August Challenge WIP-JES: U.S.S. Liberator

[JES]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40445677@N06/6065856557/in/photostream/

Because there hasn't been many attempts to give this rather enigmatic ship a face, I figured the contest would be a good reason to attempt to do so myself.

The idea behind this concept started with a description for a kitbash someone had proposed somewhere on the net, which I found while looking for a direction to go in for the Liberator. The description was that of a saucer section like a Cheyenne class, an engineering section like that of a Constitution class, and the nacelles of a Galaxy class. While looking through Shipschematics that same night, I ran into the Pyotr Velikiy, and it hit me that the description of the kitbash idea and the Pyotr Velikiy have a somewhat similar hull arrangement. It was actually quite perfect, because I always imagined the Liberator as a heavy cruiser, but I didn't think it proper to follow the typical hull layout, since that has already been done with DJ Curtis's Edmonton, and someone's Rigel class, whose name I cannot recall at the moment.

So I went to work, with the idea that the Liberator was a class that was a descendent of the Pyotr Velikiy. I put a lot of work into making sure the two shared many of the same lines, while making it clear that the Liberator was one of the Galaxy's kin.

I had a number of different ideas, such as using a secondary hull based either on the Galaxy class or Nebula class, and using nacelles and pylons based off either the Nebula class or Cheyenne class.

Any advice, comments, opinions, or help is not only welcomed, but required. Should I go in this direction and start making the final design in Illustrator, or do any of you have your own ideas of what the Liberator should look like? And if any of you know anyone one the forum that is good at giving advice for this sort of thing, please tell them that I would like their attention. I don't have very long, so we will need to decide on the final details of this design very soon.

I also think it would be appropriate to pass the word to Masao, since I think he might like to see a modern version of one of his designs.

 

[Solarbaby]

Is this a canon ship mentioned on screen?

 

[JES]

Sort of, but not quite. The name and registry was labeled on a shuttlecraft meant to be among the wrecks for the Battle of Wolf 359. Whether the shuttle was actually filmed with the rest of the fleet or not, or was too small to see, she and her shuttle the Kotoi have been a part of Star Trek canon to this day. The shuttle Kotoi can be viewed in The Art of Star Trek, or via this link, if you don't have the book. Just keep scrolling down until you see a battered shuttlecraft.

 

[JES]

Okay, now that we've established that the Liberator is canon, its time for more comments! Come on, quickly! I don't exactly have all month!

 

[Irishman]

Um, these views aren't exactly what you would call harmonizing, so it's hard to get a sense of what you're intending to be what....and where.

 

[JES]

Well, guess you have a point. Perhaps because I chose to experiment with engineering section, and omitted ventral views (except for the thumbnail ortho)?

The deflector dish, which I guess under the circumstances is hard to see, is mounted in the front of the snout, and underneath the saucer section. I envision it as looking somewhat like the Akira's deflector, but the deflector dish looks more like the Galaxy/Nebula/New Orleans/etc. deflector dish, and part of it is cut into the snout like the Pyotr Velikiy that the Liberator is based on.

The impulse drives are mounted in cut-outs in-between the hull separation plane towards the rear of the saucer.

And the hull separation plane for the ventral side nudges into the back of the deflector 'hump', the rear of which has a cutout that the nose of the secondary hull fits into. The best way I can think of to describe it is like the rear of the Sabre class. I imagine the engineering section can be removed like the Pyotr Velikiy's, and can be replaced by any other components designed for her, making her capable of carrying mission-specific modules. Or if the engineering section gets hit, and antimatter containment loss is imminent.

Hopefully, these details will make it easier to see what I envision.

Thus far, I'm thinking of going with the Cheyenne/Springfield nacelles and the Nebula-like Secondary Hull, and have already finished the nacelle's side view to my satisfaction, and have also started the latter's side view as well.

Ooh, and come to think of it, can anyone think of a class name for the Liberator? I've tried a little, but I've been coming up blank.

 

[Kaiser]

Vance or Jaynz class after the awesome person who made those cool pre-TOS to Late TMP era Ship Tool kits ?

 

[JES]

If you think that she is worthy of the name, I see no reason why not. For now, I'm thinking of making Vance the project class name, seeing as how I have no better alternatives besides Jaynz, and if Vance (who I know attends this forum) says that it is okay to name this class after him/is flattered, that will pretty much settle it for me.

I see it a possibility that Jaynz will be used as a name for one of the ships, and if Vance becomes the final name, it is possible that other ships will be named after other designers, seeing as how that has been one of the ways that I've wanted to fill in a ship class.

At the very least, I have two names for one of the Liberator's sisters, which is very important, since I see the Liberator as only one of possibly up to 20 ships.

 

[JES]

Finally, after countless hours of work, I have something that I think should be presentable enough:

She isn't 100% complete, and I didn't have enough time to do all five views, but at the very least, she now has been given definitive form. I'm going to continue to work on it until 10:30 before submitting it (what little time I can spend on that: I have to get everything ready for classes tomorrow :/). Or should I just submit her as she is?

And yes, I know she doesn't have a visible deflector grid. But given how complicated deflector grids are, I don't think I would have been able to get everything else I got done AND the deflector grid. The image also isn't as big as I would have liked. I'm going to need to try to do something about that.

If further interest is shown, I will probably do the other views for her, as well as refine/complete the ones I already made.

In any case, comments, as usual, are welcome.

 

[Kaiser]

Looks awesome so far

 

[JES]

Thanks!

Unfortunately, this is all I could get done in the allotted time. In fact, I should be in bed now, since I have classes tomorrow. Though like I said, if there is demand from others that I continue the project, then that is what I will do, albeit at a slower pace, since college art projects are inevitably going to have to take precedence over any personal projects.

Still, I have to admit, for my first design in Illustrator (not including my college projects), she came out looking pretty good.

 

[publiusr]

Thats got a great side view. A distant cousin to this it seems
http://www.starfleet-museum.org/furious.htm

 

[JES]

Thank you.

Side views are the easiest to do, since there is no worry about symmetry.

Actually, I intended her to be a descendant of the Pyotr Velikiy class, though given that the Furious is a Cruiser, the two could probably have served similar mission specs. Though trust me, if I were to make a descendant of the Furious class, she would look a lot more aggressive, and be more heavily armed.

 

[fish11111111111]

The USS liberater should have a commander liberty that would be me ,..
perfect ship* for a perfect commander,./or a or a captain ,,,, someone has to fly it,././

 

[JES]

You probably wouldn't want to be the Liberator's captain if you knew what was going to happen to her. She was one of the vessels that participated in the ill-fated Battle of Wolf 359, and she was destroyed after suffering a warp core breach. Very little of her remained after the battle.

Though she did put up a rather good fight for the first few minutes after the first wave engaged the Borg...