Hey, I was wondering if anyone would like to take up a render of this gunboat I had designed a while back - a thin profile, TWOK-era design. It's essentially the movie-era saucer with two pylons out either side and nacelles attached to them; I think low profile torpedo launchers on the underside of both pylons instead of a neck would be better to preserve the low profile of the ship. I had intended her to be the USS Valley Forge, NCC-1776. If anyone's up for it, I'd appreciate it! James This would give an example of the detailing on the ship itself (but not the placement of the nacelles). The struts may need to be a bit longer as well.
If I had any knowledge on how to do it, I'd love too. Got some designs of my own I'd love to see too. Unfortunately I can barely make a box with the various programs I've tried.
I would love to as I like this design and it's got pretty straight forward shapes to it but I don't have the time to work on my own projects. Sorry.
I do kinda like the lines of the ship in your request... it looks a lot like many of the ships from the "Ships of the Star Fleet" books.
I don't want to hihgjack your thread, and maybe the topic can be addressed in Trek Tech, but I've thought a Star Trek gunboat would be somewhat smaller, not too much smaller then your image, but more streamlined for speed. I like gunboats, like the RN Dark Class type. Gunboats should be agile, quick, loaded for battle. The Defiant from DS9 seemed more like a gunboat. But Their range is obviously the compromise, as is the amount of armaments they can carry. That kind of takes the Defiant out of my idea of being a gunboat. ANyway, I've over simplified some modifications to your image, to show a more streamlined ship. I'd see a small crew compliment because it's not a ship out there patrolling out of range of a starbase. A large crew would be completely superluous.
The only issue there is an issue I've had with several different designs. With the 'clipped-wing' primary hull, you lose the benefit of tensegrity inherent to the circular design, and would probably have to extensively reinforce and redesign the saucer spaceframe to maintain structural integrity. I'm all for utilizing existing componentry, but even in the case of hull plates, 'clipping' the saucer would likely require more design changes than simply removing one or more of the outer tiers of the primary hull spaceframe, reducing the overall diameter and area without compromising the inherent strength of the circular design or adding too much additional mass. Some vessels have had 'notched' saucer hull edges, usually for deflectors, hangar bays, or impulse engines, but these would likely require additional structure for mounting and bracing those bits, which could be designed to also brace the structure without adding too much more dead weight, which, even in spacecraft that rarely enter an atmosphere, is a good thing to think about, as the amount of energy required for any change in velocity increases with every ounce. Colin Chapman said it best. "Simplicate, then add lightness."
^ I agree with you about the clipped hull... I was only using it to emphasize the shape and size. In reality, it would certainly be an entirely different space-frame. It would just have the familiar design componants that make a Starfleet vessel identifiable as a Starfleet Vessel. In the end, the ship would pretty much look like the above, but it would be far from a modified circular hull design, and more design specific for the ships primary function. As for those notched hulls you mentioned, I can't say I was too big a fan of that, but recognize that some designs may require such ellements...