I apologize if you've already said so and I missed it, but I'm assuming the saucer is not designed to separate from the rest, and perhaps the nacelle itself is intended to be ejectable?
No, the saucer is not separable, but the space warp nacelle definitely can be ejected if it poses a threat to the rest of the ship. Also the nacelle can be swapped out for a replacement either in the case of irreparable damage or for an upgraded unit. I've been thinking about colour and I'm inclined to go with something closer to my initial idea of a darker hull overall. I'm thinking of variations in tone of the basic colour and not too much in the way a contrasting colours. I'm thinking the overall colour to be a medium to light grey with a bluish tinge to it. I guess I'll have to experiment.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. In my mind, I like where you're going with the colors as you've described them.
This just looks great from every angle. The length of the ship allows 3/4 views of the structure to really reach out beyond.
Thanks. I gotta admit I think it would have been rather cool to have seen the Enterprise come across one of these older ships on TOS. Because I come at this with a TOS aesthetic in mind I eschew the use of lighting effects in the warp nacelle. Yeah, they did that on the TMP refit, but that came across as more subdued. From TNG onward it just became too overt for my liking.
I would have loved to have seen the Enterprise occasionally cross paths with other starfleet ships, I understand they couldn't build models on a whim for one episode, but one or two recurring models might have been nice. With it's modular design there could be 23rd century upgraded versions of the ship, slightly smoother with the 2265+ style warp engine. So I could easily see later models operating along side the Constitution line.
Yes, and in the back of my mind I've been toying with that idea for a long time. Of course, I can also see how the destroyer/scout design could have evolved from the clipper as well. As systems became less bulky and saucers larger to accommodate more you could easily see that large aft section disappearing, much more compact impulse engines attached to the saucer and the nacelle connected right to the saucer as well via the dorsal.
My first pass with painting and lighting the windows and running lights. Yes, there is a faint bluish tinge to the hull. There are also subtle variations in tones throughout to make it more visual interesting without being blatant. If you look at the underside of the saucer on the centreline toward the bow you can just make out a small green panel. That is supposed to be a hatch from which a retractable laser emitter can be deployed. That's the idea anyway. Here it's shown retracted, but if I feel like putting the effort into it I could conjure up the emitter in extended position.
The texture on the space shot is quite nice, very reminiscent of the Twilight Zone/Forbidden Planet style productions. Nicely pre-TOS in tone, I love the distinctive silver polished look of the ships from the rocket ship era. I'll take your word for the laser as either my eye sight is getting worse or the panel is very similar in colour tone to the hull. I used to assume with the Constitution class that the main phasers would emerge or retract based on alert status, that again they couldn't give that effect on the model.
My idea is the laser emitter (canon, battery, whatever) is a swivel type thing that can pivot to cover a wide field of fire. On a more combat oriented version of this design you could have more such arrays in the aft section as well as the saucer. Or some of the sensor arrays under the saucer could be swapped out for a heavier duty version of the laser emitter. If you look at those pods on either side of the aft section you could envision missiles being launched from there fore and aft facing.
What you see here is the beginning of an idea I had from way back when I initially conceived of this design. These ships have an attach point where they can carry a large cargo pod if necessary. Yes, of course, there would be dedicated transports in the era and some could connect to multiples of these type of cargo pods. But in the event there isn't a regular transport available and a crisis might arise needing emergency supplies than a science reconnaissance or combat vessel could serve to grab one of these pods to make the emergency delivery. I did envision this design being built as a transport variant capable of holding three of these pods (a fast transport variant) but I don't if I'll actually model that for now. But I can put one of the pods into place on the Swiftsure because I already put the attach element in place, and it remains easy to put the pod in place or remove it. (basically I could just put it i in place and then make it invisible if I don't want to see it). Of course I need to think about what kind of detail I want on the pod because a plain cylinder would be rather boring. I would think there would be access hatches and lighting of some sort on it as well as signage. I'm not going to get as detailed as modelling different kinds of pods (which, of course, there would be). I did get this idea from FJ's transport/tug, or at least the cargo containers because I never really liked FJ's transport/tug design. The other element I will model is the ship's laser array in deployed position. Maybe down the road sometime I will model the fast transport variant as well as the combat ship.
Here's my general thinking at the moment with the transport container in place. I've only started, but now I can see what I'd like to do differently as well as lengthen it just a bit. The attach collar can be fitted either above or below the container (since there's no real "up" or "down" in space) and the thingies on both ends are for attaching pods together in a train like arrangment such as if needing to move around more than one at a time, Think along the lines of moving around more than one car at a time in a rail yard or a docking yard. But you wouldn't ship them that way in warp flight. A transport variant of the clipper could also carry two more of these containers, one on each side of the aft section, and those other containers could be larger/longer because there's no superstructure on the sides (going aftward) to get in the way. The transport variant of the clipper is meant to be a fast transport. Other types of ships more specifically dedicated to bulk cargo could probably haul bigger containers.
I understand the thinking here, but that little detail just looks way too much like the Enterprise's impulse engines to me.
^^ Yeah, at first glance, but when you get closer you can see one of the rectangles is protruding out while the other is recessed. Still, I'm not sold on it as it's just an initial idea.
Interesting... so with the raised section aft of the container, it would only be able to carry one at a time? Or does the raised section conceptually fit between containers?
The Swiftsure is a science reconnaissance ship, so like the combat ship it can carry only one container at a time. The fast transport variant can haul three containers at a time.
The updated transport container. I might add a bit more detail besides the signage (which I'm thinking about right now). It strikes me the ship could also transport and deploy large deepspace probes in much the same way, probes larger than could be carried within the ship.
Yeah, the idea of a massive probe kind of reminds me of the Lockheed D-21. I have to say, in general I really like this ship. Very sporty.