more, trekcore is down at the moment and i'm at work so i can't get to my reference files at home, but this should help get you started at least:
It's an enlarged version of the one on the actual model head, but it should be a good start for the shape. Once i get can my reference images i'll send you more. But even so, while trekcore.com is down I can at least give you this shot too from best of both worlds:
If you look at "The die is cast", the last big battle before the series switched to CGI (excluding Way of the Warrior, of course) all the background romulan and cardassian ships are actual photographs that were superimposed on the equivalent of overhead projector film, that's why they seem to fly by in most shots (so you don't notice it, but you still can if you know where to look). It was the only way Dan Curry could have that many ships in the same scene without having a movie sized budget for 5 minutes of combat
It was actually Ira Behr who insisted on the more combat/battle/action focus of DS9 when he came on board fully, because the battles kept the attention of the viewer by rewarding them for all the constant talking and drama. It also helped draw away from that TNG-era trope of "Here's a major battle on screen, let's just describe it and watch the reaction shots of our crew!"
Polaris, good so far, but the forward of the cobra head should not look that severe, it should be much, much rounder. And there are some old photos of the cobra head for reference around somewhere, i'll try to track them down for you, so you can get some more detail on the top. Prologic's enterprise-D took a fair few voyager-esque liberties to make the cobra head look less bland.
reading doug drexlers blog gave me a new appreciation for what DS9 was able to accomplish on a tv budget. Doug relates that frequently he'd touch up a set by adding different colors of masking tape on set pieces and such, which always added some more depth and whatnot.
Well, There are still a number of finishing touches this lady needs. But I think this update is the first one to give us a real idea of how she has turned out:
Saucer impulse engines are powered down!
Still trying different set-ups with the main deflector dish. Getting the aura right here is not easy.
Wave to the captain!
From this angle, she looks like home.
I still have to: 1) Make the lights a little less random in their on-off pattern 2) Work a bit with the warp and deflector auras. 3) Finish the separation plane between the two separated ships. 4) Give the navigation lights auras. 5) re-do some of the under-saucer lights which do not look good. (I got most of these, but there are still 4 or five that need to be re-done.)
Yeah, that was exactly what I was about to say. In addition to that the light reflection on the underside of the saucer section looks the correct red while the bussards are amber which is a bit odd. Conversely the impulse engines look like they could do with a touch of amber in the red of their glow to get a more accurate hue for that element. The blue on the warp nacelles also look a little pale, as does the glow, that could do with being more saturated. Other than that it looks great. Cracking job.
The bussard collectors should be red, not amber. Other than that, I don't see anything you didn't mention. Otherwise, it looks great.
Although, from talking to Andrew Probert, he wanted the bussards to have a TOS-like color, but somehow they got changed to candy red, which he thinks is (and I quote) stupid.
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Yeah, that was exactly what I was about to say. In addition to that the light reflection on the underside of the saucer section looks the correct red while the bussards are amber which is a bit odd. Conversely the impulse engines look like they could do with a touch of amber in the red of their glow to get a more accurate hue for that element. The blue on the warp nacelles also look a little pale, as does the glow, that could do with being more saturated. Other than that it looks great. Cracking job.
Thanks. I will try to correct those colors. I think the problem is that some of the colors I went with are "Official" Probert number codes. Someone pointed them out online and when I plugged them in I thought they looked GREAT. I since have backtracked and matched the hull colors a bit more the the washed-out colors on the screen. But I should go through and re-think all the colors.
Although, from talking to Andrew Probert, he wanted the bussards to have a TOS-like color, but somehow they got changed to candy red, which he thinks is (and I quote) stupid.
I agree. I like his colors much more. I may go back to them, but for now I'm going to go ahead and chase the screen look a bit.
Although, from talking to Andrew Probert, he wanted the bussards to have a TOS-like color, but somehow they got changed to candy red, which he thinks is (and I quote) stupid.
He also wanted the ship to have a crew of about 4,000. Unfortunately, what you want as a designer (or even as a model builder) isn't necessarily how it winds up being. People change things. I just know that for 8 years the Enterprise-D had red bussards, so did every Galaxy-class on DS9.
He also wanted the ship to have a crew of about 4,000. Unfortunately, what you want as a designer (or even as a model builder) isn't necessarily how it winds up being. People change things. I just know that for 8 years the Enterprise-D had red bussards, so did every Galaxy-class on DS9.
True. Andrew was very candid on how people rarely listen to the designer. Which is why you have tractor beams coming from nav lights, lol.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB 1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD 32 GB RAM Windows 11 Pro
Played around with the colors and textures a bit. I'm pretty close, I think. Let me know what you guys think.
I went ahead an made the Bussard collectors transparent and modeled those inner-collector objects that glow from within. I also figured out how to animate the hydrogen cloud pattern on the surface of the outer collectors.
I think I'm fairly happy with the Deflector Auora.
The impulse texture really improves the stearn view.
Still have to fix the window light patterns. They look way too chaotic.
Talon UK was right: the warp engine colors WERE way too pale. Now they may be a bit too... teal-ish?
I'm about 90% done with the separation plane and then I should be ready for a final posting. She will launch by the end of the month!
Okay. REALLY close to finishing here. Here are some pics of the Star Drive section separated for independent operation.
