Another thread gave me a fun idea; to try and flesh out that elusive Renaissance Class starship from the infamous TNG Season 4 observation lounge okudagram. There isn't a whole lot of on-screen reference to go on, some names and registry numbers appearing here and there, and a couple of lines of dialogue about the USS Aries. As for licensed tie-in material, apparently the ship is mentioned in the TNG Technical Manual (which I don't have), but also makes an appearance in two issues of DC's TNG comic (which I fortunately do have). I slapped together all the reference I could find in the comics. It's kind of ugly, and it's also inconsistent from panel to panel, but the goal is to try and be faithful to the basic idea of the ship while hopefully making it feel a little more... "pretty"? Anyway, I did a quick 15 minute sketch of a front on view just kind of eyeballing it. I tried to reconcile as many of the features with the stuff shown in the comic, while streamlining some stuff and trying to add some appeal to the shapes, etc... I'd love it if anybody else who's got ideas for how to approach this would throw in a sketch or a rough render or whatever. What do you guys think?
Nice! I would recommend either updating the saucer rim a bit (I'm thinking of the Tobias Richter/Andrew Probert Enterprice-C, here) or backdating the deflector - right now the two seem to a bit anachronistic when compared with each other... I'm glad someone is finally tackling this properly though; I think the only other attempt I'd seen was essentially an Ambassador-class kitbash with very little modification!
Thanks guys. I agree about updating the saucer, that's just a super rough start I've got so far. The finished version would have to be much more fleshed out. I'll try to play around with some shapes if I get chance this weekend. Maybe I'll come up with something cool... who knows?
you know it could be analogous to the Voyager developmental ship: http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/images/idl-1.gif Nice work btw
Wasn't that a Nova class development ship? In any case, looking forward to this. I liked the Renaissance as seen in the comics, so I'd love to see you flesh that out and make it your own.
Nope, it was part of the design lineage while the Intrepid-class was in the development stage (the image is part of an article that IIRC was written by Rick Sternbach). Atolm, I agree -- maybe that if that design was devolved a little towards the Ent-C era it could work.
Sorry, no idea offhand. If you drag and drop the image into Google Image Search it may come up with a location though (I'd be more helpful if I wasn't typing from my mobile! )
I spent an hour or so playing around with some shapes and trying to see what works and what doesn't. Still pretty basic, but it's kind of starting to make some sense heheheh. I should be working on storyboards for Star Trek Triton but a little fun now and then never hurt anybody! That Voyager concept looks very close! I should take a few cues from that...
The ultra-thick neck you're using looks more like a VOY or post-VOY design to me. YMMV. If you are aiming for more of a TNG or pre-TNG-era design, you might want to examine some views of the Ambassador-class orthos shown here.
Actually, having a neck at all seems like a rather significant departure from the template. It looks to me like the saucer sits right on top of the secondary hull, almost like on Voyager. As far as using a neck goes, I must say the one you currently have is way too thick either way. On a more fluently shaped design it might work, but not here, I'm sorry. The rest, however, seems like a solid start.
Really? I honestly see a short and thick "neck" in the vast majority of panels in the comic! I guess that's the thing about working from these vague sketchy references heheheh; everybody is going to see something different. To anybody who has a different interpretation - please feel free to post a sketch or image manipulation of what I've posted or whatever showing what you're thinking! In the meantime whenever I get a chance I'll try to come up with some refinements to the "neck" area.
Yeah, I guess what you see as a neck I see as merely the secondary hull rising up to meet the saucer. Like on Voyager, as I said. Anyway, please don't take my comments as discouragement. I'd love to see this progress.
Hey Andymator I think you've got the shape spot on. In Comic images of starships, most artists do not stay faithful to a design from panel to panel, so it looks like yours is damned good!
Heheh, it's cool. It's all still rough right now so it's likely to change around quite a bit before I find something that works. Thanks man! I've done a little more research, which doesn't really add anything substantial to help me heheheh. -------------------- The Star Trek Encyclopedia - page 406 RENAISSANCE CLASS STARSHIP "Conjectural designation for a type of Fereration vessel. The U.S.S. Aries, offered for Riker to command in 2365, was a Renaissance-class ship ('The Icarus Factor' [TNG]), as was the U.S.S. Hornet ('Redemption Part II' [TNG]). Named for the period in European history when civilization as we know it had a dramatic rebirth, or renaissance. Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual - page 174 LIFEBOATS (Autonomous Survival and Recovery Vehicle) "The first group of ASRVs were delivered in 2337 in time to be fitted to the last Renaissance class starship, the USS Hokkaido, and with minimal hardware and software changes were chosen as the lifeboats for the Galaxy class." -------------------- So, aside from the escape pod thing, not much to go on there...
For my part, I can see it both with and without a neck - depending on which comic panel you use as a reference... My suggestions would be as follows: If you're going for an Ent-C era look, make the neck a little thinner and more noticeable. Likewise, ensure the saucer and nacelle details fit the era - shorter phaser strips, old RCS quads, etc. I'd probably suggest making the deflector more simple than the nice looking angles you've got at present. (which happens to be the one reason I'd rather you went for a TNG-era look instead!) If you are going for a more TNG-era "refit" look, keep the thicker neck you've got already, and the ovoid-angular deflector... then detail the RCS thrusters, phaser strips, lifeboats etc accordingly. I'd also suggest maybe something halfway between a Galaxy-class nacelle and similar to what we saw on the Danube-class. YMMV, of course -- those are just rough directions I'd consider if I had the time to doodle something in myself! By the way, those latest sketch views are purty.