I don't know quite what to think of that one. A part of me likes it, the way that the warp grill looks, but another part of me doesn't want a thick nacelle. Aagh! Now I'm confused! I like this one: http://twitpic.com/52ljcc It seems to draw a bit of inspiration from John Eaves, and I like how the tail end looks like a small airfoil. I also like the warp grill on this one: http://twitpic.com/52o96u What about trying to combine the two?
Personally, I like the blatantly mechanical approach implied by http://twitpic.com/52ljcc and carried forward in http://twitpic.com/52o96u. Some designers take the approach of building starships like sports cars (my own sketches keep implanting Mustang-like side scoops), but there's a point where they need to reveal themselves as big business devices (like carriers and destroyers) and not so much passenger vehicles. But. . . My fear is that the grace and ambiance of the front section could be spoiled altogether if the engines become too angular and mechanical. I think these engines would be perfect for a ship cast as a battle-axe or workhorse. But your Enterprise-F is three times the lady from the front, that bolts and hinges in the back might look like varicose veins. I like some of the ideas you introduce in http://twitpic.com/52o8it, although they do appear to hang outside of the seams a little bit, so I'll officially dub that design the "Kirstie Alley." Rather than bore you with a lot more metaphors and semaphores, I hope you don't find it too intrusive if I sketched an idea or two based on what you've done thus far, including your other concept from earlier in the week: Do forgive that it's just a rough sketch, but I wanted to get the main ideas down: I liked the "matchstick" metaphor your original design employed. Putting it into a shape is the tough part, but I think you should stick with the bulb-in-front, tapered-in-back approach. I like the notching you give to the front end in your later drawings, but I think for Trek-tech sake that the Bussard cap should extend to the front as well. So that it doesn't look like a big red Target logo, I had the idea that the cap should extend only to the top half rather than the bottom as you have it. For the underside in my sketch, I left it open -- I filled it with the suggestion of a row of bright LEDs, but you could put sensors, torpedoes, or something else here. Carrying forth your beautiful design aesthetic of a protective ring around the ship, my sketch suggests here a similar protective "wrist," if you will, around the bulb part of your matchsticks. The tail end is always a bitch. I threw in something here that evokes some shapes from the 1701 TMP refit, which I've always thought was the most elegant way to handle this otherwise awkward part of the ship. Maybe this might give you some ideas. I think you're making the right experiments with your shapes, but there's something to be said for Probert's self-contained, streamlined approach, which suggests that everything is nicely kept inside the ship rather than tacked onto the outside. DF "Hoping My Nacelle Cap Doesn't Look Too Much Like 'Gypsy' From MST3K" Scott
Hmm. I knocked together a quick mesh of your original nacelle design, and while I think it looks better in 3 Dimensions, the instant you put it on your E-F (or at least my poor rendition of your E-F) It starts looking off. Looks alright here don't it? Well, when its on the Enterprise.... I think it just looks weird. Maybe I have the scale way off and they should be tiny, but that giant bulbous front just don't work imo.
Dac, it's all your fault the more I see the oval saucer the more I like it better than a round one. But I am still gonna work on it and hope to give you something to work off of because you have done an amazing job.
One thing I will say is the secondary hull is too round it needs to be flatter on top and more oval than round, and the curved nacelle pylons are too close to Vektors Grandeur. I am going to use your lower angle beauty shot as a basis for my next sketch, so you can see what I mean.
OK this is REALLLY ROUGH but it is more in line with where I am heading with the look of this sucker.
Glad you guys like it. Now I know the perspective is a little off but I think I am on track with it. I still need to do a few more angles to see if this will work.
FYI - I just saw this post over on the STO forums (link) -(it was made by the STO artist/dev doing the STO model of the ship, so, Ihlecreations, you might want to check your e-mail.
Hmm. This is starting to really look more like a kitbash than an original design. The saucer is essentially the excelsior's, the lower hull is essentially the galaxy's, and the nacelles are pretty sovereign-ish.
Perspective drawing -- especially a design this complex -- is really, really tough. You think you've drawn the box just right, but then you realize that the scale is all wrong (I tend not to foreshorten enough). In this particular rough sketch, Ihlecreations, I can't help but feel that the ship is curled as though it wrapped itself around a lamppost. Most noticeably: The middle ring of your primary hull is divided into nice pie-wedges. On the starboard side (towards us) the slice in that pie wedge lines up nicely alongside the "wing." If I extend that same slice line in the plane of your saucer's perspective to the opposite side, it comes in two "slices" in front of the port-side wing. Note at the moment I'm not discussing your design, just this specific drawing. Unless you're tired of my suggestions, I have a practical one that might help out: Build a skeletal model of your ship out of everyday materials, like craft sticks or straws. Not the surface of the ship, but just the backbone, as though it were a model of elevator shafts. Paint colored spots at points that represent "milestone" areas like the bridge cap or the wing joints or the lower sensor dome. Then position this model on your desk at the angle you want to draw, and study these milestone points carefully. Then draw these milestones like a constellation on your page. And wrap your ship around it. I think this way you'll be able to better appreciate some of your very outstanding ideas, like the red flares along the wing joints (impulse engines? thrusters? surprises?) and the jutting dovetail toward the extended shuttle bay. Keep in mind, every artist does exactly what you're doing now; they come to grips with the strangeness of perspective drawing. And they make perspective or scaling errors, but we never see them. (By the way, for the record. . . Not at all a kitbash.) DF "Knows a Few Things About 'Bent'" Scott