March 2014 Art Challenge -- Albertese
- Thread starter Albertese
- Start date
Looks wonderful Alex
Stunning, Albertese! Flat-out phenomenal. Boy, am I proud of this one!
She's a ship that tells a different story. I'm imagining a scene where Kirk's seated as his desk with the little vault behind him, arguing in favor of some daring course of action to McCoy, and this ship is behind Kirk's head. It's immediately Starfleet to the eye, and a little '50s sci-fi retro, which I love. But then it's clearly and thoughtfully armed, evoking a darker backstory that you're just aching to know more about - more of what "Balance of Terror" first brought to the franchise.
That, plus it corrects the proper location of the turbolift door on the bridge cap. I'm happy to have come up with this challenge for the creation of this ship alone.
Now, how would it look in the context of an auction catalog?
DF "Remember the Sutherland" Scott
She's a ship that tells a different story. I'm imagining a scene where Kirk's seated as his desk with the little vault behind him, arguing in favor of some daring course of action to McCoy, and this ship is behind Kirk's head. It's immediately Starfleet to the eye, and a little '50s sci-fi retro, which I love. But then it's clearly and thoughtfully armed, evoking a darker backstory that you're just aching to know more about - more of what "Balance of Terror" first brought to the franchise.
That, plus it corrects the proper location of the turbolift door on the bridge cap. I'm happy to have come up with this challenge for the creation of this ship alone.
Now, how would it look in the context of an auction catalog?
DF "Remember the Sutherland" Scott
You better feel proud! Believe me, I would never have built this without your challenge to inspire me. I'm rather proud of it it also.
...stay tuned...
No, and no. The underside hangers are a solution to a couple problems. First of all, I was debating whether to have shuttles at all. The TOS producers seemed to feel that the transporters were quite reliable and were the primary means of getting on or off the ship. So maybe the shuttles would be secondary equipment? I was thinking that maybe whoever would build the prop might not have even thought about shuttles and I was content with that. However, as I was preparing the saucer part of the kit, I was filling in the little depressions on the lower saucer, but the putty left little texture differences on the hull that I didn't like. So I wondered how to justify gluing on some sheet styrene, and hangar doors occurred to me. After I glued them on, I remembered some Star Fleet Battles ship miniatures with similar rectangular panels which must have been a subconscious inspiration. Only then did I recall the drop bays on the NX-01. I figure they got their idea from the Sutherland...
As for nacelle shape, I originally wanted to use nacelles from the P-38 instead of the P-61, but when I went to the hobby store, the P-38 models were substantially more expensive. I just wanted to have something that was an easy complex curve, to set it apart from the Enterprise components and also to tie it back to the aviation background of both Jefferies and Roddenberry, as well as backdate it to earlier sci-fi shapes. Ultimately, I think the P-61 is more apropos as the cross-section of the nacelles is more circular than the P-38 so it might make more sense as a warp nacelle anyhow...? Maybe?
Honestly, the last two Star Trek movies almost never crop up into mind. In fact I only ever saw Into Darkness the one time in the theater and never since. (It's not that I hated it... just didn't fall in love I guess.) So, no, the JJ-prise was not any influance at all. But I do see what you're saying. I expect they made a subtle nod to Kirk's Sutherland just like Drexler did on the NX-01....
And, I also am a little in love with the impulse engines I made. I feel they still look a little too much like the big guns they are, but the "rocket exhausts" with the round nozzles look slightly primitive yet powerful... at least that's what I was going for. I think they make this ship look a little mean from the rear 3/4 view... which might be a little backwards... hmmm...
And if anyone cares, I will give this model an official scale of 1:350. I made the shuttle hatches big enough to cozily fit a 24 foot shuttle in. Plus it makes the bridge dome feel similar in size to the domes of the 1:350 kits. This means the whole ship would fit within the perimeter of just the saucer of the Enterprise so it really is a small ship.
I'm glad you guys like it!
--Alex
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