Brilliant! It's really nice to see ships that we know, but given a new spin to make them new and fresh!
Thank you! When I started out, it was about making sense of the new Starfleet ships seen in Star Trek III. But, like all projects it has grown to be something else - making these designs work. Without any real changes, the Excelsior works. It really does. The two changes I made to it were about keeping it real (as much as any of this can be said to be real) - adding a bridge to the correct scale and changing the cargo hold for something that doesn't waste space. The Oberth on the other hand is a poor design. Sorry to all it's many fans, but it's a badly designed starship. But then, it was never designed. It was one of several models that were made for the film's director and producer to look at and pick what they liked the look of. The philosophy of look over form and function, which we as fans, know doesn't work. Funny that the Excelsior can be made to work though. That surprised me. Tickles me in fact, because for years - decades - I hated that ship. Love it now. (Guess working on it, has made me appreciate it). Still, back to the Oberth... Nothing about it's *design* makes sense. I've had to make more than a few changes to get it into a form I think works. IF you agree with me, joy - if not... Joy as well, because you know, IDIC. The secondary hull has to be an unmanned mission pod, the upper hull has to have more than three decks. It has to have a proper bridge on it to work. It's supposed to be a Starship - even if it's a small one. It should be treated as such. It's a science ship (supposedly), so where are the probe launchers? It has a warp drive, so where is the deflector? Yeah, it's been a fun one to work on, lol. And I have enjoyed it, and even though I have rebuilt that damn saucer more then three times now, it has grown on me as a ship. With the caveat, that it works as I have done it. (Arrogant? Maybe. But I think when you spend a year or two working on these ships maybe you have the right, lol). It's part of the game really, trying to find a way to make these ships work. The mesh itself has been a pain in the ass, bit only because I am close to burn out at the moment and keep making mistakes. I need to spend away from 3D at the moment. Get my head round it all, and then come back later. That interior I did for the shuttle - I can do better. And it would be nice to build an interior for the other shuttle design I have. Don't, by any means, think I haven't enjoyed doing all of this. Because I have. I wouldn't do it, if it wasn't fun :-) And I have some plans. But we shall see what happens to them... Anyway, enough waffle from me. Comments and the like are always welcome, more in a few days :-D
Gosh, I never mentioned what I’d changed on the Oberth – see? Burnout brain, lol. Obviously I’ve change the scale of the ship, bringing her up to 180meters long. I changed the length of the “pod” so it sits back under the saucer, rather then being the length of the ship. The “saucer” was enlarged in diameter, and the nacelles pushed back. The pylons were reshaped to accommodate these changes, and reangled to make the ship look more like it is moving forward. I added a proper, to scale, bridge module. I got rid of the side shuttle/cargo bay hatches – frankly they don’t make sense. As is, the nacelles get in the way of anything launching from the side bays, so I dropped them in favour of travel pod docking hatches. I got rid of all the cooling vent holes on the front of the “platform” and replaced them with different details and probe launchers. IMO the Oberth has too many cooling vent details, which were probably more to do with visual interest than actual function. I added phasers to the ship – Unarmed science ships in this era of Trek? Again, makes no real sense. Plus, an Oberth has actually been seen on screen firing phasers. So regardless of what size she is, she is supposed to have them. My take? Has a double bank on the top of the saucer. Two double banks on the ventral saucer surface, two single emitters on the aft dorsal of the “platform” and two single emitters on the ventral surface of the “pod.” No torpedo launchers, and no ability to launch them. Probe launchers yes, but no heavy weapons like photon torpedoes. Which leads me to the following, and the point of building her, lol. IMO it is not possible to build an Oberth at 120meters long as a functional ship with a crew of 80. But that’s strictly my opinion only ;-) Comments welcome, more soon!
Been thinking about what I am going to work on when I come back to this thread – there are some things I want to sort out with some of the existing ships – firstly there are some things to do on the USS Eujisan (my Oberth) – the nacelles are still not quite right. They are too short, they need to be a little longer, and I missed some details on the back of them. Some of the texture maps are missing and need to be reattached to the file. The underside of the “platform” needs work, it needs to be fleshed out into something that makes sense. I have ideas. The shuttle needs a more expanded and detailed interior. (Tempted, but unlikely to happen, but let’s put it on the list anyway) – a new light box for the rooms behind the windows, more in line with the actual shape of corridors used on TMP style ships. (It would up the poly count). (Tempted, but unlikely to happen, but let’s put it on the list anyway) – deck plans. The USS Galadin (my Excelsior) – I promised a shuttle bay or two – so I really should get to work on them. Sorley tempted to add a RecDeck to the back of the saucer – I have the set, it’s not impossible to do. New windows though. Interior for the other shuttle type. The USS Clarke, USS Horizon and USS Odysseus – Quality updates because of things I have learned doing the later ships. Shuttlebays. The future – maybe a look at the Miranda Class and some of the alternate designs not used in the movies. Maybe it;s time to try my hand at a Bird of Prey :-) However – life is happening again in March 2023. So, I will be vanishing for a time come the end of that month. But I will be back! Comments and the like welcome, more soon, after a very extended tea and cake break.
