Warp Propulsion Laboratory

Thanks, everyone!

Brandenberg wrote: »

...I'll never forget, having completed the basic shape of the lower hull, it was downright scary to cut the deflector into it.

Yeah that secondary hull is a real bear. It's one of the gnarliest compound curves I've ever modeled. The cutout for the deflector dish is a weird shape too.

@Rekkert "Ridiculous" was probably a poor choice of words on my part. I think I remember seeing an interview where Bill George said the Excelsior was supposed to look ostentatious and haughty to make the Enterprise look inferior. I think of it like Captain Styles' personality was mapped onto a starship design. They really did end up with one of the most beautiful shapes in Trek, though.

@count23 Thanks so much for posting those refs! I hadn't seen most of those photos before, so it's really helpful. They show me that most of my work still lies ahead.

Command and impulse decks are finished:

ashleytinger wrote: »

I'd say all that work paid off. Fantastic work

Thanks!

Secondary hull is finished. I need to do the pylons and nacelles and I can wrap this up.

Finished the detail on the saucer top.

Thanks for the input, everyone! I ran with that idea and I'm happy with the results:

All lit up!









And here's a quick render of the interior studios I created for the room textures:

Thanks to everyone for the kind words, and thanks to @BolianAdmiral for the refs!

After several snafus while working on the saucer section I've made some actual progress:







Light tests:

Welp, turns out I wasn't totally happy with the secondary hull on this model, so I rebuilt it. Thanks to the hint from @yotsuya about the deflector opening I feel I was able to get closer to the studio miniature. I also redid the textures; I was inspired by the ones Chris Kuhn made for his awesome Excelsior model. While I was at it I rebuilt the neck. I also made some changes to the impulse deck and warp nacelles. NCC version coming soon. Enjoy!









Orthos:

Finished greebling the scaffolding on the sides and added some lights. Now I need to make the swingarms and gangway.

Calibrated all of the Enterprise's lighting and added the "morning dish".

Rekkert wrote: »

A very beautiful model!

Thank you! I never completed the textures for the exterior, but it was sure fun to fly around the interior in-game.

Imagine Kirk finding this waiting for him in dry dock...

Thanks, everyone!

I won't underestimate this model; it looks like a real greeblefest. To me that's part of the fun.

Starting to carve out and greeble the main structures, and there sure is a lot going on there. I also built a travel pod mock-up for scaling the various ports within the dry dock (Yes I'm building the auxiliary craft too). The material is just a place-holder. I'll refine it towards the end of the project.