I wonder if you make the impulse engines the same width as the top picture but make the height the same as the primary hull edge. Then take the inner impulse engine line closest to the ships centre line and line it up with shuttle bay outer structure. No matter what you decide it is going to to look great keep up the great work I enjoy watching the process, I only wish that I could do what you do with that software,
These impulse drives work perfectly both as a precursor to the Galaxy-class version, and as a callback to the Ent-B. Hope you're resting up and focusing on recovery!
Sorry for not responding to you all sooner. Breaking the saucer and having to fix it to sort this out put me a bad mood, I needed some space to think about it all and to try an fix it. Going forward I have less than two weeks before I have to stop - regardless of anything else, and my understanding is that it could be months before I come back from that event, so I need to get this sorted now. The Ambassador Class is a weird duck of a ship. The model was rushed, and several key things were missed off it (like torpedo launchers, which I have put on this iteration). They were pushed for time and basically had to abandoned Probert's original plans for the ship. Now, his original version of the Ambassador Class has been realised and I don't need to go over that ground. Tobias did a wonderful job. My brief, as such as it was, was to show some love to the as-seen-on-screen version of the ship and sort some things out. In hindsight, I should have looked at the impulse drives a lot earlier in the build than I did. I should have opened the floor up sooner. I didn't, and I have painted myself into a corner. Either I bolt something on to the hull, which to my mind doesn't sit well, or I have to shove something into the saucer as an after thought, which again, doesn't sit well. So, here is what I propose; I'm going to finish this ship off, with a single impulse drive above the separation line. I am then going to start work on a new ship class to address the designs issues as a class that sits between the Ambassador and Galaxy Class ships (of which there would be plenty I would imagine). As a pre-curser to the Galaxy the new class could have saucer sep and reconnect built in. I can do that. I am going to pull a few things off my Ambassador class to do this - but that's ok, there is a relationship between the two. In fact... Yes, it will be the Ranger Class USS Ranger NCC-21179-A. Going to finish the Ambassador Class today, and then start work on the new class. Comments and the like welcome, more soon.
She is a beauty. I don't think the Ambassador gets enough love, but you did her justice and then some!
Looks great, better than it did on screen! Can't wait to see what you come up with for the Ranger class. Back in the early days of TNG, FASA made up loads of weird and wonderful (and some utterly mad) ship designs, I think this is what they had for the 1701-C: https://continuingmissionsta.com/20...ould-never-have-been-part-3-bigger-is-better/
10 days to complete a ship... can I do it? We shall see... Being a spin off of the Ambassador Class, the Ranger is going to share parts and some lines. Yes, I plan to shorten the nacelles. More tomorrow.
Here was their Ambassador https://www.ststcsolda.space/federation/envoy/ambassador_FASA_original.jpg https://www.ststcsolda.space/federation/envoy/envoy.html The wing-tips there needed to be raised certainly…to give it an F-4 Phantom look.
More refinements made, next detail work - Ranger-A is not as long as the Ranger - but has a larger saucer and is more "streamlined" More later
Family emergency, so no updates today and possibly tomorrow. I know that means I am likely to run out of time on this build, but family comes first. More later/tomorrow.
Thank you. Reworked to the secondary hull to be more in keeping with how things develop to the Galaxy Class, it meant a new neck as well. So I guess I'm all in to a new ship, lol - Comments and thoughts welcome (just remember, this is still a WIP, nothing has been locked down yet) - more later.
It’s funny how this is ending up to look more and more like… Probert’s ship. That’s a good thing, btw. I’ve been surprised that people seem to want to remaster ships out of TOS but no one seems inclined to remaster that episode of TNG with the actual vessrl on the wall of golden ships. I get the feeling that ship is all but forgotten.
I can state now, I play that version of the Ambassador Class (called the Nerenda Class) in Star Trek Online. Beautiful ship. Yeah, rumbled, I borrowed some lines from Probert's original design. However, I am going to make sure that this ship is it's own thing. As it's unlikely I am going to be able to finish her before my soon approaching D-Day, I am going to try and plan for the future when I come back to her. I think the saucer should have an unbroken single phaser array top and bottom. That's one thing I will get done before I sign off next week. More soon
I like it. Follow the evolution in design and still works as a refit of an existing design if you go that route.