Miranda II

[The Axeman]

We'll see how many people still like it once they see it with the detail in there.

I've begun cutting in the larger details on the main body now in preparation for panels and windows, etc to be added. To do that I had to settle on a size and a deck spacing, then stick a guide in the background so I don't just plaster windows and doors at all angles. With a 3m deck spacing the ship has 27 decks to play with, most of decent size, and the main body itself works out at about 390 meters long. I'll do more precise specs when it's done. No pictures until I make some progress, it's going slow at this stage as I only have an old version of lightwave on a slow PC.

 

[Bill Morris]

About 3-meter deck spacing, dividing the height of the Galaxy class by the number of decks gives a slightly inflated deck spacing of 4.65 meters, but for the Intrepid class it comes out nicely to 4.2, the Nova class is about 3.5, for the 140-m Daedalus it would be 4.2. The sometimes-cited figure of 13 feet is close to 4 meters. So 3 meters would seem a bit tight, and 4 meters seems to be average.

 

[The Axeman]

Fair enough. After some checking around it looks like an average of 3.5m deck spacing is accepted for Federation warships so I've rescaled everything to suit. This now gives us overall size of 450m x 274m x 134m with 19 decks, which is comparable to the Akira class.

==========EDIT===========

I knocked up a quick size comparison using an Akira model I found on an old hard drive from yonks ago. I have no idea who made it though, if it's yours let me know. It was already scaled perfectly to match the stats on Bernds 'Ex Astris' website, I didn't touch it.

 

[Bill Morris]

I never questioned Bernd's deck extraction for the Akira before, but now I've looked at it more closely and noticed that his deck lines vary between 4 and 7 pixels in spacing to force alignment with the windows in the drawing.

So I tried resizing the CGI port view from Drexfiles and pasting in overlays of 19, 18, 17, 16, and 15 decks (with the image resized to accommodate each). While none aligned 100%, it came close with 17 decks, also taking the rim into acount with each test. With 17 decks (rather than Bernd's 19) from the top of the twin engineering hulls to the bottom of the keel (64 meters if overall length is 440 meters), deck spacing would be 3.7647 meters, and if one assigns some arbitrary figure to deck spacing, the size of the ship should be recalculated to fit that.

Here's my experiment with 17 decks. All the others were much worse in alingment. I don't know if 17 or 19 reflects original design intent. I would think a CGI would line up perfectly with some overall grid. Anyway, 17 yields 3.7647 m, and 19 yields 3.368 m deck to deck, for what it's worth.

 

[Kaiser]

Fair enough. After some checking around it looks like an average of 3.5m deck spacing is accepted for Federation warships so I've rescaled everything to suit. This now gives us overall size of 450m x 274m x 134m with 19 decks, which is comparable to the Akira class.

==========EDIT===========

I knocked up a quick size comparison using an Akira model I found on an old hard drive from yonks ago. I have no idea who made it though, if it's yours let me know. It was already scaled perfectly to match the stats on Bernds 'Ex Astris' website, I didn't touch it.

very nice compairison shot there

and it seems to be the Miranda II could be the Akira's replacement for the 25th or maybe 26th century

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

It's a little more reminiscent of the Norway class shape-wise.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Fair enough. After some checking around it looks like an average of 3.5m deck spacing is accepted for Federation warships so I've rescaled everything to suit. This now gives us overall size of 450m x 274m x 134m with 19 decks, which is comparable to the Akira class.

==========EDIT===========

I knocked up a quick size comparison using an Akira model I found on an old hard drive from yonks ago. I have no idea who made it though, if it's yours let me know. It was already scaled perfectly to match the stats on Bernds 'Ex Astris' website, I didn't touch it.

very nice compairison shot there

and it seems to be the Miranda II could be the Akira's replacement for the 25th or maybe 26th century

Why does every fan design have to be a replacement for this or that and so and so?

Can't it have its own niche? Or shoulder roles of two different ship types without replacing them?

Sheesh.

 

[The Axeman]

Now that I get a close look at the Akira, it's pretty fugly. The saucer is an interesting variation on the usual theme, the sponsons leading back are a great change from the norm, and the roll bar & pod hark back to the lovely Reliant model. Put it all together with those bloody awful nacelles and it just looks awkward.

I'm happy with 3.5m as an average deck height now, giving nice high ceilings internally, with a meter of space for actual structure, Jeffries tubes, etc. The figure of 4m+ for some of the later designs seems very excessive to me. As a designer you would want to make your ship as light and small as you can get away with while doing the job correctly. More weight and more wasted space or structure increase cost and build time, waste resources and degrade performance.

 

[Jetfire]

Dude that shit is phat! I am liking it...I would love to see a sleek version of a Steamrunner...my fav...someday...I would do one myself but I have no clue how to do any of this stuff.

 

[The Axeman]

No one is born knowing how to do this. Go download the free version of Google Sketchup and set foot on the path to a job with ILM. Plenty of people here to help you with it.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I totally agree, I taught myself Lightwave. Which I only started using about 6 or 7 years ago. It was tough in the beginning, but over time I have become pretty good at it. Enough to make money at it. I'm not working for ILM or any big effects houses but I do my own thing and people pay me for it.

I would highly recommend starting with either Sketchup or Blender, both are free and some what easy to learn. Lots of stuff out there to help you, google is your friend.

 

[Epsilon IX]

This is a really sweet! This design is more or less how I envision the Galen in the Voyager re-launch novels which is described as being like a cross between the Miranda and Nova class ships.

 

[The Axeman]

It is a bit Miranda/Nova I suppose, only larger. More on this when I get a chance, I'm experimenting with ways to cut in panel detail and markings. My usual methods look a bit crap on something this big.

 

[Starship]

Looking good the way it is, no matter she don´t looks like an evolved Miranda. Keep doing the good work! I lked her to much.

 

[The Axeman]

I want to get this done, but had no time due to a hectic work schedule. Hopefully next week I can get some time for this one.

 

[Jetfire]

No one is born knowing how to do this. Go download the free version of Google Sketchup and set foot on the path to a job with ILM. Plenty of people here to help you with it.

I will look into that.