Added those docking doors and according to one of the blues one is a docking collar and the other is for one of those pods. I just managed to get it in. It is smaller than the TMP ship but the standard collar easily fits behind the doors with quite a bit of room. I will have to remove a window or 2 however. (rendered side is one) You also will see a collar floating I was toying with the idea of sticking one in that hardpoint as a fitting for then the ship has docking clamps on those hardpoints. I have just enough room for the doors to open, the only issue is flat mounting it and how that would affect things in a visual manner. I do not think I really need a physical collar though.
NOTE; the doors are smaller because I wanted to get those side mounted blinky TOS lights onto the saucer centerline.
Speaking of docking collars The way I have the turbo lifts the intent is a rig would come down and direct mount to the bridge and allow lists to enter and leave the ship as well as a walking access through the hatches back there. Most of the work was collapsing and optimizing parts, nearing the point I will start working the details that some of you might have already guessed at.
Bay numbers cut and took off those hatches for the landing lights then spent the rest of the night detaching panels and redoing all the uvw so each panel is unique IE the textures do not cross the panels and do not mirror or line up to any other panel on the lower saucer. Time to do the top and all the other panels on the ship.
Started to deal with the panels on the flat areas. I broke this upper surface up some with thin grids. I am unsure if I will add all the little blocks seen on the tmp ship. I have held off on the upper saucer until I finalize panels layouts (mostly the bits where panel grids run into things)
Probably shock everyone once I pull those lens caps off.
new butt stuff. I just did not like the round ball; bits I had and wanted something more connie than what I had. I also hated the dodgy modeling I had in that area as well.
I will likely be building it in more than what it is here as this is all early work up.
There was probably more stuff done on the nacelle but just a mess of short sessions here and there I forget what was changed since last night.
OK more butt stuff and even main hull BUTT stuff. . . . most of it atm is just attempts to get rid of that blank area below the impulse. While TOS had lots of blank areas this just did not work for me. I think the stencils will do the trick over anything modeled out or in. I guess I could put some of those colored lines around it like what were on the Connies impulse drive on top of the saucer.
Oh also remembering this is a post Connnie ship I am wondering if I should have all those tubes around the grids of the nacelles.
Updates are a bit meh today. Just cloned some bits about then planned to model up some more connections in those shoulder notches and ended up putting a dish thing there. Dunno if I will go with it or not. I do know some of the details around will need to be redone as it is a bit jumbly.
Taking some time off to look at how I plan to do the registries. One spot I am torn on is the underside, tos style or latter TMP central layout. . . . . Remaining TMP era markings will be placed around the ship only thing I am leaving off are the pennants on the struts as they seem redundant with pennants on the nacelles.
Some sample markings. I the yellow outline even though it is only the yellowing of the decal film on the canon sheets. I figured it adds a nice contrast to jump the registry from the hull surfacing.
ATM I am only planning 2 registries but I might do more if I can find TOS era ships in novels etc before i finish this task. Which means not likely.
Personally, I would just do the two side registries on the underside, as I think that not only is three kind of redundant, but that two of the three are technically oriented in the same direction, so it looks a bit awkward and unbalanced. But that's just my own personal two cents.
Oh my god, really exited to see that it's the USS Buenos Aires.
Regarding the registry, the only other option I can think of is the Discovery approach; having the two registries at the sides, and the ship's name pretty much mirroring it's position at the top of the saucer. However I would go with the classic TOS style of the two registries.
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it's cool that you are using the name/registry from novel canon. it's always nice to see them actually take some type of form.
Under the assumption that the Buenos Aires will eventually be refitted from the Coventry configuration to a Miranda/Avenger configuration of some sort eventually, I'd go with the TOS script.
It will be tos style or TMP not letting STD influence things at all even though it does make some sense to have a ship name on a forward lower view. I forget what the purpose was to not list the ships name on the forward underside. ( I think there was a reason for it.) Same goes for how the aft most name always leaves off the USS.
This is not the only reg this ship gets. I am doing what I did with my connie and a few other ships where registration is all layered off so I can click switch them, maybe even have some parts change out like with my TOS connie. Keeping it in mind of real ship classes as each differs due to build out specs and refits over time.
One thing to say I do not believe in the fleet refit cycle of TMP. IE the connie get this new refit and everything else gets the refit like some firmware update. It is part of why I am not altering the base hull of what we see on the Reliant in TWOK. I would assume over time these ships would get the faster nacelles and reconfigured power systems. Hell I could see some of these getting decommissioned in the TOS livery post TMP.
I have found though that registries are a bit flubed even with these ships as 1660 clearly predates the Enterprise if we take numbers add up over time as they are not tied to a series or pre assigned. Even if assigned per order this says the Miranda might be a contemporary to the connie. I have to admit avoiding some articles on these ships as I have already had 3 books spoiled by them. Namely what ships end and who goes with them generally or battles and outcomes.
Anyhow cutting reg atm and reconsidering the bottom of the ship detail wise as I think it is getting too cluttered. So far the lower reg arrangement is 50/50
Hate cleaning all the verts from booleaning this stuff. I am considering using a lighting scheme on the registry more like my wedge trek than the classic TMP ones. Still get these back reflections on the photometric lights. GRRR.
Probably gives a spoiler to some other projects I am considering.
EDIT
An example image to refresh anyone on the wedge trek registry lighting.
More bits on those notch things. I tried a tos deflector material and it was too much. Another delayed post as impatience with renders had me go to bed on it.
Dunno not a fan of the squish it go faster lines do nothing details. That calendar render though makes the thing look a lot better than the scene in the show but by the last eps of the show the cgi was pretty crap and gameish looking. And they need to fing get over windows on command decks, they have no place on a starship.
