Wow! That last shot really sells it! Beautiful work!
CJ1701's Current Project: U.S.S Pike
- Thread starter Cjohnson1701
- Start date
Hey Guys, It's been awhile. No, this ain't dead not by a LONG SHOT.
Anyhoo, I just did a redesign and re-model of the nacelles. I wanted to bring them closer to the "TMP" era refit then what I had earlier, so without further ado...
Here they are.
What do you think?
Anyhoo, I just did a redesign and re-model of the nacelles. I wanted to bring them closer to the "TMP" era refit then what I had earlier, so without further ado...
Here they are.
What do you think?
Oooohhh yeah! So glad this is still going on. It continues to look amazing. I love how you seem to have amalgamated various Refit Connie, Oberth, Enterprise-B, Akira and NuTrek design sensibilities into one design without making it look like a jumbled mess. Reminds me of some of the beefier designs that came out of Starstation Aurora and Mastercom Data Center back in the day. Well done! 
Welcome back!
Surelly she is much more interesting than the Vengeance.
I just think you can improve the boxy impulse engines a bit. It looks to much big and boxed when compared to other pieces of the ship. Just my two cents.
Thank you Starship, that is literally one of the best comments a person can give to an artist like me, it means I'm at the level of those at ILM. Which I feel I'm not. (I'm not, yet) But Thank you nonetheless.
The main purpose of the saucer impulse engines is double as structural support, and propulsion.
Oooohhh yeah! So glad this is still going on. It continues to look amazing. I love how you seem to have amalgamated various Refit Connie, Oberth, Enterprise-B, Akira and NuTrek design sensibilities into one design without making it look like a jumbled mess. Reminds me of some of the beefier designs that came out of Starstation Aurora and Mastercom Data Center back in the day. Well done!
Thank you! Do tell about Starstation Aurora, and Mastercom Data Center.
.
Oh, I guess it's reminiscent to me of ships like the Starstalker and the Adamant, which were probably a little after MDC's time (my memory is fuzzy on their pedigree), but still had that feel of believable, large high-powered ships that didn't look like a fanboi's wet dream.
I really like how she looks, she reminds me a lot of a much beefier brawnier Grissom in general structure, though she's distinct from her in every component detail.
Still not dead yet, I got better.
More updates:
Detailing, mostly detailing
still more work to do but it's progress
...I'm going to bed now. So tired.
More updates:
Detailing, mostly detailing
still more work to do but it's progress
...I'm going to bed now. So tired.
I love so much about this ship. From the nacelles, to how it connects to engineering section, the way it connects to the saucer section. I can't wait till you are done with her.
My God this thing is bloody awesome!
So apparently I work in sprints...
More shots!
More shots!
So I've doing some thinking. Because "Starfleet" built the USS Vengeance, and despite the fact it's an affront to everything starfleet is supposed to be about. I can't help but think what ramifications that would have for later generations of star ship design.
Example: The aforementioned ship CAN catch up to another ship in warp, destroy a small planet several times over with it's photon torpedo slingshot thingy..ugh *shudders*. Still the ship has enough advancements to outclass an early 24th century prime-line star ship.
So as an artist, I think what does this mean for the ship design in the late 23rd to the 24th century?
Well, lets look at the starship evolution here:
The enterprise is majestic, light, and dare I say it a little fluffy. (note that Im considering ALL the factors here)
The Refit Enterprise, looks sleeker, more utilitarian, but still keeps the majestic feeling. Why? Klingon Cold War, that's why.
The Excelsior, looks like a Japanese car of its time period. Still sleek, but more muscular.
I'm not talking about the C. Nope. Nuh uh. Not Happening.
Now onto the the "D". Due to starfleet being a bit more "relaxed", we get the galaxy class. A ship with Character, but not military looking at all. She's a rubber duckie in space. Despite that opinion, I do like the design of the Ent-D. She was my first. Still, she looked as threatening as a rubber duck.
That all changes when the Borg came and pimp-slapped the federation at Wolf 359, then the dominion came in and caused all sorts of trouble. Like WW2 on a interstellar level trouble.
What happens when we get in trouble like that? We become a "nation" of war. And that affected design. Look at the Sovereign, Voyager, Akira, Defiant. Sleek, Solid, looks dangerous, vertically smaller target. They LOOK like ships for war, no argument there.
But despite the fact those two threats took a bite out of the federation. Neither of those guys accomplished what Nero did. Blew up(Read as; sucked into a cosmic toilet bowl generated by red mac-guffin.) an entire planet that was the homeworld to one of the founding members of the UFP!
To use an example from the real world here. 9/11 was(is?) a tragedy, but it happened over a decade ago. The event is still fresh for a bunch of people though, and that was only two buildings, and the pentagon from what I remember.
