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Franz Joseph's Star Trek Blueprints - All New CAD design

The area under discussion above has always been one of the areas where FJ had to fudge things just a bit to make it at least appear to fit, and hoped nobody would notice.

Another problem area has always been the vertical clearance necessary for the transporter platform compared to what we see onscreen.
Yeah, Franz's choice of deck height, which doesn't match the TOS sets, has always been an issue on these plans. But, you know, suspension of disbelief, and all that.

I just looked through my files. This was as far as I got.

J9gOL75.png


@WillCAD, bravo! And kudos for including Geoffrey Mandell's warp engine plans!

This takes me back to 40 years ago this September when I got my first copy of the Star Trek Blueprints. (They would have been only ten years old at that point.) I got my copy for $5 with no cover inset. I spent hours with those pages spread out on the floor. It taught me about a possible layout of the Enterprise, it taught me several drafting conventions, and it was one of my gateway drugs into Star Trek tech. (I had purchased Larry Miller's Hornet plans earlier that summer.)

A few months later and I would acquire Starship Design (Todd Guenther) and the Star Trek Maps (Mandel, and LOTS of other people) and that was all she wrote. I was well and truly addicted to this stuff.

The Technical Manual was reprinted a few times now. But those 12 sheets? Never.
Same. The FJ plans are what made me become a draftsman, and I've had a 35+ year career because of it.

Those twelve sheets were actually printed several times in the 70s, but I haven't seen a reprint since.

It was FJ. Blueprints that eventually got me into being a General Draftsperson cadd operator. I've always had a special place in my heart for those plans :techman: :techman: :techman: :techman: :techman:
Ditto. Even as I was digitizing them, I rediscovered so many little details that I'd forgotten years ago, and constantly marveled at what a visionary FJ was. And how skilled; he was using hand drafting techniques on a drawing board, yet most of what he drew is excellent quality, notwithstanding the normal variances in measurement for repeating symbols.

Side note: I still use the outdated term 'draftsman' for myself. However, I've always found 'draftsperson' to be just awkward as all getout to say, so I tend to prefer 'drafter' as a modern, gender-non-specific term. YMMV.

I love how they added the nacelle interior from TAS in this. Awesome and beautiful work!
The original of that was Geoff Mandel's work. He started drawing starships as a teen in the mid-70s with his Independence Class plans - a brilliant piece that has been almost as inspiring to me as the FJ plans - and in '78 he drew the detailed cutaway of the nacelle. Obviously, he based much of that interior work on the scenes from TAS One of Our Planets is Missing. He actually became a professional artist and designer, and eventually worked on several Trek TV shows and movies. Essentially, he was a fan like us who became the real deal. How inspiring is that?

The Independence Class plans are also available on Cygnus X-1.
 
Mandel used to actually be a contributor here a long time ago. I found him to be a really cool dude and loved his work for years.

I remember when his updated Star Charts came out in the early 2000's and it had a curious dotted-line shape on several of the pages representing Federation core territory and connected space lanes. This is the pic I'm talking about:
atlasmilkyway1-3620569615.jpg

It really looked familiar.

Then it hit me. It's a simplified outline (flipped horizontally) of Moonbase Alpha from the Space: 1999 Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook - that he drew back in 1977!

I asked him about it back then - he said I nailed it! :lol:

f46ce414be773d11fbb05dbec2c83a2c-43725232.jpg
 
Mandel used to actually be a contributor here a long time ago. I found him to be a really cool dude and loved his work for years.

I remember when his updated Star Charts came out in the early 2000's and it had a curious dotted-line shape on several of the pages representing Federation core territory and connected space lanes. This is the pic I'm talking about:
View attachment 44097

It really looked familiar.

Then it hit me. It's a simplified outline (flipped horizontally) of Moonbase Alpha from the Space: 1999 Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook - that he drew back in 1977!

I asked him about it back then - he said I nailed it! :lol:

View attachment 44098
I would never have recognized that! 🤣😂😅
 
Actually, the "real" problem is that the Impulse Drive should be hot swappable...FJ didn't think of that. If you can get back to a Starbase, then it follows that you should be able to the ship back - fast. Not take days or months to do so.

If you are out at your patrol volume, then rebuilding from scratch a PB-31 Circumferential Dilithium Energized Warp Drive SHOULD take months. With the entire crew working their tails off to do so.

Which is why I like the Star Trek:Discovery's take on tesselated hull plates. Hull plate gets damaged to the point of unuseability? Jetison at once by the laws of physics, and a new plate moves into position. The best part of this? "Spring" loaded. No electricity.
 
The saucer hull was very like that of the old AMT model…but that teardrop secondary hull is just lovely.

I’d love to see the Kerr/Casimiro production saucer atop that FJ secondary hull—with the FJ saucer atop Shaw’s drawing of the AMT Enterprise secondary hull…
 
Mine are both originals as well - bought shortly after release and while the blueprints are in great shape ... the Tech Manual shows some.......wear?
 
Yup, I also got them the instant I saw them. I've always been more of a technical illustrator than any kind of artist (much as I try). The FJ blueprints and all the Trek tech art that followed from Jackill, Aridas, Gunther, et al gave me years of pleasure and inspired my kitbashing, and finally drawing my own Trek tech book showing those kitbashes.
 
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I bought a second manual a couple of decades ago. My original was in fine shape, but since I was a reckless teenager in the 70s, I made some silly alterations to it. Like adding NBC logos on any viewscreen in the illustrations. :lol:
 
I bought all FJ's stuff on the days that it first showed up at our university book shop.

This is a fantastic piece of work. I guess it's nitpicky to say that I could have done without the addition of the colorful little crew icons, but...
 
Hmmm, while going over the latest posts on the remastered blueprints, a thought crossed my mind about the fuel situation...

Granted that "modern" Star Fleet ships are matter/antimatter powered...

Why so much fuel in the nacelles?

Then I remembered the Starstation Aurora blueprints of the space cruiser Aurora...

The amount of fuel carried internally by the warp nacelles should be sufficient for an eighteen year mission...

Following this, the amount of fuel that the blueprints showing that the Aurora has, is far too much. Internal amounts should be fine. This means that there is extra space for the crew...three and three, per lower wedge. Makes more sense I think. Cramped, yes, but not as cramped.
 
I just noticed the rubber ducky hidden in the plans. I wonder what else is in there?
 
I've gone from being immensely proud that my Scott's Guide to the Enterprise is autographed by Doohan and Andrew Probert to disappointed / embarrassed that I never met / got Johnson to sign it.

I have no idea where or how I would ever have met Franz Joseph.
 
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