There's a lot of artistic license here, due to the lack of good, detailed shots of the studio model separated. Most of my sources were the meshes of other modelers. I also drew inspiration from my good ol' Ertl model from about 1989 or so.
I may come back some day and do a more nuanced, more technically proficient version... who knows. But for the time being she's definitely up to my current standards.
Here's some renders, and I also always do an 0rth sheet when a mesh is completed:
Thanks so much for all the comments and support. I really had to ask for a lot of help on this one, and I appreciate all the input. I would have given up without it. This board is just the best.
Cracking job on this, great to see it completed, though forgive me as I do have one small crit, it looks perfectly fine from all the rendered angles, but in the orthos the front and rear views of the warp nacelles look a little too rounded to my eye, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a flatter more shallower slope on the top and bottom which drops off and goes vertical just before the end?
Cracking job on this, great to see it completed, though forgive me as I do have one small crit, it looks perfectly fine from all the rendered angles, but in the orthos the front and rear views of the warp nacelles look a little too rounded to my eye, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a flatter more shallower slope on the top and bottom which drops off and goes vertical just before the end?
Yep; good eye. I think I can fix that pretty easily, too, with a mesh deform, so thanks for saying something. I must not have paid enough attention when I was shaping the nacelles from the front view. But they definitely look better with a flatter, less rounded profile.
Incidentally, I also don't have the stardrive undercut right. That's the mesh's single greatest flaw, and maybe someday I will go back and figure that out. But those nacelles... I'm pretty sure I can get those right.
Posts
I'm looking for more, trekcore is down at the moment and i'm at work so i can't get to my reference files at home, but this should help get you started at least:
http://www.st-bilder.de/gallery/modelle/sternenflotte/galaxy/galaxy-66418.html
It's an enlarged version of the one on the actual model head, but it should be a good start for the shape. Once i get can my reference images i'll send you more. But even so, while trekcore.com is down I can at least give you this shot too from best of both worlds:
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Deflector_shield?file=Galaxy_class_deflector_shield.jpg
I'll send you the rest once i get home.
Current Projects:
Ambassador Class
Saucer impulse engines are powered down!
Still trying different set-ups with the main deflector dish. Getting the aura right here is not easy.
Wave to the captain!
From this angle, she looks like home.
I still have to: 1) Make the lights a little less random in their on-off pattern 2) Work a bit with the warp and deflector auras. 3) Finish the separation plane between the two separated ships. 4) Give the navigation lights auras. 5) re-do some of the under-saucer lights which do not look good. (I got most of these, but there are still 4 or five that need to be re-done.)
Anything see anything else?
Although, from talking to Andrew Probert, he wanted the bussards to have a TOS-like color, but somehow they got changed to candy red, which he thinks is (and I quote) stupid.
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
Okay. Will do.
Thanks. I will try to correct those colors. I think the problem is that some of the colors I went with are "Official" Probert number codes. Someone pointed them out online and when I plugged them in I thought they looked GREAT. I since have backtracked and matched the hull colors a bit more the the washed-out colors on the screen. But I should go through and re-think all the colors.
I agree. I like his colors much more. I may go back to them, but for now I'm going to go ahead and chase the screen look a bit.
He also wanted the ship to have a crew of about 4,000. Unfortunately, what you want as a designer (or even as a model builder) isn't necessarily how it winds up being. People change things. I just know that for 8 years the Enterprise-D had red bussards, so did every Galaxy-class on DS9.
True. Andrew was very candid on how people rarely listen to the designer. Which is why you have tractor beams coming from nav lights, lol.
Gigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 12GB
1TB NVMe SSD, 2 x 1GB SATA SSD, 4TB external HDD
32 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro
I went ahead an made the Bussard collectors transparent and modeled those inner-collector objects that glow from within. I also figured out how to animate the hydrogen cloud pattern on the surface of the outer collectors.
I think I'm fairly happy with the Deflector Auora.
The impulse texture really improves the stearn view.
Still have to fix the window light patterns. They look way too chaotic.
Talon UK was right: the warp engine colors WERE way too pale. Now they may be a bit too... teal-ish?
I'm about 90% done with the separation plane and then I should be ready for a final posting. She will launch by the end of the month!
There's a lot of artistic license here, due to the lack of good, detailed shots of the studio model separated. Most of my sources were the meshes of other modelers. I also drew inspiration from my good ol' Ertl model from about 1989 or so.
Can't wait to see it finished!
-Ricky
It looks great. :thumb:
I may come back some day and do a more nuanced, more technically proficient version... who knows. But for the time being she's definitely up to my current standards.
Here's some renders, and I also always do an 0rth sheet when a mesh is completed:
Thanks so much for all the comments and support. I really had to ask for a lot of help on this one, and I appreciate all the input. I would have given up without it. This board is just the best.
Books: [ Ashes of Alour-Tan | Embers of Alour-Tan ] | Blender Tutorials | Blog
Yep; good eye. I think I can fix that pretty easily, too, with a mesh deform, so thanks for saying something. I must not have paid enough attention when I was shaping the nacelles from the front view. But they definitely look better with a flatter, less rounded profile.
Incidentally, I also don't have the stardrive undercut right. That's the mesh's single greatest flaw, and maybe someday I will go back and figure that out. But those nacelles... I'm pretty sure I can get those right.
Here's the new orth views. I just used a mesh deform and changed the profile of the Nacelles a bit. Better, I think...
Yup, what he said.