"Crossbow-class" - a ship, for a change!

[Kaiser]

Still not complete, but closer - there is probably about 5% left to the modeling, and I keep finding little things to fix or tweak, then I need to create the textures; everything here is a placeholder, although the ship ID is unique. I'd had a request for ortho views, so here we are:

Very awesome Design i wonder if it will past the Vance/Jynz schematic test though..

 

[Ptrope]

Very nice. Not sure I get the color scheme, though.

It's not a color scheme - I just happened to have a set of strong colored lights on it, from my more ... dramatic ... renders; I looked at these orthos once I had them composited and thought, "Ya know, someone is going to wonder why the ship has a green saucer ... " . The ship is actually the standard colors.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

I kinda figured that from the underside of the primary hull. Just wondering about the 3rd season sickbay-esque colored lighting...

 

[Ptrope]

Well, you know, these are the colours out of space ...

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

An allusion to H.P. Lovecraft, perhaps? Or Edgar Rice Burroughs?

 

[Redfern]

Lovecraft...

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Both authors used that phrase, in fact. One in "The Colour Out of Space" and the other in one of his John Carter novels.

 

[Ptrope]

The reference I was making was to Lovecraft; I'm not sure that the actual phrase itself is present in any of Burroughs' books (Wikipedia).

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

It's been a while but I seem to recall a phrase similar to that in one of the John Carter on Mars books. I'm probably mistaken. At 49, it's easy to confuse books read some 35 years ago.

 

[Ptrope]

He does refer to the colors of the jewels as being something unearthly and indescribable, but I don't believe he used the exact phrasing of "color out of space."

 

[Satyrquaze]

For what it's worth, I like it!

 

[The Axeman]

It's a nice model, no doubt about it. I'm no huge fan of the TOS era stuff to be honest, but I like the compactness of this one. It looks powerful and agile.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

He does refer to the colors of the jewels as being something unearthly and indescribable, but I don't believe he used the exact phrasing of "color out of space."

*nods* That's cool. I just hope that the John Carter of Mars movie I've been reading about is better than the one I saw on the SyFy channel a few months ago.

Oh, and sorry for derailing the thread. Your design is probably the most original I've seen in a LONG time.

 

[Ptrope]

Thanks, and no problem . As for the JCoM movie, I'm the first to say I've been less-than-enthusiastic about the idea for years, because I just didn't feel that Hollywood really could do it justice, but when Andrew Stanton took interest in it, so did I - the folks at Pixar have a well-deserved reputation for putting the story first, and then backing it up with uncompromising quality in the visuals; that was enough to cause me to hope, for once. I'm looking forward to it, at least openly if not eagerly.

Glad the Crossbow-class has been generally well-received - if anything, I'm surprised, because to me, it's not anything ground-breaking in the least. But it's been a fun exercise, a break from the stuff I usually tend to do and a chance to learn a little more about my software as well as the challenges of a TOS-inspired starship, which has turned out to be much more nuanced and challenging than it first appears .

I don't have a render, yet, but the latest developments are centered around the hangar - I haven't created a detailed interior, but there is an interior space, now, and I've completely modeled the doors, so they now consist of 6 overlapping segments that I may rig so that they actually can be opened and closed. I've also added some 'louver" details to the prongs on the front of the secondary hull, and added more running lights to the tail and nacelles. There's still internal details to be added to the nacelles, and then maybe ... maybe ... rudimentary hangar structures to be added. The project has already lasted at least a week longer than I had originally anticipated (I hadn't planned any of this!). We'll just have to see where it goes! And when it's done, it'll be a free model for Poser

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Looking forward to it!

 

[Nero's Shadow]

First off, I don't model a lot of starships - at least not their exteriors. I've done a couple, about 5 years ago, but generally, it doesn't come up much in my workload.

A couple nights ago, though, I just had a thought I couldn't get out of my head. I went first for the sketchbook, did a few thumbnails, then I fired up Lightwave and started in. It was just an idea of a TOS-style starship, with many of the familiar design elements, but with a 'wing' connecting the nacelles together, and mounted to the dorsal neck. It pulled all the elements in tighter to one another, and I kind of liked the idea of the secondary hull floating out there with only one connection (kind of like Kelvin in AbramsTrek, but this one wouldn't have bricks in the basement ... )



I like this ship so much I'm kitbashing one up right now . Once it's finished I'll post some pics of it.? One question does the starfleet reg start with NCC 2500 as I will name mine the USS Crossbow ?