I just think that why if in the 2000s ENT had no need to update it why it needs it now EXP with all the ITS CANON ITS PRIME UNIVERSE etc BS the producers keep spouting and keep parroting IMMA FAN IMMA FAN crap to like convince us it is OK.
I wouldn't call it nailed. But I doubt anyone would call a redesign nailed as your talking about fans of such a wide range of ages. I am sure there is someone who hates this thing for the fact it looks too much like the old ship. I am sure some fans would rather see a gigantic wedge with a hood scoop, than anything resembling a TOS connie. Each their own.
UPDATE:
Just some lighting stuff. I am considering ripping a mess of that lower detail off the ships bottom aft. Just seems ill-fitting.
Opinions on glowy nacelle crap? if yeah should I stick to the tmp purple blue or go for something new like maybe a faint white? Like on my rereconnie?
Anyhow replaced the tubes braces and fins with simple boxes to clean this area up. IE to de-clutter it to look newer than a connie. I might pull off some of the junk around the base of the intercooler bar. Aft bars are tempting to do like in the original doodle with caps and internals under them vs the bars with fins underneath that I have now.
example of the white, this has a blue cast and glare shader going on.
Corrected registries and replaced all the hidden glow objects for gizmos, one thing the photometrics fail at is pinpoint light. Tighten the boundaries all the way and they still emit a diffuse glow. Thinking maybe I will add some top lights on the upper hull and something to light the aft bridge docking mount.
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NOTE; the doors are smaller because I wanted to get those side mounted blinky TOS lights onto the saucer centerline.
Speaking of docking collars The way I have the turbo lifts the intent is a rig would come down and direct mount to the bridge and allow lists to enter and leave the ship as well as a walking access through the hatches back there. Most of the work was collapsing and optimizing parts, nearing the point I will start working the details that some of you might have already guessed at.
new butt stuff. I just did not like the round ball; bits I had and wanted something more connie than what I had. I also hated the dodgy modeling I had in that area as well.
I will likely be building it in more than what it is here as this is all early work up.
There was probably more stuff done on the nacelle but just a mess of short sessions here and there I forget what was changed since last night.
Oh also remembering this is a post Connnie ship I am wondering if I should have all those tubes around the grids of the nacelles.
Some sample markings. I the yellow outline even though it is only the yellowing of the decal film on the canon sheets. I figured it adds a nice contrast to jump the registry from the hull surfacing.
ATM I am only planning 2 registries but I might do more if I can find TOS era ships in novels etc before i finish this task. Which means not likely.
Personally, I would just do the two side registries on the underside, as I think that not only is three kind of redundant, but that two of the three are technically oriented in the same direction, so it looks a bit awkward and unbalanced. But that's just my own personal two cents.
Regarding the registry, the only other option I can think of is the Discovery approach; having the two registries at the sides, and the ship's name pretty much mirroring it's position at the top of the saucer. However I would go with the classic TOS style of the two registries.
Under the assumption that the Buenos Aires will eventually be refitted from the Coventry configuration to a Miranda/Avenger configuration of some sort eventually, I'd go with the TOS script.
This is not the only reg this ship gets. I am doing what I did with my connie and a few other ships where registration is all layered off so I can click switch them, maybe even have some parts change out like with my TOS connie. Keeping it in mind of real ship classes as each differs due to build out specs and refits over time.
One thing to say I do not believe in the fleet refit cycle of TMP. IE the connie get this new refit and everything else gets the refit like some firmware update. It is part of why I am not altering the base hull of what we see on the Reliant in TWOK. I would assume over time these ships would get the faster nacelles and reconfigured power systems. Hell I could see some of these getting decommissioned in the TOS livery post TMP.
I have found though that registries are a bit flubed even with these ships as 1660 clearly predates the Enterprise if we take numbers add up over time as they are not tied to a series or pre assigned. Even if assigned per order this says the Miranda might be a contemporary to the connie. I have to admit avoiding some articles on these ships as I have already had 3 books spoiled by them. Namely what ships end and who goes with them generally or battles and outcomes.
Anyhow cutting reg atm and reconsidering the bottom of the ship detail wise as I think it is getting too cluttered. So far the lower reg arrangement is 50/50
Hate cleaning all the verts from booleaning this stuff. I am considering using a lighting scheme on the registry more like my wedge trek than the classic TMP ones. Still get these back reflections on the photometric lights. GRRR.
Probably gives a spoiler to some other projects I am considering.
EDIT
An example image to refresh anyone on the wedge trek registry lighting.
I just think that why if in the 2000s ENT had no need to update it why it needs it now EXP with all the ITS CANON ITS PRIME UNIVERSE etc BS the producers keep spouting and keep parroting IMMA FAN IMMA FAN crap to like convince us it is OK.
I wouldn't call it nailed. But I doubt anyone would call a redesign nailed as your talking about fans of such a wide range of ages. I am sure there is someone who hates this thing for the fact it looks too much like the old ship. I am sure some fans would rather see a gigantic wedge with a hood scoop, than anything resembling a TOS connie. Each their own.
UPDATE:
Just some lighting stuff. I am considering ripping a mess of that lower detail off the ships bottom aft. Just seems ill-fitting.
Anyhow replaced the tubes braces and fins with simple boxes to clean this area up. IE to de-clutter it to look newer than a connie. I might pull off some of the junk around the base of the intercooler bar. Aft bars are tempting to do like in the original doodle with caps and internals under them vs the bars with fins underneath that I have now.
example of the white, this has a blue cast and glare shader going on.
got busy watching anime and movies that I didn't get much else done.