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Catalina-class Cruiser: A WIP

Tiberius Jim

Vice Admiral
Admiral
I've been away from the Trek Art world for a *long* time now and was inspired to pick up a pencil again to design a ship. It started as an idea to decorate my daughter's bedroom with some custom Trek art as well as an excuse to get back to my artistic roots of designing starships. What I have now is simply a handful of orthographic to nail down toe very basic layout ans proportion, although the details have yet to be even nearly finalized. My endgame is to have a print ready presentation of the ship to display in my daughter's room as something she can always look back at and know her dad created it for her. I have zero 3D modeling skills or abilities so the final product will have to be drawn by myself unless I'm able to acquire the services of a talented 3D modeler.

My inspiration for the design itself is the design of the PBY Catalina aircraft. My grandfather flew many missions aboard this design during his time in the US Navy. As his namesake I felt this was also a perfect way to honor his service by designing a ship based on the craft he flew in.

I see the in-universe story of this design as a successor to the Excelsior class, utilizing some similar design cues while also fulfilling a multi-purpose role I always felt the Excelsior class was meant for. An option to swap out the secondary hull for mission-specific modules will be explored.

Catalina%20Class%2001_zpsnp5fcldp.jpg
 
I really like the look of this one. It reminds me more of the Oberth but I can see the Excelsior influences in it as well.
 
Even though up and down are relative in space, I'd suggest moving the shuttlebay to the upper side of the hull nonetheless. Also, perhaps make the saucer pylons a little bit shorter? I think it would probably feel more balanced if the top and bottom views lined up better with the side view, because that larger saucer feels a bit better.

Other than that, I like it. I agree that it has a bit of an intermediate Excelsior - Oberth feel to it.
 
Even though up and down are relative in space, I'd suggest moving the shuttlebay to the upper side of the hull nonetheless. Also, perhaps make the saucer pylons a little bit shorter? I think it would probably feel more balanced if the top and bottom views lined up better with the side view, because that larger saucer feels a bit better.

Other than that, I like it. I agree that it has a bit of an intermediate Excelsior - Oberth feel to it.

Yeah, the proportions definitely need to be fine tuned. I also drew the ventral and dorsal at a different time than the side view. I get what you mean about the shuttle bay but I really like the way it looks and think I have a way for it to make sense.
 
If you did, I was never aware of them. My stuff has always been limited to either my own sites or here on the BBS.
 
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