I'm still playing with ideas, blocking it out, and then trying various renders in Poser, which has been a big headache (on top of the actual big headache I already had!); Poser Pro 2010 insists on smoothing things I don't want smoothed, even when I've split the vertices, and in order to keep sharp edges I want, I end up with edges where I don't want them, simply because of the angles. Looks like I need to go back to Poser 6 just to get good renders of my models! Or just stick to Lightwave, huh?

While I was at it, I added a 'spine' down the back of the dorsal and across the top of the secondary hull; I like what it does for the profile (although a straight-on profile of this ship isn't very informative, with all the elements pretty much overlappping - it's
not elegant like Enterprise, at least from the side, but I think it does have many very good angles.

BTW, at this point, the textures are all placeholders, borrowed from other models - I wanted to render something a little more than big solid surfaces.

I'm still working on the the details and mapping; I've already rebuilt the hangar doors, added the 'forks' at the front of the secondary hull, lengthened the 'collar' behind the deflector somewhat, started adding the external lights; I still need to build the various details that belong on the nacelles and then the texturing is probably going to take the longest, actually. BTW, that 'pillbox' over the hangar is already modeled with a rudimentary interior, just so I could light it independently and possibly throw a person in there looking out .

Nothing groundbreaking about it; I'm not trying to approach the level of finesse and detail that deg3D, Vektor and others here do so (seemingly) effortlessly, or invent a new paradigm for TOS designs - I just had an itch that needed to be scratched .

I like this ship so much I've started to do a kitbash of it. I'll post some pics on here once she's finished.? Just one question does the ship reg start with NCC 2500 ? I will call mine the USS Crossbow

 

[Ptrope]

Glad you like it; I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with . In the spirit of perhaps seeing the 'original' Crossbow, here's the latest pic, after I've done some mapping and placed a few more textures - they're still very much a work in progress (I'm not especially happy with these and intend to change them to something much less pronounced).

As you can see, I've broken with another tradition, that of placing the ship's ID numbers on the underside of the saucer; I figured since I had that big whoppin' billboard on the leading edge of the nacelle 'wing,' that made a bit more sense - surely if you put the markings there, it's so they can be seen and read, and to me, that's a heck of a lot easier this way. Another tradition I've decided to break, and again, I think it's perfectly logical and practical, is this ship will have no turbolift on the bridge (and thus no bulge outside); instead, it will have a gangway - stairs - like any number of well-seasoned naval vessels (at the very least, I'll bet real money you could evacuate the bridge a heck of a lot faster and more smoothly this way than everyone jumping into the lift ).

 

[Nero's Shadow]

Here's my 1st pics of my kitbashed crossbow class. I've used the AMT kit that had the three ships Klingon enterprise and romulan BP. I will be taken some pics as I go along I've done some alterations at the stern of the ship as I had to fill two gaping holes in. I've also modified the bridge section taken out the turbolift. I'll post more when I get some free trek time.

 

[Ptrope]

Looks like a great start! It's a little hard to tell all the details, but it certainly strikes the right chord. Be sure to refer to the ortho views.

A couple things I notice right offhand:

1. the pylon 'wing' is a bit low; it should be moved upward about the distance of its own thickness.

2. you might consider the nacelles to rotated pretty much 90°, so that the inset areas face directly upwards, and then the inner intercooler (or whatever one calls that big arrangement that they turned into fins on the JJPrise) of each ends up almost exactly where the outer one is normally located. There is only one of these on each nacelle, as opposed to the 2 each on Enterprise. There is also only one of those 'radiators' just fore of the rear nozzle, located inboard at about 4 o'clock on the port nacelle, looking forward, and 8 o'clock on the starboard nacelle.

3. the 3 boxes slung under the nacelle just aft of the domes are rotated outward about 30°.

4. the hardest part is that the 'neck' is actually located much farther aft; its trailing edge is almost exactly at the center point of the engineering hull. And don't forget that there is an additional 'spine' that runs down the trailing edge and then all the way to the 'pillbox' over the hanger doors.

Looking forward to the progress; I've never had anyone want to make a model of one of my designs .

 

[erifah]

... the pylon 'wing' is a bit low; it should be moved upward about the distance of its own thickness...

Personally, I like it slung low. I'd actually embed the "wing" right into the top of the engineering hull!

Hate to break it to you, buddy, but when you've created what may be a brilliant new "iconic" design, people are going to run with it with variations... it may "go viral" and have "bloody A, B, C, and D" versions!