Hi everyone. This is an outgrowth of my entry into the march art contest. I have been working on this ship for a few days and still cannot decide which Nacelle orientation I like better, up or down. So I am posting here some recent quick renders of the work to date to get opinions. The ship/class doesn't have a name yet. So far all I have pinned down is that it is a concurrent design to the Ambassador class and of similar size. Please tell me what you think. too keep this post from being over long, this next set is thumbnails. (click to see full size) Version "B", Nacelles down. Version "A", Nacelles up. I have top and bottom views of both designs should anyone feel the need....
I think I like "nacelles up" better. It feels more visually balanced, like the higher nacelles offset the lower engineering hull.
I actually think "nacelles down", but maybe a little more "down" would help offset that doohickey on the bottom front a little more. Is that a space vacuum?
I think I like nacelles down more. Why not split the difference and have them come straight out from the side?
What's the ship's purpose? What kind of ship is it meant to be? That would help a lot in making a decision. Both versions have their advantages... Nacelles Up looks faster, more streamlined... (An Exploration Ship.) Nacelles Down looks tougher, more menacing... (A Combat Ship. As a matter of fact, the rear view of Nacelles Down looks positively Klingon...) On just the first impression, I vote for Nacelles Up.
have to agree nacelles up, by the way whats she going to be? a frigate? or a scout? or something else entirely
Well, she is roughly the same size as an Ambassador class, so definitely a cruiser. That is a full size secondary hull hanging off there, though at current time there is nothing on the model to give it scale.
i like where the design is going. you know i was looking at the side view of the nacelles up version and i stuck my thumb over the secondry hull below the saucer, it looked almost like a ambassodor era 'nx'.
There was a concept sketch that Rick Sternbach once posted for a Nebula-fied version of the Ambassador that might have become the Pegasus but didn't that this is reminding me of. I believe on it, the secondary hull was closer to the saucer and the nacelles branched off either side of it, beneath the saucer. I'll see if I can find the drawing. I think I have it saved.
OK, the more I looked, the less I liked how chunky the neck was and also some of the construction lines that were showing in the renders of the engineering hull. So I took today and redrew about %80 of it and redesigned the way the entire neck was modeled. these last two are of the new hull in a stretched and non-stretched format. I prefer the longer hull look as presented above and in the last image. I think it makes the primary hull actually look less massive. P.S. Galactic Squirral, This is still using Sketchup. I render the designs in a free render engine called Kerkythea. Very easy to use.
Nacelles down - it helps to balance the look of the ship with that secondary hull hanging there. Not wanting to detract from your work, but it could almost be an evolution of a single-nacelle ship I scratch-built some years ago... http://www.albumsnaps.com/photos/USS-Canon-NCC-1251/115464.html?s=3
Kerkythea? is that a plug in or something for sketch up?.not been poking around the plug ins yet but if it's better then the standard sketch up i may give it a go.
^Exactly my problem! Nice model work! How do you consider it an evolution of your design? I mean beyond both designs having a circular primary hull, they don't seem to have much in common. That is a great movie era version of the Hermes/Saladin though! GS - kerkythea.net, it's a free rendering engine download the software and also the plugin for Sketchup. The plugin exports your current view of your model directly into Kerkythea. Once in, you will have to apply materials/lights/background to make beauty shots, but for work in progress you can just use the defaults and the images come out like the ones above.