Donny's TOS Enterprise Interiors

[Donny]

Ok. Next project. So, I've had this itch to model some TOS stuff other than the Enterprise lately. Along the lines of ships, a planetary starbase, an assortment of space stations, and some alien ships, and both exteriors and interiors of those things mentioned as well.

I figured I'd start with something small and a kit-bash of sorts., which has led me to the Saladin/Hermes class. I know many people may not be a fan of this single-nacelle Franz Joseph design, but I rather like it, warts and all. The hanging deflector dish does look a little silly on paper, but that silliness lends the design a very mid-century look, IMHO.

Notice I took a cue from these 1981 FJ-esque Saladin-class plans and added two hangar bay ports on the underside of the saucer. And yes, I made sure that a Class F Shuttlecraft fits inside

Anyway, I knocked out the model tonight and will paint it tomorrow, which should go pretty quickly since I can just drag and drop the procedural textures I made of the Enterprise onto this model, make some tweaks, and call it a day. Having gotten the framework of a TOS starship out of the way is going to make modeling future TOS starships a breeze.

Oh, and I know that there's Gene's heavily-debated rule about nacelles working in pairs and all, but I'm choosing to ignore it since we have plenty of canon single- or tri-nacelled ships in later Trek series. Plus, I admit I really really like the FJ designs!

(Forgive the darker lower saucer on that bottom ortho...something was up with the material I'd assigned. It was late when I generated this...)

For fun, here's a tentative list of other TOS stuff I want to model. Granted, much of this I'll probably never get around to or finished, but it's fun thinking about for now:

Saladin-class bridge
FJ Ptolemy-class Tug w/ bridge
FJ Dreadnought (with some of my own touches) w/ bridge
TOS-style Miranda w/ bridge
Antares-class ship w/ bridge
Daedalus-class ship

Planetary Starbase (perhaps Starbase 11) w/ some interiors
K7 Station w/ some interiors

Romulan BoP w/ bridge
Klingon D7 w/ bridge

We'll see what happens! Let me know if there's some other stuff you'd like to see! I may not commit to any suggestions but who knows what might tempt me!

 

[Maurice]

Speaking on K7 a photo popped up recently that better shows how the "silo" is attached to the nub on the edge of the main disc.

There was a D7 bridge design done for "In Thy Image".

 

[Professor Moriarty]

My main objection to the Saladin class is not the hanging deflector dish per se, but the fact that it almost completely blocks the "Bussard collector" dome (or whatever that hemispherical feature was called in TOS). There are many other Starfleet ships (including on-camera canon ships) that violate this principle though, so I'm not overly twiterpated about it.

I love the hinge thingy you've got on your dish, BTW.

 

[Tallguy]

Excellent job on both, Donny! Looking at them side by side, with the same angles and lighting really drives home how much the modifications they made to the model between the second pilot and Season 1 really improved it. It just wouldn't be the same without the spinning lights on the nacelle domes. And those "cheese grater" caps on the ends scream rocket nozzles.

And yet two of the most used shots in the entire series where from Where No Man Has Gone Before. And those cheese graters ended a majority of the episodes. (They never filmed a similar shot with the production version.)

Oh, and the opening credits of all three seasons used the 2nd Pilot ship. The first season credits had ONE shot of the series version which was removed from the second and third seasons.

 

[137th Gebirg]

My main objection to the Saladin class is not the hanging deflector dish per se, but the fact that it almost completely blocks the "Bussard collector" dome (or whatever that hemispherical feature was called in TOS). There are many other Starfleet ships (including on-camera canon ships) that violate this principle though, so I'm not overly twiterpated about it.

I love the hinge thingy you've got on your dish, BTW.

Agreed. Way too old 60’s tech (although I understand it’s purpose that people preserve it for accuracy’s sake). I much prefer the recessed in-hull deflectors that seemed to arise in similar designs during the early 90’s, albeit with refit-era ships.

 

[Tallguy]

It looks like you took the FJ configuration but used the 11 foot model parts? Nice! I'm a big fan of this ship. And Gene's rules would have been different if he had gotten the money from the Tech Manual that he expected.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Speaking on K7 a photo popped up recently that better shows how the "silo" is attached to the nub on the edge of the main disc.

