Donny's Refit Enterprise Interiors (Version 2.0)

[Donny]

Would love to see your interpretation of a room with windows from the inside. Do you imagine them to be public spaces as even Kirk's quarters didn't have windows?

I'd love to! I haven't decided what rooms exactly would be there on the edge of the saucer rim, but I'd imagine a mixture of both public and private spaces. Offices, briefing rooms, lounges, crew's mess, perhaps a chapel/theater? But definitely not quarters of any kind. If Kirk's didn't have any windows, why would officers or crew of lesser rank have windows in their cabins? Maybe VIP quarters though?

As for the engineering hull, those windows are a little harder to decide, since so much of the space in the engineering hull is taken up by cargo/shuttle/engineering facilities and there honestly isn't much room for lounges, but once I get to actually modeling those larger interior spaces I'll be able to see how much room there is to work with for lounges or briefing rooms and the like.

 

[Spaceship Jo]

As for the engineering hull, those windows are a little harder to decide, since so much of the space in the engineering hull is taken up by cargo/shuttle/engineering facilities and there honestly isn't much room for lounges, but once I get to actually modeling those larger interior spaces I'll be able to see how much room there is to work with for lounges or briefing rooms and the like.

Not that it's particularly relevant, but in DSC, all the windows in the engineering hull of Discovery are seemingly hallways, as opposed to the saucer(s) which seem to be mainly individual rooms: mess hall, crew quarters, offices / labs, etc. I say not particularly relevant, but I do like the concept. Since windows on a starship are more or less for crew sanity, this division makes sense to me. Plus, all the important stuff in the engineering hull is toward the center (side to side), you wouldn't want to or couldn't have hallways between all those important bits.

 

[Viper]

Hey @Donny, have you figured out how you are going to handle the docking port on engineering? Or are you going to just have it there for visual purposes and never use it?

 

[Mytran]

I'd love to! I haven't decided what rooms exactly would be there on the edge of the saucer rim, but I'd imagine a mixture of both public and private spaces. Offices, briefing rooms, lounges, crew's mess, perhaps a chapel/theater? But definitely not quarters of any kind. If Kirk's didn't have any windows, why would officers or crew of lesser rank have windows in their cabins? Maybe VIP quarters though?

Given the positioning on the rim of the saucer and their weird height in relation to the purported decks (either very high up or very low down) I think those "windows" have more in common with sensor beam placements than viewing ports, especially when we see that actual, decent sized viewports are available in facilities like the Rec Deck or Officer's Lounge.
Having 6 repeating arrays of sensors positioned on the rim of the saucer would also mirror the sensor array on the Enterprise-D and act as a nice technological precursor to it.

However, while to me this is the most "realistic" answer, obviously it is not a very visually interesting solution!

 

[Viper]

I have a mess hall in my head that is kind of multi level. Should make the windows on the saucer work. Of course, will need to figure out the other ones

 

[Donny]

Hey @Donny, have you figured out how you are going to handle the docking port on engineering? Or are you going to just have it there for visual purposes and never use it?

Haven't decided yet. That docking port presents all sorts of problems.

Given the positioning on the rim of the saucer and their weird height in relation to the purported decks (either very high up or very low down) I think those "windows" have more in common with sensor beam placements than viewing ports, especially when we see that actual, decent sized viewports are available in facilities like the Rec Deck or Officer's Lounge.
Having 6 repeating arrays of sensors positioned on the rim of the saucer would also mirror the sensor array on the Enterprise-D and act as a nice technological precursor to it.

However, while to me this is the most "realistic" answer, obviously it is not a very visually interesting solution!

Eh, I'll be doing my whole "make it feel like the exterior and interior match, even if they don't exactly" solution for that. I like the idea that those are actual windows, not sensor placements. Not that your proposed solution is bad!

Anyway, I created my decal sheet tonight and started laying out decals on the primary hull (note this image is 1024x1024, but my actual decal sheet is 4096x4096):


I don't see not being able to place the rest of the decals tomorrow.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

OH that is very nice

 

[JonnyQuest037]

That docking port presents all sorts of problems.

Like what? I'm only vaguely aware of the issues it presents.

 

[Donny]

Like what? I'm only vaguely aware of the issues it presents.

I’ll have to whip up some diagrams to show the problems. Basically, the fact that the port is on a curve well above the “equator” of the secondary hull means that it reduces the depth of the port in places, especially if the port is modeled to be parallel to the decks inside. Since the travel pod’s docking ring is so short, a docking port with reduced depth wouldn’t have enough believable room to fit the door receptacles. If you instead model the port perpendicular to the curve which may allow the proper docking port depth, it then means the travel pod would have to pitch up to match the perpendicular of the curve first before docking, and would therefore would not dock parallel to the deck as we see in TMP. I’m not sure if this makes sense, but that’s the jist of it.

