YARN
Fleet Captain
Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that it somewhere between the original movies and the new movie? I am not seeing a lot of direct influence of the TOS design here. We've got orange nacelles I guess...
"Challenger"
- Thread starter Admiral Buzzkill
- Start date
Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that it somewhere between the original movies and the new movie? I am not seeing a lot of direct influence of the TOS design here. We've got orange nacelles I guess...
Well, there's the pin-striping, the shuttlebay doors, maybe the shape of the bit around the lower navigation dome, and the solid outboard paneling on the warp nacelles. Plus your aforementioned orange nacelle domes.
Mind you, I'm not suggesting this falls neatly into any particular lineage, but rather that it stands (if one were to think of it as an alternative Enterprise) off in its own little reality. You know, the one where Jack Lord and Martin Landau played Kirk and Spock.
You're just the indispensable man.Thanks.
Really had to get this sucker out of the way so that I can concentrate on another mesh now, in my copious free time.
Might be nice to have it side by side with this:
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?75862-Defiant-NCC-1764-A
He used one of the impulse vent ideas that wasn't chosen. I wonder if the impulse might also be a hybrid. Have wider TMP vents, but with the Firebird tail-lamp innerds of JJs.
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?75862-Defiant-NCC-1764-A
He used one of the impulse vent ideas that wasn't chosen. I wonder if the impulse might also be a hybrid. Have wider TMP vents, but with the Firebird tail-lamp innerds of JJs.
The detail of the cargo doors on the underside of the main hull is simply brilliant, little touches like that bring all the other bits fully together.
I enjoy the various ways that people try to fit these designs into a logical progression of eras - they used to classify them that way in the download area of 3DW, and mine would wind up all over the map. I really give no particular thought to that when I build one.
There are various details that I carried forward from the TOS ship - but then, so did Church.
I enjoy the various ways that people try to fit these designs into a logical progression of eras - they used to classify them that way in the download area of 3DW, and mine would wind up all over the map. I really give no particular thought to that when I build one.
There are various details that I carried forward from the TOS ship - but then, so did Church.
And I think that's fantastic. As much as I love the original Enterprise, I'm bored to tears with it and prefer to see new takes on the old girl. Naturally, the more creative efforts will be harder and harder to classify. Vektor's work and Deg3D have both done a fantastic job keeping the look amazingly close to the original and yet refined and more creative. And your experiments go a little farther afield and yet still have a solid, believable feel, like something that comes out of an alternate universe. I love it!
YARN
Fleet Captain
It seems that you don't want to say much that is unflattering about the new design. That's fine. Indeed, better than fine, that's mature and professional.
I submit, however, that the JJ-Prise nacelles look droopy from more than just one angle, that the amount of droopiness is in fact a flaw (rather than a sure-sign of a good design), and that this is a flaw that could be corrected with a few simple tweaks.
Yes, there is an admirable boldness to the new design and it does look better in motion (with copious lens flare - LOL), than in still images. Nevertheless, the high praise which your latest design has garnered here shows, I think, that it is a design which could possibly be improved upon in some aspects. In short, the last film's ship didn't really "nail it" the way the TMP design did.
Y'know the more I see this, the more I find I'm liking it better than the TMP Enterprise. I think it'd make a nice variant refit of the Constitution class, possibly one that was produced alongside the Enterprise variant.
It's also what I think.
You know, the Excelsior is a remarkably popular design now, considering how widely it was reviled in fandom when there was any concern at all - for some months after ST III - in fandom that the next version of the Enterprise might resemble it. The most common complaint then was proportions - the nacelles were too long, the engineering section was impossibly long, the whole thing too squat. That the designers at ILM were so direct in expressing their preference for it and its advantages as a shooting model in public didn't help matters at all, and when one of them said in a Cinefantastique interview the thing about the existing Enterprise that the Abrams folks would probably never say - "I hate that ship" - matters went from bad to worse. Really, all this boiled down to then - or now - was "it's really different from what I expect."
YARN
Fleet Captain
Very well, but look at the very pics you've posted in this thread. The droopiness effect can be seen in more than one angle even in your less aggressively curved design. Quite simply, it's there and it's a little odd.
NOTE: have you noticed how the nacelles seem "off" (in terms of angle - dipping downward at the rear) in some physical model versions of the ship? Is this due to the extreme rise up front that you noted?
The argument that designs are just different (that is, people simply didn't like it, because it violated "expectations" of the norm) kind of defeats the purpose of attempting to improve design, critique design, or evaluatively compare designs. I cannot, for example, really praise your design as being much improved unless we have an image/standard against which we make that judgment.
With regard to the Excelsior, it is IMO, a lesser design than the TMP ship. The nostalgia for the design, is probably driven by just that (i.e., nostalgia) compounded by the fact that we never really saw it on screen that much and never as the hero ship (the grass is always greener...). I think the Enterprise B was an improvement of the design, but no, it's not worthy of the iconic status that the TOS and TMP ships achieved.
To each his own. I personally loved the Excelsior from it's first appearance. It's sleek and looks fast standing still. I can't stand the travesty that is the "glued on bits" look of Ent-b.
YARN
Fleet Captain
I wasn't suggesting you hadn't, but rather that the evidence of your own (formidable) handiwork presents the illusion of a droop from more than one angle.
You can see them at the link below - they're quite large and they were done during the last days of current work on the model so the lighting and textures are not complete:
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/album.php?albumid=187
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/album.php?albumid=187
ST-One
Vice Admiral
Seems I was wrong; no one cares...
I'm still watching...
David cgc, incoming PM.
I tried to reply, but the system yelled at me. Suffice it to say, thanks, and watch this space.
I'm still watching...
David cgc, incoming PM.
I tried to reply, but the system yelled at me. Suffice it to say, thanks, and watch this space.
Missed this - I guess I should clear out my PM box; all those death threats mount up fast.
Thanks.
David cgc, incoming PM.
I tried to reply, but the system yelled at me. Suffice it to say, thanks, and watch this space.
Missed this - I guess I should clear out my PM box; all those death threats mount up fast.
Yeah, sorry about that.
The Excelsior was really an adversary ship, so they likely made it look more squat, wide and powerful from the front end to emphasize that. The Enterprise is a "tall ship", Excelsior is the Merrimac/C.S.S Virginia. With that big black grill on the engineering section it kind of reminds me of ED-209. From the side its a different story, long and elegant lines.
Anyway, I like the Challenger, nice take on the Refit styling.
Anyway, I like the Challenger, nice take on the Refit styling.
