Here's an idea: the impulse engines could be incorporated into those little fin-lets on the lower rear-quarters of the craft. In a sense, that would make the ship's impulse drive into a kind of "nacelle" arrangement.
^^ I thought of that, but I still think it's too small. No, I'm going to stick with my original plan and I'll also have extra detail for the aft landing struts.
Here is some progress with only a few more details to go. Then I'm going to commit them to styled sheets just like my Class F drawings. I'm a little surprised. Although I haven't got a finalized figure yet I just did a little quick-and-dirty calculation. My rough figure for length overall at present comes out to 29.58 ft. (just under 29'-7") or 9.015m. That's barely over 3 feet more than my final length overall of my Class F design. I figured (roughly) that this craft would be closer to about 35 ft. overall. If true then it means I have just a little bit more room to play with in overall size, perhaps up to about 3 feet more. Still, I want to keep it down as much as possible, but at least I now know the craft will be no less than 29.58 ft.
FYI, your design works pretty well... but there's no reason that a "longer version" of this might not also exist, is there? If this was longer, wouldn't that be EXACTLY (within reason) what was seen on TAS? I may choose to copy from this a bit, when I make my own version (stored under the long rectangular block on the underside of the secondary hull)... to be "all part of one big happy fleet." Just curious... any though (in your mind) as to what purpose the "skiis" on the landing struts serve? Me, I was thinking about making them literal skiis...
I've always thought the skiis on the onscreen version look silly and so very '50's. That's why I reinterpreted them as antigrav stabilizers and arranged them in a way so that from a distance they might still look close enough to what was seen onscreen, but now there is better and (I think) more interesting detail. Yes there could be a longer version "out there" but I think it looks rather odd when it's that stretched out so I'm sticking with this approach---I think it looks more visually balanced overall. Now it's a matter of adding a few more details: some service access panels around the hull and small details on the nacelles and landing struts. Then I'll put the views framed individually with styled sheets like I did with my TOS shuttlecraft drawings. Then I'll move onto some cross-section views although they won't be as elaborate as my those I'm doing for the Class F. I'd also like to do one or two perspective drawings and/or maybe even a photoshop version. When done then it's on to the heavy lander design. I must say I rather like how I was able to take certain simplified elements of the onscreen design and make them look somewhat more credible. The aft bottom section that is slightly curved could be seen as evoking the Enterprise's secondary hull fantail (visually) below the hangar bay. The antigrav stabilizers attached to the landing struts replace the dated looking landing skids. The aft landing struts are angled a bit towards the back to evoke that splayed out look seen from the front three-quarters view onscreen. The concavity on the forward sides of the hull are only a simple elongated triangle onscreen. Overall I think it worked it well enough in being immediately recognizable and yet looking more detailed and believable. I'd also really like to see this done as a 3D model.
Those are some good ones. I'll have to add a few to the SSDB, it seems. Here are the ones I've collected over the years: NCC ------- Naval Construction Contract NCC-FXXXX - Naval Construction Contract/Freighter-Tender NCC-SXXXX - Naval Construction Contract/Support Vessel NCC-GXXXX - Naval Construction Contract/General Use NX -------- Naval Experiment NCO ------- Naval Construction Order (For Alternate-Federation Vessels) NSX ------- Naval SpecialOps Experiment (I think) Q --------- Intelligence "Q-Ship" C --------- Contract # (For pre-Federation Vessels) DT -------- Designated Tactical Vessel FCC ------- Fleet Command Crusier FF -------- Frigate Flagship/Fast Frigate FR -------- Freighter (For pre-Federation Vessels) L --------- Luxury/Civilian G --------- General Use SFDD ------ Starfleet Drydock TP -------- Travel Pod Registry NAR ------- Naval Auxiliary Resource NAK ------- Naval Auxiliary Resource - Merchant Marine/Logistics
To me, those landing "skiis" look very much like what Jefferies had on his small phase II shuttlecraft? I think he intended them to be weapons, did he not? Anywho, something to think about maybe?
Very rarely does a concept sketch look very much like the final product. You're trying new ideas and sometimes still tied to some old ideas until you really start fleshing things out. For example I've always disliked the Deadelus-class design because it looks so much like one of Jefferies' early concepts for the Enterprise yet without adding anything to it. I see it as lazy work. I think something decent could have made of the concept, but they just didn't bother from what I see. They just hashed something out. I look at Jefferies' early concept for the TOS shuttlecraft as interesting, but it's not finished. To my eye it just looks too wide and some of it doesn't work well. I do think something could be made from it, but I see it as a starting point and not a finished design. I see the TAS designs in much the same way. They were quickly hashed out and little thought seems to have really been put into them. And so as has been suggested upthread I look at the TAS designs as concepts or rough sketches that need to be fleshed out and massaged into something more credible and coherent.
Not sure if the above was in response to my previous post or not, so let me be more specific, just in case? I was talking about the Phase II shuttle that was a finished concept, fully fleshed out and ready to go to the model stage. Specifically, the wing mounted "guns" which are similar to the "skis" on the TAS shuttle. Here's a linky.... http://www.ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/phase2_1.php ,Just thought I'd throw that out there, for whatever it's worth.
My apologies. I misunderstood and thought you were talking about MJ's early concept for TOS. Yep, his Phase II idea looks more finished although I find it oddly inconsistent design wise with the general design style of the TOS universe even if revamped for Phase II. I certainly don't think it looks consistent with what we saw in TMP. But it is interesting and looks more finalized.
Done, at least as far as all the major elements and details are in place. Now it's a matter of tweaking the drawings a bit for the individual sheets along with labels. Then some basic interior setups to get a better sense of scale for final dimensions. Then on to the heavy lander. Well, it certainly took long enough to get to this point on this design. Also I'd like to say that I'm rather pleased with the overall result. I did reams of sketches to get the basic proportions and shapes right before settling on this. Initially my idea was not to have the large forward viewport as seen here. My original idea was to play on some of the exaggerated proportions of the onscreen version while keeping the overall look and the upper portion of the hull would have had a sensor array at its leading edge that would have just looked something like the triangular forward viewport. Essentially there wouldn't have been a viewport and the crew would "see" forward via a large monitor display that perhaps could have simulated a viewport. But in the end I went with my gut feeling and tried to make the above approach work, which seems to have panned out.
Pretty close to what this will finally look like. The sheets aren't numbered yet because I haven't yet decided exactly how many each set will be comprised of. All three of the TAS shuttlecraft will be part of the set. Presently I'm thinking six exterior views, perhaps three interiors, a history and specifications sheet, project notes, a cover sheet and maybe a sheet of perspective views for each craft. That makes thirty-five sheets for the set as it now stands. Hmm...we'll see.
The TAS scoutship design is finalized as you can see by these first two completed sheets. There is one small difference from the images I posted earlier upthread. I've made a slight modification that some might not even notice right off, but I've made the forward viewport surface a bit less raked in angle. This not only makes the overall look a little more like what we saw onscreen, but it also affords me a smidgen more interior cabin length.
A wonderful job. The full sized TAS version might be thought of as a spacedock only version, or one that would take up a whole shuttlebay with other shuttles away for refurbishing.
A glimpse of what's in progress... Again I'm a little surprised by how I've been able to keep the size down more than I expected. My thinking behind this is that while sizable on the outside this craft is rather cramped on the inside and suitable for a complement of perhaps three personnel. This heavy auxiliary or "heavy lander" is meant for surveying worlds and anomalies with extreme conditions. It's sturdily built with enhanced shielding and structure. It has a powerful antigrav system as well as impulse engines in tandem with low warp capability. The nose or forward section of the craft is brimming with a variety of sensor arrays and scientific analysis equipment. A rough analogy of this vessel would be a space going version of a deep sea submersible. It's mission profiles are primarily of limited range and duration due mostly to its lack of support systems for the small crew for extended periods. Small note: if it had been available to them this craft might have been a better choice of vehicle to explore the Murasaki 312 phenomena in "The Galileo Seven." Still, as we saw in "Mudd's Passion" it doesn't do well with oversized alien dinosaurs.
I appreciate your desire to adhere, at least overall, to the TAS "designs", but the more I look at the "heavy lander" the more I think of how TAS deviated from Matt Jefferies' design sensibilities and how those designs blended so well with the ideals represented in TOS. The somewhat boxier shape of the Class F standard shuttlecraft does carry an important advantage: it seems to allow for an interior that would be much more space-efficient. The Class L is much curvier, even more so than most TNG designs I recall. This strongly suggests to me that it would be less useful for hauling personnel and cargo. Just my two credits' worth...