The large exterior docking port set they built and used in the travel pod sequence of TMP basically ignored the curve of the secondary hull (or greatly reduced the curve) when building that set to solve the problem. Or, you could say that the pod was pitched up in the film, but the camera was adjusted to compensate so that it appeared parallel with the decks but were in fact perpendicular to the curve (despite the fact that the dry dock structure outside the travel pod windows still appears parallel). Artificial gravity would account for why Kirk and Scott aren’t leaning when they dock. Ha. I guess pitching the travel pod up would be the most logical solution. Unless of course I’m missing something here.

Forgive me. Even though I work in crafting geometry almost every day, my skills at expressing geometric ideas with the proper terminology is lacking. So sorry if I didn’t use the proper terms to explain this.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I don't see not being able to place the rest of the decals tomorrow.

These images makes me want to watch the movies again.

 

[David cgc]

Anyway, I created my decal sheet tonight and started laying out decals on the primary hull (note this image is 1024x1024, but my actual decal sheet is 4096x4096):


I don't see not being able to place the rest of the decals tomorrow.

I can't see your alpha channel, and I can't quite make it out on the model, but I checked in the last week or so for another project I was working on, and was surprised to noice that the gap between the letters and outlines on the TMP ship are white, and not transparent (I looked closer after noticing that's how it was on the Kelvin in ST09, which was more apparent because of the bronze hull color). It's subtle, and I'm not sure if its worth it aesthetically or realistically. Personally, I still go back and forth on whether you should be able to "see" the hull paneling in the specularity of the decals, as if the hull were anodized or something, or the markings should have their own reflective characteristics, like it was paint.

Ha. I guess pitching the travel pod up would be the most logical solution. Unless of course I’m missing something here.

I've seen it done, like in this image by Robert Wilde, and I think it looks really silly. I'd just interpenetrate the travel pod a little on the outside, and nudge the airlock down to the deck level on the inside.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Not to mention the shift in relative alignments in gravity between the pod and main deck. People are likely to fall right on their face walking through the threshold!

 

[Donny]

Finished up placing the decals tonight and finally got around to texturing the impulse grille. Just gotta work on completing and programming the self illumination system and do some final polish on the material.

 

[Maurice]

Finished up placing the decals tonight and finally got around to texturing the impulse grille. Just gotta work on completing and programming the self illumination system and do some final polish on the material.

And light up the rec deck.

 

[Donny]

And light up the rec deck.

It’s on my list.

 

[blssdwlf]

Or, you could say that the pod was pitched up in the film, but the camera was adjusted to compensate so that it appeared parallel with the decks but were in fact perpendicular to the curve (despite the fact that the dry dock structure outside the travel pod windows still appears parallel). Artificial gravity would account for why Kirk and Scott aren’t leaning when they dock. Ha. I guess pitching the travel pod up would be the most logical solution. Unless of course I’m missing something here.

I'm wondering if that's why the port is above the deck Kirk and Scotty come in on? Andrew Probert said there is a connecting ramp to the deck so maybe he accounted for the angle of the hull connection. Anyways, lovely texturing and lighting @Donny

 

[Tallguy]

Finished up placing the decals tonight and finally got around to texturing the impulse grille. Just gotta work on completing and programming the self illumination system and do some final polish on the material.

Wow, Donny. It's ALIVE!

And light up the rec deck.

It's quiet time.

I can't see your alpha channel, and I can't quite make it out on the model, but I checked in the last week or so for another project I was working on, and was surprised to noice that the gap between the letters and outlines on the TMP ship are white, and not transparent

Are you kidding me? Arrrgh! So much learning!

 

[STEPhon IT]

Finished up placing the decals tonight and finally got around to texturing the impulse grille. Just gotta work on completing and programming the self illumination system and do some final polish on the material.

Donny, do you know what deck or area those large 6 windows are on the lower levels? It's under the decal of the UFP. By the end of TVH I think 2 of those windows were lit up before the Enterprise went into warp.

 

[Donny]

Donny, do you know what deck or area those large 6 windows are on the lower levels? It's under the decal of the UFP. By the end of TVH I think 2 of those windows were lit up before the Enterprise went into warp.

Of course! That's the botanical garden. Not only is it called out as such on the Official Blueprints, but you can also see that the model builders included trees/plants inside that area on the filming model:



I read recently that one of the model builders was dismayed that we never got to see this maquette up close in the films, and even in the dramatic flyby of the Enterprise at the end of TMP/beginning of TWOK, the angle we are presented with only shows blue light spilling out of these windows. This was intended to be a "holographic sky" on the ceiling of the botanical section.


Lora Johnson's blueprints in MSGTTE fleshes out this area quite well, and hobbyists try to include small maquettes of this area in the 1/350th scale models


I won't be fleshing this area out just yet. For now I'm just going to put blue emissives in this window, but like the VIP Lounge and Rec Deck, when I build those fully-detailed interior sets I'll also be producing less detailed version to retrofit into my exterior model.

 

[Donny]

Okay, this is completely for funsies. I wanted to see how my model looked in a well-lit area so I dropped it into my corridor at filming model scale (8 feet), and the results were pretty cool. Here's The Enterprise inside The Enterprise: