Federation X-Technology Heavy Cruiser

[Icy_Penguigo]

Cary L. Brown said:
Upon further reflection... I've got a suggestion. Take it or leave it, obviously.

As I understand these ships, the "drones" are essentially small unmanned fighters, not missiles per-se. Right?

So why would you have drones being launched from something that looks like a missile launcher?

My suggestion... keep the overall shape of that area, but instead of having two forward-facing launch tubes, have the front end enclosed... and have the entire side length on either side consist of racks of drones. So you swing up the doors on the sides, and launch the entire first row of drones at once. Unexpended drones could then fly back, under their own power, and "re-rack" themselves upon successful completion of combat.

That's my main suggestion.

I've also really never been fond of the blue bussard collectors, but as I understand, that's pretty much "canon" in the SFU for X-tech ships, right?

Drones are pretty much just self-guiding nukes. They detonate on or near their target and cause damage. They contain tiny warp drives that allow them to keep up with ships at combat speeds, and they have fairly sophisticated robot brains that allow them to track and pursue an evasive target moving at warp(which is why they're called drones).

The actual drone racks themselves are not terribly hi-tech. It's basically just a mechanism that takes drones out of a storage device and places them in the chamber they launch from. The ship then opens a hatch and the drones fly out themselves.

Still, I appreciate your suggestions.

As far as X-ship canon goes in SFB, there really is none. At least nothing visual. Purely descriptions. Why did I decide to go with blue bussards? Well, I wanted X-ships to be visually dinstinct from their older counterparts for starters. Also, there are experimental "fast ships" in SFB that appear before X-ships, which had blue bussards. And X-ships are stated to be an outgrowth of their "hot warp" technology. So for that reason many SFB fans just kind of expect that, so I went with it.

Thanks guys.

 

[RoJoHen]

As for the nacelles, I just think the bussards are too long, and given the shape of the nacelles, maybe they could be recessed a little bit. As it is, I feel like they're gonna fall out of the ship!

And maybe it's just me, but the secondary hull looks stubby, and I blame the shuttlebay. It just doesn't seem long enough.

 

[SeerSGB]

The new nav-deflector really fits better with the lines of the ship.

 

[largo]

the new deflector is flavorful and robust. if you have a precedent for the drone box that didn't get slapped with a lawsuit, good enough. i still think that you could do better, though. and a vote for the nacelles, i think they're pretty good. the taper to aft is particularly nice, even if it evokes 'wax blob in hyperspace'.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

I really do like the revised deflector. It's a reasonable design, and consistent with TOS (and TMP) style without being really "derivative" of anything.

I'd have been much happier if the TMP refit had something like this, honestly. Oh well... just thirty years past the point where that matters, huh?

 

[Holytomato]

:running:

pant pant. :stop: Phase II movie. Whhhhhhhhhhhoh Ahhhh!

She's still after me! :running away: Maybe if I throw garlic at her... :thud:

...AAARGH!

 

[Rattrap]

Please understand, I'm not saying I don't like these items, but were I a Paramount Lawyer, they're what I'd leap at:

1) The sensor on the bottom of the primary hull. It's still just too derivative of the TMP one;

2) The structures located at 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 o'clock around the primary deflector. Same problem;

3) As mentioned by everyone else, the drone racks. The addition of the dorsal mounted drone racks (torpedo launchers) is one of the primary visual signatures of the movie Constitution. A thought here- move the launcher back until the tubes are just back from the leading edge on each side. Also, I'd change the ports a bit to scare off the lawyers.

I love what you're doing with it. Can't wait to see the final.

 

[Vance]

The 'torpedo bay', though, is something that he's stuck with. They're already part of SFB as of the Kirov class, and exists on the miniature and official art. With those, though, I would adopt a slightly 'older' look, or even one near-identical to the BC's design.

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

Thanks for the comments, all. I'm waiting for a yes or no from SVC before I make anymore modifications to this model. If he likes, this is its final form. If not, we'll see what happens then.

I made some orthographic views for fun.

 

[Relayer]

I'd like to do a low poly game version of this for SFC, if you don't have the time or desire to do it yourself. Seems fitting that it should be available for the game, don't you think?

 

[MarianLH]

Nice. I really like the second (airplane-wing) version of the engine pylons.


Marian

 

[Michael_One]

This design is really growing on me. The one change I'd make is to keep the nacelles the larger diameter just a touch farther aft, say, have the transition to the smaller diameter happen at the half chord of the pylon junction.

As it is, the nacelles look just a bit 'unbalanced' to me... or is that the intent, being this is not a regular starship?

I really like the elliptical bussards, they tell you right away this is new technology. I'm going to find some small Easter eggs in my parts stash to try and make one of these out of a PL 1/1000 Classic 1701. Failing that, I've got some 1/700 submarine kits I picked up a while back I could use the sonar domes from....

I do worry about the Paramount lawyers zeroing in on to the bottom of the saucer... it looks neat but those guys have no sense of humor, kind of like USAF Col. O'Neil ( only one "L" )

Hmmmm... if this is of the Vincennes class, that would make this ship Vincennes herself as the production X cruisers are Revolution class.

Good work, Adam!

BTW saw some of your art in a game store a week back, it was the WYN fleet box, very eyecatching and soooo much more dynamic than the old 'fleet on parade' style art.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Icy_Penguigo said:

Cary L. Brown said:
Upon further reflection... I've got a suggestion. Take it or leave it, obviously.

As I understand these ships, the "drones" are essentially small unmanned fighters, not missiles per-se. Right?

So why would you have drones being launched from something that looks like a missile launcher?

My suggestion... keep the overall shape of that area, but instead of having two forward-facing launch tubes, have the front end enclosed... and have the entire side length on either side consist of racks of drones. So you swing up the doors on the sides, and launch the entire first row of drones at once. Unexpended drones could then fly back, under their own power, and "re-rack" themselves upon successful completion of combat.

That's my main suggestion.

I've also really never been fond of the blue bussard collectors, but as I understand, that's pretty much "canon" in the SFU for X-tech ships, right?

Drones are pretty much just self-guiding nukes. They detonate on or near their target and cause damage. They contain tiny warp drives that allow them to keep up with ships at combat speeds, and they have fairly sophisticated robot brains that allow them to track and pursue an evasive target moving at warp(which is why they're called drones).

The actual drone racks themselves are not terribly hi-tech. It's basically just a mechanism that takes drones out of a storage device and places them in the chamber they launch from. The ship then opens a hatch and the drones fly out themselves.

Still, I appreciate your suggestions.

As far as X-ship canon goes in SFB, there really is none. At least nothing visual. Purely descriptions. Why did I decide to go with blue bussards? Well, I wanted X-ships to be visually dinstinct from their older counterparts for starters. Also, there are experimental "fast ships" in SFB that appear before X-ships, which had blue bussards. And X-ships are stated to be an outgrowth of their "hot warp" technology. So for that reason many SFB fans just kind of expect that, so I went with it.

Thanks guys.

If that's the case for the drones (as far as their "fire and forget" type tech), why not have some setup similar to the rotary cruise missile launchers on the B-2, etc.? Without the bomb door coverings, of course, so we can see the mechanism... That way you'd avoid more lawyer possibilities, too.

Just a random, one-and-a-half cent thought. She's a beaut already, IMO!

:thumbsup:

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

Relayer: Go ahead and do a low-poly one if you want. I could furnish you with larger orthographic views for that if you want.

Michael One: You're going to make a real model of this ship? Awesome!!! Definitely show it to me when you're done. Also, as I mentioned to Relayer, if you need better views for that project, I can provide them. It's cool that you saw my art in the store...it still blows me away when I do. And you've officially seen the WYN Fleet Box cover in printed form before I have.

ADB's been a little slow about getting back to me about this model...hopefully I'll know soon if this version is okay so I can go ahead with texturing.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Relayer]

Thanks, Adam. Yes I could use some hires Orthos. I have a project that'll be finished up soon. Then I can start it. I'll take special care with her, man.

So, this is going to be the official SFB F-CX! Very cool and congrats!

 

[Nerroth]

Ooh, she's nice - I wasn't sure I'd like the dish, but it looks fantastic!


Just one request - regardless of which registry number you put on the CX (I would stick with NCC-1749 Vincennes, though) if you modify it into an X-Galactic Survey Cruiser, could you please make it the NCC-1821 Sakharov?

The reason why I ask this is because according to the timeline for Omega's Seventh Cycle in the Omega Master Rulebook, Sakharov was the ship sent to the Omega Octant in Y214 (via a wormhole which, for a month at least, linked the UFP to Maesron space not far from Aurora) and went on to spend five years exploring that octant, with a trip to the Iridani Cluster and an Iridani escort back to Federation space at its end.

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

Nerroth said:
Ooh, she's nice - I wasn't sure I'd like the dish, but it looks fantastic!


Just one request - regardless of which registry number you put on the CX (I would stick with NCC-1749 Vincennes, though) if you modify it into an X-Galactic Survey Cruiser, could you please make it the NCC-1821 Sakharov?

The reason why I ask this is because according to the timeline for Omega's Seventh Cycle in the Omega Master Rulebook, Sakharov was the ship sent to the Omega Octant in Y214 (via a wormhole which, for a month at least, linked the UFP to Maesron space not far from Aurora) and went on to spend five years exploring that octant, with a trip to the Iridani Cluster and an Iridani escort back to Federation space at its end.

Man...I need that Omega MRB, for the timeline if nothing else.

 

[Nerroth]

So is that a yes, then?


Pretty please?

 

[Michael_One]

Hi again!

I've been sketching Federation starships as kitbash potential for some time now; I've always wanted to do a CX... I have a 1/1000 TOS 1701 kit set aside marked "Revolution Class".

I'm going with a different vision then ADB has... my U.S.S. Revolution will be NCC-1776 and not 1771. Not only that, the CX demonstrator will be Yorktown, NCC-1710 and look like the Gabe Koerner version. I wasn't thrilled with Vincennes retconned as the CX prototype right after the real Vincennes shot down that airliner...

The hard part was coming up with nacelles that met my criteria: look futuristic, not be like the Refit, and easy enough to make three of them ( planning a DDX, too ).

The idea I have now looks a lot like yours with a few differences: I like how the nacelle grills look, I want to put them on both sides of the nacelle ( not just the inside faces ). The way the grills are will be a lot easier to make than a lot of designs I've contemplated.

I have several airplane kits I bought just for the bombs and drop tanks, I'll get out my razor saw and cut some up!! I get this almost primal thrill from sawing things... it's almost like I won't plan a model that doesn't involve the saw.

I like Cary L Brown's suggestion of the rotary drone launcher, I'll show the hatches open so you can see part of the workings. I've got some tiny missiles from 1/700 ship kits I can use for drones.

I buy kits cheap at places like "Toy Liquidators", I always buy them in pairs in case the model needs more than one... tough when you need a second part but only have one kit!!!

I have a spreadsheet that lists my kit droptanks, submarine hulls, and airliner dimensions so I can instantly look up what I need for any tapered cylinder project, is this going a bit far or what?

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how the CX images progress, there is no doubt they will be excellent.

 

[Vance]

Penguin, any chances you'll get the markings on her soon? I've got requests out the wazoo for this ship and her variants. :P