I agree. The Ambassador is sadly a very kitbashed ship. Making sense of her is interesting. To all - I have a question about the impulse engines, I actually have two competing ideas, would like some input from you guys and gals on this, Idea A is a departure from the classic look of the ship - Idea B would be close to the studio model - Neither idea is finished, as I'm considering which is the better look/feel/works for the ship. Thoughts, comments and the like are very welcome. PS: Yes I know, it's late my time. Can't sleep so doing this. PPS: The impulse engines for Idea A were lifted off the Oldfield Class mesh I did. PPPS: More soon!
I'd go for something like the one on the Excelsior instead of the Idea A that looks like a copy from the TMP Enterprise. Or stick with Idea B.
Tricky.... I love the look of A but the somewhat bare neck is a bit meh looking. You could do both, and make the drive-assembly from B into a workbee bay.
As stated, it's lifted straight off my USS Horizon model, but manages to fit. But yes, something Excelsior like might work. The "Neck" is a work in progress at the moment and is not done (she won't be bare). Thank you for the feedback. Will have a think about what to do.
More images to help/hinder the discussion - The Ambassador is a strange one, she sits between two eras, and has aesthetics from both. And no, the neck is still not done ;-) Comments and thoughts welcome, More later.
And again for more clarity on the two ideas - Please note, the neck is not done yet. Comments and thoughts welcome, more much later.
Neck is done and locked - Works well with either impulse engine idea - Comments very welcome, more later :-)
I personally like B - it keeps it in line with what was seen, and without the engine, the neck looks too bare while the back of the saucer looks too crowded. Seeing it come together, though, reminds me of how I loved the Ambassador-class look and wish we'd seen more of it.
The TMP Enterprise-style impulse looks too kitbashed for the ship. If you end up keeping it consider reducing the size of the blue cylindrical module to be more closer in size to that on the TMP Enterprise and Reliant as it makes your ship look small.
I like -A myself…but with an aft torpedo bay where you put the impulse deck on -B. Later versions could have that omitted in favor of a smaller impulse deck to slide in its place. Call letter -A the Ambassador itself “as built” and Sternbach’s Ent-C an upgrade. Probert’s Narendra is more a contemporary of the Galaxy class…launching only a few years before Picard’s ship. Ent-C I can see rushed to service with the tiny TOS lower sensordome on Garrets’ last mission. On -A, I see what would become the shuttlebay as a “Ten-backwards” assembly hall…a place ambassadors would actually meet. Later this “wasted” space becomes a saucer shuttlebay once the impulse deck is relocated. By the time Galaxy class comes along, shuttlebays are now only on saucers…with Ent-E maybe bringing them back to the secondary hull so each hull has a bay again.
Also - is the saucer separable? If so, it needs a drive system of some type so..? Maybe a smaller system on the saucer and the main impulse on the neck?
I think the Ambassador had a rear impulse blocked by the neck—where Ent-D had the aft saucer torpedo tube. So A is the Ambassador itself..and Ent-C is the -B choice above….maybe with a more narrow secondary hull shuttlebay now that the saucer has one…so in this one class you see how things move towards TNG.
A looks retrograde and B looks too small for the size ship and thus underpowered. I think you need to come up with a C.
Thank you all for the feedback and comments. Of the two options I think I lean more towards "B" - as it's more screen accurate. But... An option "C" is an interesting idea, and one that I am thinking on. More later
Definitely prefer something along the line of version A (B just looks like it's lacking something), but how about lowering them slightly, so that the top lines up with the edge of the saucer rim instead of sitting on top of it?
Still thinking about this, will get back to it today. Having a play with some other ideas. More soon.
Option C - something akin to the Excelsior (for the record, I ripped the impulse deck off my own Excelsior mesh and wiggled it around a bit. I would obviously build something new if this is the direction I go in) - Comments welcome, more soon
That’s my favorite so far because it matches the width of the C deck/shuttlebay. Maybe a horizontal grid under the thin impulse exhaust ports…similar to the 09’ Kelvin but blacked out. That would give it muscle.
I like that, it blends in much better. I think the larger deflector array dish (?!) was throwing it off a bit.
Well, a proper build for this ship would have beefier impulse vents. I borrowed this off my Excelsior was to see what peeps thought, rather than build something new outright Impulse Deflection Crystal - but I get what you mean. Might be getting a new laptop sorted out this week, might not. Fingers crossed that it is this week. I am - not lost without it, but feeling it's loss. More soon!