Imagine half of us moved to Mars, then some alien prick comes along and blows up Earth. I would think that would stick with us for at least over a century.
So back to the JJ-Verse. The ramifications of Vulcan getting flushed down the proverbial cosmic toilet bowl, would completely change starfleet well longer than a century. Hell I think Into Darkness didn't go far enough into that topic. So where am I going with this?
Well to put it bluntly, any peace era federation starship: Ambassador, Galaxy, Nebula, I'm looking at you. Would not exist. At all. Period. We would jump straight from Excelsior, to Sovereign in a flash. Starfleet would be stuck with the Nicolas Meyer mindset from post Into Darkness, and no speech about being explorers, and nice guys would change that. Because in the end, Marcus was right. He just went about everything the completely wrong way. Well you know what they say about good intentions right?
Anyhoo, I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Also, tl;dr? Adm Marcus was right, Starfleet will be militarized well into the 24th century. No more rubber duckie's of a starship.
Example: The aforementioned ship CAN catch up to another ship in warp, destroy a small planet several times over with it's photon torpedo slingshot thingy..ugh *shudders*. Still the ship has enough advancements to outclass an early 24th century prime-line star ship.
So as an artist, I think what does this mean for the ship design in the late 23rd to the 24th century?
Well, lets look at the starship evolution here:
The enterprise is majestic, light, and dare I say it a little fluffy. (note that Im considering ALL the factors here)
The Refit Enterprise, looks sleeker, more utilitarian, but still keeps the majestic feeling. Why? Klingon Cold War, that's why.
The Excelsior, looks like a Japanese car of its time period. Still sleek, but more muscular.
I'm not talking about the C. Nope. Nuh uh. Not Happening.
Now onto the the "D". Due to starfleet being a bit more "relaxed", we get the galaxy class. A ship with Character, but not military looking at all. She's a rubber duckie in space. Despite that opinion, I do like the design of the Ent-D. She was my first. Still, she looked as threatening as a rubber duck.
That all changes when the Borg came and pimp-slapped the federation at Wolf 359, then the dominion came in and caused all sorts of trouble. Like WW2 on a interstellar level trouble.
What happens when we get in trouble like that? We become a "nation" of war. And that affected design. Look at the Sovereign, Voyager, Akira, Defiant. Sleek, Solid, looks dangerous, vertically smaller target. They LOOK like ships for war, no argument there.
But despite the fact those two threats took a bite out of the federation. Neither of those guys accomplished what Nero did. Blew up(Read as; sucked into a cosmic toilet bowl generated by red mac-guffin.) an entire planet that was the homeworld to one of the founding members of the UFP!
To use an example from the real world here. 9/11 was(is?) a tragedy, but it happened over a decade ago. The event is still fresh for a bunch of people though, and that was only two buildings, and the pentagon from what I remember.
Imagine half of us moved to Mars, then some alien prick comes along and blows up Earth. I would think that would stick with us for at least over a century.
So back to the JJ-Verse. The ramifications of Vulcan getting flushed down the proverbial cosmic toilet bowl, would completely change starfleet well longer than a century. Hell I think Into Darkness didn't go far enough into that topic. So where am I going with this?
Well to put it bluntly, any peace era federation starship: Ambassador, Galaxy, Nebula, I'm looking at you. Would not exist. At all. Period. We would jump straight from Excelsior, to Sovereign in a flash. Starfleet would be stuck with the Nicolas Meyer mindset from post Into Darkness, and no speech about being explorers, and nice guys would change that. Because in the end, Marcus was right. He just went about everything the completely wrong way. Well you know what they say about good intentions right?
Anyhoo, I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Also, tl;dr? Adm Marcus was right, Starfleet will be militarized well into the 24th century. No more rubber duckie's of a starship.
Alright I did this work yesterday but I did, some changes. Looking for feedback to improve her in the modeling section before I go into texturing.
Subtle change here is that I thickened the buzzard collector cover. It felt to flimsy to me.
A Close Up of the deflector dish.
Changed some stuff in the back specifically the pattern on the bottom, next will be the upper shuttle bay area.
This is just a classic TMP reveal front view.
So...yeah. That's all I got for now. Seriously, to any of the veteran starship modelers, or those of you have really good taste, which is pretty much all of you that's why I like posting here. Please critique via PM or on the thread.
Cheers, CJ.
Subtle change here is that I thickened the buzzard collector cover. It felt to flimsy to me.
A Close Up of the deflector dish.
Changed some stuff in the back specifically the pattern on the bottom, next will be the upper shuttle bay area.
This is just a classic TMP reveal front view.
So...yeah. That's all I got for now. Seriously, to any of the veteran starship modelers, or those of you have really good taste, which is pretty much all of you that's why I like posting here. Please critique via PM or on the thread.
Cheers, CJ.
