Polaris 004

Done. Really happy with the way it turned out, but I think I messed up and made it a little too big to be a scout. I'm going to call it a surveyor and call it good!

I really like this look; I'm thinking of modeling an entire Ambassador family.

Rekkert wrote: »

It does look less aggressive, but the triangular pod was always associated with weapons. The Nebula fires torpedoes from there, and publications flat out call it a "weapons pod". What about replacing it with a deflector pod similar to what the Springfield has underneath its saucer?

Yeah, I kinda think along the lines of evil genius on this one. That is clearly not a "weapons pod." I know torpedoes were shown launching out of the front of the Sutherland's pod, but I really think that was just a decision made for drama and the lack of a good physical structure on the Nebula class model to fire the torpedoes from. But launchers don't take up that much space, nor the torpedoes. Maybe the pod might have a space that can be used to emplace weapons, but I don't accept that the pod itself is for weaponry. Remember, we saw a similar pod on the back of the Phoenix, no doubt fulfilling a similar role as this pod. And that role is probably high powered and/or high resolution sensing equipment of different sorts.

In any case, that's my rationale here. The pod is a sophisticated and high-powered sensor pallet, useful for surveying effectively at maximal ranges.

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

The ship's shaping up really nicely, Polaris 004. I like the Nebula style pod.

I like how people see the pod do one thing on camera, so that's all it does. There are forward and rear torpedo launchers in the center, those are the only weapons in the pod. The rest was always supposed to be sensors, as it was designed to replace the AWACS style pod that the Phoenix had. Though, if they'd gone with Doug Drexler's original mockup replacement pod, it would probably be associated with weapons even more:

Wow. That's one I never came across. Great find. I'm really glad they didn't go with that look, although it would look better without the Miranda Launcher sticking off the top. Wrong scale!

Comco wrote: »

Interesting design.

There's a couple of issues for me. Firstly, the overly long neck seems to serve no obvious purpose. Obviously, it gives internal volume, but it just looks stretched and featureless at the moment. One possibility would be to move that pod forward so that it covers that area. I think if you did some sort of ridge down the spine, it could help break up the shape and add a bit more interest to the design.

Either that, or simply shorten that long neck.

I find the 'plate' between the nacelles to be too thin and spindly looking. If you thicken this up, the rear will look a little more robust and less fragile.

And finally, I think the shape from a side-on profile is very back heavy. Again, you could consider some sort of dorsal 'spine' that runs from the centre of the saucer, back down the hull towards the rear of the ship.

Hmmm. Great suggestions. I did try a couple of dorsal spines, but never found anything I really liked. I thought it might be neat to have them as weapon hard points, but ultimitely decided I like the lines without them. The long neck is sorta the whole point of the hull; it's one of the design principals I was going for from the start. But I can appreciate it's not everyone's cup of tea. As far as rationale, I imagine much of the room in that neck taken up by cabins and residences. There's less room in the saucer for all the cabins needed, because of the volume taken up by the 4 shuttle bays.

I tried those pylons at all sorts of different thicknesses. It's too late to change them now, but I think they are pretty close to what I want. For what it's worth, they pretty closely match the thickness of the Galaxy class pylons, although of course they are larger, and thus, yes, more fragile looking.



I've moved pretty far forward with this mesh. I'm afraid basic design choices have all been made, so this is pretty much what I have settled on:




























Still not sure I'm going with the front deflector on the saucer. I still might close that off. But I decided I like the launcher placements on top of the saucer, especially once I realized they make effective coverage of both the fore AND the aft firing arcs. Kinda elegant.

Here's some pics of the detachable research vessel that separates off the bottom of the saucer, like a Captains yacht, but bigger.














Still lots of detailing to do. But I think we have a general sense of how she is shaping up.

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I don't remember where I came across the pics, but a few years back someone posted a bash of an Ambassador Class Ertl kit. I still have the pics. I"m a sucker for these model kit bashes, especially when they are done well, because I used to do them myself. I still Have the pics:




















I really liked this one. The parts were re-used so cleverly, and the concept of an Akula-Like Ambassador bash appealed to me greatly. I thought I would very much like to do a mesh of this bash some day. I added it to my list of future projects, and that's the number I drew. So here goes.

I started by bashing my Ambassador mesh in just exactly the same way as this artist bashed his kits:















This is just a first step, to get an idea how he pulled his work off, and to give me a starting model to make a fresh mesh from. Even in this form, it actually looks pretty good. I could stick this mesh in the background of a scene, and it would serve as an excellent extra in a battle (or Ship Graveyard) scene...


Since I'm not limited to mere kit bashing, I'm going to go ahead and build this mesh from the ground up. I've decided I'm going to scale it down and make a scout or destroyer type hull. Something akin to an Akula class, but in the Ambassador family. Should be fun to work it out here.

Thanks, Guys!

Yeah, I did draw pretty heavily on the Springfield class. This class is sized about halfway between a Springfield and a Galaxy Class.

