I think the Daedalus is one of the ugliest ships in all of Trek, but this looks awesome. It's what the Daedalus should have been.
Looks great! Although the rib-structure on nacelles and secondary hull as well as the "removal" of the hangar bay as in the sketches above make this ship look much older (more like being only slightly younger than Daedalus) than before (which means, that the NCC-number might be to high). Also, the secondary hull could benefit from additional details, not much, but one or two sets of windows (maybe one rectangular front directly below the cylindrical addition on top and a set of two round ones on the rear slightly above the nacelles, so that they can also be seen in the top view).
Looks fantastic! And with the Medusan Mystery Ship sailing out there, it's plausible that a newer-tech refit could still be flying for the TOS era as well. Apex looks super! Only thing I would suggest is giving the bridge a little more "Cage"-like buldge.
And now, an update... MadMan1701A recently started a similar thread in this forum for a JJverse ship called the Archon, very similar is design to the Apex. I'm just posting this link for anyone who might be interested in Apex and/or the JJ-Archon.
Do either of you mind if I try my hand at this design? It doesn't seem like this one is very active, and I like the sketches.
I like this little ship. It's weird how similar my idea was to this one, and I don't think I had ever seen it before.
holy thread necromancy batman! (all joking aside, I actually hadn't seen this before, so thanks, I suppose? ) It's indeed a very neat looking lil' ship!
You may find in interesting that there are other Apex-related threads still available in this Fan Art forum as well. Just search for Apex or follow the links posted upthread.