Erewhon Class Reconstruction

[Reverend]

Ok, revisiting the Deneva means I really should revisit the design that inspired it. So, what I intend to do is extrapolate a design for the Erewhon that matches the partial interior and exterior sets as accurately as possible. I made a pass at this a few years back but the result was very rough, so I'm starting from scratch.

Based on a bunch of screen grabs and a degree of guestimation, this is what I have so far.

Now, what I would like from you cherry folks is a little help finding the original concept sketches (from the 'Making of DS9'book IIRC) and if anyone has the time or inclination. I have google-imaged it to death and to no avail, so help would be appreciated.
Also if someone has a copy of "Timescape" on DVD (I think that's the title) some screen grabs of the interior of the Runabout's aft section would be a big help, as from what I understand, that set was re-jigged to make the interior of the Santa Maria. Getting an idea what the set originally looked like should help to extrapolate which portions of the set were used where and incidentally which part wall of the runabout do I have to graft to the outside of the Erewhon.

 

[Reverend]

Ok, this is what I've roughed out so far.
I'm intentionally taking an unusual direction by sticking the bridge towards the aft part of the ship. The idea being that the engine room, computer core and all the operational parts of the ship are isolated in the rear section leaving the passengers and cargo separate in the front and rear sections.

 

[Harry]

http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Federation/CivilianShip/Erewhon.htm

http://ds9.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=34

There you go

 

[Reverend]

Cheers harry. I had already been show these by the guys at Flare, but still, appreciated.

 

[Reverend]

Redesigned nose and bridge.

 

[Praetor]

I'm liking it so far...

 

[regemet]

I like this design and would love to see more development of it.

 

[The Axeman]

You're on your own with this one Rev, it looks like someone stepped on something! Very flat, very wide, all the weight at one end yet all the legs at the other. Why? Even in the original screenshots and design I can see no reason for the legs to be placed so far out from the body, it just weakens the whole design. I think it was just a set, and trying to make a ship of it is not working well.

 

[Herbert1]

The design seems unbalanced. It looks like it needs a third set of landing gear.

The nacelles look anemic and should be beefier.

I would prefer some artistic license so that this design would look more like the drawings in The Making of Deep Space Nine.

 

[Reverend]

Don't worry Kenny, I wasn't going to ask you for a 3D assist. ;-)

I know it looks like a mutated frog that's been stepped on, but there isn't much I can do about that. Besides, I wasn't going for pretty anyway, I just wanted to see if a design could be extrapolated from that partial set, without too much artistic licence.
As for the legs all being at one end, I do plan on adding some ventral landing skids at the aft end, but it'll have to wait until I've done the ventral view before I can figure out exactly how that'd wok.
Mind you I agree, I'm not 100% sure why those landing legs are so widely spaced either, I'd prefer it if they could at least retract into the main hull, but that's not possible given the design and regardless, it'd take up too much internal volume that way. I did however toy with the idea that they are intended to be stabilisers for a big construction crane that can be mounted on the dorsal hull, that is assuming these things are meant to start off a new colony from scratch, they should have some inbuilt features meant to be used in assembling and supporting the first structures.
Like I said though, it ain't pretty.
Anyway, I've added a little more detail...

...threw together a rough set of deck plans.

and here's to give a better sense of scale.

 

[Reverend]

Herbert said:
The design seems unbalanced. It looks like it needs a third set of landing gear.

The nacelles look anemic and should be beefier.

I would prefer some artistic license so that this design would look more like the drawings in The Making of Deep Space Nine.

I presume you mean anaemic. If so then that's kind of the idea; this thing a basically a flying coach. It could probably manage about Warp 5 or 6, with an intended range of about a Sector, maybe two, so it's not really meant to break any speed records.
As for taking "artistic license" to make it look more like the sketches, again that's not the point of the exercise as I explained above. Also, yes you're right it is unbalanced and again that's partly a conscious choice and partly a results of the constraints put on it by the source material.
If you look at the screen caps you can see that the central part of the ship is only tall enough to accommodate a single deck. However, if you look out the windows of Sisko's cabin, you can see the treetops, so at some point there has to be an upper deck. I think it'd look worse if that stricture was moved up front, so keeping it towards the back is the best option. Plus, whenever anyone enters or leaves the ship they go down/come out of the hallway to the left of the outerhatch, which means that's where the upper deck is.

 

[Reverend]

I'm toying with the idea of removing the front set of lading support arms. What do you think? Better, or worse?

In a weird way I think it looks more balanced than before.

 

[USS Mariner]

I think the main body's "roof" can be extended about a foot or so higher than what you have, according to the screencaps.

Looks like a good step in the right direction.

 

[Herbert1]

Reverend,

Will this design of the Erewhon class be included on Bernd Schneider's Advanced Starship Design Bureau web site?

 

[Reverend]

I think the main body's "roof" can be extended about a foot or so higher than what you have, according to the screencaps.

It's all rather subjective and it's impossible to be completely accurate without the set blueprints. As it is though increasing the height would cause more complications than I care to deal with, so it's close enough as it is.

Reverend,

Will this design of the Erewhon class be included on Bernd Schneider's Advanced Starship Design Bureau web site?

You'll have to ask Bernd.

 

[Ziz]

Interesting name...Erehwon class...

Captain John Nonnel, first officer Paul Yentraccm, Dr. Ognir Rrats and Engineer George Nosirrah.

Now you just gotta re-paint the ship yellow.











Waiting to see who gets it.

 

[chardman]

Hey Ziz,

It's equipped with those newfangled Yrrebwarts Fields. Right?

 

[Reverend]

Only to stop the Blue Meanies from clinging on.