I made some decisions about the layout, and in particular the aft shuttle bays and the impulse engines. I also decided I didn't like the old deflector, and re-worked the shape of the secondary hull a bit more. Here's where I am at now:

Rekkert wrote: »

Interesting concept, I like your idea of making it smaller, will keep an eye on this one!

Yeah, I'm going to shrink it by at least a third. I think about .7 is where I want it to be:








So I started sketching out the basic shapes I might want:












As you can see, the shape is very close to the straight up kit bash. Just some minor changes to the saucer shape, particularly the under dome, and refinements to the back end of the secondary hull, where a straightforward aft shuttle bay is going to be. Easy-Peasy. I'll carry over most of the detail from the Ambassador Class- really the hardest decision I have to make is the shape and details of the impulse engines.

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

Yep, it's interesting so far. It reminds me of the Challenger class, only older and less flat.

Yeah, that's probably why I'm so into it. I love the Challenger Class.

All right. Been picking at this a few days, tried FIVE different shapes for the inset deflector. I think I have settled on this one. I put a custom bridge on her, messed around with a few other details. I think the basic shapes are what they are going to be.

Ora Tzo, I messed around with the body some, but didn't accomplish anything I liked better than I already had. Maybe when I add some detail and lines to the body, it will define the shape more and look a bit better to you.

Freak, the Shuttle bays on this class are the four large doors you see on the saucer. She's equipped with a fleet of shuttles, drones and research vessels. In deep space situations, she can open those doors and have vessels constantly flying in and out. The doors on each side lead to large bays that have a "fly through" connecting them, which can improve the time it takes to land and launch a shuttle. Basically this class can travel far, then set up shop in remote sectors to conduct more thorough or involved study and explorations. It might explore entire solar systems or sectors in high resolution, then move on. I'm planning on making a research station or pod than can drop down from the bottom of the saucer. It will be like a little research station that can be left behind for months or even years, then picked up when it is finished with its research projects.

Anyway, here are the latest pics:

IRML wrote: »

really cool stuff in this thread

I agree! What fun to be able to outfit one of my ships with interiors and all sorts of furnishings, and crew. This is great stuff, and very well thought out. I would make my walls, and especially my deck plating thicker. Not that the materials wouldn't be strong enough, because they surely would be, but it just looks wrong, somehow. I Imagine the decks and the floors just STUFFED with pipes and conduits and tech of every sort for filtering, security, emergency storage an so on. I ideally would like to put crawl spaces between every floor, but I know from experience trying to lay decks out and account for everything, that this just does not work, from a practical standpoint.

Anyway, I really especially like your shuttle bays. I really might try to to some shuttle bays in the future, it would be a good place to start with interiors...

Rekkert, The Grand Alliance was one of the ships I had in mind working on this. I really liked that ship, and a couple of others like her, and wanted my own take on the basic body type/ nacelle configuration.

I want to tone down the military look, and make her look a bit more peaceful. She's supposed to be for deep space surveying. I'm replacing the weapon pod with a scaled down Nebula-type sensor pod. (That pod was always just a place holder.) I'm also toying with removing the bottom impulse engines. That never occurred to me, somehow, but I think it may be a really good suggestion. I really like the new look, but I also sorta miss the bottom engines.

Like you, I also think she would look classier with a solid saucer. I like the solid saucer, and personally don't think every Federation hull needs a large, visible deflector. But I dunno. Given her mission profile, if any ship could use a deflector dish, certainly she does...

What if I made the two launchers on either side of the bridge into smaller deflector-greebles, and closed up the deflector inset? (Of course I would close the phaser strip if I went that direction.)

Guys, take a look and see if you like the changes. Does she look more peaceful? Does she look better without the deflector inset into the saucer? (Thanks to all of you for helping me out. I really enjoy using these boards to help me with design. There's always so many ideas...)

I have this new hull I am working on, and I'm looking for a few critical eyes to help me design it. I call it the Volition Class, and I see it as a type of "Heavy Surveyor," meant to operate in deep space for extended periods with minimal support. About a third or so smaller than a Galaxy class, she would be a more scientifically inclined, no-nonsense type of build.

This is what I have so far. I'm still toying with basic shapes. One of the first things I need to decide, is whether to keep or loose the "Enterprise B" type boxes on the aft shuttle bays. You can see the ship below with, and without them, from differing angles. Not sure about the Impulse design. The barrels on the top are something like what I might do for forward torpedo launchers. Not sure I like the shape or even the existence of the deflector. I might do a saucer-inset deflector after all.


Nothing's set yet; it's all up in the air. But for a long time, I have been wanting to do a 4 nacelled hull in the Galaxy-class family with an extended secondary hull and a small front profile. That's the core of what I am going for.



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It kinda cracks me up to see those Christmas lights in the bussard collectors! That's really cool, especially since they won't show. I guess maybe to get EXACTLY the right effect you had to model them that way? Anyway, superb work, as always.