Here is a more careful placement of the ports and a change in deck alignment. I also whited out all of Kimble's details where I have changed them. While the airlock does not line up to the deck and the deck does not line up with the hanger deck, this all makes perfect sense. The airlock would need to be tilted (hey, they have artificial gravity so its no big deal to change up by 6 degrees) and the deck is never shown meeting the hanger deck, only seeming to. And it works with the TOS plan. And I also fixed the warp shaft (except at the very top of the engine). And since I haven't posted it before, here is the cutaway (with all the callouts) poster. Forgive the creases, it is 40 years old after all.
And the most important thing, photographic proof. Here is a frame from the last shot of Ent A from ST:VI. The model rotates through the angles so we get several lines. This one is looking along the bottom of the nacelle for where it intersects the saucer - right on the top row of windows and considerably lower than the Taylor, Kimble, or Slade plans show. But also, I show that the Kimble measurements for the height of the ship don't include the nacelles. So bingo! This photo proves what I've had to estimate from other views. Plus I got screen grabs of a lot of good stuff from the films that is far superior to most of the stills I've located. Thank goodness I don't have to do this for the TOS Enterprise. And in case anyone is wondering what all these TMP posts have to do with the TOS Enterprise, my workflow is to nail the TMP internal design (which is closely linked to the external design) and see how much of the ship I can make lineup - how much of the ship would be redecorated but original. I have most of the saucer being original and about 1/3 of the secondary hull, maybe up to a full half. The neck would be all original along with the pylons, engines, and hanger. I'll post an image when I finish lining things up. I also found what I need for Ent A and Excelsior. So I'm closing in on my goal of having the TOS cross section to match Gary Kerr's exteriors.
And with this, the work on the TMP design finally links back to the TOS. The area in purple is what carries over from the TOS ship. The bluer purple marks the area that was gutted but some of the framing would remain. So most of the ship is original but remodeled.
Interesting how the secondary hull undercut matches up so well. The rest of the ship...hmmmm My feeling is that the saucer undercut is the key. It's such an odd design choice that there just HAS to be a functional design choice behind it. And the fact that the refit carries it over means that whatever function required its presence on the TOS-E must also be present on the TMP-E as well.
My thoughts are that the secondary hull was replaced after The Turnabout Intruder, but before TMP, with something more like the "Phase II" version of the secondary hull. This would make the transition less drastic. Perhaps the undercut is part of the sensor system. Like a horn torus shaped dish. It almost looks like the path magnetic field lines would take if emitted from the white dome on the bottom. Maybe this could be an amplifier for the planet facing sensors. EDIT: This could also explain the three ring cutouts on the bottom.
Maybe it's for aerodynamics just in case the saucer makes an emergency (crash) landing onto a planet with an atmosphere. Frisbees have a lip around its bottom for aerodynamics...
Keep in mind I overlayed the two and cut off everything from the TOS design that didn't correspond. the undercut of the fantail does not really match. The TOS design sticks out more.
Today was engineering day. The engineering set was modified between season 1 and 2. This was not just a case of adding the platform. the she was shortened in length, made wider, and taller. The platform and ladder were added and a freestanding elevated set was created for the monitoring room. The season 1 set was redressed several time as the theater and the gym. I have added both sets to my cross section. The full size season 1 is located in the bow at the moment as a test to see if my idea for the theater would work. It appears to. I also have lowered the front half of deck 8 and stuck the set in as the gym. We rarely got to see the rafters in season 1 so I lowered the ceiling and shrank the pipe unit and stuck it on the aft of deck 6 under the raised ridge. I drew engineering larger and shrank it to fit. Here is my evolution of the pipe structure in main engineering. Red is as built, blue is partially stretched and green is fully stretched. I used some fun tools to straighten them out and then redrew them so the pipe spacing was even. The blue would have the same pipe size as the first pipes while the green would be all over larger pipes. I used the green one in the cross section.
I actually shortened it to fit in the area I think Jefferies left space for. I think it came out at 20-25 feet.
That would actually fit nicely with most views that we got of the tube structure, since it was so rarely filmed straight on
It's a solution that worked for me when I entered the Lost Model Kit contest in the Fan art forum. (I figured it as an AMT model inaccuracy though) https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/final-poll-november-challenge-the-lost-model-kits.277568/
well, it's on my bucket list to go back and 3D print mine. Wasn't an easy or affordable thing to do in 2015 (at least affordable by me).
My quest has turned to rough deck plans. A couple of items are eluding me. Where to put the TOS auxillary control room, the Star Trek V lounge, and the Star Trek VI dining room. Laying out turboshafts and corridors are a pain in the butt. But in the process I have found the third control panel from the first season engine room. It was part of auxillary control.