I have a question: Has the poor lil guy out side the secondary hull hanger bay gotten tired of standing up all this time for us?
I just couldn't resist. A quick and dirty starfield! (Actually, I guess it's more of a galaxyfield) Vektor, I hope this is OK with you. I think we've all been waiting anxiously to see how the Grandeur develops, and this is only intended as a short term fix to help us all get rid of the shakes! If you feel this infringes on your work just say the word and I'll take it down.
Well, we hired a Little Red Guy to give the Little Blue Guy a break once in a while, but for some reason the Little Red Guy kept getting killed off by stray phaser blasts, alien spores, flying spears, etc, so we renegotiated the Little Blue Guy's contract to let him sit down, read magazines, and make fast food trips between takes and he's generally pretty happy now.
Captain Roop is the better one to answer this, but basically the NFC designation identifies a starship as belonging to a special operations group within Starfleet called the Interstellar Federation Taskforce. This, from what I understand, is the fictional manifestation of the International Federation of Trekkers, to which Captain Roop's ship-based fanclub, the USS Grandeur, actually belongs.
Absolutely magnificent Vektor! This may be the best designed starship I've seen since TMP Refit. Gorgeous, well-thought out, and paying homage to the various ships we've seen without being beholden to any particular one. It makes the ones people were paid to design look bad! Hey, whatever happened to that version of the the original 1701 you were doing, and that cool pre-TOS ship that made the NX-01 look amateurish?
I'm still working on the 1701 now and then and I still have plans for my own version of a Doomsday Machine Special Edition. I'm sure the pre-TOS ship you're referring to is the Vanguard, which I am also still working on. In fact, I started a from-scratch rebuild of it not too long ago and there's a thread on it around here somewhere.
Yes as Vektor has pointed out the NFC is the beginning registration letters we use in the IFT (International Federation of Trekkers)<--- Real Organization, She is one of several that belongs to a special division named the Interstellar Federation Taskforce (IFT)(More fictional name) and is distinguished by an NFC (Non-Fleet Commission) registry number rather than NCC, due to the fact that she is Federation sanctioned but not part of Starfleet herself. If you would like a little more detail other then what I provided send me a private message, I will be happy to explain a bit more.
I never get tired of Grandeur in Beauty Shots. I know as Vektor has said he wants to hold off on those types of shots until the ship is finished, at least for him personally. Ocassionaly "The Commander aka The Citzen" does up shots of Grandeur in space. Here is a slightly earlier version that Vektor had presented at one time. The nacells are similar but other changes have been made since then. http://www.sextondesign.net/ussgrandeur/Grandeur-A_progress.jpeg Keep on the lookout you never know what Grandeur work in progress pics might show up in a beauty shot.
Here's three more for tonight showing some added detail to the docking bay and main impulse engine, as well as a glimpse of a Type XI shuttlecraft parked on the hangar deck. Please note that a lot of the stuff surrounding the main impulse engine is just blocked out and definitely not final. I'm actually thinking about flattening the main impulse engine a little vertically and possibly adding a pair of photorp launchers between it and the docking bay landing deck. Also, I'm thinking that the docking bay doors are awfully big and awfully blank. If anybody has any suggestions on how to add some interest in that area, up to and including totally reworking the doors, I'm open.
Maybe you could make the bay doors a bit shorter vertically and add an observation area window above, with tractor beam emitters and/or running lights?
Well, I made some darn good progress on the Grandeur today. I got the bridge decks rebuilt, tweaked and modified the docking bay and the main impulse engine, added all the phaser arrays on the primary hull and restored the groove around its edge, and made some long overdue adjustments to the shape of the warp rudders on the nacelle pylons. I also pretty well finalized the design of the bridge module--on paper; I won't get around to the actual modeling work for a few more days. By way of celebration, and to satisfy the numerous requests I've been receiving lately, I decided to do up a couple of wallpaper images using a gorgeous background I ran across a while back. Here they are for your viewing pleasure (you can click on these to download a 1280x1024 version)... I must say these came out really nice, if I do say so myself. Oh, and I'll post some actual WIPs some time tomorrow after I get some sleep. Enjoy.
Wowsers! I must say that I love this design more every time I see it! :thumbsup: I really like the way that you combine the best aspects of both the Galaxy and Sovereign class, such as the dorsal pylon, the elliptical saucer and the separation mode. IMO this would have been a very good candidate for the Ent-E design, and definately what the Ent-F should look like-if we ever see it (there was an Ent-J after all!). Now if you'll excuse me I think I need to go and change my pants!