I appreciate all the feedback. I spent the last night further adjusting scales and positions, and also modeled the plaques and armature holding the models. Ended up scaling the TOS, A, and E up a bit from the last "idealized" version. I think this is what I'll be doing with. There are really no clear shots of the armature mechanism available, so I generated a best guess. And the plaques are centered with the ships, not the armature.
I never knew there were plaques! Donny, yours look better than the real ones! Of course I gather that you've already had more time than Eaves did!
Woof. The Sovereign is a real piece of work. I also find myself fatigued from modeling these gold ships, so I'm not worrying about accuracy nearly as much as the others. Question: Do I add the Sovereign's raised paneling? Or keep the more smooth appearance to better match the others? Thing is, on all the others, if there were raised panels, I modeled them. I just didn't model any paneling that was flush with the hull (like grid lines). But since the Sovereign is covered in raised panels, and no grid, it begs the question of whether I should model them. Adding them may make this model look far busier than the others, or give the appearance of having grid-like detialing. Thoughts?
It might be warranted to have the model of whatever ship is newest to be the most detailed. The current look is fine if you were doing it for the -F, say?
Smoothed looks much more in line with the other models and more real as an in-universe model, too. And if it saves you some time and nerves, I'd definitely go with the simpler version.
I think what you've got there is fine; any more detailed and you might as well just do a fully accurate Sovereign that you can then paint gold.
I think less detailed is better. I'm thinking of stylized aviation displays that have about the same detail you have here. I was also thinking that striping away the details on these ships makes them all live more comfortably in the same universe than the "real" ships do.
Echoing the above sentiments: the level of detail you've got there is excellent, any more would diminish the the "little gold ships" feel, and not fit as well with the other models.
I know you're trying to walk a fine line on how much detail you include, but the more I look at the pic where you have all the models (nil through D) lined up on the table, it sort of seems weird/off that you include the phaser strips on the C, D, and E, but not the phaser turrets on the A and B.
Yeah, that was a conscious choice. The smaller "phaser banks" on the A and B didn't seem as important to add as the "phaser strips" of the C, D, and E, as the phaser strips are far more prominent. Perhaps I'll do a pass with the banks on the A and B and see how they look.