USS Kelvin Cutaway (WIP)

[aalenfae]

It always struck me that very very few public attempts had been made at establishing a deck plan for the USS Kelvin.

Well, this is my swing at things!
I'm really making it up as I go... so I hope there aren't too many egregious, glaring problems with the interiors!

Tons of little details. Gotta click the image to get full size.

 

[Patrickivan]

It always struck me that very very few public attempts had been made at establishing a deck plan for the USS Kelvin.

Well, this is my swing at things!
I'm really making it up as I go... so I hope there aren't too many egregious, glaring problems with the interiors!

Tons of little details. Gotta click the image to get full size.

Nice...

It is odd no one has done it yet.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Nice. Here's something I made years ago, just to prove the ship's size (which was a huge argument at the time), all it really shows is a few very very rough deck lines.
http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac330/KingDaniel01/kelvin_size_jumble2cjpg.jpg

 

[aalenfae]

Ah yes, I have seen your image!
A great summary of some visual clues that establish a reliable scale. If only the scale of JJ's Enterprise was so easily understood by on-screen data.

Working on this cutaway has slowly begun to prove one thing to me: The Kelvin is actually very thoroughly designed. Lots of people like to bash the JJ ships, but Kelvin is remarkably well-planned. They didn't just "kitbash" a TOS-era ship or something lazy like that. They really put a lot of effort into harmonizing the exterior with the interior, and establishing a reliable scale. Though there are still things that bug me about the Kelvin. And in the interior cutaway, I'm trying to bring in a tiny bit more TOS flavor without doing injustice to what we see in the film.

 

[Albertese]

A good start! The Kelvin was possibly my favorite part of that movie.

--Alex

 

[Kaiser]

Cool cutaway

 

[drt]

I like the Kelvin's design as well.

The only "mistake" was how the turbolift from the bridge came down to the hangar deck, but I guess that could be rationalized by having to go up and over some piece of large equipment.

 

[aalenfae]

Yeah, that's the big error. I intended to fix it by arranging the turboshafts a certain way. But I actually think I made a mistake, too. My engine room is backwards from how the captain apparently moves between the turbolift and the shuttlebay. But there's not really any reason why it has to be one way or the other. There seem to be some slight inconsistencies with the set pieces he moves between, so there's definitely some room for interpretation.

My interpretation of the cavernous engine room shows 4 turbolift shafts. I imagine that the captain is descending down the third one from the left. Gives him quite a way to walk, I guess. But there's no reason that he didn't board a second turbolift that runs sideways straight to the staircase he trots up into the hangar. Displaying only one single slice of the ship, it's hard to show stuff like that. But we can imagine it's there.

 

[B.J.]

Nice! I like the style you're using, doing it as an actual shaded cutaway rather than a "slice" like most LCARS-type displays. What program are you doing this in?

 

[astarguy]

i agree also that this is one of the nicest cutaways of any ship i have seen so far. i do hope to have one just as nice of my version of the tos enterprise some day.

 

[aalenfae]

Glad you guys like it! When it comes to cutaways, I really like the more realistic cross-section look, rather than a systems chart or something. If I had the patience (or the skill), I'd be doing this on a 3D model of the Kelvin. Maybe that'll be my next project. I just need to make my own Kelvin model to avoid controversy.
I'm working in Photoshop Elements.


V Click for larger view V


Slowly creeping in towards the primary hull. Spent a lot of time working out the planes of separation between the secondary hull and its neck, and the nacelle and its neck. I imagine that the ship - in case of emergency - might be able to jettison the secondary hull and/or the nacelle. So I installed some huge explosive bolts to make that possible. But it wouldn't be a Galaxy-class style separation. No autonomous parts. The saucer can survive on its own. But once the engineering section or nacelle is jettisoned... there's no going back.
Also started work on the spine running down the dorsal side of the primary hull. Figured there'd be a lot of pipes and cables there.
Some jeffries tubes and ladders here and there, too.
Also, the keen eye will notice that I've added a corridor on Deck 2 under the bridge, where our unfortunate officer was blasted out into space.

 

[DEWLine]

Surprised that it's taken this long - so far as I know of - for anyone to attempt this.

Been wanting to ask a question about the typefaces used on that era's ships. The one on the Kelvin's hull is somewhat similar to what's now known as Amarillo USAF or Airborne...but it's not the same. It's somewhat vertically elongated, and there are other subtle differences, too.

 

[Kruezerman]

Awesome! Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[B.J.]

Nice work! I assume this is a scaled-down export of your working file. Will you upload the full resolution when you're done? I'd love to take a really close look at this!

 

[aalenfae]

Yeah, this is way scaled-down.
I think my working file is something in the ballpark of 14000 pixels wide, haha

 

[aalenfae]

New update! Nothing too exciting, though. Finally working out details in the saucer section. Started working on the bridge, as well.

 

[Sarvek]

Amazing work! Keep up the great work!

 

[B.J.]

^ What he said.

 

[starburst]

I love the effort they put into the designs of the other ships from Star Trek 2009, nice to see the Kelvin shown a little love and fleshed out.

 

[BenjiRaine]

Wow that´s awesome. Which program ?