This thread has been going for almost 5 years and with the amount of detail Vektor put into this design I'm wondering if you are actually planning to build this in the real world
No, no, NO! Dang, it , man, do I have to think of EVERYTHING? The escape pod covers are supposed to look like THIS: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Drinking_can_ring-pull_tab.jpg
Beveled the edges of all the hull plates and adjusted the texturing a bit. Technically, I didn't bevel the edges, I just added one extra edge loop and used a shading trick to make them look beveled. It works really well even at pretty close distances. The plates are now individually textured, which helped reduce the stretching and streaking near the center of the saucer.
I've been watching your work over at SFM for a while now and I don't usually post anything because all I can add is another "fantastic" but what the hell, this is seriously a stunningly beautiful ship. The amount of thought put into each detail really shows, this whole ship is believable as a space going vessel and looks genuinely authentic in the Trek universe. FANTASTIC!
Great work Now we are going to need the Hayne's Manual for her. any chance of seeing some ortho's of the latest updates?
Works for me. A little bit of shielding with the covers. Sufficient number of pods. I'd say you've got it nailed.
i think that approach would be better too. its not like you care to shut the blast door, your scuttling the ship.
The Commander and the gang are already working on a detailed tech manual for the Grandeur so you’ll eventually get your wish on that one. As for the orthos, probably not. I get tons of requests for particular views and wallpapers and all sorts of stuff that just takes time away from finishing the dang thing, so I’m pretty much sticking to the relevant WIP images from here on in—with one exception you should see in the near future. That, too, is part of the plan. Obviously I have to finish the 3D model first but we have a very talented physical modeler who has expressed an interest in producing one. Not necessarily. In outer space terms, “scuttling” would be equivalent to self-destruction. Unless the ship is in danger of falling into enemy hands or damaged to the point where its going to blow up on its own, they would probably prefer to leave it as intact as possible for later recovery. Why discard the pod bay covers if you don’t have to? Instead of the hinged setup, I’ve been giving further thought to the minivan slider approach except internal rather than external. They would still have the option to simply jettison the door if it became damaged. Again, though, I’m probably not going to worry about those kinds of hidden details until the model is otherwise finished. There are several specific uses this model is intended for and I don’t think any of them involve launching the escape pods, at least not that I know of.
Oh Darn I was hoping to launch at least one, just for the fun of it. Oh well might cost me a big chuck of change to replace one pod tho.
it could be a false alarm, though. "Sorry, over the comm system it totally sounded like you said 'Deanna is at the helm.' My bad."
bah. any mechanical device holding the pods will fail when its needed to work. I say skip the blast door and either have the pods exposed or under a membrane that will tare from pressure of the pod leaving the ship. Have the nano-bots repair the skin as needed or some such technobable. as nice looking as doors may look, they aren't practical for a ship that people are considering escaping from. If your so hurt by damage your thinking of escaping I'm sure somethings broken that will prevent those doors from opening. maybe just have a "zipper" line down the center of the pod bay which opens as the pods leave the ship. one zipper per pod. the zipper opens and closes under pressure from springs, etc. Like that BMW skin car.
Egg-zactly! Which is why I suggested a thin plastic or ceramic cover last week which would allow escaping pods to punch through without resistance, yet could still be painted to match the general look of the rest of the ship. I suppose the edges could be trimmed in yellow or orange to remind EVA crews that the surface is fragile, thus justifying a hull pattern broken up in artistically pleasing ways. Indeed, the existing hatch covers are more than sufficient ... don't bother with hinges or mechanisms; when it's time to render an animated escape pod launch, just show them bursting through a particle spray of cover shards!
Why bother with some flimsy hatch cover? The point of putting the pods behind hatches in the first place was to protect them from damage. At least that was the rationale. The real reason is because I don't like the look of escape pods encrusting the hull like barnacles. Those hatch covers have to be armored or there is no point in having them at all.