There was a D7 bridge design done for "In Thy Image".

There's also the D7 bridge from "The Enterprise Incident" (Romulan version) and in TAS (both Klingon and Romulan versions).

 

[Donny]

It looks like you took the FJ configuration but used the 11 foot model parts? Nice! I'm a big fan of this ship. And Gene's rules would have been different if he had gotten the money from the Tech Manual that he expected.

Yes, for any Starfleet ships I create in the TOS era, they will use the 11 foot model parts I already have constructed as a base, to keep everything uniform (and to save time ). The FJ plans differ slightly in a few things, such as the shape of the structure the bridge rests on, but I chalk that up to FJ doing his best to replicate what we saw in the show rather than him making purposeful deviations. I'll obviously have to craft some custom pieces with the other ships (the Dreadnought and Miranda come to mind), but things like the nacelles will all be slight mods of the 11-foot model nacelles. In my head canon all the nacelles are constructed exactly the same, but just have different connection points based on what ship it's used for.

What does everyone think about adding FJ/TMP-style phaser banks to these other ships? I'm a little conflicted. On one hand it's nice to have a physical structure to designate where the phasers are fired from, but on the other hand, they weren't present on the Enterprise, so it doesn't make much sense that they'd be present on other ships-of-the-line. Granted, I could do whatever I want with these non-canon designs but I want to continue to pay respect to the original filming model of the E with whatever I do with them. Thoughts?

There was a D7 bridge design done for "In Thy Image".

There's also the D7 bridge from "The Enterprise Incident" (Romulan version) and in TAS (both Klingon and Romulan versions).

I don't know exactly how I'm going to handle a TOS D7 bridge if I ever make it that far, but I've always fancied "TOS-ifying" the basic design of the K'Tinga bridge for that purpose, using cues from what little we do see of the bridge in the aforementioned sources.

 

[Tallguy]

What does everyone think about adding FJ/TMP-style phaser banks to these other ships? I'm a little conflicted.

My $0.02 is if you're sticking with the studio parts then keep the FJ phasers off of them. If we go by the book.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Donny, have you thought about modeling Matt Jefferies' really cool concept of a shuttlecraft? It had a sleeker look to it but because of budget constraints we got the shuttlecraft we know.

 

[Donny]

Donny, have you thought about modeling Matt Jefferies' really cool concept of a shuttlecraft? It had a sleeker look to it but because of budget constraints we got the shuttlecraft we know.

I admit I do want to craft some more TOS auxiliary craft still (I talked about this pages and pages back, but basically taking some of those Jefferies concepts and fleshing them out), but I've never heavily considered doing the shuttlecraft you're referring to. I may tackle it someday, it's just low on my list of priorities at the moment. We shall see!

 

[Maurice]

I don't know exactly how I'm going to handle a TOS D7 bridge if I ever make it that far, but I've always fancied "TOS-ifying" the basic design of the K'Tinga bridge for that purpose, using queues from what little we do see of the bridge in the aforementioned sources.

Cues. A queue is a line, like being in the bank queue.

I don't know that the K'tinga bridge shape is a good fit for a TOS D7, because the bridge "cap" is so different between the two ships, and the "tower" bit of the K'tinga is much taller and has space for that upper deck which the TOS one doesn't. Course you could go a little simpler on a TMP-esque idea like this earlier Probert sketch (LINK).

Another thought to tie to the exterior: you could have two big cylinders passing through the space, lining up with those two "bumps" on top (lighted in the original AMT kit), but the bridge would have to be pretty wide for those to intrude.

 

[Donny]

...you could have to big cylinders passing through the space...

Two.

I actually caught my mispelling of "cues" and was on my way to fix it (as I'd used the term in an email a second ago and realized my mistake), but you beat me to it! Haha.

I don't know that the K'tinga bridge shape is a good fit for a TOS D7, because the bridge "cap" is so different between the two ships, and the "tower" bit of the K'tinga is much taller and has space for that upper deck which the TOS one doesn't. Course you could go a little simpler on a TMP-esque idea like this earlier Probert sketch (LINK).

