I'm pretty sure they weren't there in the pilots. Can't swear to it, though. In any case, I think it's probably the same reason as the shapes on the underside of the secondary hull, some technical looking markings to make the surface look more interesting without greebling the hell out of the poor girl.
I'm really liking the way this is going... keep it up! (Now if only the movie ship looks this good...)
What about adding some ST:TMP style subtle concentric grooves or rings to the upper and lower sensor domes, while leaving them illuminated as in the original? This was done to good effect on the lower sensor dome of the NX-E, as can be best seen in the August 2004 entry of the 'Ships Of The Line' calander,which gives us a good idea of what the this kind of detail would look like 'retrofitted' to the original, and it's just the kind of detail that could have been there all along and we just never saw it clearly? Anyway, I like your impulse deck best, you really aced that area!
Love it, but the colors on the nacelles are a bit too 'pure' for my tastes and look more like LEDs than the result of some reaction inside. I'd love to see a halfway point between what you have and the multicolored domes of TOS, with a lighter, whiter, blue for the rest. Can't wait to see the final renders.
I'm will you April, just some interesting eye-candy detail. Thanks Praetor. For my tastes, E is lookin' a tad bloated in the trailer, but I'm sure I'll still love her (just not as much as my own .5 version). Thanks TIN_MAN. I added my own brand of subtle detail to the sensors already. Thanks Venardhi. I totally hear ya on the bussard(s) and nacelle(s) colors. They are a bit garish right now and I intend to re-work them a bit. The bussard(s) frosted glass effect is the longest to render tests on, so I got sick of running test after test and put it aside, with a mental note to circle back to them. Well ncc-1017-e, she is for the most part done being painted, with the exception of the aforementioned nacelle reworking(s), and some other odd tid-bits here-and-there that need tending. But she has been on hold in dry-dock the past few days for this: Now, any Trekker worth their salt (vampire) knows what I am up to with building this F-104 model, esp. given the last peek at E.5's sky render (peek, as E was not yet fully painted in that last shot, the 2ndary hull for one is completely bare of paint). So Capt. John Christopher (USAF Serial Number: 4857932) and his F-104c will have to hold ya for now eh. Thanks again guys, glad you like 'er. deg It's only a model. - Patsy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
^ I like the front nacelle domes but they reminded me of heating elements on a electric cook top stove! They are cool just the same!
Now that Capt. Christopher's F-104C is done (pics on my website if interested) I'm back workin' on E.5 as we speak dude. Trying to re-work the bussards to diminish the heating element look (that bugged me also), and tweaking out a few other last things. Should have some new stuff soon. deg
Thanks dude. Go check out Capt. Christopher's 104 on my site in the meantime, it's pretty friggin' cool, if I do say so myself. deg
Hey BTW I would love to see your take on the bridge of this ship of yours! Would you leave the turbolift in its original position, or would you move it behind the captains chair! If it was up to me I would move it behind! I work in television and really the only reason to have the lift where it was in TOS was for photograghic purposes! The bridge set was for the most part shot from just one side so the lift needed to be where it was for camera angles. In the real world we all could say it would be behind the captain, but this is your baby. So there ya go! It all looks great and I can not wait to see more! Good luck and let the creative juices flow!
Ah yes, the infamous 36ยบ turbo-lift interior/exterior inconsistency. Well, I'm not going to build the bridge (yet anyway), but if I do, I may stick with canon, as how can you change the bridge of the Enterprise and have it still be "the bridge" eh? Someone (on another forum I believe) asked if I was going to offset the exterior turbo-lift to match the interior set and I said, na, that wouldn't be the Enterprise then. Same thing, but reversed. And on-top of that, my aim with my TOS.5 E was not to change her profile at all, just industrial detail refit her to be more realistic, and moving the exterior turbo-lift would be changing her profile, so that's out eh. deg