Galaxy Class Upgrade...a work in progress

[Jimi_James]

Updates on the Venture. Started on the side view. Made some progress on the top view. Still slow going overall.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z159/Jimijames_jon/galaxyclass3.png

 

[Kaiser]

Looks good so far

 

[Jimi_James]

Thanks.

 

[bullethead]

Is that a Voyager style sensor platform on the bow of the Venture?

 

[Jimi_James]

Indeed it is.

 

[Patrickivan]

I really like the look of the upgraded Nebula as well. I think my old Nebula with the new details I've done for the Venture will look pretty cool, if and when I get around to it.

There are a couple designs that I would love to see done in 3d, but I don't have the knack for it, at least not yet. A lot of the stuff for New Haven is easy to do because it's mostly flat surfaces, lots of flat armored panels. Star Trek designs are much more organic and require skills that I don't have yet. Plus to be honest, I've been moving away from 3d lately. It just takes so long and puts such a strain on my PC. I find that now I'm getting to the point where I'd rather simply draw it in 2d...even if I only draw the side or top views. I often can get much more detail in the drawing than I can in 3d and when I stick to 2d, I end up getting more actual work done.

It seems now though I haven't done all that much new drawing in Trek in a long time. The majority of what I'm working on, is simply redoing old work or making changes to an existing design. I need to get back to some original designs...if I can find some inspiration.

As for New Haven, I'm working on a write up to try and cover some of the background of the series/universe, before I start posting artwork. It's almost down, so maybe another day or two.

And I should have an update for the Venture later tonight or tomorrow. I worked on it some this morning and made a bit of progress on the top view and I've also started the side view...though it's not working out as well as I'd hoped.

I've dug up a few of my older Trek drawing including a few other upgrade/variants that I eventually intend to redo in Inkscape. I'll not post this all at once this time....just to make sure you all keep coming back for more. lol

The Nebula...stripped down.
This concept originated with the idea or rather the rumor, that one possible purpose for the Nebula was to move around Galaxy Class Saucer Sections. Who knows if that's true or not, but I rather like the idea that like the Galaxy Class, the can detach it's saucer. And so if we're removing parts, then why not lose the pod and the pod nacelle as well, which leaves us with the bottom variant. It creates an interesting look in both cases and if nothing else, they're certainly unique. And I think it would be cool to see in the fleet shot, a saucer-less Nebula cruising around.




An older, original design. The Barracuda class Escort. Not much to say about it, except that like the Defiant she's lean, mean, and does one thing very well.

Hmmm. The Barracuda Class really speaks to me for some reason...

 

[Jimi_James]

I guess it's true, great minds think alike.
That's a really interesting design. It has a sort of speed boat feel, making it look like it's going fast, even sitting still.

 

[publiusr]

I love the Excalibur on STO art--but its look in the game dissappoints. A study in how the refit turns into the Excalibur might be interesting.

 

[Jimi_James]

I'm working on some new updates for the Venture. In the meantime, here's an upgraded Intrepid Class that I started...and would like to finish one day.

The idea was to try and visually balance the appearance of the ship by created a more integrated connection between the engineering hull and the saucer, as well as extending the length of the nacelles. Other upgrades would have likely proceeded along the same lines as the Venture, nothing too extreme, but rather more detail and newer components.

 

[bullethead]

Looks good aside from the thing sticking out of the deflector and onto the bottom of the saucer. I think something more like the Sovereign class, where there are two pieces on the outer part of the deflector housing that link to the saucer, might work better here.

 

[Kaiser]

upgraded Intrepid looks good so far

 

[Jimi_James]

Thanks Kaiser.

Looks good aside from the thing sticking out of the deflector and onto the bottom of the saucer. I think something more like the Sovereign class, where there are two pieces on the outer part of the deflector housing that link to the saucer, might work better here.

That was the general idea, though rather than rebuild a large section of the engineering hull, I figured it would be easier to create a smaller flaring that could be attached the existing hull; which would serve much of the same purpose. Needless to say, when I get back to it, it will likely be revised some.

 

[Jimi_James]

I've decided to split up the different views. The combined graphic was getting too difficult to work with. So here is the updated top view.

 

[bullethead]

Not digging some of the clusters of windows and escape pods. The outer slice of the midsection of the saucer really looks odd, as do all the windows on deck 2 and the escape pods between shuttlebay 1 and the impulse engines. I think the windows would be better if they were restricted to the two inner sections of the saucer. Not sure what can be done with the pods aside from shuffling them around in those sections of the hull.

 

[Jimi_James]

Many of the windows and escape pods still need some tweaking in terms of positions to line them up better with the curvature of the saucer. That being said, much of the general placement comes directly from the sources I'm using: http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars...enterprise.php

Here's the larger version I'm actually using: http://www.starbaseadran.co.uk/plans/galaxy-class-001.jpg

That being said, it didn't make sense to me to cluster so many of the escape pods so close together along those few select decks of the saucer. In a situation where every second may count, it would be helpful to have at least one escape pod on every deck. So I've tried to spread them out a bit more...though I suppose there is an argument to be made for placing as many of them together as possible in order to make coordinated evacuation efforts as easy as possible.
Either way, I'll work on it.

On an unrelated note, I've also extended the length of the nacelles a bit. Their length now extends further both forward and aft, making the ship a few meters longer. I'm not sure exactly by how much...this thing isn't exactly precise.

 

[sojourner]

Your going to colorize this yes? I think once you do that it will make the escape pods stand out a lot less.

Hehe, just noticed, the last image you linked, while the top view, the file name is galaxyclassbottom2.png

 

[Jimi_James]

No. Aside from a few spots of gray, it will mainly be black and white.

 

[sojourner]

Ah, in that case, the gradient applied to the escape pods is distracting a bit.

 

[Jimi_James]

There actually isn't a gradient in effect. It's just when the image is scaled down like that, much of the detail is lost and it gives the effect of a gradient. Here is the escape pod, blown up so you can see the detail. This is copied straight from the top view of Venture without any changes. So if the image of the Venture were big enough, this is exactly how the pods would appear.


When the drawing is finally done, I'll do some full size sets that will be big enough to clearly show all the detail.