That's really beautiful, Dennis, although I am used to seeing reddish nacelle caps (Bussard collectors) and blue for the warp-field grilles.
Funny, but networks don't care about what model spaceships look like. They'd not have given notes on that. The only people who'd've had input on the design would have been the actual production team.
My going assumption is that to the extent the aesthetic varied from TOS the referents would have been Star Wars and 2001 and to some extent Battlestar Galactica (which was at most a mild variation on the look of Star Wars) - anyone wanting to justify monochromatic spacecraft to business people could have pointed to the most successful sf properties of the day.
The ship looks awesome- love the comparison with the Mike Minor painting. If I may offer an unreasonable suggestion... some thin, low-contrast gridlines around the saucer's rim wall (TMP-style, or perhaps a 1701D-type strip) might add greatly to the overall perception of detail.
Thanks. I'm really averse to adding any detailing that "calls forward" to ST:TMP or anything beyond that. For this reason, there's no "aztec" hull pattern on the model - that was a paint scheme that Paul Olsen came up with for the refit after the model had been constructed. So I use a rather random, rectangular plate pattern. I admit to reusing some of my generic ST:TMP plating maps on areas of the vessel where the TMP pattern was always more random and less distinct. I suppose I'm a little lazy, or anxious to get the work done, or both. The major exception, right now, to referencing later versions of the ship is the glow on the warp grilles...and I may eliminate that. One of the Loos construction photos looks as if there may have been a reflective Mylar surface applied to them.
Dennis, I think it was better to have a low surface detail over the aztech hull-pattern. Basically the surface detail the TOS Enterprise had was fine. It actually looked more advanced in that respect than the TMP Enterprise.
Right... no JJ'ing it up... Again, just a suggestion, but here's an idea of a more subtle rim detail:
Might that reflective tape have been intended as a lighting trick? Reflective materials were used a lot back then to light up surfaces by reflecting light from a lamp near the camera back into the camera. It's the same trick they used for the Millennium Falcon's engines. Or the Kryptonian wardrobe from Superman. Back in 1978, someone might have thought it was a cheap and easy way to light up the warp engines on the Enterprise.
Dennis, I may have found something to help out with the docking ports on the Enterprise. I have found a reference photo of the docking port on the ship. It is Bay 4 on the Port side. It is designated Bay 4 for there is three other ports on the saucer and one on the opposite of this one on the secondary hull, this is only a theory, but I hope this helps. This is from Star Trek: Phase II The Lost Series by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens page 70 if you have the book. I can not upload the picture but if someone has the book they would see what I am talking about.
Thanks - I actually built the airlocks roughly to that very photo reference. They're just too small to show on these renders.
Mike Minor's paintings show dimples on the lower part of the saucer section on the bulge, they are the docking ports- Bays 1, 2, and 3. On the secondary hull would be Bays 4 and Bay 5. This is only a theory that I have about the dimples seen on Mike Minor's paintings, because it is seen on both of them when the ship faces one way or the other.
Possibly, except that the dimples don't appear on any of Jefferies' drawings or on the model constructed by Don Loos - and Minor's paintings also show other details under the saucer that are derived only from the AMT plastic model kit (the only previous version of the ship to have the dimples): http://www.culttvman2.com/dnn/tabid/74/ctl/ArticleView/mid/408/articleId/6/Default.aspx
I put together a couple of quick-and-dirty animated shots: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcxsiBM79sg[/yt]
Very cool! I still don't agree about the nacelle caps, though. If you're trying to stay accurate to the model and Probert's photos show they were solid and probably hull colored, how do you reconcile that with your city-slicker, new-fangled winky-blinkies? And what do you think about my idea that the reflective tape may have been intended to fake a light source?
Dennis, you rock. I have always wanted to see this ship in action and you did it. Thank you so very much, you made my day. I am really going to be looking foreward to the opening sequence.
Beautiful work, as always. Both those Mike Minor images seem to have the nacelle caps solid colored with the very top quarter a different color, or opaque.