I always wanted to see if the Ken Adam/Ralph McQuarrie Enterprise concept from the canceled Planet of the Titans film could be made to work while sticking as close to the original intentions of the designers as possible. We've already seen one interesting take on the design here http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=130992 I'm sticking a lot closer to the original concept however. http://s1186.photobucket.com/albums/z362/_SMC_/ I've scaled the ship to be 1430 feet (435m) long with 26 decks.
Since I'm not registered at 3D Underground, I can't view the page. But I'm interested in seeing what you've got if you can post some images here.
The modeling looks great so far, and very detailed. Even though it's faithful to the original design, I much prefer it to the original sketch.
I was never impressed with the original Adam-design... but I do like the detail you put on the bridge?-structure.
lordsarvains render was quite a departure from the original. I didn't realize the warp nacelles looked so backward. That's some beautiful work there SMC. You gonna use that tailpipe for the impulse engines, ala the original?
yep, that'll be be the impulse drive, but I was thinking of making the warp nacelles serve as some sort of antimatter rockets as well... If this ship is so strange looking may as well go hog wild with the engineering as well.
SMC, since you don't accept PMs I need you to email me regarding your model. I have some info that you may be very interested in. Great work BTW. email me at redspar@gmail.com so I can send you back a message.
SMC, I think this is as close as any model I've ever seen to depicting the intention of the Ralph McQuarrie concept, which underwent a few mutations along the way. McQuarrie's work is often stark, flat, astoundingly cold, like the very first scene of Star Wars (IV). There is a kind of aesthetic beauty to it, but it's a different kind and flavor than Star Trek, less about ships and vessels and movement and more about cities and habitats. If you look on McQuarrie's Web site (and I'm certain you already have), you'll find some Enterprise concepts that are more in keeping with Trek's native element, to borrow a phrase from Sir Launcelot in "Holy Grail;" but this one is where Ralph started. You've definitely captured it here. And while LordSarvain's earlier model takes McQuarrie's idea of the delta-shaped engineering hull and plays with the idea of making a real Trek-style ship out of it (and not a bad job, I'd add), SMC's model accurately demonstrates the gulf, in my opinion, between the Jefferies/Probert vision and the McQuarrie vision. The Enterprise, I've always said, is a character in the show; and McQuarrie's recasting of that character, I think, would be akin to taking a role played first by Ingrid Bergman and assigning it to William Holden. DF "Here's Looking At You. . . Sir" Scott
I think if you investigate further you'll find it was actually Joey Tribiana. Love this take on the design!
Nice work. On what are you basic the scaling? It looks like you've worked somewhat from the concept doodles McQuarrie did of the saucer separated and on a planet, etc. Is that the case?
The scale I just more or less decided arbitrarily (starting with a 1500 foot ballpark) as there aren't any definite scale cues in the concept sketches. I figured that if the saucer were at least as big as that of the TOS Enterprise then that would place the length of the engineering hull within certain minimum and maximum limits based on estimations from looking at the concept sketches. As it turns out I increased the relative size of the saucer as sticking 100% to the concept art resulted in a comically tiny looking saucer on a massive engineering hull. Then I drew up a basic deck chart and fitted the proportions of the ship to the deck levels where necessary which resulted in the final 1430 foot length. The drawings of the saucer landed on a planet did get me thinking, what if this were a routine operation, not just an emergency ability of the ship? So they'd land the saucer on the surface to act as a base if they were undertaking some sort of prolonged exploration. We all know the story (which may just be an offhand joke) that Roddenberry equipped the ship with transporter beams because they didn't have the budget to do effects shots of a ship landing on a new planet every week... but presumably Planet of the Titans being a motion picture, may not have suffered such limitations. So the plan is to model all the landing gear etc for the saucer - that ring of hatches I put around the bridge area are for the antenna and dishes we see deployed in one of McQuarrie's drawings. Later on I may model the asteroid spacedock McQuarrie did concept art of as well.