An idea came to me the other day for someone (with serious talent like yourself) to tackle — how about doing a ‘modern’ (call it ‘Re-Oberth’ing, lol) take on the CGI First Contact ships whose meshes were ‘lost’? But the Akira class, that’s been done and then some. I’m thinking of the Steamrunner, etc. Just a thought - they’d probably be a good challenge as they were brief flyby/background ships to begin with, with not a lot of detail or thought towards their design. Cheers, -CM-
Thank you :-) The Steamrunner has not long joined STO - so someone has done her. But yes, that is something to think about... I have a design of my own, one of the works I lost - a TNG era ship - the Wolf Class. But I'm not in the right mind set to jump to that yet. Need to get these babies finished. But I shall think on what you've said.
Morning! Nice break, good tea, and excellent cake. So here we go, new nacelles for Eujisan - Quick compare of the old and new - New "platform" for the Eujisan - (Bottom) (Top) Yes, I have removed the larger cooling vents. She doesn't need them, and that space can be better used for other things. I've kept the panel outline for visual detail. Beauty shots of the revised mesh - And last but by no means least - the revised cutaway - Enjoy! Comments and the like welcome, more later :-)
The first three items on that list are done. I've been thinking about item #5, the rooms behind the windows. This is the current set I use - It's nice, simple and fairly TMPish I don't think I need to replace it with something a little more complicated. But what I am going to do is build a new set and see how it works within the Eujisan. As I've used this set on all the movie era ships I've done it could mean replacing them all... Hence why I need to think about it. Comments and thoughts on this welcome. More soon!
The new set for the rooms-behind-windows - Got some other stuff today, but I'm going to see how easy it is to turn into a lightbox to place where needed in Eujisan. More on this later.
I had a play with the new room-behind-the-windows lightbox and... It doesn't want to curve like the original, using the bend tool isn't giving me the result I want and need. I could do them all manually, but I don't think the benefit will out way the result. So I am going to stick with the current one - which is perfectly fine :-)
The list for the USS Eujisan - (done) the nacelles are still not quite right. They are too short, they need to be a little longer, and I missed some details on the back of them. (done) Some of the texture maps are missing and need to be reattached to the file. (done) The underside of the “platform” needs work, it needs to be fleshed out into something that makes sense. I have ideas. The shuttle needs a more expanded and detailed interior. (Not happening, it didn't work) a new light box for the rooms behind the windows, more in line with the actual shape of corridors used on TMP style ships. (It would up the poly count). deck plans. Service History (added) I have started to think about the deck plans for the Eujisan and it's background. Yes, it's an Oberth but not a typical one. So I started a "service history" for her as well. Sucks about the new corridor, but if I can't make it work... I can't make it work. As I said in my previous posts, it's no biggie, what I currently use works fine for adding depth to the mesh proper. More later
Nice work. I guess all ships get upgrades and updates all the time so you can just say that your design is a later era Oberth, they seem to still fly around in the 24th century which probably means that the ones still flying are either old and upgraded or new built with all the comfy bells and whistles of the era anyway.
Thank you! I'm still working on the service history and deck plans for the Eujisan. But what I have so far states that she is part of a batch of fourteen Oberth Mark 2's that Starfleet ordered. They are based on the Oberth design and retain the basic same silhouette, but are 50% bigger than the Mark 1 version and are capable of longer missions. We have evidence, on screen, that variations in ships classes existed, such as the Mark 2 Excelsior (Enterprise-B, Lakota) as well as changes to the Galaxy Class to add additional phaser arrays. I think the truth is that no two ships are the same - even in the Trek universe. aridas and Todd would probably agree with that statement. Ships are built, at various different yards, by different teams at different times, so the likely hood of variations is high. These ships are not mass produced from factories and carbon copies of each other. So, a Mark 2 version of the Oberth is is reasonable I think. I've only managed to create two and a bit decks deck-plans wise, but I already have space 116 crew, and that number will grow. Happy medium for me would be to reach 140-150 in crew quarters, which I don't think will be an issue. But doing the deck plans is kicking my backside to be honest, and I am thinking of ditching the ones created in PSP and doing them in 3D in Max. We shall see. Got some stuff to think on with this, and the countdown to real life interrupting things has begun (48 days). But, and as I say a lot on here - comments welcome, and more soon!