I dig the idea, but the shape feels a bit off to me. Try something more 'primitive' perhaps, to be more in line with the other simple shapes? Or connect it at the sides with the rest o the saucer to make an alcove for shuttles or something of the like. I also think it could use a counterbalance on the bottom, perhaps a 'fin' continuing from the lines of the support structure.
Interesting... I always thought Protector was meant to be sort of a reverse of Enterprise. (Instead of Enterprise's disc-shaped primary hull and cylindrical nacelles, Protector had a cylindrical hull and disc-shaped nacelles...) In a hard sci-fi storyline, energy weapons (ray-gun-like armament) would probably be impractical for long-range ship-to-ship combat, but would be quite suitable as short-range point-defense weapons. "Missiles and rocks are in fashion." Is that meant to be "rockets" or does the ship mount railgun/mass driver weapons? Maybe the sawtooth look is caused by a series of retractable panels which extend when the drive is engaged. As for the low-res, how about the gravitic drive causes light refraction when active...
That would be "rocks" - the railgun option. Though all of this is somewhat in flux - me no like rayguns, but aridas has suggested something that's sort of half-and-half. Lot of good suggestions here, guys.
Hmm, what if you simply added a central bulge/core to the center of this thing, or perhaps a cavity? I really don't think fins and other crap are going to "make" this design head into the direction you're shooting for. I love the sawtooth idea. Keep that.
Actually, one possible direction I'm working on does both of those things in an odd combination. The overhead "delta/spoiler" died a quick late-evening death; it didn't suffer, but it doesn't work. I'll post a 3D of aridas new drawing with the outboard "tanks" in a hour or two.
Looks nice. One suggestion: maybe it would look better if the saucer rim would end in a sharper edge (and maybe be thinner overall). I think it might make it look more refined and a bit less 'heavy'.
I like the cowling, but somehow it makes it look much smaller to me. Might just be the lack of smaller elements on it to give it context though.
Thanks. Scale will be something to build into the hull detailing, yeah. This isn't a big ship; just for reference: - The saucer is 70% of the diameter of the saucer section of the original TOS Enterprise; - The length is about 125% that of Serenity.
I like it. I think you've managed to give it the organic, Colani-esque touch while remaining true to its 1950s-60s inspirations. I know this because it reminds me (sorta) of the Flying Sub from VttBotS. Which is a good thing, since I really, really liked that little ship when I was seven years old. :thumbsup: I also like the front-and-above view -- it has that zooidal or isomorphic similarity to a living thing -- in this case a face -- that I really like. This is wild. It's exciting to see this ship begin to take form.
If the ship's armament is going to rely exclusively on missiles and railguns, I think there should be more space devoted to ammunition storage (magazine). You'll definitely need it for missiles, and while it's possible to use the gravitic technology to gather debris for railgun ammo, that material would still have to be loaded into the railguns from somewhere. Also, I believe gathering railgun ammo would not be very feasible during a combat situation.
Good points. One thing about this ship is that it's not a heavily armed ship of the line that's designed to last very long in combat; it's a retrofit civilian ship used for intelligence gathering and the like. Doesn't mean they don't find themselves in a fight occasionally and have to deal with their limitations, but that's (part of) a story in itself... Venardhi has modeled and animated a variation on the design, and gave me permission to post links to it. Pretty cool: http://www.venardhi.com/sketches/shiprotate.mov http://www.venardhi.com/sketches/shipzoom.mov
There are aspects of Venardhi's variant that I like -- the Kiaga-esque darts pointing aftward from the thrusters were something that I was going to add if I did another illustration. (I'd make them much shorter, however) I like his hull pattern. However, I'd consider blending these details with the existing ovoid fuselage (as we have modified it-- with the aft built up). The real question then is whether to go with the broken aft ring as he shows, or the horseshoe shield as you have built it. That's a tough one, and I must admit to being torn. There is something appealing to that broken ring, and it has the functional logic of being part cover, part weapons holder. It also looks not so much "designed" as retrofit. however, it's not as "pretty". There is also something about all the detailing and direction that sawtooth vent/thruster added that I find hard to let go.
You could have an ovoid ring, connected in some way to the horseshoe sheild also. And keep the sawtooth edges, though I might reduce their number a little bit.