There is nothing wrong with the neck coming off with the saucer- that was the thinking of Geoff Mandel for the original ship going back to at least 1980. It was a “third leg” for the landing saucer, and an aerodynamic stabilizer for atmospheric entry. I’m not saying that was the thinking here, because Probert had pretty much sealed the deal on how saucer sep worked with TMP, but the neck going along was definitely in the zeitgeist, and definitely among those guys, and most definitely Drexler, who knew and had worked with Mandel going way, way back.
Yes, it's back there, underneath the landing deck. I can probably go back and try to find the original part on that one auction block (a very tiny needle in a very big haystack). The 1/537 scale vacuform mod kit by Sci-Fi Spaceship Miniatures had it there (not a caonical source, I know) and the Eaglemoss model has something there but it's not painted red like I expect it should if it were an impulse engine, as with other EM ships. Several fan-made meshes have that area lit up as if it were active impulse engines (also not canonical). Here's a good example: The original piece I saw doesn't look exactly like that, but it's close. I found one image from the TNG remastered BRD set and that area is stupid-dark: Apologies for hijacking the thread like this, @JSnaith, with something not related to your project (maybe tangentially, at best). I'm somewhat passionate about the Soyuz class, as it's my top-favorite Miranda mod that has probably the least amount of background information and source material about it.
I'll be sorting out the separation line on the Ranger-A when I come back to this project. I think finishing the saucer is going to be as far as I get this week. Kind of gutted by that, I was going to power through with this one, but loosing the laptop, issues with family and the like meant I had to slow down and I have a fair few meetings this week so I am ready for Friday. Such is life. I agree, how these ships separate has evolved over time, in the case of the Ambassador all the info I found for it states that the model was rushed into service and was quite poor compared with others they spent more time on - hence it's lack of screen time. The separation line I put on the mesh was a detail that's actually on the studio model. I think it was added in that way to be easy. No worries, it's nice to see this thread has life to it :-) More later :-)
Soz for the delay - busy week. Anyways, the saucer is done and locked down - I've got some free time today, so I am going to start work on the neck. As things stand it looks like next week's event is going to happen, although I haven't had the official word yet (that's tomorrow afternoon). Just will just have to see what happens. Either way, more later today!
Thank you :-) Thank you :-) Today's update, which has to be the last for a while - Wanted to get the stage where I could show how the ship separates, I hope this meets with general approval. No idea yet if this ship will have the ability to put itself back together. Something I shall think on. This is as far as I can go at the moment, unless this afternoons call is that we're bumped again, I will be taking an enforced break of at least a couple of weeks. Neve fear, I will be coming back to this. I've been enjoying this, and more importantly enjoying finishing these projects! LLAP to you all, and see you in a few weeks :-)