Thank you. And much appreciated. I look forward to going through this material and hopefully learn from it.
When I look back over this thread I truly realize how much ground I've actually covered. Whew! All the work I've done will also facilitate some other ideas I have in mind, namely a variation I think of as the Class J shuttlecraft which could in effect be a conceptual TOS predecessor version of the DS9 runabout. The overall style of the drawings will also serve as the basis for work I plan for my Starfleet Command Library project.
I also appreciate all the valuable perspectives and insights others have brought forth to share. Please keep 'em coming.
When I look at this above image it cannot be overlooked how significantly wider the exterior hull is over the interior cabin. I knew this going in but it still looks a bit odd particularly without the 'tween hulls detail yet to be added. It certainly flies in the face of what we're accustomed to seeing on Trek where the hulls of smaller craft such as shuttles and runabouts tend to be rather thin affairs that I've often thought beggared credibility. Actually the Galileo fullsize mock-up didn't seen too bad in this regard onscreen, but it was nothing like what I have here.Warped9 said:
Still I think this will still work more credibly when all is said and completed. Certainly the thicker 'tween hulls spacing would argue for greater safety I think in the event the external hull were comprimised. Although I've pretty well managed to keep the fullsize interior set's cabin width pretty mach as it was I still could widen the interior a smidgen without drastically altering it's overall appearance. There's also the aspect that the chairs could be a bit narrower than the originals and still look pretty much the same.
One thing I've changed (pretty much had to really with such spacing between hulls) can be more clearly seen in my starboard cutaway sheet posted earlier upthread. Whereas the exterior hatch has the familiar lower gangway and upper dilating panels setup the internal hatch is a more straightforward deck-to-ceiling dilating doorway. There's simply nowhere for a lower panel to lower to since the interior door is totally separate from the exterior hatch. The onscreen fullsixe interior and exterior mock-ups obvuiously have only the one door. For that to happen on my shuttlecraft the interior would have to be significantly wider and/or the exterior significantly narrower. Either would result in a vehicle that would look too different from what we're familiar with onscreen. It's these sort of considerations that led me to endeavour to fashion a "real" shuttlecraft as opposed to replicating the conflicting exterior and interior fullsize mockups.
; that's what's great about the challenges!); we even have a pinned thread for that. So, yup, even a newbie can put in his 2¢, not to mention the fact that you're encouraged to participate in the challenges (whoops, wasn't gonna mention that! 