Another thought to tie to the exterior: you could have to big cylinders passing through the space, lining up with those two "bumps" on top (lighted in the original AMT kit), but the bridge would have to be pretty wide for those to intrude.

Yeah, I'll definitely be simplifying things. I admit I haven't put a lot of thought into the logistics yet. But I do love that early concept by Probert you linked to. Thanks for sending that my way!

 

[Professor Moriarty]

Re phaser nubs on TOS-era ships: How about instead modeling panels that are flush with the surface of the hull that can slide open to reveal the phasers?

 

[BK613]

I'm with @Professor Moriarty and @Tallguy with the sentiment about no phaser nubs.
As for stuff I'd like to see, I've always thought the Miranda-class nacelle strut arrangement would a better fit for the Ptolemy-class than the angled struts that FJ gave us.

 

[Redfern]

As for a TOS era Klingon bridge interior, only one thing comes to mind. Just as modern furniture, like the tulip shaped Burke chairs and the Madison office chair, were adapted to become "futuristic" seating, I somehow imagine the production staff modifying a swiveling barber chair to seat the commanding Klingon. I suggest this only because the chair we saw in TMP had an elevated footrest that reminded me of salon type seating. Did we actually see upon what the Klingon sat in "Elaan of Troyius"? Or sub-commander Tal in "The Enterprise incident"? If not, then I'd think it's open to Donny's interpretation.

 

[plynch]

I personally don't like a warp nacelle with no secondary hull in which to have major engineering components necessary for warp drive.
Or, if it's NOT necessary, why have one at all other than maybe storage?
My .02.
My other .02 is to keep the phasers consistent (i.e. invisible, I guess).

 

[Donny]

I personally don't like a warp nacelle with no secondary hull in which to have major engineering components necessary for warp drive.
Or, if it's NOT necessary, why have one at all other than maybe storage?
My .02.
My other .02 is to keep the phasers consistent (i.e. invisible, I guess).

One could surmise that the Constitution class’s secondary hull provides the ship with additional space for more powerful engineering components, and therefore their warp nacelles are afforded much more power, and thus, speed. The Saladin and Ptolemy classes, with engineering components stored in the aft saucer and neck pylon, have less room and thus less powerful equipment, therefore they cannot attain the speeds of the Constitution. I like the idea of Connies being faster than the lesser class ships.

Plus, Connies are meant for extended deep space exploration in contrast to the Saladin’s scout duties, and would therefore need a secondary hull to hold more cargo for the long haul. The lesser ships also probably need less crew, and therefore less cargo space and living areas, freeing up some of the primary hull space for mounting engineering equipment and auxiliary craft facilities that are otherwise stored in a Connie’s secondary hull.

All just speculation, of course.

 

[ashleytinger]

One could surmise that the Constitution class’s secondary hull provides the ship with additional space for more powerful engineering components, and therefore their warp nacelles are afforded much more power, and thus, speed. The Saladin and Ptolemy classes, with engineering components stored in the aft saucer and neck pylon, have less room and thus less powerful equipment, therefore they cannot attain the speeds of the Constitution. I like the idea of Connies being faster than the lesser class ships.

Plus, Connies are meant for extended deep space exploration in contrast to the Saladin’s scout duties, and would therefore need a secondary hull to hold more cargo for the long haul. The lesser ships also probably need less crew, and therefore less cargo space and living areas, freeing up some of the primary hull space for mounting engineering equipment and auxiliary craft facilities that are otherwise stored in a Connie’s secondary hull.

All just speculation, of course.

Plus, the original intent for the warp engines was that everything was happening in the nacelles. That changed with TNG, but in TOS, that wasn't necessarily the case.

 

[Donny]

Plus, the original intent for the warp engines was that everything was happening in the nacelles. That changed with TNG, but in TOS, that wasn't necessarily the case.

I've thought about that. But what exactly were they thinking the main engineering room was for then? It's obviously not located in the nacelles. And there's a dilithium reactor there (we see it in "Elaan of Troyius") and large power tubes visible through the mesh that must be generating power for the engines. I've created my project with the traditional idea that the power is generated in the main engineering facility and then fed up through the pylons to the nacelles.

Sigh. I know I shouldn't get caught too hard in racking my brain trying to figure it out...it was just a TV show afterall!